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.

[...]

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?’ “

[...]

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. 

1. I say that every citizen needs to understand probability and statistics, so that they can actually understand things like gambling odds and scientific reports.  Come to think of it, they should all have a course in formal logic.  Critical thinking.  Then I think we’d see a little less dumb around these parts.

   Posted by scott on July 19, 2008 at 1911 hrs




2. A course in formal logic? So you would support removing the courses on birth control & global warming studies for it?

   I do not think your idea all that bad, but I think it has about 0% chance of implementation and in any event they should not be presented until late elementary or Jr. High at the earliest.

   Posted by Marcus Aurelius on July 19, 2008 at 1947 hrs




3. Well, you’re right about one thing--I think these subjects are best suited to high school students.  My mistake.

   As far as your snide comments about other curriculum, are there whole courses in global warming?  I was unaware.  I’m too busy worrying over abstinence-only sex “ed” courses.

   Posted by scott on July 19, 2008 at 1953 hrs




4. I was highly skeptical of this concept oriented math program so I insisted my kids work with me on flash cards at least 4 times a week.

   The program, combined with drilling basic skills has netted my daughter in the top 1% of the State for her grade and the same is true for my younger son. I would not have believed it but it is hard to argue with the result.

   Now my biggest problem with the program is people who make judgements against it without doing sufficient research.  The program has flaws but a parent can make up for them.

   A comment about the above comments. My daughter was doing Venn Diagrams in 3rd grade. Talk about formal logic. Do any of you who want to mandate formal logic know what I am talking about? If not, I am sure that Set Theory is another wasted clue.

   Posted by on July 19, 2008 at 2107 hrs




5. Before we move on to debate the merits of calculus in preschool....

   I found Owen’s assertion stunning.
   

   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.

   This is what we should be shooting for in education?

   Surely you jest. If that is the case, why bother.

   Just give every one a debit card for all financial transactions and let the Chinese and Indians figure out the rest.

   They will be glad to do it.

   You training a day trader Galt.

   Posted by on July 20, 2008 at 0207 hrs




6. At my kid’s school in Vegas, they don’t teach long division.  I’m not sure what they teach, to be honest, but i am teaching them the long division.  Along with teaching only 3-5 classes in social studies for the entire year, one wonders what is going on in the elmentary schools.  My kids are in 4th and 5th grade.

   Posted by on July 20, 2008 at 0338 hrs




7. Scott,

   Teachers have about seven hours a day to teach our children and despite objective data showing our children are not getting the best education when it comes to skills like math and hard science it seem our children are getting a heavy dose of “self-esteem” eduction and the like. Then what happens when the tests come out pointing up such problems? The education lobby fights to close eyes eliminate the tests! I think a lot of this is due to an excess of superfluous material being taught.

   John,

   Having studied and taught math & physics (and I currently develop/maintain business computer applications) I know exactly what you talk about.

   Your approach is good. We need both the theory and the rote. When I wrestled my coaches started off by drill! Then when we had the drills down then we talked about higher level concepts and how to apply the tools they drilled into us.

   If students can not add, subtract, divide, multiply, then how can they develop the higher level skills? How can they develop what we call common sense. My students did not know their tables so when their calculator gave them an answer they had no sense if the answer was correct for the problem they were attempting to solve.

   A friend of mine who went on to teach in Oman (we were colleagues at the UAE University) told me he did a dance for joy when a student noted he performed the solution steps as directed but the answer did not SEEM correct. If you can not do the basics you can not have that sense. No would the students I had been able to do that, if the calculator says this is the answer it must be!

   Posted by Marcus Aurelius on July 20, 2008 at 1023 hrs




8. our children are not getting the best education when it comes to skills like math and hard science it seem our children are getting a heavy dose of “self-esteem” eduction and the like.

   I guess it depends on what you mean by “are not getting.” Are they not being instructed in a quality way?  Or are they unprepared to learn, living in homes that do not value it, with peers who cause a culture of ignorance?  It’s easy to say that bad test scores = bad teachers or bad curriculum.  I think most of the problems in American education is the problem of the kids who walk in the door and the families and communities in which they live.  Fussing over whether they have phonics or long division is rearranging deck chairs on the titanic.

   Is valuable instruction being displaced by “feel good” curriculum?  I don’t see that at all. Do you have any data that directly show this phenomenon?  I have two kids--18 and 16--plus I have a masters in education, and I’ve been very involved in their district and their schools.  I haven’t seen it.

   With all that said, I think it would be extremely important to offer instruction in statistics and logic.  Most people have no idea what their odds are of winning a game of chance, no clue about the flaws in thinking that generally accompany such activities.  Most of them have no idea how to interpret even the most basic statistical or scientific report.  No clue what correlation means, or what an adequate sample size is--or even how sampling works in the first place.  Yet we as citizens are expected to make intelligent choices about these things every day. 

   Let me add one other thing I’d like to see changed.  I’d like also to see science taught as a methodology rather than a big pile o’ facts.  Science is a way of knowing, not a body of knowledge.

   Posted by scott on July 20, 2008 at 1108 hrs




9. Nice post scott.

   Posted by on July 20, 2008 at 1232 hrs




10. Thanks.  And since I’m on the subject, I’d like to see the DARE program banished from every public school across the country.

    Posted by scott on July 20, 2008 at 1307 hrs