When I was going to school, if you took algebra by the 9th grade, you were considered to be very smart. Nowadays, if you DON'T take algebra by 8th grade, it's unusual. It keeps going younger and younger. Also, when I was going to school, if you read a chapter book by 3rd grade, that was considered an accomplishment. Now a good portion of my FIRST graders are doing just that.
Whos going to teach the children to read the problems so they can work them out??
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Well, from now on the students will be counting using fingers only, and not toes. This is an advance.
""Students and teachers beginning in the fall will face a newer kind of math in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.""
Pre-kindergarten? Children learn through play, it's ridiculouse when five year old kindergarten students have two hours of homework.
A train leaves Chicago traveling at 60 mph while another train leaves Los Angeles twenty minutes later traveling at a rate of 85 mph. Draw a picture of how you will feel when the trains finally pass each other.
When my oldest son was 5, I taught him how to do simple math calculations using Lotus. He turned into a danged computer nerd. I just don't know what happened..........
How else do you solve the trains question?
My first thought was - first they will have to find some qualified techers.
I am sure that there are some students in New York, who have as high aptitudes for mathematical concepts as the Japanese and Singaporian Chinese. I am also sure that there are a lot who do not. The concept "has proven effective" where it is applied to those who have the necessary aptitudes. If it is applied to those who do not, it will only serve to further discourage and cause the less math savvy to tune out even what they could grasp.
Formula education, applied to mass student bodies, is almost always a mistake. But the N.E.A. is one of those groups that pursue the nonsense of an interchangeable humanity--something this planet has never seen and never will.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site
Bump
Now I am really impressed with my daughter's first grade teacher.... The kids are learning pre-algebra in FIRST grade and they can read the problems! My daughter has a slight learning disability but understands her math problems. She goes to a public school BUT it is an "A" school in Florida where the teachers love Jeb Bush.
If the kids cannot do basic arithmetic without a calculator (or in some cases with it), then all the algebra in the world will not help them. They will be hopelessly lost and will lose interest in math, rightfully considering it beyond their capabilities. This in turn will cause a lowering of the standards again, which will in turn cause another round of math education 'reform'. Grades 1-5 should be a repititious round of basic arithmetic, using pencil, paper and brain only. After that, when the foundation is there, advanced concepts can be taught to a more receptive audience.
When was the last time anyone solved a real life problem using quadratic equations? -- or algebra for that matter?
Yet there are a lot of daily skills people don't have which are not taught. I'd rather see them educated about all those practical things -- instead of things 95% will not use.
The one thing I think everyone needs to be able to do is file an income tax return -- and in it, one has to learn all the skills required in daily living -- reading, writing, arithmetic.
There's no rule that says academic can't be useful.
**Critics have argued the new standards may be too challenging. **
Not! I subbed in a classroom today where I could not believe the weird math program. No drill -- just playing games.
Alarming!
You have to have standards sometime in your life!
Grade-by-grade topics here:
http://www.regents.nysed.gov/2005Meetings/January2005/0105bra7.2.pdf