(01-16-2015, 09:07 PM)Naunet Wrote:Right, but what I'm mostly focusing on is those who have struggled this whole time even with good teachers and guides and who still don't get it. Yet that's what the school dictates they be taught, so it's what they're taught. It's now the implemented norm and is imposed upon everyone.(01-16-2015, 08:47 PM)Lilithium Wrote: I do the same thing. The written down part is what confuses some people because it's taking something that normally calculates itself in your head almost automatically and trying to map it out step by step. When I helped my fifteen year old sister with her schooling? It was a nightmare.
It's self-awareness. The idea is that once kids make the connection (and the writing down part may be necessary for a lot of kids to get it - just not all, which is where the alternative teaching strategies and having a diversified approach comes in), they will be better equipped to confidently apply the theory to much more complex problems. If they don't understand the methods thoroughly, there's a high likelihood that they will misapply methods to problems where it isn't appropriate (this is something that actually happens). It's absolutely sound.
I'm not arguing it's not beneficial. I'm arguing that it's pretty shitty to force teachers to teach a certain way when as long as students find the best ways to come to the right answers at the end, should it even matter the method? You're there to learn how to solve problems, so why restrict their abilities to thrive by strong arming them into a single method that many still don't get?
I get the basic reasoning behind it. But after helping kids do some of these problems, I can see why so many are frustrated and talking with people who teach it hasn't helped my feelings on it.