Reply to Why is the math so terrible? Can parents do anything?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]As a parent, I struggle with the new curriculum too, because it's not how *I* learned math. I was very accelerated myself and it wasn't until far too late that I understood the real-life applications for the algorithms I was learning. What is a quadratic equation really representing? What are you doing when you calculate an integral, and why would you ever need it? I appreciate that my kids are breaking down the problems into parts that I might not recognize, but that it will give them a better foundation as they advance. I see why it's not enough that my kids are getting the right answer -- which they frequently do -- they have to explain how they got there. Could CC/2.0 be rolled out better? Yes, absolutely. [/quote]

Its the requirement that the explanation be given in words and sentence form that is the problem. If the students were allowed to represent their understanding by reverse engineering the problem, showing diagrams, equations or other visual approaches that more elegantly and accurately convey understanding then that would be fantastic.

Fluency isn't about just memorizing random facts which I think many people get caught up in. Fluency is about performing more and more difficult calculations with speed so that those relationships are part of your working memory. This allows you to pull these quickly when you encounter more complex math problems. If you lack fluency, you'll struggle to keep up in more advanced classes and work based problems. [/quote]

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