Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Teacher's answer to Common Core math problem has parents steaming
sheknows ^ | 10/27/2015 | Christine McDow

Posted on 10/27/2015 9:05:45 AM PDT by BlackFemaleArmyColonel

A new trend in math at elementary schools around the country has parents pulling out their hair. Mainly because it is the opposite of how most of today's adults were taught to do simple multiplication in the first place.

According to a Common Core math worksheet that's gone viral, an elementary child today cannot just say, "5 x 3 = 15." Instead they have to change the multiplication problem to addition before solving the equation. However, if the child says, "5 + 5 + 5 = 15," they will still lose points because the problem must be written as it is stated. In this case, "five times three" is really stated as "five groups of three," and has to be written as such: "3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 15."

This concept has left many parents shaking their heads and throwing their hands up in despair because they can't figure out what it is that their child is supposed to do. Why do you have to add instead of multiply, and why do you have to add the second number five times instead of the first number three times? The biggest question is: "Does it even matter?"

(Excerpt) Read more at sheknows.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: arithmetic; bush2016; ciphering; commoncore; commoncoremath; counting; education; learning; math; mathematics; publicschools
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-103 next last
To: ETL

Jan is 48 and Jake is 24?


61 posted on 10/27/2015 10:10:44 AM PDT by Vic S
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]

To: BlackFemaleArmyCaptain
I think both sides need to understand that if a person does not recognize that 5x3 = 3x5, then he/she doesn't understand enough yet. I would want a student to understand that 3+3+3+3+3 = 5+5+5 and to understand why. Anything short of that is a failure to understand a basic principle. There is no cause for a debate about which analysis is better when it is vital that the student understand both analyses and understand why it doesn't matter which is approach utilized.

My memory is that we were taught this principle as the commutative property of multiplication.

62 posted on 10/27/2015 10:19:10 AM PDT by Tau Food (Never give a sword to a man who can't dance.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BlackFemaleArmyCaptain

Public school teachers union.....the most vile people in the entire country.


63 posted on 10/27/2015 10:26:59 AM PDT by rrrod (just an old guy with a gun in his pocket.l)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Vic S
Age Problems (real life problems with student/sibling/parent)

"Jan is 48 and Jake is 24?"

Yes.

a + 2a = 5a - 48

3a = 5a - 48

5a - 3a = 48

2a = 48

a = 24

64 posted on 10/27/2015 10:27:10 AM PDT by ETL (Ted Cruz 2016!! -- For a better and safer America)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: BlackFemaleArmyCaptain

Every student should have to learn how to use a slide rule


65 posted on 10/27/2015 10:29:29 AM PDT by Axelsrd
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: annieokie
Ahhh....the common sense of our uneducated ancestors. My mom and dad never finished HS. I was diagnosed as really, really good in math. So, there came the day when I proudly brought home my Algebra 1 book to show mom.

She looked at the paper, said "what is that -----? (she swore a lot) I told her. She took that book and could open it to any page and give the answers without all that "crazy stuff" I was writing down!

Maybe our anecdotes have a lot of what's wrong with common core involved in them. Nobody's learning to do things by common sense and experience. They're taking the mystery, discovery and feeling of accomplishment out of learning.

Then there's the "error is not permitted" mentality. Some of civilization's very best ideas and discoveries started out with things that went wrong. They got turned into something great with a little twisting and turning and observing. Creative Thinking is gone.

66 posted on 10/27/2015 10:30:34 AM PDT by grania
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: BlackFemaleArmyCaptain
What is going on is basically this: Mentally dysfunctional theorists are trying to sound relevant--maybe even pretending to what I call "pseudo profundity"--by seeming to reinvent concepts that were once simple and direct (that is actually functional).

The mistake parents make is in trying to imagine a way that this patent silliness is relevant to anything of practical benefit to anyone.

Of course, parents are upset that their children's pursuit of both knowledge & methodology is being derailed by functional idiots' efforts to "reinvent the wheel"; or in this context, to turn simple math into a completely counter-productive drill. As difficult as it may be, they (the parents) need to fall back on their sense of humor, and turn complete folly into a useful lesson, to explain to their children how truly counter-productive it is when theorists in Government pour figurative sand into the basic machinery of life.

