re: (Not Common Core)-- Why are they teaching math this way?

Man, it's been too long since I've seen entry level math.

It looks like an introduction to Algebra.

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It's 6+6+6+6. It isn't rocket science. That's all I did as a kid in my head and eventually it was just memorized.

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And what extra is being taught to your kid now?

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You don't have an answer...figured that much.

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I do have an answer. Teach them 7+4=11 until they get it. I have no problems with offering them different tools to get there, but at the end of the day, they have to be able to answer the question, "What do you get if you add 7 and 4?"

It can be, "Oh, I know that 11 minus 4 = 7, so 7+4=11" - that's perfectly fine. But at the end of the day, single digit addition and multiplication, by rote, is the most efficient and effective path to doing more complicated mathematical functions.

I mean, we developed the atomic bomb and went to the moon with people educated like that - since we stopped doing that and started pussyfooting around in the classroom, promoting everybody, letting 1 + 1 = 3 if the child thinks that's the right answer - well, we just haven't achieved as much, as a nation, now have we?

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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.

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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.

LOL, I've helped my daughter since she started school, now 3rd grade, and have no problems. Can't understand all the crying over common core? Maybe my kid listens to instructions in class and isn't a dumbass? Guess I lucked out there...

Bunch of whiny brats likely raising more whiny brats... Like any change to the education system in La was going to make it worse LMAO!! CHANGE is your problem! YOU don't understand it, so it must be a government conspiracy to control the minds of our children, oh geez, you guys really buy into this crap?

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(Not Common Core)-- Why are they teaching math this way?
Because somewhere a bureaucrat w/ a liberal arts degree decided to change the way people do math so they feel useful and good about themselves. When your only tool is a hammer ( i.e "change") everything looks like a nail

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Just FYI almost all the creators of common core math were all higher level mathematicians. The problem with that is none of them were ever taught how younger kids learn and had no sense of the childhood education system.

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I don't understand it. I feel like it takes more work than it is worth and honestly am not sure what it is teaching the kids.

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It's teaching them to do the calculations in their heads instead of relying on pencil and paper by stripping off the ones digit and multiplying/adding tens and hundreds before adding the ones back in. When you do it with small numbers as examples it seems unnecessarily complicated but it does work. Many of us have been doing it this way for years without ever having been formally instructed in it.

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Call me an idealist, but I would rather we didn't start writing-off children in lower Elementary school.

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Typical teacher union mentality right here: Don't write that kid off yet, because we can hold all of them back till he catches up.

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Sadly, "that's how I learned it" is a common theme whenever this pops up. When a student is struggling with basic computation, which happens more often than you think, you have to start building-in mechanisms for students to arrive at the answer using something other than memorization.

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That is all well and good but when my 2nd grader is doing two digit by two digit multiplication in his head why in the heck does he need to find a "doubles fact plus 1" to know that 5 plus 6 equals 11? And we have never, done multiplication tables, flash cards, or rote memorization with him.

It adds to volume to the information needed and is frankly useless.



The same as a number line. He does not need to draw little humps on a number line if he knows the correct answer. These steps are for, as you astutely noted, struggling students.









Why use subtrahend and addend when number, digit, and value are all better options? Sure I know what subtrahend and addend mean but those terms are not used outside of grade school or grade school teachers homes. It is also interesting that his sight words and spelling words are a max of 5 letters currently, and subtrahend is "a doubles fact" longer.

Think about it.

What does white kids have an advantage on that many black kids don't have? 2 Parents and most likely interested in their kids doing well in school and helping them learn at home.

Confuse the hell out of the parents so that they cant help teach their kids and you eliminate the advantage.

Progress