Posted on 11/19/2010 6:55:16 AM PST by Gennie
November 19, 2010
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
As someone who has a graduate degree from UChicago’s mathematics school, I am sad to hear this is the crap they are advocating. I’d expect this kind of crap from the vacuum heads in the education department, but mathematics is about rigor, elegance, and conciseness. None of the three are present in these methodologies. Next time Dean Fefferman sends me an email asking for alumni contributions, I may bring this up, especially the “lattice method” baloney.
The way to reform our math education in this country is to present it more theoretically, like it is in Western Europe and like it was in ancient Greece. This is a move in the wrong direction.
I live within walking distance of a catholic school- it teaches new math and “Balanced Language” (ie, whole language with just enough phonics pasted on that parents don’t ask questions). I wasn’t too impressed by the prayer to the Lakotan Spirit Father in the 2nd grade religion textbook, either.
So we drive them 20 minutes away to a Catholic school that teaches Saxon Math, phonics, and makes all their teachers swear loyalty to the magisterium.
And it’s cheaper, because unlike the parish school, they actually have substantial sibling discounts. Ya know, beacause Catholics are supposed to be open to life, or something like that....
I was having a discussion with a liberal who had just completed her late in life college degree from our local leftist university and she was explaining to me that there are no absolutes in the world, not in science and even in math. It’s part of the liberal revisionist history meta narrative. She says that there are always exceptions, so there can be no absolute truth, everything is relative. Get it?
Anyway, I’ve been doing a little research on how to teach math to a baby so that he will grow up with an inherent understanding of math (for my grandson). Our family are all visual learners and sight readers. My grandson started reading at about 13 months with the “My Baby Can Read” program. It really worked, but I wondered about math. What I found out is that you start with the concept, not the numerals. Never show a baby the number one or two, etc. Show them two objects or two dots. The child will grow up understanding what two is, rather than reading the numeral. Everything after that follows the same concept, groups of tens, etc. It make sense to me.
The estimation section makes sense. You don't always need exact numbers. If your yard is 96 feet by 147 feet, buying 15,000 square feet of fertilizer is close enough. Estimating before doing a final solution also helps prevent big errors, so if you calculate 147x96 by hand and get 2205 you will know the answer is wrong because it isn't close to 15,000. Estimation was vital in the days of the slide rules because you had to use it to tell if 147x96 was 14.112, 141.12, 1411.2, 14112 or 141120, but that was a little before my time.
I didn't like the arrogance of the school with their statement "that her parents had taught her math 'the old way' and that it was 'confusing and a step behind.'" Most of these new methods just seem to be introductory step-by-step methods that are slower than the traditional methods.
My inner cynic says that many of these new methods are primarily there to sell new textbooks, workbooks and other instructional materials. Has elementary math really advanced in the past two hundred years? Science has, health and anatomy have, geography has, but math has been the same. You could take a 1920s math book and teach the kids.
It’s still important to teach the fundamentals. These are the building blocks for understanding how math works and how to apply it to other problems one will encounter in life.
Once the fundamentals are there, some of this “EM” stuff are actually pretty cool shortcuts for getting answers to larger multiplication problems, etc in your head.
Many people have figured out these “shortcuts” on their own based on ... you guessed it, their understanding of the “fundamentals.”.
And that’s how it *should* be.
Good for you for standing up for your kids. In my school system I usually deal with the opposite. It is not a state graduation requirement for students to take speech class. Our school has recently made it a graduation requirement and all juniors now take speech. Word about it not being a state requirement got out, and now I have two students who refuse to participate or give speeches. They and their moms plan on suing the school if we don’t allow them to graduate. We try to do something to improve our students and better prepare them for college, and then we have parents (also part of the electorate!) that kick us in the teeth.
I tutor Middle School math. The Math Idiocy never ceases to amaze me. I always walk my kids through — ‘here’s how I was taught.’ Have had many kids say, “I wish you were my math teacher.” I am not a math genius, but I do have a lot of common sense, and the math programs do not.
I suspect that a lot of the math teachers don’t understand the new ways, either. One teacher told me, when I was helping one of her students — “If you are going to help him, you should get the Teachers’ Manual on how to teach this as well.’ For a 4th grader? Not in your wildest dreams.
It is Math Theory designed by single, male, PhD-track ‘educators’ who want to make a niche for themselves. They do not understand Piaget, they do not understand kids, and they have absolutely NO common sense.
(Don’t get me started).
“Idiotic school taught my oldest son lattice math”.
