Why Math is Different Now (Video)

I'm at work and can't watch the video. Does this have to do with Common Core? There are actually some good things that are in Common Core. They just shoved it down our throats and you can't do that. Some kind of preparation for it would go a long ways.

After watching this video a few days ago, I'm starting to better understand the reason behind it. I'm lucky that I have a first grader, so I'll get to 're-learn' while he learns, but I'm sure it's a really hard transition to go from 'old math' one year to 'new math' the next year.

The problem with the new way of doing math is that it was rushed into practice without proper testing/teacher preparation. We now have a nation of teachers that have no idea how to teach new math, so as a result, kids are struggling and parents hate it.

In the long run, I do think it will be a better system and will teach a larger number of students how math actually works instead of the step-by-step process.

God damn it, ok

kids will never care

although the square was brilliant, something ive never seen before

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I wish I as taught this way because I ended up developing a similar system organically in a futile attempt to "get" math. Which I never fully did.

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i had multiple systems and breaking down numbers like this is part of it. i was not allowed to explain how i did problems in elementary school b/c i would do things like this and it confused kids

the simplest way to explain this is that wrote memorization of processes involves a method that teaches kids that a number is a single unit. 54 is 54. in reality, 54 is just a symbol of a bunch of different things. (50+4) = 54. kids see that as a math problem with 3 individual units, when they should understand that you're saying it's just 2 ways to represent the same thing

as a kid, i remember kids REALLY have a hard time with fractions. this is the exact reason why i believe they had a hard time. if you struggle with understanding that base of conceptualization, you're going to be fricked once you get to algebra. if you're fricked there, you're proper fricked in geometry, calculus, trig, etc.

the "box" in the video is a great way to show the problem in a way that will be used in geometry

Yeah I actually liked it. I was never shown anything like this growing up and I think it could have been useful.

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I guess it's a matter of teaching to the middle 60%.

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I don't think so, my wife was a top tier student that got A's throughout school. She has no idea how to do math, she just learned the memorization skills to get through it. She has little understanding of how it works and hates doing it. Things like this could benefit everyone.

I did well in math and sought out ways to understand it beyond the memorization aspect on my own to understand it better. I would of loved to see this type of teaching in the classroom.

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My kid is tired of drawing boxes

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well this is one of those areas where individualized or segregated education would work

once you understand the concepts, you don't need to keep doing it. you should move on. the issue is classroom logistics

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My concern is that these new processes are laborious, and the curriculum still covers the same amount of topics. We are losing kids this way. Every day a new concept that takes forever to complete.

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i don't know exactly what you're saying, b/c i don't have kids in the curriculum, but this is a long-term thing

like i said, if you are deficient in this concept, you will be deficient in algebra, and then deficient in geometry, adn then trig and calculus will be all but impossible to understand. you can get by, by using wrote methods, but you're going to hit a limit at some point in that process and be done. these methodologies are trying to decrease the occurrences of those limits