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> I'm in the US, and have one child who repeatedly could not complete math work during school, and would bawl and protest how stupid they were when given math h
by koolba 5y ago
> I'm in the US, and have one child who repeatedly could not complete math work during school, and would bawl and protest how stupid they were when given math homework at home. Completing it would take hours. Far behind, they could not multiply at age 8 or do fractions at 11. Tutors couldn't cover in an hour what other students finish in 10 minutes. Yet doctors indicated there's no learning disability.
Math must be mastered in sequence. Not learned, mastered.
For example, a child must master addition before moving on to multiplication. Not just be able to do the problems. I mean be able to do them instantly without thinking. Only then can you move forward.
Otherwise the child is hung up on a part of the lesson that’s not supposed to take any time at all. And that least to frustration. Combined with the perverted modern western idea that it’s okay to not be able to learn math, it’s a vicious cycle downward.
- sethammons 5y agoThis is a solid point and I'd like to color that with my step-mom's experience tutoring an adult (lower twenties) in math. After running into frustration starting with basic algebra and working backwards through some basic arithmetic, it was realized this student lacked some very basic number sense. Step-mom took the student outside and started with counting exercises. "How many tires are on this street right now?" It started off with guessing. After some work with basic number sense and counting, they were able to puck back up, go through arithmetic, and then back to algebra relatively quickly. The student went on to pass their college algebra class.
- sharadov 5y agoI don't think anyone could have said it better. I mean other subjects you can skip topics and still be ok, but with math you are screwed.