[Young Werther]

My daughter's math teacher has "rules" for solving math problems. The most important rule: show your work in a vertical manner on the page. If this form is not followed the question will be marked WRONG! Correct answers that are not in the proscribed format will be marked wrong! When I saw this at a parent meets teacher evening, I just bit my lip!!!

But then again, the NEA follows the liberal guidelines of form over substance. Why are we experiencing a math and science curriculum crisis?

I pointed out to my daughter that this is the same problem that doomed the prior NASA Mars probe. Oh the FORMulae were correct! It was the insertion of English rather than metric variables that caused the loss. Ergo the FORMulae worked but the Answer did not. $40 Million down the ole crapper!

[AUgrad]

My daughter's math teacher has "rules" for solving math problems. The most important rule: show your work in a vertical manner on the page. If this form is not followed the question will be marked WRONG! Correct answers that are not in the proscribed format will be marked wrong! When I saw this at a parent meets teacher evening, I just bit my lip!!!

When attempting to learn math the ability to organize information is VERY important. Higher order problems often involve many different calculations. The teacher may simply be trying to teach his students to organize their problem in an effective manner. If they aren't organized, their chances of success are greatly reduced.

[MattAMiller]

This was always a sticking point for me in school. I simply refused to knuckle under and give in. It got me nothing but bad grades but I persisted through most of High School because I was a kid and I was dumb.

I see the value in it though. As long as you aren't getting full credit simply for putting down the right formula I don't necessarily see a problem.

Learning how particular operations are performed is important. If a teacher sees what their students are doing they can spot trouble areas and adress them. And it helps prevent cheating.

On the ther hand I think some of my annoyance with this system stemmed from teachers who insisted on overly detailed documentation. At some point it just becomes busy work, and I hate busy work with a passion.

[stylin19a]

Your daughter's teacher sounds like the old Nun math teacher I had. What a ball-buster. WAGs were not allowed. I had better show my work. It wasn't about the answer, it was about me knowing how to get the answer. Thank God for that Nun.