Posted on 04/07/2007 7:56:22 PM PDT by socrates_shoe
> Well, people who actually like and appreciate math
> wouldn’t prefer the rainforest to math. But I suspect
> such people seldom become high school math teachers
Your whole post made an excellent post, and I fear your theory may, in fact, be on the mark (though why the National Science Foundation would join in the idiocy remains a mystery to me).
The bit I quoted, though, brought back to mind forcefully some mornings on fine summer mornings many years ago when my Methods of Proof in Mathematics class would meet right after a class in “teaching math” for the school of education.
I remember thinking then that not a one of those people should ever be allowed in the same room with a math text...
I tutor students in Math. Many of the Middle-School and even Secondary School pupils I have are still counting on their fingers to add and subtract; Forget asking them for the multiplication tables.
One of the first things we have to teach them is math facts; i.e how to add and subtract, multiply and divide.
Moreover, for those who think that arithmetic is what calculators are for, before you set up the problem on the calculator, you have to know at least whether it is an addition or subtraction or multiplication or division problem, and I’ve had students who did not know that.
VietVet
In 1987, I returned to college, and took an American History 101 course. I had graduated from high school in 1980, but hadn't had a civics or history class since about 8th grade, in 1974 or 75. I attended about 1/2 of the classes and read about 1/2 of the reading assignments, and I got an A- on the mid-term (50% of the grade). I didn't bother with any more reading, and didn't go back to class once, except for the final exam (the other 50% of the grade). I scored a solid B on the test, and wound up with a B+ for the course.
And I'm not particularly good at history! This didn't bode well for my views on "education."
Mark
Why do we no longer hear of the successes that have been realized by the use of the Saxon (?) approach to learning arithmetic/mathematics. My daughter has used it with highly satisfactory results in home-schooling her two sons and one daughter.
I’ve read article after article bemoaning unsatisfactory student learning achievement in math, but not once have I read of anyone questioning the methods and materials, the basic approach used to teach math. Instead, it seems this fundamental question escapes attention, while the “usual suspect” remedies of more money and more teachers are urged.
This is exactly how I was taught to teach math, and I graduated from ed school in 2005.
My local elementary schools have been drilling math facts for at least the last 5 years.
When my older son went to middle school, they did so little actual math that he rarely had math homework.
I am a fellow Saxon enthusiast, home school mom of 5.
My eldest son used Saxon and tested into Trig at age 15 at the local community college. He did two years there, then transferred to UCLA (as a Math major; he’s since switched to Physics).
He told his little brother yesterday that Saxon with Mom was harder than Math at community college.
So kudos to Saxon! I can’t recommend it enough.
Parents, even if you don’t home school, you can spend 15 minutes a day drilling math facts with your child. It doesn’t take that much time. I still remember my mom drilling my multiplication facts with me.
Our school system offers algebra at 8th grade (same as me when I was going through). Our school system is excellent with dedicated teachers who push my daughters.
It’s nice to hear there are exceptions.
It’s dangerous to think exceptions are the rule.
The NSF pushed “math” abomination highlighted in the article will do for mathematics what “whole language” did for English proficiency.
The good news is that your daughters will likely have their pick of colleges.
It’s not just that so many young adults can’t learn simple pre-algebra before they graduate high school, although that alone is bad enough. But what is really more troubling to me is that, as a society, we can’t seem to organize ourselves to do something this simple, which in the past seemed easy. Pouring more and more government money into the schools to address this problem by trying to discover “better teaching methods” is, at best, only palliative. It masks the more fundamental problem that far too many kids today aren’t getting basic parenting at home.
Ho Hum. *S*
It is my belief that our Public Educational System is a mortally failed enterprise; and the cork will never fit back into the bottle. As a nation, we will continue to dumb ourselves downward, in a definitive validation of where Western Democracy — and by extension —the United States — is depicted on the Civilizational sine-curve. (And, it “ain’t” pretty !!!)
Happy Easter to All.
I can tell you are proud, and you should be!
Thanks for your service - both in math and the war. (But no jokes on which is harder!)
Our 6th grader’s teacher asked where he had learned his math facts (mom!). The teacher said it was frustrating when she is tring to do things but most of the kids don’t have their math facts down. Summertime is math facts time!
Just today my nine-year old daughter (third grade) asked me three math questions that I had her take the time to figure out in her head what they were. “How far can we drive in two hours?” I said we can usually go 70 mph on the highway, so how many total miles would it be? Her first answer was “2”. (I reminded her that was part of the question!). Her next answer was 140 miles.
Her other question that she answered correctly by herself was “what is 15 x 3?” (she had found 15 Easter eggs with three opeices of candy in each one - so she knew the concept of the problem - and critical to know how many total pieces of candy one gets!).
And “what is 82-40?” (I’m glad she didn’t have to carry or she would probably would have been stumped trying to do it in her head.)
The one thing they do here is “investigations”, so instead of math facts its ‘exploring” the numbers and solving a problem in two or threes ways. That’s fine to a degree, but I think it shouldn’t be to the exclusion of the drilled-in facts.
My one daughter would come home in tears because she couldn’t give the answer the “right” way.
Like 36 + 47=?
School’s way:
36=4 = 40.
47+3 =50.
40+50=90.
4+3=7
90-7=83.
(although this last part seems a bit hard so maybe I answered it wrong?!)
She gets the srtaight way of doing adding and subtracting just fine so we told her to just answer it the “facts” way and that’ll be okay with us and not to worry about the grade or the teacher.
The schools, the unions and the administrations always have their hands out. What is their solution to the awful math performance in our schools, MORE MONEY!
If a farmer grew less he gets paid less. If a salesman sells less.........and so forth
To beat a faulty analogy to death: Depends on the crop and market prices. Depends on the product.
High School Physics Enrollement[sic] Hits Record High
but they talk English really good. :=)
Nothing faulty about it! If they don’t produce, they don’t get as much. Schools don’t produce and still get paid as if they did.
Didn’t I hear this during the Kennedy Nixon debate?
When I was in HS(69-72) we had pre calculus in out junior year, and calculus in our senior year.....sheesh!
The schools/teachers that produce do get paid well. The ones who don’t produce get paid less. That’s the reality. The problem is, many communities can no longer afford even to pay their teachers less.
To see what high performing teachers get paid, look at communities in places like New Canaan, CT, Scarsdale, NY etc. where teacher salaries top $100,000.
Those big city teachers are not getting 100k but are getting more than they are worth.
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