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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]“Math is a disaster in schools” say the people who think worksheets over summer = learning [/quote]

Well, I think math is not well-taught in US schools and as I mentioned above focus on applied math problems in real life--not worksheets.  Actually math is taught poorly in US in part because of an over-reliance on related problem type worksheets--at least in the elementary grades.  [/quote]

Disagree.  There are bad math teachers and good math teachers and plenty of ordinary math teachers, at least in the elementary grades.  Math is not a disaster in US schools.  [/quote]

Of course there is a range of quality of math teachers.  But compared to other similar countries, elementary school math education is weak--students begin with math skills higher or at the same level as many other similarly industrialized countries and gradually fall further and further behind.   In the US is a)worksheet heavy, b) heavy on repetition of simple problems, c) low on conceptual thinking,problem-solving and problems that are solved by combining varied methods.   There are new curricula that try to address this but it falls against the grain of many parents' ideas on "good math teaching," many teachers' own experience of math education, and prior practice in schools that are resistant to what they see as fads.  Also, elementary education majors are required to take very little math compared to other countries and thus are comparatively weak in their understanding that would help them be more responsive and coach intelligently in the open-ended problem solving approaches, so these new curricula are often far less effective than they are under more ideal conditions. So many schools resort back to the traditional style worksheets which are also ineffective.  Math anxiety is common among generalist elementary math educators and their math SAT scores are one of the lowest among the majors. There are schools and teachers of course that are exceptions--many in this location. But on average the state of US K-12 math education is comparatively weak and if parents care about math understanding, summer is a great time to intelligently enrich  (not through worksheets--but pointed at meaningful gaps of learning to combine different problem types and apply mathematical knowledge in new contexts).

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