Posted on 01/16/2004 11:45:30 AM PST by hsmomx3
"Math is hard, let's go shopping!"
When Mattel released a talking Barbie who offered that bit of teenage wisdom, public reaction was so furious they pulled her off the shelves. Mattel is still trying to recover from the PR disaster.
I assume they fired the guy who came up with that little gem. Not that it mattered much.
I have every confidence he's enjoying a new career, designing math programs for American public schools.
What else can I think about programs that encourage children to "shop" for the correct way to multiply? That ask kids what "color" they think math is, like it's some sort of lip gloss? It'd be funny, if it weren't so tragic.
It's tragic because, in a modern global economy, mathematical literacy is essential. The most important product humanity produces in the 21st century is information. Working with information requires intellectual discipline and the ability to think abstractly. That's what math is all about.
Unfortunately, other countries do a much better job of teaching math than we do, with potentially serious consequences. Why shouldn't American firms contract out high-tech jobs to engineers from overseas, if that makes them more competitive?
Do you know any immigrants at your school? Ask Asian or European families what they think about math classes. Chances are their children placed into the most advanced math the district has to offer, yet are still having a very easy time.
My own experience as a teacher bears this out. I am proud to be on the faculty at one of the most selective colleges in America. My students are America's best and brightest.
And yet, when I went to Russia on sabbatical, I couldn't believe how good my students were at math. After two weeks of class, I had to redo all my lesson plans. I wound up covering more material in more detail than I had thought possible. It was a great experience, but a sobering indictment of American education.
Fortunately, what American students lack in fundamentals they make up in initiative and creativity. It's a constant struggle to get Russian students to 'think outside the box," while my American classes are always abuzz with interesting ideas. Fix the math problems, and American students will do great things.
So how do we do that?
First we have to undo two decades' worth of damage done by faddish mathematical programs. Here's how you can tell if your school has one:
Your school emphasizes children "discovering" or "constructing" their own techniques for arithmetic. This is nice in theory, but most children lack the intellectual curiosity and focus to discover even basic arithmetic rules. Besides, it took humanity a couple of millennia to develop the math we have now. Asking a roomful of 4th graders to start from scratch is an idea only an education professor could've come up with.
Your school de-emphasizes drills. "Boring" facts like multiplication tables and algebra formulas are no fun to teach, but they're an essential part of developing mathematical fluency. If your child's teacher doesn't pay much attention to drills or thinks math facts aren't important, be on the alert.
Your school encourages extensive, early calculator use. Calculators are appropriate once mathematical fluency has been gained. But they're crippling if introduced too soon, particularly in the early grades. There is a big difference between a child who knows *why* six times seven is forty-two, and a child who merely pushes "6 X 7 =" on a calculator.
Fortunately, all is not lost. There are some terrific mathematics programs out there, ones that are both rigorous and fun. They're ready and available to replace the silliness we have now, if only parents will demand them.
But it won't be easy. We'll have to do our part. We must support teachers who set high standards. We must support schools that hold students accountable. We must understand that self-esteem in mathematics is earned, not given. It comes from getting the right answer.
These and other "back to basics" ideas fly in the face of the modern educational establishment. They are in direct contradiction to incentives parents, teachers, and administrators face on a daily basis. Trying to solve this problem will be very, very hard.
But so what? Math is hard. Let's go to work.
(c)2004 The Independence Institute
We're using Saxon in a private high school that we've started this year. We won't be using Saxon next year. I've seen the following problems with Saxon in its Algebra II text:
Other than that, no problem :-)
My 5th-grade daughter is in a "gifted and talented" math program at her elementary. As near as my wife and I can figure out, it is some kind of self-paced learning program where she has lots of "pre-tests" and practice tests but I don't see much instruction going on.
She brings these worksheets home and it falls to me to help her because I'm the Father (and, besides, I have a BS in Math). When she has trouble with a problem, the first thing I have her do is try to work it out and tell me what she thinks the answer should be.
About half the time, she will get an answer (which may or may not be right) but, when I ask her how she got it, she stumbles badly.
It is apparant to me that she is guessing about the answer and trying to justify it to me. Sometimes I think she has a glimmer of how to do things but often she is just grasping at straws.
When I try to explain how this stuff works, she gets very frustrated (I fully admit I'm not the best teacher in the world) because she really doesn't have enough grounding to understand the explainations about what she's doing.
Tell me again, what is wrong with this little Barbie saying. Sounds just like my daughter.
That's a good question and if you've tried to teach a youngster their multiplication tables you might appreciate it a bit more. Let's say you want to teach the multiplication table up through 12x12, well if you memorize all possible combinations of the integers 1 through 12 you'll end up with 78 facts to memorize. Ugghh.
Perhaps if we try to reason our way to this we might have to memorize less facts. For example memorize the squares of the first 12 integers (that's 12 facts) and then learn that near squares are whole numbers away from the squares (that's another fact). So, we know that 6X6=36 and since 6X7 is one multiple of 6 more than 36 it must be 42 (or you can go down from 7X7 to 7X6). You can use other shortcuts to cut down the number of facts you have to memorize for the complete 12x12 multiplication table. The essential point is that you teach kids to use reason in addition to their memorized facts. That's the difference.
Singapore Math. It'll challenge your kid, but it sounds like he would love it.
In 1970, my son's teacher held her entire 3rd grade class back while she taught them real math (after a disastrous attempt at the "New Math").
Just curious, what is your undergrad major?
Your grad major?
This is hillarious! I need to find one of these for my daughter!
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