Math Instruction Seems Skillfully Designed NOT To Work

Hubpages.com ^ | August 15, 2010 | Bruce Deitrick Price

[BruceDeitrickPrice]

For a few years I thought the worst possible gimmick in education was Whole Word, basically a device to make sure kids don't learn to read.

In the last few months, the clamor grew about Core Standards and National Standards, and I started to focus on arithmetic. More and more I’m struck by the parallel with Whole Word. The Education Establishment seems to specialize in coming up with techniques that are almost guaranteed not to work.

I know there are cynics who will say, well, of course, everyone knows this. Even so, the thing that fascinates me is the amount of skill and intelligence needed to create something that is not what it appears to be. I’m still stunned. Did people really go into a room and say: how do we teach math so that nobody learns math??? Well, it sure seems that way.

I think we can see the phenomenon best in New Math. Experts said it was the perfect way to teach math; but it was trashed only a few years later. The flaw was that easy arithmetic was mixed in with advanced concepts so that kids were too confused to learn even the basic stuff. Unfortunately, that central flaw was rolled forward into all the subsequent programs, for example, the many programs within Reform Math.

As so often happens in education, the public has to deal with this weird choice: are the people in charge hopelessly stupid or hopelessly subversive?

For a sense of how bad things are, here is a scary report from C. F. Navarro, PhD (on the excellent site Illinoisloop.org):

“At the George Washington Middle school where I taught eight-grade math in 1998, only a few of my math students were at grade level. The rest were at a fourth-grade level, or lower. Most had not yet learned their multiplication tables and were still counting with their fingers. By the end of the year some had progressed to about a fifth-grade level, a substantial improvement, but far short of the comprehension and skills required for algebra. Nonetheless, all were required to register for algebra the following year.

More troublesome still was my algebra class. The students in that class were all nice kids, mainly from middle-class families and, therefore, on the school's "talented and gifted," program. Yet, with few exceptions, they didn't know how to work with fractions, decimals or integers. They lacked the power of concentration to set up and solve multiple-step problems. They were incapable of manipulating symbols and reasoning in abstract terms. Like most of my general math students, some had not yet learned their multiplication tables and were still counting with their fingers.”

Could things really be that bad if the Education Establishment were sincerely trying to teach math? Hard to imagine.

So what is the answer? Many businesses and parents (with kids in public schools) have to consider tutoring (e.g., Saxon Math, Singapore Math, Math Mammoth, MathUSee). Next, the more I look at the National Standards and Core Standards, the more I hope that states will reject these federal proposals. If you’re curious, go to corestandards.org to read some of these bizarre so-called Standards.

One of the distinguishing traits in the newer Standards is a gimmick called spiraling. Children are moved quickly from topic to topic. Teachers introduce as much variety as possible. Just as a “thought experiment” I wondered, well, what would total simplicity look like?? I wrote a piece for hubpages called “Price’s Easy Arithmetic For First Graders.”

( http://hubpages.com/hub/PricesEasyArithmetic )

For a more studious look at the whole problem, see “53: One Thing We Know For Sure: The Education Establishment Hates Math” on Improve-Education.org.

( www.improve-education.org/id78.html )

------------------------------------------

For anyone curious about New Math, here's my review of a book published about 1964 to tell parents how to understand New Math. Funny in a grim way. See the one review of this book:

http://www.amazon.com/teachers-parents-elementary-school-children/dp/B0007DO4K2/ref=cm_cr-mr-title

. .

[Tanniker Smith]

One of the distinguishing traits in the newer Standards is a gimmick called spiraling. Children are moved quickly from topic to topic. Teachers introduce as much variety as possible. Just as a “thought experiment” I wondered, well, what would total simplicity look like?? I wrote a piece for hubpages called “Price’s Easy Arithmetic For First Graders.”

I had to use "spiraling" 8 ir 9 years ago, when teaching 7th and 8th graders. It was a mess. The topics moved about and if a kid was absent they couldn't find the work they missed because we weren't proceeding in a logical order.

My only successful class that year was the Honors class, which was taking 9th-year math over the 7th and 8th grades. I was told exactly which lesson plans to use and where to find them online. I modified them, of course, but they had a structure to the calendar of topics. (I taught elsewhere the following year.)

[irishtenor]

If a train is going southbound from Chicago to Miami at 47 mph, and a yellow taxi with 15 illegal aliens is crossing the border in Texas at 22.7 mph (average), when’s Obama having lunch?

[apillar]

Not exactly on topic, but I saw this story about math and thought I'd throw out this "challenge question" from my 6th graders algebra homework this evening. I have two college degrees and I can't figure it out.

A/B*C+D*E*F/G+H*I=100

Use 1-9 for A-I. Use each number only once, and use all nine to make the equation true.

