Quote:
Originally Posted by Clodfobble
That's crap. Basic arithmetic should be "word for word what to think."
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oh no. Basic arithmetic is about understanding numbers. About understanding how they relate to real life concepts. Learning sums and procedures by rote fucks kids up. really. I spent this morning teaching subtraction to 5th graders. Yes, subtraction. yes 5th graders. 10-year-olds. Are they stupid ? No. Has "the system" let them down? yes.
Ours is and "alternative" (public) school. We concentrate on teaching the kids how to learn. How to work out stuff for themselves. We often end up being the last resort for kids who are floundering in "the system" for no discernable, diagnosable reason. These kids had (mostly) transferred to us this year from other public schools in the district.
It turned out the problem went back as far as addition. They knew about carrying the 1 when adding 23 and 48 together. But they had no idea why they were doing it, and so couldn't extrapolate to larger numbers or to sums with more than two numbers. And had even less idea what it represented in the real world when they did it in reverse for subtraction. But they gotmany of the answers right on paper, although they couldn't explain why they did what they did, and couldn't find their own mistakes in the ones they got wrong.
We got out the unit and 10 and 100 blocks and had them physically add numbers together and "trade up" 10 smaller ones for a bigger unit. Then we worked it in reverse. We could see the lightbulbs going on as they gradually got it. it was a great teaching experience, but frightening that these kids would have gone on to get OK test scores without getting a good grip on what they are actually supposed to be learning.
Oh, and the school disctict they are in is supposed to be a very good one. It's desirability triples house prices compared to neighboring cities. And it's test scores are awesome. but I'm telling you, those kids knew bugger all about basic arithmetic.