Califreak,
RE the idiocy called lattice multiplication.
Just in case some people don’t know, there’s a great YouTube video called AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH by the wonderful M. J. McDermott.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1qee-bTZI
Save this for when you have 16 minutes. It’ll make you kind of sick but in a good way. Lattice multiplication is another example of education as neurotoxin. Indeed, I think all of Reform Math is.
It looks like a combination of busy work and something to take them away from the basics, or confuse them when they try to do the old fashioned work.
It seems like homework is of the above nature or designed to find out what makes your child tick or find out what the child believes in or what direction the child is leaning politically.
Thanks for the link.
I can’t believe mastery of the basics is viewed as a waste of time!
When I went to school, we were supposed to do basic math and show our work to prove we didn’t use a calculator and nowadays they are encouraging the use of calculators in these books.
This is why some college graduates use their calculators for simple multiplication facts(6 times 8) now. One might think MJ was exaggerating when she mentioned that, but I’ve actually seen co-workers who were college graduates do this and I’ve always just been shocked and amazed by it.
Einstein didn’t even know his own phone number and didn’t see the point in memorizing it when it can be looked up in a book, but I bet even with these “new and improved” methods, he would still know his multiplication tables.
That is scary!
But now I can kind of understand this demonic new math from watching the video. Maybe when it’s time to do math homework I won’t just throw up my hands in frustration anymore and dump it in dad’s lap anymore. (until we get to algebra)