[sailor4321]

Try this guy: http://www.khanacademy.org/

[dfwgator]

Teaching Math In 1950

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of
production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?

Teaching Math In 1960

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of
production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?

Teaching Math In 1970

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of
production is $80. Did he make a profit?

Teaching Math In 1980

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of
production is $80 and his profit is $20 Your assignment: Underline the
number 20.

Teaching Math In 1990

A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and
inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the
preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of
$20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class
participation after answering the question: How did the birds and
squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong
answers.)

Teaching Math In 2006

Un ranchero vende una carretera de maderapara $100. El cuesto de la
produccion era $80. Cuantos tortillas se puede comprar?

[wheresmyusa]

“Education: Promise and Paradox:

Two of the major issues in the international dialog on sustainability are population
and resource consumption. Increases in population and resource use are thought to jeopardize a sustainable future, and education is linked both to fertility rate and resource consumption. Educating females reduces fertility rates and therefore population growth. By reducing fertility rates and the threat of overpopulation a country also facilitates progress toward sustainability. The opposite is true for the relationship between education and resource use. Generally, more highly educated people, who have higher incomes, consume more resources than poorly educated people, who tend to have lower incomes. In this case, more education increases the threat to sustainability.”

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001524/152453eo.pdf

[Elsiejay]

I cannot understand why it is so difficult to teach children to read. My three could read before they enrolled in first grade. I could have prevented this, of course, if I had kept books and alphabet related toys away from them. Failing that, their learning to read was inevitable, especially with their mother regularly reading books to them.

[BobP]

“At the George Washington Middle school where I taught eight-grade math in 1998, only a few of my math students were at grade level...

---------------------------------------

This country was subverted, pure and simple. It's a deliberate strategy that has been in progress for over 50 years. Once they brushed anti-communist Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater aside in '64, by a massive landslide [Due somewhat to a Democratic campaign advertisement known as 'Daisy'], the road was clear to conquer academia, the news media, the entertainment media, teachers and the unions. It isn't happenstance. It's no coincidence.

   Education

Our public schools are deeply entrenched with a socialist, progressive ideology.

[bannie]

Contrary to popular claims...not all glasses are equally full.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BruceDeitrickPrice. If they can't understand math, and can't read, they can't question global warming, redistribution/confiscation schemes, annihilation of liberty, etc.

For a few years I thought the worst possible gimmick in education was Whole Word, basically a device to make sure kids don't learn to read. In the last few months, the clamor grew about Core Standards and National Standards, and I started to focus on arithmetic. More and more I’m struck by the parallel with Whole Word. The Education Establishment seems to specialize in coming up with techniques that are almost guaranteed not to work.

[bannie]

We need more conservative teachers. Sign up.

[Rabin]

BP

A similar situation exists in collage level math and physics books. These clunkers are updated every year to keep pace with the ever changing aspects of algebra, calculus, gravity and the like. They typically offer multiple pages of problems, supplementary problems and more problems, at the end of each chapter, but only the scantiest explanations and examples as to how to understand the mathmatical / physical connection so necessary for practical application. In most cases the only real hope is a really good Prof and a copy to the (restricted availability) teacher’s guide.
It’s all geared to revineu, which I guess is ok. But a lot of good young minds don’t realize it’s a stacked deck. They figure it’s their inability rather than defective texts. The kid can eithere drop or become lawyers… Bad system, getting more badder in the fullness of time.
R

[SkyDancer]

2=a number

1=a number

Therefore 2=1

[Califreak]

>One of the distinguishing traits in the newer Standards is a gimmick called spiraling.<

I didn’t realize there was actually a name for it. I have noticed, to my confusion, that year after year, they have a tendency to jump from one thing to another quicker than a honeybee lighting on flowers. I don’t believe they stay on one area long enough to really grasp it.

That’s not the way things were done back in the day.

[1forall]

Ja ja ja ja. (laughing in spanish)

[MIDad23]

“If a train is going southbound from Chicago to Miami at 47 mph, and a yellow taxi with 15 illegal aliens is crossing the border in Texas at 22.7 mph (average), when’s Obama having lunch?”

—After golf.

[IMR 4350]

That’s nothing. I invented SPIRALING.

In 1972 I stole the teachers manual.

We SPIRALED for two weeks.

[too much time]

I’ve had my same tagline for several years. Don’t EVEN get me started. Afterschooling - saxon, singapore, and key curriculum are my favorites. The spiraling, group-work, reflective, reform math is garbage. I graduated from HS in 87 - good math student - no one ever suggested I become a teacher. I am an engineer (actually, only a Mom, right now). Guess who teaches? Non-math people. Guess who writes curricula and runs school systems into the ground.

[Qout]

This is in contrast to Mastery, where you don’t go on to the next topic until the first is mastered.