[underbyte]

My daughters 4 grade math book was a total waste, They used a convoluted version of the grid and added in 5 different ways of "ESTIMATING" in case they didn't understand any particular method.

Problem was tests covered the 5 different ways of estimating.

I bought a homeschooling book and taught her Division in in a couple of hours while the class struggled for a couple of months on it.

Educaters these days strive for stupidity

[BobL]

Just use Saxon Math and wrap up the basics in a few years.

It is amazing to see that England is at least able to admit a mistake when it comes to teaching math. In this country, we're well into our second decade of making sure that our kids don't learn math, at least at public schools (not counting the prior 24 years of degraded math teaching). And there is no end in sight, thanks to the teachers.

The other thing is that even with the Brits having this debate, they never once mention calculators, whereas in New Jersey they have (or at least had) kids starting with calculators in Kindergarten (for math). Apparently, the Brits still have some common sense.