Posted on 03/31/2008 6:59:33 AM PDT by too much time
Take a minute to think about the following: When was the last time you made a mathematical calculation in your head or by hand (yes which means not using a calculator)? Surely, some of you avoid math like the plague – especially when your teenage child comes around looking for help on their math homework – but you must admit that even in this compalculator era it comes in handy to be able to tally your bills in your head or figure out the miles per gallon you’re getting while driving along in traffic.
Surely it seems reasonable to expect that people with high school diplomas and college degrees shouldn’t be afraid of a little algebra. We all took math in school, and although most of us struggled with the subject, and many of us hated every second of it, we did it and we got by. We got by, and it has helped us in some way or another while at college, work, or home. But if you thought math was hard for you, consider how hard your kids have it.
It shouldn’t be hard to understand why most American teenagers struggle with math and other basic subjects like science and English. Schools are overcrowded and rundown, teachers are underpaid and......
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
I purchased a 1/2 gallon of milk from out corner deli yesterday. The young girl checking me out did not know the difference between a quart and a half gallon. She asked me if the milk was a quart or 1/2. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy when I pay me property tax.
That and they are taught a “canned” curriculum so they can pass a standardized test, nothing more, nothing less. Also, I never say a calculator until I was in college. We had to memorize times tables and such and certain formulas.
The same “canned” stuff is also taught in history and geography which have become more like sociology classes that hard fact based classes.
Watching my (once) “gifted in math” 8th grader cry because she did not know how to do a long division problem was discouraging. “Which number goes under the bracket? Now what? I don’t know how many times 8 goes into 64 - I really need my calculator.”
When I was in middle school and high school, the students were only allowed to use calculators, when they already knew how to the work the problems forward and backward and could recognize the correct answer when it was shown. In other words, a calculator only speeded up your process, it didn’t teach you how to do the formulas.
In my mind, this is such a common sense approach to calculator use.
I agree. I am not sure why the kids need to learn 4 different ways to solve for 4 X 7. It is going to be 28 every single time. Why not just memorize it and be done with it?
I stopped at a little antique/used-furniture store the other day and bought a small end-table for $12. The kid at the register was probably 18.
I gave him a twenty and two ones. He stared at the money, perplexed, and handed me back the two ones saying, “It’s only twelve dollars. This is a twenty.”
One basic problem is that mathematics is no longer taught as a “rational” or “logical” subject. This makes it impossible to study science properly, too.
The more I see, the more I am convinced that most math difficulties stem from a poor memorization of the 10x10 addition table. Everything builds on that. If you know that one table cold, so fast that you don’t even think before the answer just pops into your head, then you will have a much easier time learning everything else.
Nope, not going to let them. They cannot take time away from learning about the social ills of our country and what great people Stalin, MLK, and Margaret Sanger were while how inept Reagan, Bush and other stalwart patriots were. The are taught our founding fathers were wrong in what they wanted. So they have to just learn the edge of math theory.
In college physics, anything less than 12 times 12, I did in my head, if they were whole numbers. It’s pretty hard to multiply numbers with 3 decimals in your head. Beyond that I pulled out the trusty slide rule. Square roots and logarithms always required slide rule or a table.
I have to tell you, I work with numbers all day every day but it is your basic addition, subtraction, fractions and ratios, the stuff you can do in your head without even thinking about it.
My daughter however is in AP algebra in her sophomore year at HS and my eyes just glaze over when I try to remember all that stuff. The problem is I can do it in my head and it just comes to me, but when she asked me to show her how I do it I can't.
Same thing with her geometry class and proofs - "Of course the two lines are parallel and the angels are the same, what do you mean I have to prove it - it's right there, what are you blind!!" They usually have mom help them out now...
BINGO! I told my daughter, who is in third grade, that if I gave you 60 multiplication problems, up to 10x10. You should be able to answer all 60 in less than a minute. She didn't even come close the first time, so I worked on her memorization, and soon she was able to complete all 60 problems in under a minute, without even having to think about it.
The was the neccessary precursor to selling things like Global Warming.
We could not have Luddite Journalists teaching Science to the Masses until this was accomplished.
Now, sources such as NewScientist.con are able to successfully practice New Corrected Science, and none will notice.
Just about everything in daily life can be used as an educational tool. Engaging in something fun and family-oriented makes the learning process fluid...to the point where kids may not even realize they’re learning!
My six year old son recently discovered my calculator, and now that he is learning math in kindergarten, he has confiscated the calculator for himself. However, he hasn't been using it to replace his own math work, he is using it to TEACH himself math. At his age, much of what you need to learn about math comes from memorization. He is now teaching himself the basic multiplication table (10x10). I fully expect him to know it before he enters the first grade.
A good software recommendation for kids is “Logical Journey of Zoombinis”. It teaches kids algebra and set theory without them knowing it. It was recommended to me by several people. Really helped prepare my daughters for middle school. They both ended up honor students. One went liberal arts and the other math and science in college. Funny, but liberal arts students seem to get 3-4 times the amount of scholarships and grants that math and science students do.
I love to give checkout clerks the correct number of pennies. You get some of the funniest looks.
Addition, or multiplication table?
Good comment on the New Scientist mag. After getting it for years, I’ve canceled. Their physics articles are still passable, but everything else (especially their global warming articles) contain about as much science as does a People Magazine article.
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