I have had nightmares over this! I tried to figure it out for several hours and finally wrote a note to the teacher stating that this concept was stupid and did nothing but confuse a child with simple math. (at the point I wrote the note, I had a splitting headache and was just too tired to try and write something “nice”) Another dumb lesson is ESTIMATING. My son got an “F” on his math test on estimating because he gave the real answer. The teacher asked him why he didn’t estimate and his reply is priceless... “estimating is only good for hand grenades and horse shoes. You use math to build brides and make medicine for people. Estimate wrong and you kill people... Not going to kill people”. He was eight at the time and we still laugh and laugh. Just a thought.
1. Teaching Math In 1950’s
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of
production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit ?
2. Teaching Math In 1960’s
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of
production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?
3. Teaching Math In 1970’s
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of
production is $80. Did he make a profit?
4. Teaching Math In 1980’s
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of
production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline
the number 20.
5. Teaching Math In 1990’s
A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish
and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the
preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit
of $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for
class participation after answering the question: How did the birds
and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no
wrong answers, and if you feel like crying, it’s ok. )
6.. Teaching Math In 2010
Un hachero
vende una carretada de maderapara $100. El costo de la producciones
es $80. Cuanto dinero ha hecho?
Interesting. I was a math wiz so I never bothered with that, but with reading comprehension questions on standardized tests I always read the questions and answers first and then read the paragraphs to find the answers - even when the teachers explicitly told us not to do it that way. My scores dropped significantly on some tests where the teacher would have us read something and then take away the reading section and ask us the questions.
Just read a book called “On Guard”.
I can logically refute the argument of “there is no absolute truth” in about 2 minutes if the LIQ understands the argument, in 5 minutes if I have to educate them first.
LOL!
It sounds like your son is already much smarter than his teacher.
I was taught this math back in the mid sixties. It did not make sense to me as a kid. I failed math, my parents could not help because I had to make all the steps the school wanted, I could solve the problems just not write down the meandering method they wanted. I could not use the math my parents knew and were teaching me. I hated school, I finished the 9th grade, by the tenth grade I knew I wanted no part of the “New” way of teaching. I got my GED. Today I can add, subtract, divide and multiply very well and am a fine upstanding human, wife, mother and daughter. The system does not work - they tried it in the 60’s and threw it out by 70’s in my area.
“It sounds like your son is already much smarter than his teacher”.
He has always had the ability to question authority respectfully but to always stand by what he knows as right or wrong. When he was in second grade, he had to “prove” why 1 + 1 = 2. Easy enough, right? He wrote because 2 - 1 = 1. That is the wrong answer. Then he wrote, “because it is, always has been, and always will be”. That, too, was wrong. The math teacher told him to really PROVE it so he wrote, “BECAUSE GOD MADE IT SO”. She didn’t know what to do and left the answer as correct. Gotta love it! Just a thought.
“I always read the questions and answers first and then read the paragraphs to find the answers - even when the teachers explicitly told us not to do it that way. “
Me too. I was disinterested, at best, in the classrooms. But I sure knew how to take tests! I had my career decided by the 8th Grade, and didn’t do really well in school, because I felt I wasn’t being taught what I needed to know. I was very frustrated in school!
I just finished reading the rest of the article. I have to say that I don’t even understand the example of multiplication, but the part about using the tens first and adding the product of the ones, I get. My father in law was an accountant and he did that mentally when he was doing math in his head, but I think that concepts like that have to come naturally. I really think that the same total immersion concept that some schools use for teaching reading is what is needed for teaching math, combining all methods at once, but this seems way too complicated to be used in early grades.
You need to read about the Chicago small schools project to understand the thinking about education and politics that comes out of Chicago. Once you read about it, you’ll want to home school your kids if your local district buys into Chicago style education. The system was designed by Bill Ayers. That in itself should be enough to warn you that excellence and high achievement are not the goals.
I graduated from high school in PA, back in 1965, when the schools were really excellent and my high school was in the top ten in the nation. I had a better education in high school than most kids get in college, these days. I was writing papers on the “Effect of the Monroe Doctrine on US foreign policy during the prewar Civil war period” in eight grade and reading Bonhoeffer, Tillich and Niebuhr in my freshman year of college. Education has changed dramatically, and not for the better.
Folks, check with your school district. If they are using Everyday Math run away and find a school that either uses Saxton or Singapore. Sometimes Charter schools offer viable alternatives. If that does not work, look into private or homeschooling.
Seriously. I can not bring enough emphasis on how bad this program is.
My daughter was making an ANNUAL grade of 30 F (1 to 100) under this Everyday Math. We pulled her out of school, sent her to private school that taught Saxton. Now she is in highschool and is back to a solid B student. She still has troubles with basic addition and multiplication but we are working on that.
It is not just the public schools using these math books. Plenty of private schools are using them too.
I watched the video ... talk about making something too complicated
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