The dysfunction of Common Core...

[alexpgp]

I get the distinct impression that if I were being taught math these days, I'd be doing much worse than I did back in the bad old days (reckoned as "before 'New Math'" but somewhat after 'making impressions in wax tablets').

Consider the following problem, answer, and (apparently) teacher's comment, from a post at IJReview:


Me, I can see the kid's point. On the one hand, that may be so because I never could see the point of explaining to my teacher why addition was commutative, while subtraction was not. It just seemed intuitive to me.

On the other, it may just be that—in my opinion—asking a kid to "make 10 when adding 8 + 5" is a little like asking someone to "determine how much soap to use when making potato salad." (The answer, by the way, is "enough to wash your hands thoroughly before handling food." Isn't that, like, obvious?)

But what really, really kills me is the educator's comment. Read it closely.

What's the result when you "take 2 from 5 and add it to 8"?

Dunno about you, kimosabe, but I get 11, not 10.

Why are we asking kids questions to which teachers apparently have trouble explaining the answers?

Given that the teacher's answer is—let's face it—wrong, I'd say the kid won this one.

Cheers...

P.S. It occurs to me that, if you follow the teacher's attempt to explain how to get the answer, there is an alternative answer—involving subtracting 3 from 8 and adding the result to 5—that is equally valid. Come to think of it, I can also add 8 + 5 to get 13 right off the bat and then subtract 3. Is this abundance of answers a good thing? Maybe later on, but in grade school? I think that had I been exposed to this kind of drivel, I would have very likely shoved it all to the side at the first opportunity and become a math-hater for the rest of my life.

Comments

[apollo14.livejournal.com]

It's just so wrong :(

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

I think what the teacher meant and expressed so obtusely is that you take 2 from 5 and hold that 2 in your hand (as opposed to subtracting 2 from 8) and then add that 2 to 8, making 10. The form of both the question and the answer (or comment) is highly incompetent for someone who is supposed to be teaching concepts.

Also, apparently they also badly flunk on the ability to teach penmanship, unless the kid is in second grade.

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

I frankly cannot believe what is coming out of the Common Core objective for math.

This is not the first thing I've seen where the child's answer is considered wrong... because they actually understand math.

The method the teacher explains here (apart from being wrong) is a worthless exercise in voodoo. Can you imagine, in language arts:

Spell "apple."
Answer: "apple" is spelled applicable, where you take out the letters i through the second l.

Gah.

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

Technically, your answer to the potato salad question is wrong for some families where all vegetables and fruit are washed with soap (yikes). Just shows that trick questions are wrong.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

Aside from the teacher’s own blunder, here is what my near-Dr-Seuss-era mind suggests for a legitimate grade school problem.

Give some values for x and y so that:

8+5-x-y=10

or

8+x+5+y Hint: Negative numbers are allowed here and below.

Or for more complexity:

(8+x)+(5+y)=10


And if the kid comes back with:

Set z = -3
x+y=z
What are the possible ranges of x and y such that:

(8+z)+(5+z)=10

… fire the teacher and hire the kid. Well, fire the teacher anyway. And whoever wrote that test question.

And your 'it' question could be useful if we ask:

Insert parentheses such that:

5-3+8+x = ... oh well, too many versions of that!

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

Must say I loved New Math 1962, partly because my college teacher was Margaret Rutherford playing Miss Marple. ;-)