Reply to Math -- Not allowed to carry numbers in 2nd grade

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I teach middle school math.  It's obvious which kids learned the actual mathematical concepts and which kids just memorized algorithms and don't actually have any true understanding of what they're doing.  The number of kids who can't do mental math is astounding to me.

People who don't understand math or how to teach it don't realize that all the algorithms you learned growing up are just shortcuts and do not teach any actual concept.  It is the reason kids struggle as they move up to higher level math and cannot apply old concepts to new material.

[/quote]

Yep, my kid is in 2nd grade and I don't understand his math at all.  I was worried about it at first but his teacher (who has  Ph.D in education and specializes in math) explained that teaching the concepts helps them become good mathematics thinkers, which is the goal in the age where computers will be doing the basic math anyway.  Her explanation made a lot of sense to me.  There is no point in learning math the way that I did because no one needs to do basic arithmetic anymore.  But there is a point to learning mathematical concepts.  I don't help my kid with math at all and he seems to do fine!  I'm going to let the teachers do the teaching here.[/quote]

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