Posted on 10/07/2023 3:40:59 AM PDT by george76
What is interesting is that no one makes them anymore. Real traditional slide rules sell used for $200 to $800.
I coached competition math for 2nd through 9th graders, had to relearn a lot of math to keep up with some of the kids. There are some, a few, that are incredible without calculators, but 99% are unprepared and clueless, calculator or not. It starts with the parents, ends with teachers. My experience is that neither no how to teach.
And practice and homework? As a culture we are increasingly allergic to it.
1/2 + 1/3 = Trump is bad. Easy.
This is 3rd grade level.
The remote learning was useless for many students. They did nothing.
I keep current with percentages and fractions because my wife is always asking me to figure sales discounts.
Another success of the teacher’s unions.
it sounds like the usual suspects, and the usual schools and usual cities that produce these results. I hope they aren’t medical doctors or pilots.
My favorite math teacher in HS said that math is not about being fast and it is wrong to put a time limit on math tests. Take your time...be careful. The more you practice, the faster you will get.
But don't rush.
Take your time and enjoy the trip.
It can be used either way depending on the situation. You can either determine the sum with plus or the result with minus if you remove from the total. it is less not more. My glass is not always half full. This is the same as arms to the Ukraine. We have A, then they get B and C is what we have left. See? Everyday application.
wy69
You’re obviously a white supremacist, then.
/sarc
.8333333
I am 76 and most of what I learned in math was up to about 1978 when i got a B in grad level Research Statistics. I am particularly skilled in reading and writing which I far prefer to math; mostly starting with books at home pre-K. But I have sat in on dozens of meetings where people listed 3 and 4 digit numbers on tear sheets and I had the total almost as soon as they finished the list. Other worked calculators and figured it out by totaling columns.
How can I do that. not being in love with math or some kind of prodigy. Easy, Catholic school for 12 years. And my parents always took the side of the priests and nuns. My dad would say whatever they do to you at school it will be ten times worse when you get home.
Went to a 4 room school in a boarding school in Paintsville, KY. The school is still there but no boarders. By the end of 2 grade knew my times tables up through 12X12 and by end of 4th could divide any number by any number. By 6th square root and so on. Tyhe nuns at boarding school were not harsh, just supportive and taught us responsibility. Home work every day, write a letter home once a week even though we went home on Fridays, and no excuses for not doing your work or you didn’t get to go home. Everyone had daily chores.
In HS, we had cathloic priesnts off the streets of Dublin and Belfast.who “disciplined” us if we didn’t do our homework talked in class etc. I worked corrections and learned early if you pull hair it doesn’t leave a mark. But I learned it from the priests in HS who could bring a tear to your eys and get you to stand on tip toes if you talked in class or didn’t know what you should have known. (Our HS won the first soccer championship in SoCal. The priests challenged the team to a match. It was called off at half time with the priests a head 13-0.) I still have a dent in my shin from being kicked by a 27 year old all star soccer priest. I can feel the kick 71 years later.
That’s how I learned math.
“pizza...1/4 for me...1/4 for me....1/4 for me....1/4 for me.”
I don’t cut mine so I get one one’th.
.5 + .3333333 = .833333So? Show your work and explain why.
Ok class physically cut .83333333333333333333 of a pie. Use your phone if you think you can. Fractions don’t exist in a digital world
Ignorance is bliss.
Everything in life isn't measured in tenths. Decimals are also fractions of a whole.
“The Lowest Common Denominator” would seem to be the students who cannot subtract 8 from minus 6.
Take away the calculators.
The fact is that rote memorization has been taken out of math classes. When I was in grade school, and not dodging mastodons, we were forced to memorize our times tables in the third grade. Besides making multiplication something we could do in our heads or on paper for bigger problems, it made things like lowest common denominator doable when we hit fractions in the fifth grade.
And understanding how fractions work, makes algebra a bit easier to master as well. All of that is gone from most schools. If I ask an 8th grader what 4 x 6 is, he or she will pull out a calculator to give me an answer. Only the best and brightest will just ‘know’ the answer. The way math is taught now, kids are exposed to ideas like fractions as early as 2nd grade, but they master very little.
I have several slide rules still, but if you asked me to use them today I would struggle.
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