Math Under Common Core Has Even Parents Stumbling

NY Times ^ | 6-29-14 | Motoko Rich

[afraidfortherepublic]

GREENWELL SPRINGS, La. — Rebekah and Kevin Nelams moved to their modest brick home in this suburb of Baton Rouge seven years ago because it has one of the top-performing public school districts in the state. But starting this fall, Ms. Nelams plans to home-school the couple’s four elementary-age children.

The main reason: the methods that are being used for teaching math under the Common Core, a set of academic standards adopted by more than 40 states.

Ms. Nelams said she did not recognize the approaches her children, ages 7 to 10, were being asked to use on math work sheets. They were frustrated by the pictures, dots and sheer number of steps needed to solve some problems. Her husband, who is a pipe designer for petroleum products at an engineering firm, once had to watch a YouTube video before he could help their fifth-grade son with his division homework.

“They say this is rigorous because it teaches them higher thinking,” Ms. Nelams said. “But it just looks tedious.”

Across the country, parents who once conceded that their homework expertise petered out by high school trigonometry are now feeling helpless when confronted with first-grade work sheets. Stoked by viral postings online that ridicule math homework in which students are asked to critique a phantom child’s thinking or engage in numerous steps, along with mockery from comedians including Louis C. K. and Stephen Colbert, these parents are adding to an increasingly fierce political debate about whether the Common Core is another way in which Washington is taking over people’s lives.

[SgtHooper]

“Are you assuming that all people have exactly ten fingers and two feet and all cars have four wheels?”

Moreover, in Detroit, not all cars in the parking lot would necessarily have four wheels, doors or hoods for that matter, after a few minutes of parking.

[Tax-chick]

Excellent point. An alert student could certainly inform the teacher that the question did not provide sufficient information to do more than estimate the answer.

The teacher probably would not understand what he was talking about.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Many ways to do a math problem. Many ways to skin a cat. My objection to Common Core is that the perps have chosen the most convoluted way to solve the problem and havedeclared that all other ways are wrong. Seriously.

This will be a major impediment to the child advancing in math. I guarantee that they won’t have the time to count dots and slashes to solve an advanced engineering problem.

[GailA]

We did a lot of game playing on States and Capitols that really got you in to learning them.

As my parents were ill educated, from the post depression age, and went to work well before they completed Jr HS, I had no one who could teach me those things. So learned every thing in school or in books.

I aced out history, Eng reading, grammar was the pits, math was average. I transpose numbers, and no one caught it.

[cycjec]

the exercise does assume all the people and all the
vehicles have the normal complement

[Tired of Taxes]

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[Ultra Sonic 007]

How in the world can you classify range, domain, and basic algebraic properties as ‘new-age’?

[BobL]

New age in the sense of when they’re taught (i.e., at what age). I also remember the terms and learning them early, and then never caring about them (even though I obviously used them). I’d have to check, but I’m just not sure they need to be taught as definitions, as such early ages.

[metmom]

One goal of Common Core is to allow success for students who CANNOT memorize math facts. They cannot memorize, but they can count.

So they design a curriculum for the exception and then force everyone else into it?

What a fail....

[abclily]

Exactly! Common Core is for the benefit of the lowest common denominator.

[metmom]

Who are hardly going to benefit anyway so now everyone pays.

There are better ways of working with the lowest common denominator.

[Mycroft Holmes]

One goal of Common Core is to allow success for students who CANNOT memorize math facts. They cannot memorize, but they can count.

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Not to be rude, but if they can not memorize they can not count.

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