A bunch of people who think teaching math concepts to young kids is the same as solving a math problem when you are an adult...
If you look at the data, math scores have soared where Common Core strategies have been used, because the techniques actually show the kids why 727-316=111, instead of arriving at the answer seemingly magically and just memorizing math tables. Knowing the why of solving a problem is absolutely vital to applying critical thinking to future problems. The US's emphasis on memorizing calculation tables is one of the reasons we kind of suck at math nationally. When I'm instructing my 6th graders on the concept of solar radiation, convection, and conduction, I have to first get them to visualize radiation as waves. If I just skip to "convection is the movement of air in response to differences in temperature and density", they're not going to learn anything, and they're definitely not going to be able to apply the concepts to other ideas.
It's rather disingenuous to claim that the strategy used by a young kid when first learning to grasp subtraction will be used in its entirety ten, fifteen, twenty years later in that kid's life. This is an instruction tool, not an ultimate way to do things. As a teacher myself, I see the massive inherent value in these strategies.
If you look at the data, math scores have soared where Common Core strategies have been used, because the techniques actually show the kids why 727-316=111, instead of arriving at the answer seemingly magically and just memorizing math tables. Knowing the why of solving a problem is absolutely vital to applying critical thinking to future problems. The US's emphasis on memorizing calculation tables is one of the reasons we kind of suck at math nationally. When I'm instructing my 6th graders on the concept of solar radiation, convection, and conduction, I have to first get them to visualize radiation as waves. If I just skip to "convection is the movement of air in response to differences in temperature and density", they're not going to learn anything, and they're definitely not going to be able to apply the concepts to other ideas.
It's rather disingenuous to claim that the strategy used by a young kid when first learning to grasp subtraction will be used in its entirety ten, fifteen, twenty years later in that kid's life. This is an instruction tool, not an ultimate way to do things. As a teacher myself, I see the massive inherent value in these strategies.
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