Did anyone else learn "Dot Math" growing up? If not, how were you taught to add and subtract?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You learned New Math--not just your school but the whole country was doing it, but only for a very short period in the 70s.

Love this article on it:

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1529/what-exactly-was-the-new-math

That said, as a former first grade teacher, I actually am a proponent of whole math for preschoolers and early elementary students (less so for older students, but by then your child will be in school and the district will choose the teaching philosophy). The basic concept of whole math is to put math into the context of real-world situations--word problems, puzzles, real-world applications, etc. So "math" for a preschooler could be puzzles ("we have three cookies but there are only two of us! What do you think would be a fair way to divide them?") or cooking (measuring is a great way for young children to begin to grasp number theory--try to pick recipes with ingredients your child can easily measure without disasters if it spills).

I'm guessing most parents today were taught traditional math (one of two approaches to paper-based math--line up the numbers based on place value, carry the ones, etc.) with a few, like you, learning dot math and number bases. The former is still taught in some areas; the latter not at all.

Touch math aas no in the 70s. It was the mid 80s.

I learned regular math.

My younger sister learned touch math.

I was born in the early 70s. She was born in the late 70s and went to elementary in the early 80s, around 82 for second grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Born in '74 and STILL use the dot method for arithmetic. It's ludicrous, but it's the only way that I can add properly.

I'm gonna guess you are not in STEM. Born in '70, never heard of dot math. That sounds slow.

To other PP that stated 6 + 7 = 13 is memorization, at some point, it does become memorization, but in the beginning, it is not. The way I taught my kids is by using a system like an abacus (take away, add more), with fingers when they were in preK/k. I taught my DC years back, aged 9 now, that the way I do it is by going up to the nearest 0... and then add the remaining number:

6 + 7 -- > nearest 0 to 7 is 10... so to get to 10 from 7 is 3
6 -3 = 3 --- > 10 + 3 = 13

Most 1st/2nd graders can do the two steps in their heads. This method can work for 10's additions, too. Once you go beyond 10's I have to break it down furhter, or do it on paper. Single digit addition less than 10 just becomes visual I think, then eventually memorization.