Best response yet :) Finaly spoke with the teacher: Bobby is wrong. The "value" of the 5 is 500. They are learning number placement right now: 582 = 500 + 8

Best response yet :) Finaly spoke with the teacher: Bobby is wrong. The "value" of the 5 is 500. They are learning number placement right now: 582 = 500 + 80 + 2 So the thing she is supposed to say is that the 5 is in the hundreds place, so it should be equal to 500. I loathe that they assign the word "value" when the concept is contextual. The value of 5 is axiomatic, as is the value 582. When I explained this, the teacher's only response was to argue that this standard is almost verbatim outlined by the school district. <s> It must be right then! </s> This teaching risks proving that 5=500. Markmcc has an excellent counterpoint to my frustration, and I plan to use it to explain the objective of the question to my daughter.