quote:
I agree completely. For the last few years I've watched how my (now) 2nd grader and 4th grader learn/are being taught stuff. The younger one gets it easily, because ALL of these concepts were new to her when introduced. The older one has had an easier time grasping the division and multiplication methods than the addition and subtraction ones, probably because (after a lot of early struggling) he had FINALLY learned "the way" to add/subtract and now they want to re-teach it to him using other methods to get the answer. Since he hadn't had much exposure to multiplication and division, he's now picking it up more quickly because he's presented different ways to do it from the start. The "re-learning" already mastered skills was a problem, not the acquiring of new skills.

My main complaint with Common Core is the implementation of it, and the lack of training for the teachers who have to present it to their students.

All this.

I am and was a terrible math student. It never ever clicked for me. I have a 7th grader and a 2nd grader and both are doing this. The 2nd grader has had less issues grasping CC concepts because it's all he's been taught...though the 7th grader has made nothing but A's as well.

I do homework with the 2nd grader every day, and occasionally it'll take me a minute to look at his assignment and figure out what the hell they are being asked to do. I've yet to look at any of it and think it doesn't work. Sometimes I'll think it's a longer way to get to the problem, and others seem to be faster. What I have decided not to do is freak out simply because it's different. He clearly gets it, and it obvious in daily life as he comprehends mathematical concepts.

The biggest issue seems to be both with how they rolled it out and that teachers who themselves did not learn it this way are being asked to teach it. They, like many of us who are parents who did not learn it this way, are hesitant to get on board with it, so they are "teaching" it but also badmouthing it in class and to parents who complain to them about it.