Anne Dwyer on teaching the game without the technique

Here's a comparison to playing soccer: it's like teaching the players how to kick the ball and then having them always play games. They don't necessarily learn the proper technique. And techniques that work when you are 9 and quick, doesn't necessarily work at 15 when the game gets very physical. Meanwhile, the players who have practiced proper technique have passed you by (Kumon anyone?) and you can't catch up.

Invented multiplication algorithims that work fine in 3rd grade will hold you back when you have to add (non standard) fractions in middle school.

When I get to it, I'll post the passage in Martin Brooks' book advocating giving students wholes they must disassemble into parts.

The idea that disassembling a huge, steaming mass of undifferentiated material into component steaming parts would be a riveting activity for K-12 students is nuts.

It's beyond nuts.

It's bizarre.