But they are proficient in New Math. That’s the one where you think of math in concepts and don’t learn how to add and subtract.
My son was in the 4th grade.
He came home with a homework question.
It went something like this:
1149 x 268, estimate the answer.....
Well, my son asked me how to do this.
I told him the answer is one.
He told me that was not correct, and I said to him, “ It’s an estimate. Not a very good one, but an estimate nontheless”.
That is the answer he put down, and of course, I got called in to talk to the teacher.
We went round and round and back and forth, until she was exasperated. Finally, in desperation, she yelled out, “ What do you know about estimating!!??”.
And this was the moment I was waiting for.
I took out my wallet, grabbed my business card, and flipped it over to her. On it it had my name and my title....
Estimator.
I do beleive they stopped trying to teach that form of “math”.