love the school - except the Everyday Math

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I found a school that I love except for the fact they use Everyday math. The school only goes up to 3rd. Would you tolerate EM since it's just for the early years? I'm looking for a reason to downplay this problem since I thought the school was great in all other respects. Am I fooling myself?

You could have had that in public school, op. My guess is the curriculum is the same.

I'll never forget how angry a friend was when she found out that Burgundy Farms uses the same exact curriculum for math and several other subjects as did the Alexandria City Schools she was fleeing.

For chrissakes, do you have to turn every thread into a vehicle for you to argue that public schools are equivalent to private schools?!? If you want to have that discussion (again!), then please start your own thread.

Not that poster - but this seems like an overreaction or a misreading. It could easily be a private school parent arguing private schools are better because most of them DON'T offer EDM....

[Anonymous]

According to a friend who is a professor of math education, and who has a top-notch Ph.D. in the field, Everyday Math is a good program if the teachers are fully trained in how to use it. So when you're looking at schools, you might want to ask about the extent to which faculty are actually trained to use the curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:According to a friend who is a professor of math education, and who has a top-notch Ph.D. in the field, Everyday Math is a good program if the teachers are fully trained in how to use it. So when you're looking at schools, you might want to ask about the extent to which faculty are actually trained to use the curriculum.

FWIW, I have two close relatives who are math teachers (middle school and high school), with 50+ years of collective experience teaching math, and they also think EDM is a good program, if teachers know how to use it. They both say the problems arise when older teachers who learned more traditional approaches to math have trouble incorporating and explaining the progressive EDM-style approaches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:According to a friend who is a professor of math education, and who has a top-notch Ph.D. in the field, Everyday Math is a good program if the teachers are fully trained in how to use it. So when you're looking at schools, you might want to ask about the extent to which faculty are actually trained to use the curriculum.

FWIW, I have two close relatives who are math teachers (middle school and high school), with 50+ years of collective experience teaching math, and they also think EDM is a good program, if teachers know how to use it. They both say the problems arise when older teachers who learned more traditional approaches to math have trouble incorporating and explaining the progressive EDM-style approaches.

This is interesting, because that's what I read initially, as well. And I do know that our teachers have received, and continue to receive, extensive training. But I've since read that it has gotten a lot of criticism from many math "experts." Since I'm nowhere near a math expert, I have no idea what to believe.

[Anonymous]

OP, I had the same initial concerns, but have found that the objections to EM are really overblown. My child has had it since K (now in 3rd) and loves it. One thing I've found is that it depends a lot on the learning style of the child. I wouldn't have liked it, as I'm a very literal, A to B person, but my child -- who is far more creative than I am in many aspects -- is, as noted, thriving on it. And in the end, we can both add, subtract, multiply and divide.

[Anonymous]

I loathe EDM. It's just ridiculous. My child had an assignment where they had to use their thumb lengths to take measurements, and then count how many "thumb-length" unit measurements there were in the measured object. Our au pair was incredulous---"You measure things this way in America?"

There was a problem with using an actual ruler???!!!

[Anonymous]

Op here. Thank you all for your input. It sounds like my concerns may be overblown. I'm actually pretty surprised that there hasn't been a single vehemently anti-EM response. I'll ask about teacher training, whether the school mixes in other approaches, and will keep in mind the potential need to supplement some drill type work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I loathe EDM. It's just ridiculous. My child had an assignment where they had to use their thumb lengths to take measurements, and then count how many "thumb-length" unit measurements there were in the measured object. Our au pair was incredulous---"You measure things this way in America?"

There was a problem with using an actual ruler???!!!

This type of math exercise is found in most math curricula; it's not specific to EDM at all. Pretty good guess that any elementary math program you looked at would have something similar. 12 inches as a foot, is after all, a pretty random unit of measure. (yeah yeah yeah, we've all heard the history behind it.) There are all sorts of concepts that can be learned through the measuring with a thumb exercise, including the problems with non-standardized units of measure, but I wont bother delivering that math lecture when I have to go deal with a turkey that is 16 and 2/3 pounds. Pounds? What the h*** are pounds? OMG- we measure this way in America.

[Anonymous]

Our school just stopped using it and the change was overdue.
So happy that we never have to see that garbage again.
BTW, OP I once spoke to a textbook salesman who used to sell that curriculum. He said that the publishers know that it stinks, and the are 'strategizing' behind the scenes to get rid of it, but in the meantime, it is still pushed on school systems. They like to go to the systems in the South and tell them that it is used in the North. Meanwhile many mid-Atlantic states are running fast away from it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our school just stopped using it and the change was overdue.
So happy that we never have to see that garbage again.
BTW, OP I once spoke to a textbook salesman who used to sell that curriculum. He said that the publishers know that it stinks, and the are 'strategizing' behind the scenes to get rid of it, but in the meantime, it is still pushed on school systems. They like to go to the systems in the South and tell them that it is used in the North. Meanwhile many mid-Atlantic states are running fast away from it.

I myself put more stock in the opinion of a Ph.D. in math education than of a textbook sales rep who used to sell EDM but now presumably sells a different curriculum.

[Anonymous]

OP, if people like a school they will rationalize away all of the problems.
In your case, do you think that you would be able to rationalize away an inferior curriculum? If not, then don't do it. Perhaps you could do it and add on Kumon?

[Anonymous]

OP, there are many threads with detailed, credible, concerns about edm.

[Anonymous]

i have like EDM, though for a poor reader it's very word heavy, and I can see how some kids would get impatient with the spiraling design and want to move faster. Overall, after looking at a few alternatives, I don't see why the complaining. I would like it if all our teachers had more extensive training in it (and as an aside, that all early ed teachers had more higher math training generally). I'm not more pleased with the others I have seen (saxon, singapore, a few others...)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I found a school that I love except for the fact they use Everyday math. The school only goes up to 3rd. Would you tolerate EM since it's just for the early years? I'm looking for a reason to downplay this problem since I thought the school was great in all other respects. Am I fooling myself?

You could have had that in public school, op. My guess is the curriculum is the same.

I'll never forget how angry a friend was when she found out that Burgundy Farms uses the same exact curriculum for math and several other subjects as did the Alexandria City Schools she was fleeing.

For chrissakes, do you have to turn every thread into a vehicle for you to argue that public schools are equivalent to private schools?!? If you want to have that discussion (again!), then please start your own thread.

I'm sorry you're underwhelmed by Burgundy Farms, but you really don't need to take your frustration out on me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I loathe EDM. It's just ridiculous. My child had an assignment where they had to use their thumb lengths to take measurements, and then count how many "thumb-length" unit measurements there were in the measured object. Our au pair was incredulous---"You measure things this way in America?"

There was a problem with using an actual ruler???!!!

Seriously, you give weight to what your au pair, who is working in child care, says?