I was reading up on FARK.com and came across this video post on Youtube of two competing math methods in US elementary schools, being discussed and demonstrated by a meteorologist. Trevelian and I watched this and even he shook his head (4th grade) and said "what is she doing? I could have had that done by now......".
Scary stuff. Im no math wiz. In fact, im reading Algebra II for Dummies and Calculus for Dummies-partly for when he starts algebra, and partly because Im reading "The Universe in a Nutshell" by Stephen Hawking, and I thought it might be useful. I never took more than Alg I, II, and Geometry and I don't remember much of any of them.
Im not one for dissing on new ways to teach things, if they work, but watching this lady spend 5 minutes setting up a basic multiplication problem or division problem, and then solve it in some long convoluted fashion, and THEN say if I was just to write the correct answer without going through the other method that it would be 'wrong' is BS. Math is math, it is right or not. My bank doesn't care how I felt about my balance if I overspent last week and they ding me with fees-they say "X-Y=Z and z=<.01. Sucks to be you....".
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