This could help parents of grade school children understand a little better why math teaching might be confusing to them. I think this makes good sense because it is getting at the underlying principles of math and not just teaching a rote method for getting an answer. If you want fast answers, use a calculator. To me this is the whole issue of the debate about Common Core curricula. We need to understand that the Common Core is really about this–teaching our children to think and understand the principles of what they are learning. The reason people are up in arms about this I suspect is that they are confounding the emphasis on standardized testing and accountability with the Common Core curriculum designs. Testing and accountability came in with No Child Left Behind and Arnie Duncans insanities. We cannot resolve our educational short fall by testing our kids to death or putting our teachers in untenable positions to justify their pay. However, if we will just bear with the pain of the changes that are required to implement the Common Core properly including providing teachers with the support and training they need, it could actually have a positive effect. Of course, I suspect that the last thing that our right wing conservative Tea Party faithful (from whose midst the largest outcry about Common Core has arisen) would like to see is a thoughtful, questioning, and reasoning public that might demand more just, responsible and consistent governance from their politicians. Its easier to control the masses when they just mouth the rote patriotic nonsense that they have been taught in classes that have been engineered to avoid any of the uncomfortable misdeeds our country has been responsible for over its existence.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 15:58:37 +0000
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