Teens criticize 'CHIMP' math (fuzzy math alert)

"Thank God for homeschooling and SAXON math."

Last year was the Math Year From He!l for my then 4th grader. I could really see how ill prepared and confused she was about math and bought the Saxon 5/4 book to cover what she already knew and give her a head start for 5th grade. It helped a bunch.

This year, she was totally confused by decimals. So, I pulled out the Saxon book, went over the lesson, step by step, and the light bulb went off in her head within 5 minutes. Her Publicly Issued Math Book is full of many lovely PC pictures of multi-ethnic school children, but does little in explaining the concept and application of decimals (and fractions).

Dasa/homeschool mom wannabe

1990
By cutting down beautiful forest trees, a logger makes $20. What do you think of this way of making a living?
Topic for Class Participation: How do the forest birds and squirrels feel?
_____________________________
This is NOT an exaggeration. I've seen similar with my own two eyes (which fall out on the floor regularly because of this garbage) beginning in our 1st grade math curriculum.

......First grader makes pretty flower with the petals containing all the fact families for a given number. First Grader then colors the pretty flower after writing in fact families. First grader must then draw a "face" describing if making the pretty flower with numbers in it made them feel "happy" (draw happy face) or "sad" (draw sad face).

Math has changed - not just teaching methods. I gave you two examples. Another is fractals -Benoit Mandelbrot, a mathematician at IBM, is an expert in processes with unusual statistical properties, such as those in which a random variable's average or its variance is infinite. His early work in the 1950's and 1960's suggested that the variations in stock market prices, the probabilities of words in English, and the fluctuations in turbulent fluids, might be modeled by such strange processes. Later he came to study the geometric features of these processes and realized that one unifying aspect was their self-similarity. In the mid-1970s he coined the word "fractal" as a label for the underlying objects, since they had fractional dimensions. Fractals are shapes or behaviors that have similar properties at all levels of magnification or across all times. Just as the sphere is a concept that unites raindrops, basketballs, and Mars, so fractals are a concept that unites clouds, coastlines, plants, and chaotic attractors. .

The field of statistics has also changed - box-and-whisker plots, stem and leaf plots, scatter plots, etc. Math is not static.

When my grandson was 3, he came running to me to see if he could have a Rice Krispie threat. I told him he could if there were enough for him, his brother, and his sister. He said he had one in his hand and there were two more in the kitchen, so that meant there were enough. THIS IS PROBLEM SOLVING - THINKING. Kids learn to walk, talk, etc before they enter school. PROBLEM SOLVING IS NOT A WORD PROBLEM. Abstract princiipals increase in difficulty as they grow older, but they are always there.

Her Publicly Issued Math Book is full of many lovely PC pictures of multi-ethnic school children, but does little in explaining the concept and application of decimals (and fractions).

That sounds like a real problem. I really need to take a look at what kids are using in school today.

On the brighter side, and not related to math, my friend's 14 year old daughter is reading "Animal Farm" as an assignment. All is NOT lost!

Math has changed - not just teaching methods. I gave you two examples.

What you showed me isn't exactly new, though "manipulatives" seems to cover a broad range of teaching methods from the logical hands-on to the down right silly.

Another is fractals -Benoit Mandelbrot, a mathematician at IBM, is an expert in processes with unusual statistical properties, such as those in which a random variable's average or its variance is infinite. His early work in the 1950's and 1960's suggested that the variations in stock market prices, the probabilities of words in English, and the fluctuations in turbulent fluids, might be modeled by such strange processes. Later he came to study the geometric features of these processes and realized that one unifying aspect was their self-similarity. In the mid-1970s he coined the word "fractal" as a label for the underlying objects, since they had fractional dimensions. Fractals are shapes or behaviors that have similar properties at all levels of magnification or across all times. Just as the sphere is a concept that unites raindrops, basketballs, and Mars, so fractals are a concept that unites clouds, coastlines, plants, and chaotic attractors. .

Well, I've yet to see somebody mathematically predict, with consistent accuracy, the movement of the stock market. :^) That said, this is application, not fundamental math IMHO. And, its much higher level than the 6th grade class that you teach.

The field of statistics has also changed - box-and-whisker plots, stem and leaf plots, scatter plots, etc. Math is not static.

I'll concede that these are also progressions to math. But none of this changes the fundamentals of math - addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, fractions, algebra, trig, and basic calculus. The basics must be understood before one delves into higher orders of math.

You can't calculate the volume of a sphere if you can't perform the basics. And the best way to learn the basics is through progressively drilling, applying, and building upon previously learned material. Yes, that includes 'problem solving', but your definition of problem solving and mine are completely different.

I donot support any teachers union, or any union for that matter. I live in a right to work state, and think it is ridiculus to have to belong to a union to get a job. I am also very conservative. I have seen good and bad in homeschooling ( from a good excuse to spend the day at the mall to parents who are knowledgable themselves and want their children in a safe, Christian environment to learn their values). I have seen good and bad in the classroom - teachers who don't know the content they are trying to teach, or who do have an agenda. I want kids to learn MATH, to learn PROBLEM SOLVING, to learn how to REASON & THINK. Saxon can work for some kids, but I would NEVER use it myself. Doing only a few problems per lesson on the subject being taught, with the rest review, is often not enough to learn the new material. Homeschoolers can spend all day on adding if they desire or need to. In the classroom, students have less than a hour per day.

Saying Saxon is the most successful curriculum to come along in decades in your opinion. I have seen no research to support that - and often research can be manipulated to show what the researcher wants shown. I am not attacking Saxon - as I said, it works for some. It is just not manna from heaven, which some Saxon users seem to infer.

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