Posted on 09/04/2014 2:09:32 PM PDT by walford
A simple addition problem seems to become a little more complicated under Common Core. That is made very clear in a new “Homework Helper” segment that recently aired on WGRZ-TV in Buffalo, New York.
In the new educational segments, local teachers attempt to help confused parents better understand their children’s Common Core homework. In the introductory segment, a math teacher takes nearly an entire minute explaining why 9 plus 6 equals 15.
“Our young learners might not be all together comfortable thinking about what 9 plus 6 is. They are quite comfortable thinking about their friend 10,” the teacher says in the video. “10 is emphasized in our young grades as we are working in a base-10 system. So if we can partner 9 to a number and anchor 10, we can help our students see what 9 plus 6 is.”
She continues: “So, we are going to decompose our 6 and we know 6 is made up of parts. One of its parts is a 1 and the other part is a 5. We are now going to anchor our 9 to a 1, allowing our students to anchor to that 10. Now our students are seeing that we have 10 plus 5. Having them now more comfort seeing that 10 plus 5 is 15. That is much more comfortable than looking at 9 plus 6, an isolated math fact.”
Got all that?
Essentially, the Common Core way of solving the simple math problems has students decipher that 5 plus 1 equals 6 and 10 minus 1 equals 9 before they even solve the actual problem. One has to wonder why kids can’t simply be taught that 9 plus 6 equals 15.
What I'm trying to say is mathematics — the foundation of logic and science — is highly intuitive. As such, it just seems to naturally, innately correspond to the way human minds actually work, analyze data, and process information.
Why complicate things for these young-'uns? What they need to succeed in life is a greater sense of realism — which mathematics seems to comprehend in its representation of reality. (I'm speaking here of the core mathematical disciplines, Number Theory and Geometry. I am not speaking of the "instrumental maths," notably Statistics.)
The last thing young people need is to be trained to prefer the false promises of abstract thinking. What they need is training and skill in systematic, analytical thinking.
Otherwise, what happens is they just float off into some God-forsaken Second Reality.
FWIW
Only eight posts before Tom Lehrer. Excellent work :)
We are all dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul. billy madison
No this is a valid mathematical technique. It appears silly in this example because the teacher is using single digit numbers. And yes the student should have been taught from rote memory that 9+6 = 15.
But what about 9886 + 318?
You can solve this using the long hand method, or you can solve it faster by recognizing that you need 114 to get to 10,000. And 318 = 114 + 204. So 9886 + 318 = 9886 + 114 + 204 = 10,000 + 204 = 10204. And you can do that in your head faster than long hand.
It’s an important skill for business. I use it all the time. It shouldn’t instead of long hand arithmetic but in addition to long hand.
This is not a reason to oppose common core unless long hand addition is not being taught. There are valid reasons to oppose common core, including opposing federal control of education, and the introduction of alternative agendas such as gay rights that have nothing to do with reading and writing.
The teacher’s salary, we know, is made up of a lot of parts. Some of those parts are anchored to state and federal income and social security taxes, other parts are anchored to teacher’s union dues. What is left is called the teacher’s net income. Now let’s take this “net income” and introduce it to our friend the number 10. Hey friend, how many times can you “go into” our friend net income? Let’s take that number and call it our new friend, “new take home pay.”
Because that’s how much you’re worth teaching this garbage.
Imagine trying this “math” at the grocery store or bank or while building a house or putting together a satellite....
lolz
simplify??
How is that more simple?
I thought 6=3+3
thanks for clearing that up
I have a foolproof way of making it faster without memorization. I just have to take off a shoe.
Most teachers I knew and know don't want to leave the high school experience behind so they embed themselves in it. They are Peter Pans.
I believe the idea behind the whole process (including Modern Math from the 60s and 70s) goes something like this. Ask people who are really good at math—naturals at it—how they went about discovering math facts. Then try and develop a math curriculum around those ideas and methods. Solving math problems in base 8 seems really neat to the math geniuses, so everyone should learn how to do it. The problem is most people aren’t math naturals and never will be. The rote memorization of times tables isn’t very creative, but it does work—and apparently works much better than these newer more ‘modern’ ideas. But getting the correct answer is not nearly as important in this world view than the style of your attempt at the answer.
You see the same idea in basic science education. Rather than teach what has been already discovered, they try to get the kids to rediscover well-known facts on their own. So we end up with a bunch of science illiterates.
p.s.: IMHO, that maniacal teacher should instantly be fired, and replaced by a teacher who can explain to pupils what Occam’s Razor is. Kids equipped with such information could probably defend themselves against such intellectual chicanery, going forward.
My dad was telling me about SMSG math from the 60’s that kids then had to endure.
“No this is a valid mathematical technique. It appears silly in this example because the teacher is using single digit numbers. And yes the student should have been taught from rote memory that 9+6 = 15.”
But the way the teacher demonstrated it was nothing like this. She was either intentionally or unintentionally making it more complicated than necessary and ignored the meaning of base-10 numbers.
I maintain that this is deliberately done to bog down the smarter kids.
if kids just learn addition, subtraction, multipication and division by simple memorization, they will come to these shortcuts by themselves. .... Teaching the shortcuts too early will just confuse them...
I agree with teaching children why nine plus six equals 15. But, young children will be slowed down if they're forced to use these concepts for basic math. Sure, we can introduce the concepts to them, talk about the concepts, etc. But requiring children to demonstrate those concepts on a test, rather than letting them just give the answer, is going to slow many children down and frustrate them.
>> Oh!! You will get hammered for that.
Sad but true, but also to a lesser degree here.
ßookmark
How many of you kids have 9 fingers (rich kids) or only 6 fingers (poor kids)? Working together we can find the answer.
Or: I want all of you to face one another and hold hands and wish your math teacher can figure out this math problem.....
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