Common Core Addition - Video - * Warning Nauseating *

a reply to: OrphanApology
Now he's in the 4th, poor guy comes from a really bad family situation. I was hoping he would keep that spark and use it as a way to make a better life for himself in the future. He still wants to go to Clemson, he talks about that with a little spark still. But it's easy for kids on both ends of the learning spectrum to get completely bummed about their education.

There has to be a better way.

a reply to: Wetpaint72

Does he have a computer?

a reply to: OrphanApology
Sporadically, but they do have them at school.

You know not many kids know what college they want to go to in the 4 th grade. I just try to encourage and support him the best I can, it's hard to do because I live 12 hours away.

The other thing I wonder about is if kids that learn only common core methods like these will wind up horribly confused later on when they reach higher math. I can guarantee that no algebra, geometry or calc teacher will be messing around with charts and boxes like this to do addition while up at the whiteboard. At some point they will have to relearn these skills with old school methods in order to keep up - so then what is the point of it?

a reply to: Wetpaint72

Well one thing you might let him know about if he is at a level of math where he could begin teaching himself is about the "College Level Examination Program".

It's basically a program where students can "test" out of courses receiving college credit for them at many universities.

In fact, in theory a student could "CLEP" out of around 60 credits(half a degree) by the time they had even graduated.

Ask him if he is interested and then buy him a legitimate math book that starts with addition and moves into basic algebra(with the key).

That way he can teach himself if he so chooses and just sidestep this nonsense altogether.

CLEP testing has no minimum age limit, although if he 9 or 10 it is unlikely he would be able to self-teach himself to that level for a couple years.

clep.collegeboard.org...

a reply to: Lysergic

In some states, that system is tested on the home schooled children. Of course, the parents of home chooled children don't know that 'system' and the kids can be failed......

a reply to: Lysergic

There is nothing in the Constitution regarding controlling education or remotely related to federal control or influence of local education.

The FEDS NEED TO STAY THE F OUT OF THE CLASSROOMS.

They have done nothing during the last 20 years except F up our kids.

a reply to: OrphanApology
Thank you! I'm making a visit in about 10 days, I'll try to pull him aside and show him this!

a reply to: bbracken677
I want to agree with you, but I'm always brought back to the fact that the educational funding is based on property taxes. Then you have states like Mississippi that are consistently last in education. There has to be some level of standards nationwide, or it may turn to a faster race to the bottom than it already is. I'm not advocating that common core, or no child left behind are the answers. But there have to be standards.

a reply to: Wetpaint72

Also there is a math book I really like a lot and you can probably find an older edition on ebay but just type in "Lial Intermediate Algebra"

It starts at addition. If that one is too rigorous there is also an elementary version but honestly I've never used it.

One day you might just take him to a half priced books and let him look through some of the old math textbooks to find one that makes logical sense to him.

Everyone is different.

I liked the lial though.

My children are in a common core school. I struggle to help with math.... But if a child learns better this way, then great! However, my kids' teachers don't like it either and have expressed that their hands are tied.

It makes me want to pull my hair out.

a reply to: chelsdh

Do they force them to do it this way on the tests or can you teach them the other way at home as long as they get the right answer?

a reply to: Lysergic

It is odd. It is slower. It is different. My daughter's school was starting this in middle school. I couldn't understand it. I hired a 'mother's helper' at great expense to handle homework.

However, I always hated 'showing my work'. Why? The old way is faster. The concepts were missing, though. When I got to university, I wasn't prepared for the math. I have a 160 IQ and I started university in what was to be the second half of my senior year in high school.

To get through Algebra and Algebra intro to Trig, I spent 20 hours a week in a math lab with a foreign student. This is where 'showing your work' and knowing the concepts is VERY important and required.

I don't say I can agree with every part of common core, but there is a reason for this.

source

Could someone explain the point of the first step? She moves 10 to the ones column, but then moves it right back. I don't like this type of math, but I do understand it. I have to wonder if that first step wasn't done just to exaggerate the process. By the way, I have a child in 2nd grade so I have seen some of this, but not pointless steps like in the video.

a reply to: reldra

With a 160 IQ you should have been in pre-algebra, algebra, trig, and even calculus in your junior high and high school, and they should have taught you to write out the steps then. If they didn't, you received a crappy education.

I was taking calculus in my senior year of high school, and we wrote out all the steps and showed our work. But the whole concept of showing the steps didn't start until we started with things like long division and multiplication beyond our times tables.

We didn't start using x and y until pre-algebra and that's when we learned about equations and the related concepts. That was seventh grade.

I hated math as a kid. Still do, but now I know I have dyscalculia, the number version of dyslexia and I can work around it to some extent. I could have never learned math this way. I would have struggled with this method extensively due for the same reason long division was my own personal hell. Too many steps.

I bet They make these kids show their work. If the kid can figure out the correct answer a different way, but have to go back and do all the steps for this method, so they can show their work, they risk getting confused and lost in the steps. That is what happened to me. I was taught that even if I got the right answer if I didn't do it by the method I was supposed too, it was wrong. This is horrible.

If a teacher stands up against it, like my husband did, they lose their job. My husband who is a teacher but currently not working as one because he opposes common core after being forced to teach it, says it now takes 2 years to teach a concept that could previously be done in one quarter or semester at most.

My husband lost his job as a teacher because dared ask his students the question, "Why, does it work?" instead of telling them "This is how it works, don't question it, just memorize it." This was at a charter school. Be very wary, just because it's a charter school, doesn't mean that they are using a different curriculum than the public schools.

As for the children of the elite... Before I met my husband, he had the opportunity to be a temporary substitute for a couple months at a top private school. I think the best way to describe what he has told me is to explain that we have a very clear educational caste system. Don't think for one moment that the middle class kids are getting anywhere close to the same quality of education.

That method is ridiculous, but it is also the first time I have seen it in regards to common core.

Of course all of us that were taught one way are going to think the new way our kids will be learning will look strange and wrong, because we didn't learn it.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: reldra

With a 160 IQ you should have been in pre-algebra, algebra, trig, and even calculus in your junior high and high school, and they should have taught you to write out the steps then. If they didn't, you received a crappy education.

I was taking calculus in my senior year of high school, and we wrote out all the steps and showed our work. But the whole concept of showing the steps didn't start until we started with things like long division and multiplication beyond our times tables.

We didn't start using x and y until pre-algebra and that's when we learned about equations and the related concepts. That was seventh grade.

I did take algebra and geometry in high school. Math is not my strong suit, IQ isn't everything. All regents exams, AP English and Biology. I went to a high school in a wealthy neighborhood, but that jump from high school to university was big. It had a pretty good gap in preparation for college.

a reply to: Sremmos80

That's the new way. I've seen it percolating around. This is common core math now.

a reply to: Wetpaint72

I hear ya. But I dont think our bloated, stinking, corrupt, bureaucratic federal govt is the answer.

At least if you back up 50 years you have states that excelled at education along with those (such as MS) who failed.

Now we are at one giant fail. I am not a big fan of standardization even in the corporate world. You wind up with institutionalized mediocrity. Creativity dies. There are no zones of wildly creative and successful methods other can implement. Instead you have this insane crap.

Look at the charts regarding how the US stands in relation to the rest of the world on education going back 40 years or whatever. Compare it directly with federal interference with local schooling over the last 40 years or so..... see any trends and silly happenstances there?

I have no problem with the feds stepping in, perhaps, to correct individual instances of fail. I do have an issue with the feds dictating stupid crap for everyone.

Why, oh why have SAT scores fallen steadily since the .. what...early 70s?

Gee, I wonder.