I was referring to the Bozo on the video who thinks arithmetic is mathematics. I have degrees in Mathematics and I never once took a course in multiplication to obtain these degrees.
I do agree that kids should be taught how to multiply without calculators, but this isn't mathematics. People who do not know the difference are dangerous, IMHO.
ML/NJ
Mathematics in just a general term to most people. She probably should have said arithmetic. I’m sure she knows the difference. Isn’t one of the programs called “Everyday Math”? I remember seeing the video a couple of years ago, and I think one of the programs she spoke about was called “Everyday Math.” Maybe it should have been called “Everyday Arithmetic.”
The video is a wake up call to parents whose kids are saddled with half-assed math (arithmetic) programs foisted on them by gullible school administrators and school board members who want to look “cutting edge,” much like the failed whole language reading courses.
If I were a public school kid to today, I’d jump off the roof of my school. I don’t know how kids put up with the garbage they put up with today, and I don’t know how parents put up with it, either, although I think a lot of them are waking up — but that’s a different story.
Anyhow, my brother and his wife (who is a science teacher) pulled my niece out of her public school and put her in a Catholic school because they realized that the new math (arithmetic) program the public school chose was an absolute horror and would just confuse the children, and it did. It confused students, parents, and even the teachers whose job it was to teach it. The school bought this pig in a poke program and math (arithmetic) scores plummeted, and since they signed on to this program, they couldn’t get rid of it easily, so for years and years, the scores were horrible.
I don’t know if they ever got rid of it, but I do know that a lot of savvy parents pulled their kids out of the public school and sent their children elsewhere, where they flourished and now have wonderful jobs and wonderful lives because they were spared this nightmare of a math (arithmetic) program.
And I think people who get so worked up over dictionary minutiae are dangerous.
Take a knee before you strain something.
I have taken some ‘routine’ math courses as well as advanced math courses while getting an engineering degree. I have always thought of my ‘arithmetic’ learning as part of my ‘math’ learning, something like baby talk and learning the English/language/grammar.
Arithmetic is indeed a part of math - you can’t easily solve equations unless you know your gazintas.
It’s also a gateway to number theory and other abstract sciences.