You won't believe this. No really.

An unsuspecting reader of the Columbia Tribune sent in this question to the paper's education expert:

Q: I have a 5-year-old daughter, and I keep hearing about the way math is taught now. I am afraid I will not understand it.

Why is this stirring so much controversy?

The answer is so over the top I'm still not completely sure it's not a parody. (Beware extreme educrat opinions expressed as fact. You've been warned):

A: Change in education is hard. But if business resisted change like education does, we would do accounting like Henry Ford: This bag of money is what came in. This other bag of money is what goes out.

So why is change so hard in education? Change is uncomfortable. Change causes us to feel unsettled. But often change is worth it.

The math we call "investigations" helps young children and older students have a better understanding of math. Isn’t that what should happen?

The mystery is being taken out of math. Is that bad? I think not.

Young children are manipulating objects to help them understand that 2+2=4. They do not memorize, but they actually understand the problem.

Then, as children get older, they learn several different methods of doing long division. These are not the same as the one most of us used, but you can more easily understand how to arrive at the answer.

Math is more than just getting the right answer, just as reading is more than saying the correct words. Understanding has to be a component of both math and reading.

When reading instruction became more meaning-centered in kindergarten and first grade, parents and others feared phonics was being neglected. Phonics was still being taught, but comprehension was no longer ignored in the primary grades.

Change in any subject area is not easy for parents. When parents learn one way and their children learn another, confusion is likely.

Parents must be given the opportunity to learn the new concept through parent meetings, observing in their children’s classroom or through written information. But parents need to have an open mind and give the new method a try. They need to refrain from thinking that the way they learned is the only way.

Research is done in education just as it is in medicine. Would parents want their children to have only the medical care they had available when they were children? Certainly not.

So why do parents fear and dislike change in education?

When your daughter enters kindergarten, ask questions about math. Go observe your daughter’s classroom. Tell her teacher you are interested in how math is taught. Then do that every year. This might make a great difference in the understanding of the changes in math.

Parents should have a handbook available to them at each grade level so they can help their children with math homework. To keep costs down, parents who want the book could pay the amount that the printing costs the school for each book.

Parents need to be positive about how their children are learning math. Parents should not dig in their heels and say, "This method is no good because it is not the way I learned math."

An open mind, reading about math and listening to the explanation about the way it is taught can do wonders for parents.

Sweet Fancy Moses.