"Reform Math" Leaves Some Perplexed
New Curriculum Has Some Parents So Concerned, They're Taking Matters Into Their Own Hands
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'Reform Math' Not Adding Up?
About a quarter of all U.S. schools are now teaching reform math. But many parents worry it's just "fuzzy" math, and it's bringing down kids' test scores. Sharyn Alfonsi reports.
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“Everyday Mathematics,” a reform math textbook, emphasizes nontraditional math techniques such as estimating that can be used in daily life. (CBS)
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“What does estimating mean?” a teacher asks a student.
“It's something like, reasonably close,” says a student.
“Good I like the word reasonable, 'It’s reasonably close,' he said," says the teacher.
And that is good enough here in Abington, Penn., where they’re teaching “reform math.”
Instead of endless memorization and multiplication tables, in this kind of math, “reasonably close” is good enough.
“There's a time when you want to do mental arithmetic, where something works much more quickly in your head. There's a time for paper and pencil computation, and there's also a time to use a calculator,” says Amy Dillard, author of “Everyday Mathematics,” a reform math textbook.
About a quarter of the nation's schools are now teaching reform math. But some parents say it's just "fuzzy" math, and it's bringing down scores on tests mandated by the No Child Left Behind act.
Carol Rounds is trying to get her son’s school to switch to a more traditional math program.
“There are no numbers in this homework. It's just amazing — for math homework,” says Rounds.
She says her son Emerson, a second grader in New Jersey, is just not getting the basics.
She shows her son a flash card that has the problem 10 minus 7.
“How much is this one?” she asks.
“I don't know,” Emerson says.
So she has taken matters into her own hands, and is teaching him the old fashioned way.
“It's ok, how do you get there? You can use your fingers,” Rounds says.
“Do kids get bored by drilling? Yes. Do they get empowered by getting the knowledge they ultimately gain from memorization? Yes, they get empowered,” she says.
Reform math isn’t exactly new. It’s been around for about 15 years. It was inspired by a group of educators to combat slumping math scores and sleeping students. But today even some of those educators say some school districts have taken it too far.
Still, reform math supporters say their studies show that their programs help kids score higher.
“We're preparing kids now for jobs that we don't even know are going to exist, and we can't be teaching them the same mathematics that we did years and years ago, we really have to prepare them for the workforce that they'll be headed to,” says Dillard.
Both sides are trying to give kids the tools they need for the future, the two sides just can’t agree on the best way to solve the problem.
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See all 100 CommentsHow about those new smart missiles? Guaranteed to hit reasonably close to what you were aiming at!
WAKE UP!!!!!
Reasonably close would be really, really improved for our government, maybe that's why they are teaching this stuff.
Well if they're not going to exist thanks to offshoring or computer automation, isn't it not cost effective to teach it? What happened to standardization, planning for the future, and so on?
Regardless of new methods, the old methods lay down the groundwork for all math - and I'm sorry some children don't want to learn it. We'll always need people to collect the garbage... even if the kid was the world's foremost genius at it, the job would still be offshored anyway.
BTW: 10-7=3. If a kid can't understand something so blasted fundamental, there's a fundamental problem going on. And it's not about rote memorization, it's about applying a formula. Those instructional tables are useful only to a certain degree.
Posted by omega39 at 09:04 PM : May 26, 2007
I agree. I have always thought that math was an exact science. Everything from medicine to engineering require exact calculations. If this is the norm, then NASA will need to look elsewhere for scientists and engineers for future generations.
%u201CIf a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be%u201D
%u201CIf a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be%u201D
%u201CIf a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be%u201D
%u201CIf a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be%u201D
%u201CIf a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be%u201D
"Fuzzy" or "reform" math is more along the lines of math theory, and that's a good thing, but it should be taught as such, not as a replacement for basic math skills. This article doesn't explain that at all.
Answer: All that you are capable of achieving.
Mathematics is the language of science, and the one sure ticket to the future. With a sound mathematical and logical foundation, everything else (except perhaps human relationships) is learnable.
The ability to abstract, to argue correctly, and to communicate ideas is the most sought after human quality. The US (and several other Western countries) are dumbing down on mathematical training, and they will all pay the price.
Answer: All that you are capable of achieving.
Mathematics is the language of science, and the one sure ticket to the future. With a sound mathematical and logical foundation, everything else (except perhaps human relationships) is learnable.
The ability to abstract, to argue correctly, and to communicate ideas is the most sought after human quality. The US (and several other Western countries) are dumbing down on mathematical training, and they will all pay the price.
Answer: All that you are capable of achieving.
Mathematics is the language of science, and the one sure ticket to the future. With a sound mathematical and logical foundation, everything else (except perhaps human relationships) is learnable.
The ability to abstract, to argue correctly, and to communicate ideas is the most sought after human quality. The US (and several other Western countries) are dumbing down on mathematical training, and they will all pay the price.
Answer: All that you are capable of achieving.
Mathematics is the language of science, and the one sure ticket to the future. With a sound mathematical and logical foundation, everything else (except perhaps human relationships) is learnable.
The ability to abstract, to argue correctly, and to communicate ideas is the most sought after human quality. The US (and several other Western countries) are dumbing down on mathematical training, and they will all pay the price.
Answer: All that you are capable of achieving.
Mathematics is the language of science, and the one sure ticket to the future. With a sound mathematical and logical foundation, everything else (except perhaps human relationships) is learnable.
The ability to abstract, to argue correctly, and to communicate ideas is the most sought after human quality. The US (and several other Western countries) are dumbing down on mathematical training, and they will all pay the price.
Answer: All that you are capable of achieving.
Mathematics is the language of science, and the one sure ticket to the future. With a sound mathematical and logical foundation, everything else (except perhaps human relationships) is learnable.
The ability to abstract, to argue correctly, and to communicate ideas is the most sought after human quality. The US (and several other Western countries) are dumbing down on mathematical training, and they will all pay the price.
Posted by ncolsens at 10:17 AM : May 27, 2007
Not a problem... at the rate we are going, in another 30 years teachers won't be able to count that high...
Students today graduate with no appreciation for the application of math, no feeling for the numbers, and often have no interest in math or science careers because they have been forced to spend ridiculous amounts of time in rote memorization and calculation.
Should architects start building houses with half-bedrooms because average families have 2.5 kids? [since other commenters are confused between exact math and integer math as it applies to people].
Why is it that the older generation wants to be sure that current students are as badly educated as they were?
In those years countries like Singapore, Japan and certain Eastern European countries have raced to the top. So, how are these top tier countries teaching math to their students... it's NOT reform math, it's much more traditional. Who do you think is getting all the high tech jobs that require advanced math/science? It's not many Americans. How could that possibly prove that our reform math is working?
Something for the "younger" generation of educators to think about from an "older" generation parent who wants her children to have opportunities for success in a global economy.
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