Reply to Arghh MCPS Math!

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

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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In my experience, mathematicians/statisticians are particularly unqualified to talk methods for teaching math. By and large, they are intuitive learners of math and therefore have no experience with the problems that non-intuitive math learners encounter.

Have you read this article, which is specifically about the teaching of math?

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/magazine/why-do-americans-stink-at-math.html?_r=0

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