New "Common Core Math"....WTF???

[Big Muddy]

Grandkids asked me if this is in their future math classes....I'm totally lost, but open to discussion.

Any of you teachers wanna explain the necessity of screwing with a perfectly simple math system ???


3036

[Sunshine]

That's ridiculous!.

[johnboy]

Seriously?

[LJ3]

I know I'm not a smart man but I do know what love is.


Can someone seriously explain this to me? I've seen it about 50 times now (same problem) and can't figure it out.

[Penguin]

This subject is one that is near and dear to me.

The whole purpose of this thing is to get kids to "reason" their way through mathematics problems. Trouble is that those of us who actually have had to learn higher level math know that you cannot separate "reasoning" from "skills acquisition". They go hand in hand.

All of these math changes are trying to get kids to attain "higher reasoning skills" but, IMvHO, that only comes with the opportunity to do higher level math in the first place. Trying to get a smart kid to explain in a paragraph why 32 - 12 = 20 is a cruel kind of torture that only a sick mind would contemplate.

In answer to your question the whole idea is to ditch skills acquisition and trade it in for reasoning. Trouble is that in the real world you have to learn skills before you can get to the part about reasoning.

Will

[Big Skyz]

Just wondering, in talking with your friends (this is addressed to anyone reading this), what do you think the general public consesus/perception is in regards to Common Core?

[FooBang]

It looks harder, but this is how I do math in my head. I add to the bottom number and keep track as I go. I think I learned that out of a math book from 1937, so not so new.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Its actually the logical way anyone does math in their head. Its just not the way its done 'on paper'. So it doesn't look logical.

Troy, here in Oklahoma the issue isn't the curricula as much as it is it seems that the testing process takes local control away from the administration, teachers, and parents. If a kid doesn't pass the test, he doesn't get promoted to the next grade regardless of what the teachers, parents, and administration thinks. This is essentially placing a governmental control of that decision making process. Interestingly enough, this was passed in Oklahoma by a legislature that 'says' it is against federal or state control. The curricula issues I've heard about have more to do with trying to come up with a system that only prepares kids fo one thing and one thing only......college. Public school needs to also focus on teaching kids how to succeed at vocational jobs too as every kid isn't going to be going to college. And, again, there's no local control of curricula.

BKB

[Penguin]

Its actually the logical way anyone does math in their head. Its just not the way its done 'on paper'. So it doesn't look logical.

Well I have to admit that I have never honed my clairvoyance abilities so I don't know how anyone else does it.

But seriously. Does a man sit in his head when subtracting 12 from 32 and go through all of that? Working each 5 or 10 scale increment in his head and then adding all of the components together? Really?

And here's my complaint: If a kid can add 12 to 3 and obtain 15 then why in the hell can't they just skip the other steps and go right to the answer. Seriously. Is it actually harder to take 12 from 32 than it is to add up 3, 5, 10, and 2? I find that hard to believe.

Will

[Chicken Dinner]

I'm another person who does math like that in my head quite effectively. My kids also learn these methods in school in spite of the fact that Virginia has not adopted the Common Core. Most of my kids' math teachers, based on their own initiative most likely, take a double-pronged approach and insist that they learn both ways which is probably the best approach. I will say that in general, I approve of the way they learn math as long as it's done this way. From as early as kindergarten they appear to be learning "how numbers work" as opposed to just this is how you do it which is the way I learned. They also spend a lot of time learning math "vocabulary" which I find challenging as I know how they work, but can't explain them using the jargon the way they do.

[LJ3]

My "head math" would be knock down the 10's, then subtract 2 from 22.

[quercus alba]

phonics is the next big thing, right? Write?

Len is actually smarter than he looks

[Big Muddy]

Takes me a nanosecond, just by looking at it....just like 157-98 = 59.

The problem is, when a kid is taking a timed test like the ACT, they'll spend too much time "reasoning" the answers, instead of "answering" the day'um question, then moving on to the next problem.