My child has been struggling with math since last year. We’ve been working with him to understand concepts and he’s been doing extra math homework. But I’m wondering if he’s having difficulty because of the current curriculum and teaching methods.
I find myself sometimes baffled at the math material sent home from school.
Often I’ve found myself re-reading homework instructions, trying to comprehend the new methods in teaching and learning math. I mean, if I can’t understand it, how the heck is my kid going to understand it? Now I’m not saying that I’m smarter than a 5th grader but everything looks Russian to me… I’m Greek so the saying doesn’t work well here!
When we were in school, we had to memorize the timetables, formulas – I don’t remember being allowed to use a calculator. So when I started reading more about a parent-led movement to go back to the basics, I was intrigued.
Creative-math, Common Core or Discovery Math – depending on where you live – is an approach to learning where students use physical materials and actions in learning math. The idea is that having children work through math questions in detail will help them understand math better. Students are prompted to solve equations in their heads rather than memorizing or using a formula.
Have you seen something like this?
So imagine drawing pictures of 7 x 8 to show the answer rather than memorizing your timetables. Discovery learning seems to be far more time-consuming to deconstruct every problem than to use a simple algorithm to solve it.
Seems like very complicated work to get to the same answer, no?
It’s great that schools today focus on discovery learning and media literacy – but I need my kids to be taught the basics in math and spelling. Timetables, formulas, grammar – these are the foundations our kids need to move forward in learning. Kids need the foundation before they can continue to learn and thrive.
In order to write, you need to know your alphabet, read words, expand your vocabulary and master grammar. I was shocked when cursive writing is no longer taught in school too! And the basic principals of math – in order to solve math problems – the foundations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division have to be there, including memorizing timetables.
Children spend a ridiculous amount of time using strategies and drawing out how they would solve problems with pictures and x’s and charts. I don’t understand why memorizing basic principles became such a bad teaching method for kids.
This movement is growing in strength – enough that there are petitions by parents to bring back the basics in math and the pressure is working. Manitoba is the first province to revise math curriculum after pressure from parents and math professors. Students in kindergarten to Grade 8 are now taught all four standard methods for arithmetic – addition with a carry, subtraction with a borrow, long multiplication and long division.
Alberta has also caved to pressure from parents for curriculum changes – students will now have to memorize their multiplication tables. In the United States, Indiana became the first state to formally withdraw from the Common Core education standards.
What about Ontario, where I live? Ontario is reviewing its math curriculum. Although there isn’t a plan to make changes, Ontario’s Education Minister, Liz Sandals, recently said: “We expect kids to know their basic math facts,” she said. “That’s actually a great homework assignment: Learn your multiplication tables.”
Students should be able to recall basic math facts from memorization which in turn will help develop other skills like problem solving.
Last December, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development revealed that 15-year-old math students in Canada slipped out of the top 10, placing 13th out of 65 countries. What does this tell us? Math education needs a change.
This photo went viral last week on Facebook, written by a father frustrated by Common Core.
The days leading up to my son’s recent math test, we had him memorize the timetables and recite them over and over again. Repetition. Practice. Memorization.
Here are his results.
This is the first time he’s received an A in math in the last two years – cause for celebration? Or proof that we need to go back to the basics?
What do you think?
12 Comments
Such a great read! We need the basics in everything… Esp math!
BRING BACK THE 3 R’S! 🙂
I think all kids needs this, and some more than others to understand concepts.
I totally understand wanting children to understand ‘how’ they get the answers but NOT when it means making the process more complicated.
I have three degrees (I should add that NONE are math focused) and am baffled by some children’s homework (including your sons). It’s not logical.
My daughter is almost 1 and I already dread her bringing home math work if it’s going to look like that.
Oh I hope they’ll change it once your daughter goes to school!
I saw a child doing math like this on the GO train today and sat there thinking WTH. It was a simple math problem, one that when I was a kid I could have told you the answer from knowing multiplication tables ingrained into my brain from a young age. Do they seriously think these kids can start drawing every time they need to work out what stuff costs when shopping etc.
Exactly, once they have the basics down, the rest will come a little bit easier!
It just seems like the NEW math is a make work project to me…. I think it seems like a lot of work to get to answer. My kids find it confusing too…. I don’t get it. There are a number to things in schools these days that just don’t make sense to me… how is it that basic math is so bad. WE all seemed to understand the basics just fine. We use basic math systems when helping our kids do math homework and they always seem to understand it better
I totally understand your argument and have felt a need to teach my daughter to memorize math facts through additional practice at home. But I don’t think we should discount the methods used to explain the concepts. I remember doing similar types of exercises when I was in school and thinking how redundant they all seemed when I could simply use mental math. It wasn’t until I continued in high school with algebra and calculus that I understood the importance of identifying patterns, making connections, creating abstract 2D representations, etc. What we should worry about, however, is when these methods that you question are presented as the “be all and end all.” Different students learn differently and can thus solve problems in different ways. They therefore need to know that because they may have arrived at the answer differently than their peers doesn’t mean that they are doing it the wrong way. I’d like to think that we are giving students a variety of options to help solve problems and equations, and promoting a higher level of thinking.
Well that’s just it, not every child can flourish with the new methods of teaching. Sometimes the basic method is what certain kids can comprehend. I’m not discounting current teaching methods but saying that the basics should never have left the curriculum and that they should be taught together. Thanks for commenting!
Very eye opening indeed! I am not an uneducated person by any means and I had an eyebrow raised at the way they were explaining math! Oy!
Back to basics indeed!
Hey Maria – I totally agree, and if you think your son has trouble now, wait until he gets to high school. My son was a A or B grade student in math in elementary school in Ontario, and so he took academic math in high school. In both grade 9 and 10 he struggled to pass. I then asked around and found out that HALF of the class was struggling. Not only are they struggling with the math concepts but they can’t keep up with the pace. They are taught something on Monday and tested on Thursday and then they move on. Unfortunately, guidance counselors just encourage these kids to take the applied math which means they cannot go to University and this changes their whole life. I have spoken to the math teachers about this and they agree, but no one seems to be doing anything about it. They say that the grade 8 students are prepared for applied math but not academic math (unless they have a math brain).
great post. i agree with you. the methodology needs to be changed now. it should be according to the mental level of kids because we have learnt our portion of math, it’s the time for kids to do it. Cheers! 🙂