Posted on 12/20/2007 9:26:45 PM PST by bs9021
According to M. J. Mcdermott, a meteorologist and Q13 Fox News (Seattle) weather reporter, the ongoing American mathematic illiteracy may be the result of misguided “reformed math” curriculum which fails to teach students the internationally recognized, efficient multiplication and division algorithms that older generations of Americans learned. Instead, children are encouraged to problem-solve without first developing efficient problem-solving techniques in multiplication and division.
Math by Calculator
As McDermott notes in her video, textbooks such as the 4th and 5th grade versions of Everyday Mathematics devote copious pages to non-germane topics such as a full-color 48-page world atlas to assist students in planning a world tour (4th grade) and full-color 60-page American atlas for planning an American tour (5th grade)....
Math for Social Justice
The radicalization and politicization of math curricula in an ostensible attempt to increase math's “relevance” to students may also be fostering watered-down curricula that spend little time on core concepts such as division, addition, algebra, and other essential skills. The “Revealing Racist Roots” curriculum (3Rs), designed by the Teacher Activist Groups (TAG), a coalition of the New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE), the Chicago Teachers for Social Justice (TSJ) and San Francisco Teachers 4 Social Justice (T4SJ) contains a mathematics unit designed to demonstrate that the all-white jury chosen for Mychal Bell’s trial was statistically improbable, and therefore inherently racist.
The “detailed mathematics unit” creators, Joyce Sia and Rico Gutstein are based in Chicago and have been given free rein by the Little Village Lawndale School for Social Justice to insert inflammatory messages about racial inequality into the classroom. For example, their section within the (3R’s) manual (pg. 21-26) instructs students to determine the statistical probability of picking a random all-white jury .....
(Excerpt) Read more at campusreportonline.net ...
Yup, it’s pretty much not the three Rs these days. The math books my kids (tutees) use are so complex, it’s a wonder any of them understands math at all. Just at the pre-algebra, algebra level. They calculate the trajectories of birds flying over Mt. Everest, just about, and call it ‘applying math to real life.’ I have yet to see regular pages of mathematics, tho. I could swear they are doing it to confuse the students. (And sell the huge text books, of course).
New Math resulted in no math, for many people.
Does this book even cover how the jury selection process works? The jury members aren’t selected at random...the pool is and then jurors are eliminated according to the selection process.
“...fails to teach students the internationally recognized, efficient multiplication and division.”
This is true. A few years ago I tutored students in grades 6-12, and I was shocked most of them did not know the multiplication tables and were lost on easy division problems.
The math books are filled with “fun” graphics splattered all over the pages, but very little actual math. It’s mostly a confusing presentation.
Topical Ping...
I have seen that too. What one 3rd grade teacher told me when I asked him why he didn’t teach basic math facts such as the addition, subtraction, multiplication & division tables was they were all objectionable because doing so required rote learning, and rote learning is taboo. He said that his approach was far better because it required students to “develop their own strategies” for solving problems. Nice theory taught in teacher's colleges. Problem is it doesn't work. Students need the foundation of math. If they are not given it, they are unlikely to progress to develop their own strategies.
You’re right, they definitely need the foundation first.
So many things are “objectionable” now which actually are just common sense.
The world declines daily. Good thing the Lord told us ahead of time how dark things would get (and that He would be our light).
No radicals in the denominator!
Seriously, what’s this world coming to?
another reason to homeschool
I'd say this Isaac Newton guy had a clue about math, and even he had no qualms admitting the value of works of other geniuses that preceded him.
About trajectories of birds over Everest, this requires solving a system of nonlinear partial differential equations which has no generic case solution and in real world is solved numerically, on computers. I do not know what a school student can do with such a problem, outside of offering a simple, politically correct but technically wrong answer. On the other hand, if you have a proper FEA software at work, these problems are interesting - assuming that you understand the physical laws that govern there.
It probably depends on the school district. My daughters have done plenty of add/sub/mult/div timed test sheets through there elementary career (the same types I remember from my days of elementary school).
My older daughter is already doing math in 6th grade that I did not do until I was in 7th to 8th grade. I do have an issue with their textbooks which are needlessly large with a bunch of “crap” in them. What on earth is the lattice method? Given the godawful billions of public money that is spent in the public school system, I do not see why simple black and white packets could not be created for minimal cost. The savings on textbooks would be enormous.
My son was in public school 2nd grade in the fall of 1994. At the first parent/teacher conference of the year in October, I asked the teacher when we could expect that he would start learning addition and subtraction facts. We were concerned because there seemed to be no real learning of either language or math skills in the 1st grade. She told me that if learning arithmetic was a concern to me, I should work on those skills at home.
That parent/teacher conference was on a Tuesday. Friday was his last day at that school as we brought him home to homeschool. They weren't teaching him to read, either. Just memorize words under the horrid "whole language" method of reading.
Now he's a sophmore in college, making excellent grades, etc. I shudder to think what would have happened to him if we hadn't rescued him from that system.
Thanks for the ping. I’m aware of Everyday Math being used in NY as well. It has its good points, but its bad points annoy me.
My grandson (6th grade) was exposed to Everyday Math for about a month this year and HATED it!
He’s now in different school where there is a Music & Math program. I don’t know much about it but he’s an ‘A’ honor roll student and has developed a love for the piano.
What I find so curious is that many elementary teachers these days eschew teaching their students to memorize basic math facts because doing so requires “rote learning”. Yet, these same teachers will require their students to memorize words when teaching their students to read using the “whole language” method of reading. In other words, they use “rote learning”.
If you go to the original article (on campusreportonline.net), and click the video link, McDermott does a comprehensive explanation of the cluster, lattice, and other reformed math methods used in modern schools.
It’s a good resource if you want to learn what it is they are teaching your daughter, so that you can unteach it, if you want. Or maybe just help with homework....
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