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I have a kid going through the much criticized "common core" math as we speak and it appears to me that this is one of the problems it tries to address. Many c
by DubiousPusher 4y ago
I have a kid going through the much criticized "common core" math as we speak and it appears to me that this is one of the problems it tries to address.
Many concepts I learned as pure arithmetic are taught as visual and/or spacial concepts. Often there are multiple strategies for reaching the same answer.
This is a kind of math I first encountered while working as a contractor and later expanded upon when studying computer science. It is ubiquitous in the trades. I think parents don't like it so much because it draws upon a flexibility with math they were basically discouraged from exercising.
- winReInstall 4y agoOld school math teachers are basically drill seargants, teaching you to use a hammer for one nail type of problem, right swing technique, and never to question the other ideas concerning the hammer.
- plonk 4y agoMiddle school flashbacks. If you have a figure like this, you write this, then this, then "according to Thales' theorem", then that result. No, you didn't write "according to Thales' theorem", the result is wrong. Write it again. No, you can't write it in this equivalent way, you have to write it as taught. Write it again.
- slfnflctd 4y agoI remember one particular turning point for me, I think about in 9th grade, where I asked my math teacher to go into more detail about how the quadratic equation was discovered and what the purpose for each part was. She seemed to have no idea why anyone would want (let alone need) to know that and doubled down on the advice to "just memorize it". I went a bit further in math afterward so I could at least grasp at the essentials of calculus, but that one moment took a lot of the wind out of my sails.