January 21, 2007
Where's the Math Video
Parents who are bewildered by the kind of math their children are exposed to in school should watch this video. A parent who is also an atmospheric scientist demonstrates how multiplication and division problems are done with this new-fangled math. Incredibly confusing stuff for a kid, done to avoid standard algorithms.
This link of the video called Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth takes you to the YouTube site. The video has sparked a lively discussion at YouTube that includes a few defenders of fuzzy math.
Posted by Mathwarrior at January 21, 2007
12:15 PM | Email This
1. Thanks for the link - it was very informative.
I have noticed that some math methods my kids have used over the years has been totally different from how I learned. Because of this, though I was able to help them, I wasn't too good at helping them the way the teacher wanted....
Do the teachers do this to isolate parents from being able to assist their kids? If so, why the crocodile tears when parents "don't participate"?
3. Thanks for the link, it's now spreading widely through fellow MS conservatives, (talk about a minority) and lots of homeschool mailing lists.
The country math link is freaking hilarious.
4. M.J. always seemed pretty well grounded to me, now I know that she is. I hope she comes out against Global Warming too like other Meteorologists. When you live weather day in and day out, you quickly realize that supposedly serious climate predictions on a 20 year time scale, are about as laughable as it gets.
5. Classroom teachers don't get much say in the curriculum and textbook choice. That is one of the worst aspects of the current situation. David Klein is a U. Cal. Northidge Math Professor (not education, mathematics) who was one of the instigators of California's return to more traditional math teaching like the rest of the world (and like you remember). In his lecture this winter, sponsored by WheresTheMath.com, he noted that the strange and empty new texts and curriculum are promoted by (1)education profs on NSF grants who sell that snake oil for a living and (2)School administrators (ex-classroom teachers) who rise through the ranks by styling themselves as "innovators". Generally on the traditional side are real classroom teachers (like my kids' teachers), mathematicians, scientists, engineers, and parents. My first career was research in quantum chemistry, now I do software and applied math. My physicist wife and I are augmenting our kids schoolwork with the Singapore math texts at home.
6. Wow! Thanks for the link. It really opened my eyes to the issues.
7. The teachers do this because this is the curriculum that the teachers are FORCED to use. TERC, which is one of the math curriculums discussed in the video, is distributed by the same company that makes the WASL. The curriculum is geared around the WASL test. This is precisely what WASL protestors want the public to know.
The WASL is based on bad curriculum and has very little to do with basic skills, and WILL NOT prepare students for higher math skills needed for college or high tech jobs.