67 posted on 10/27/2015 10:31:59 AM PDT by Ohioan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Resolute Conservative

Actually, IT is being outsourced. H1B the L1 visas. Wives of H1Bs and L1s. Not just Indians. Communist Chinese....working in their own countries, too.

I’m sure you know that, though.

My point is that without advanced math skills, no American will be able to work at H&R Block, let alone accounting, physics, chem, medicine.....

I suppose there’ll always be a ‘close enough for’ government work job. Those people can always estimate troop strength....rations needed....deaths of the elderly...dosages of prescriptions required for 0bamacare.


68 posted on 10/27/2015 10:39:33 AM PDT by combat_boots (The Lion of Judah cometh. Hallelujah. Gloria Patri, Filio et Spiritui Sancto!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: grania

Teacher’s answer to Common Core math problem has parents steaming.

I don’t know why. Haven’t these indoctrinaters managed to reduce us to educational third world status.


69 posted on 10/27/2015 10:40:30 AM PDT by JayAr36 (How much more corruption will we willing to take from the Washington???????)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: BlackFemaleArmyCaptain

Home school your kids.


70 posted on 10/27/2015 10:42:35 AM PDT by DungeonMaster (God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BlackFemaleArmyCaptain

This makes me glad my grandchildren are being educated in the International Schools. They are learning what we did back in the 60’s. Even cursive. They are currently in China.


71 posted on 10/27/2015 10:43:39 AM PDT by KYGrandma (The sun shines bright on my old Kentucky home.....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DungeonMaster

Yes!


72 posted on 10/27/2015 10:43:40 AM PDT by BlackFemaleArmyColonel (I LOVE JESUS CHRIST because He first loved me!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: Sacajaweau

The concept of multiplication was pretty easy for my kids to pick up. Then we spent a month memorizing the table. By the time we moved on to division, they knew multiplication ‘forward and backward’ and they were very happy to realize that they already knew division.

After that, we moved on with Saxon math.

Done and done. Both kids excelled in the subject.


73 posted on 10/27/2015 10:44:01 AM PDT by Marie (Hey GOP... The vulgarians are at the gate.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Fundamentally Fair

Wow!


74 posted on 10/27/2015 10:44:21 AM PDT by BlackFemaleArmyColonel (I LOVE JESUS CHRIST because He first loved me!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: Marie

Saxon - Drill’em and Kill’em


75 posted on 10/27/2015 10:45:11 AM PDT by RinaseaofDs
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: Talisker
The notion--and never make the mistake that it is ever better than a notion--that equality of achievement is a noble or altruistic goal; the notion that drives egalitarian/collectivist movements, is based on compulsion, not reason. It undermines all peoples afflicted by it, by diverting their efforts from what they do well, to avoiding reality.

Communism is always the glorification of what does not work. It is always sold by appeals to the neurotic compulsions, which drive the "useful idiots." (See Compassion or Compulsion?.

76 posted on 10/27/2015 10:45:25 AM PDT by Ohioan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: KYGrandma

Great for them!


77 posted on 10/27/2015 10:45:52 AM PDT by BlackFemaleArmyColonel (I LOVE JESUS CHRIST because He first loved me!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: DoughtyOne

It is intentional and they don’t teach our history anymore.

Maybe people are ashamed of our history???


78 posted on 10/27/2015 10:47:21 AM PDT by BlackFemaleArmyColonel (I LOVE JESUS CHRIST because He first loved me!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]

To: ETL

What’s the answer? I think I solved it.


79 posted on 10/27/2015 10:50:08 AM PDT by BlackFemaleArmyColonel (I LOVE JESUS CHRIST because He first loved me!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]

To: pa_dweller

lol


80 posted on 10/27/2015 10:51:58 AM PDT by BlackFemaleArmyColonel (I LOVE JESUS CHRIST because He first loved me!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-103 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson