Math in Public Schools

[LadyFlynt]

For those that may be wondering what in the world the PS is doing or what all this talk about "New Math" is....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1qee-bTZI&mode=related&search=

 

[Richard King]

Thank you for posting this. I was a math teacher long ago and it brought back memories of the insanity that is public schools.
Pity the teacher a little bit.
In my district we had a Math 'consultant' who would dictate the methods to be used and as a teacher I was judged or rated based on whether I was marching in lock step. I remember once I was called to the principal's office because I used math to show the students why the Social Security system would not work forever. A parent complained and therefore I was told that I was NOt to interject political thought into my math class.
In part I guess that is why I am happier running a lawn service today instead of teaching in 'publick skoolz'...plus I make more money.

 

[toddpedlar]

Speaking as a professor of physics, this video is spot on. My students very often are HORRIBLE with math skills - and these are students who are the best of the best in terms of their mathematics preparation. The public school system has totally botched the teaching of mathematics (and writing, and reading comprehension, etc., etc.). My students very frequently have NO clue how to work with symbolic algebra, and even basic computations are impossible for them without a calculator. We could be in for a very dark time ahead, if today's math skills are any indicator.

 

[LadyFlynt]

I'm glad to be hearing from the educators on the board. I have heard so many complaints from parents that have children bringing this stuff home with them. Students that sit and draw everything out, but have no mastery of basic math and still cannot explain "why" the problems work out the way they do. Seriously wondering if this isn't part of trimming out who goes to college vs trade school...

Our teachers used to discuss Social Security (amoung other topics). It's not political, just a simple historical (and mathematical/statistical) fact; it was never meant to be permanent.

 

[Reformed Covenanter]

Thank you for posting this. I was a math teacher long ago and it brought back memories of the insanity that is public schools.
Pity the teacher a little bit.
In my district we had a Math 'consultant' who would dictate the methods to be used and as a teacher I was judged or rated based on whether I was marching in lock step. I remember once I was called to the principal's office because I used math to show the students why the Social Security system would not work forever. A parent complained and therefore I was told that I was NOt to interject political thought into my math class.
In part I guess that is why I am happier running a lawn service today instead of teaching in 'publick skoolz'...plus I make more money.

Brilliant, the Statists really don't like it when you point out that Social Security can't work; and as we see neither can state skoolz. May the Lord bless your lawn service. When I started university I had thought about school-teaching as a career, but now I would not touch it with a barge-pole.

 

[JBaldwin]

Another name for these methods? "Guess and Check" I have been homeschooling my children for over 10 years now. About 3 years ago, after watching my 9 year old struggle with the guess and check and "hop around" math programs even common place in home school curriculum, I went on a search for something better. What did I find? Singapore Math. It's the best thing I have ever come across for teaching math at the elementary school level. In 6th grade, my daughter was doing and mastering word problems using basic algebraic thinking. It's only weakness was lack of drilling on the multiplication tables which was easily supplemented.

Where did Singapore Math come from? Singapore. How does it teach math? It teaches math the way our grandparents learned it. It is logical and thorough. For my personal math story, read the February 4, 2007 at Reflections of Joy

 

[etexas]

I am thankful for my private school education. I was put through the paces....and did not always like the workload my Prep-School Masters put on me....but I am thankful now. Back then I would have probably liked this "New" system.

 

[toddpedlar]

Another name for these methods? "Guess and Check" I have been homeschooling my children for over 10 years now. About 3 years ago, after watching my 9 year old struggle with the guess and check and "hop around" math programs even common place in home school curriculum, I went on a search for something better. What did I find? Singapore Math. It's the best thing I have ever come across for teaching math at the elementary school level. In 6th grade, my daughter was doing and mastering word problems using basic algebraic thinking. It's only weakness was lack of drilling on the multiplication tables which was easily supplemented.

Where did Singapore Math come from? Singapore. How does it teach math? It teaches math the way our grandparents learned it. It is logical and thorough. For my personal math story, read the February 4, 2007 at Reflections of Joy

We've used Singapore and Horizons, both - and like them both for different reasons. We may soon be switching over to Ray's Arithmetic, though - truly old school. Either way, we're free of the frustrations of the silliness that seems to be creeping into the public school curricula.

 

[jaybird0827]

Speaking as a professor of physics, this video is spot on. My students very often are HORRIBLE with math skills - and these are students who are the best of the best in terms of their mathematics preparation. The public school system has totally botched the teaching of mathematics (and writing, and reading comprehension, etc., etc.). My students very frequently have NO clue how to work with symbolic algebra, and even basic computations are impossible for them without a calculator. We could be in for a very dark time ahead, if today's math skills are any indicator.

You hit the nail on the head, Professor! I graduated high school in one of the last classes that was on the "old math", and I'm thankful for it. In college I was taught such noble principles as "memorizing is NOT learning." I taught junior high and high school math before going into computers and watched the progressive "dumbing down" seeing it mostly in the textbooks. I got blank looks in response to "How many inches in a yard?" "How many ounces in a pound?" You had to give them time to look it up. First they had to look up where to look it up.

Don't think you're all that far off, Lady Flynt. The experts began by fixing what was not broken in the first place, and now each subsequent fix is worse than the last. I'm not into "conspiracy theories" but it's hard to avoid thinking that each fix improves the probability that people do not learn math.

 

[No Longer A Libertine]

I stank at basic algebra in high school and when I got to film school and had long since forgotten all high school had to brianwash me with I was able to teach myself trigonometry and work with lasers to construct film sets.

Booyah to self taught over state hogwash criteria!

 

[LadyFlynt]

No kidding, Travis. My own BIL who was in special ed until 8th grade (and then still in remedial classes in highschool for certain subjects) can now explain trigonometry that he learned from working in a cabinet shop.

Basic Algebra that I didn't understand in highschool, I was wizzing through in college. It's all in the teaching. They are truely making things more difficult than necessary.

 

[LadyFlynt]

When the video is over, look through the choices at the bottom...there is one called Re:Math Education:An Inconvenient Truth. The man who watched the first video times himself using all methods for the examples given in the first video. Anyone care to guess....

He also shows (disproves the teachers' manuals) what the payoff is for teaching traditional math. Guess what it affects....the payoff comes when you get to algebra and higher forms of math. DUH! And yet, traditional methods aren't "worth it, because a kid can just use a calculator". Heaven forbid a child ever has to do something without one. And I'm speaking as a mother that can grocery shop for a large family and come within a dollar of the checkout register...all in my head.


There is also a video on there called Math Education: The University View with a professor expressing their concerns and what they are experiencing with entering freshmen.

 

[jaybird0827]

There is another danger in teaching children to use calculators too early. They need to be able to estimate what the answer should be. To do that, they need the basic skills, algorithms and processes. How do they know that the calculator is right? It's probably wrong if they input the wrong number(s) or press the wrong function key!

 

[BrianLanier]

What did you think of these replies? He makes some good points, while not completely disagreeing with the orginal video.

Part 1
[video=youtube;9skRrnN2_HU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9skRrnN2_HU[/video]

and Part 2

[video=youtube;U1tPHInrEk0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1tPHInrEk0[/video]