Math Wars

The Math Wars rage on.

Yes, Morey teaches her son, who’ll enter fifth grade in the fall, how to divide the old-fashioned way—you know, with descending columns of numbers, subtracting all the way down. It’s a formula that works, and she finds it quick, reliable, even soothing. So, she says, does her son.

But in his fourth-grade class, long division wasn’t on the agenda. As many parents across the country know, this and some other familiar formulas have been supplanted in an increasing number of schools by concept-based curricula aiming to teach the ideas behind mathematics rather than rote procedures.

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Morey, on the other hand, feels no guilt. She says her son was relieved to learn long division. “He wants a quick and easy way to get the right answer,” she said. “Luckily, he had a fabulous teacher who said long division wasn’t in her plan, but we were free to do what we wanted at home.”

And as for the concepts-before-procedure argument, she quipped: “Would you want to go to a doctor who’s learned about the concepts but never done the surgery? Would you want your doctor to say, ‘I had the right idea when I removed your appendix, though I took out the wrong one?’ “

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For teacher Melissa Hedges, a longtime elementary school teacher in Milwaukee, the key is to keep the lines of communication open.

“I’ll ask parents to sit down and really have their child walk through what they’re doing and why they’re doing it,” Hedges said. “Even if it’s messy. The beauty in math comes from getting involved, knowing what you’re doing and why, exploring big ideas.”

Here’s my problem with putting concepts over methodology… it is not appropriate in the elementary school classroom. 

Frankly, 90+% of the kids in elementary school will only need basic math skills for their lives.  They will need to know how to add, subtract, multiply, divide and understand fractions, percentages, and a few other things.  For most people’s lives, that’s all they need.  As such, they don’t need to understand the concepts.  They need a reliable method to balance their checkbook, calculate change, and figure out their mortgage.  A few of the kids will go on to be accountants, engineers, mathematicians, physicists, etc. and they can learn the broader concepts in High School and College. 

Elementary school should be teaching kids foundational skills for them to use throughout their lives.  Learning how to do long division will help them.  Learning 10 different methods to do it and confusing the heck out of them will not.