Reply to Arghh MCPS Math!

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
First, MCPS teaching methods in elementary school is are ridiculous -[b] it's the mile-wide, inch-deep curriculum[/b] which really doesn't help the children retain much.

Second, the math curriculum progressed extremely slowly in early elementary but speeds up later.

Third, teach your child the important stuff at home. It's the only way without paying for private. Some teachers don't like this, but... it's not their kid.
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This is totally the opposite of what I have read on previous posts in the MD school forum, prior to 2.0.  People were complaining that the math curriculum pre 2.0 was a mile wide and an inch deep.  2.0 math is supposed to be the opposite -- a mile deep and an inch wide,  particularly for the early years.[/quote]

I'm not comparing it to pre-2.0, which we did not experience, but to schools in Europe and Asia, where DH and I come from. Math here is a joke, and so is pretty much everything at the primary level. Not surprising, given the US academic ranking.
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Yes, but most parents here don't force their ES kids to go to afterschool tutoring everyday for several hours, or to Saturday schools, like they do in a lot of the Asian countries

And most of the Asian countries teach math by rote.  In the long term, that's not the best way to learn math.  [/quote]

Point taken, PP, but Europeans don't do after-school prep schools and they're still better than the US. That's because rote learning at the elementary school level is the BEST way to teach math to young kids, actually, when used as the primary tool alongside more creative methods. Here it's the reverse, creative methods are used primarily and rote takes a back seat. My husband is a mathematician/statistician and has seen how in young children mathematical understanding develops concomitantly and even after the memorization of math techniques. It may seem counter-intuitive to you - however it works. First teach a reliable method (instead of counting pasta like in MCPS), then the child will gradually understand why they're using it. 
And all this "explain your answer in words" thing is a huge waste of time in the lower grades, because most kids' brains aren't developed enough to verbalize their mathematical thought process. It's akin to that effort on learning to read in K - not developmentally appropriate for the majority of children. 
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This argument gets played out a lot on this forum.  Most European countries are much more homogeneous than the US, and they have *much* better social welfare programs than the US, which plays a lot into how well kids do in school.

Let's take like for like as much as possible, then compare.  I'm not saying the US is great at teaching math, but the old rote way wasn't that great either here, based on that NYT article about how American *adults* are terrible at math compared to other industrialized, and some not so industrialized countries.  We have an education problem in this country, well before 2.0, or common core.

The UK, for example, also did better than the US, but still didn't crack the top 20. They are probably the most like the US in their culture and diversity compared to other European countries.  But, they also have better social welfare programs than we do.  
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