[AUgrad]

Thats all well and good. However, for someone who is learning the basics of math, form is very important as it allows the young person to organize information and analyze it which must occur before application, synthesis or evaluation. The example you give is an example of synthesis and evaluation (changing a formula to your specific purpose and then evaluating it's effectiveness) which are great skills but beyond the abilities of most youngsters. Read any math textbook, most begin with a review of the STRUCTURE of math. It's for a good reason.

[Lizavetta]

Read any math textbook, most begin with a review of the STRUCTURE of math. It's for a good reason.

That's how I see it. Problem solving will be a great tool for my children to have........later. Having "problem solving" stuck in your face before you are totally grounded in the basics is asking for that deer in the headlights math phobia that I, for one, wound up with. I can't help but feel that scrambling with abstracts before you have the methods is teaching math out of order.

This reminds me of the "whole language" sham that is being thrust upon children learning to read, where the "context" is supposed to be the guide for what the word is, NOT the sounds each letter makes. In my opinion, context reading can be used for definitions of words, NOT the actual reading of the word. Yet another fraud the government schools use that make me madder than a wet hen.