Reply to Do kids need to understand "borrow and pay back" subtraction (vs regrouping)?

Forum Index » Schools and Education General Discussion

Reply to "Do kids need to understand "borrow and pay back" subtraction (vs regrouping)?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Please do not teach this nonsense of “borrowing & paying back.” What’s best for your kid is to develop a solid conceptual understanding of regrouping in a base ten system. What’s best is for your kid to be a flexible thinker and to pick which strategy is the most efficient to solve the problem in front of them.

For example: If presented with 1002-997=___, the most efficient strategy is NOT to set it up vertically and regroup. The most efficient way to solve this subtraction problem is to simply “add up.” 998-999-1000-1001-1002. The answer is 5.

[/quote]

NP. So what I end up doing for a problem like that is to say, in my head “ok 997 to 1,000 is 3 and then 1,000 to 1,002 is 2, so 3+2=5.” I don’t have a school-aged kid, so I don’t know if that’s how they’re teaching it to kids these days, but it’s definitely how I think about it. [/quote]

I just quickly recognize that they’re only a few digits apart, and subtract 7 from 12. The answer is 5. It takes two seconds. Maybe less. [/quote]

I think this thread illustrates the value of schools teaching many strategies now instead of just the “borrowing and carrying” that we learned as kids. Many of us figured out these other strategies on our own, but others did not, so I’m glad the schools teach them now.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics