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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm no expert on the subject (my kids are not yet school-age), but the first thing I said when I saw my niece's homework was that it was done by and for people who don't like math.  As someone who liked math in school (ended up with an engineering degree), that made me sad. [/quote]

You could start by looking at the Common Core standards for math, here:

http://www.corestandards.org/Math/

Do you see anything you disagree with? For example, here is a fourth-grade standard:

CCSS.Math.Content.4.OA.A.1
Interpret a multiplication equation as a comparison, e.g., interpret 35 = 5 × 7 as a statement that 35 is 5 times as many as 7 and 7 times as many as 5. Represent verbal statements of multiplicative comparisons as multiplication equations.

Is there something bad about this?

[/quote]

Honestly, that sounds torturous.  I'd want kids to quickly know what 7x5 is, what 35/5 is, to recognize that multiplying a number by 5 always ends with a 0 or a 5.  I'd want them to enjoy playing with numbers and number facts, not have to write out long explanations about how they got there.  I think current math education puts the cart before the horse - prioritizing the ability to use words to explain numbers over the idea of making numbers and number play (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) second nature and instantly accessible.  
[/quote]

CCSS.Math.Content.4.OA.A.1 says that a fourth-grader should know that 35 is 5 times as many as 7 and that if you get a story problem asking how many miles Alfred walked altogether if he walked five miles a day for 7 miles a day, you solve the problem by writing 5 x 7 = 35. You don't want your fourth-grader to know these things? What part of this is using words to explain numbers?

Keeping in mind that this is only one of many math standards, and that one of the math standards for third graders are:

CCSS.Math.Content.3.OA.C.7
Fluently multiply and divide within 100, using strategies such as the relationship between multiplication and division (e.g., knowing that 8 × 5 = 40, one knows 40 ÷ 5 = 8) or properties of operations. By the end of Grade 3, know from memory all products of two one-digit numbers.

So in fact your fourth-grader would already have learned to quickly know what 7x5 is and what 35/5 is, the year before, just as you'd like.

Please do take a careful look at the actual Common Core math standards. Not the various curricula, not the many and varied complaints, not the stuff that people have written about them who have never looked at them. The actual Common Core math standards.[/quote]

So you are suggesting that with the same amount of time and resources in schools, Johnny will not only be able to quickly recite his multiplication facts (as before) but will also know how to represent verbal statements of multiplicative comparisons as multiplication equations? Oh and he'll learn to solve said multiplication problem in 5 different ways in order to demonstrate his now superior mathematical reasoning, correct?

Good luck with that. [/quote]

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