the natives are restless

How much of this has to do with that asinine Everyday Math? I'm fighting every week with the teachers to keep a calculator out of my kid's hands until she can do arithmetic on her own, something she's eminently capable of doing someday (she's six, for crying out loud). Yes, including long division (not that it's part of the curriculum -- why think for yourself when you can use the outboard brain?) and maybe some introductory algebra. These teachers, who'd stare like deer in headlights if asked to calculate the future value of anything and come out with a number, give me this endless stream of talking-point baloney from the Everyday Math "how to reassure parents who are scared because it's not like the math they remember" book. They don't understand why I'm so stuck on the idea that my daughter should be able to do her own adding, subtracting, dividing, multiplying. AAARGH.

Amy from Iowa

You can vote to "Recommend" your favorite comments on the story. Amy got my vote.

Speaking of Everyday Math, remember this?

Lebanon turns algebra into child's play

LEBANON -- Lori Haley and Mya Corbett hunch over a pile of yellow hexagons, trying to figure out how many hexagonal tables it would take to seat 25 guests.

The pair want to get the answer, but what they're really itching to do is to come up with a formula that will tell them how many people they could seat for any given number of tables.

Lori and Mya are "itching" to come up with a formula?

I just bet.

"x + i i i" ?

I just watched the video -- these children aren't making sense, right?

Or am I missing something?


update 8:11 pm

The boy in the Old Navy shirt -- he doesn't seem to know what 5 x 10 is, does he? At least, he doesn't know it fast.

Here's the dialogue:

Old Navy boy: "plus negative twenty, cause 5 x 10 = .... [trails off]

on the board:

(4 x 4) - 5 = 6 + 5

5 x 10 = 50 +

Teacher: "if you go plus negative twenty do you think you're going to be in the positives or the negatives?"

long pause as Old Navy boy looks for help on his desk

Old Navy boy: "Oh, take away."

Teacher: "Just take away? Take away 20?"

Old Navy Boy: "Yeah."

Teacher: "OK"

Teacher erases "+" sign & writes "- 20"

Old Navy Boy again consults papers on his desk

Old Navy boy: "Um, plus negative 14"

He sounds as if he's finished.

"They love playing with numbers. They love putting numbers together and taking numbers apart and they really understand how those numbers work."


Lebanon turns algebra into child's play