RE: Elementary School Is Setting Students Up To Fail At Math
Thanks for taking the time to write all that. It's a great comment and I wish I could give you more than 10 cents for it. You make a very good point about it being a different way of teaching and the positive side of it. To be honest my complaint about things is more the local schools and not really common core math. Common core is here to stay and I can adjust to that. I'm getting my doctorate and hope to go back to teaching college so I'm sure I can teach myself common core rules. The shame is all those parents raised to do math differently who can't help the current generation with their homework because they can't understand the new rules.
What does bother me more are things like no textbooks. My niece really needs some kind of reference book to bring home so she can look things up. Money is tight and the local schools are always looking for ways to cut back on costs like no textbooks. The school doesn't give the kids things to bring home to their parents to keep parents informed as to what the kids are learning. I'm having to buy a math textbook because my niece doesn't have anything except her daily handouts and they don't have more than a few math examples. She's very lost and just having a textbook at home to look up definitions and a multiplication table with all the numbers would help her more than anything. She has all A's in everything else and is super smart. Just last year with the alcoholic teacher really got her lost in the one subject.
I appreciate you taking the time to read my comment. It's always good to keep a healthy discourse about these types of issues.
First of all, best wishes in graduate school. I'm in graduate school myself, so I know how challenging it can be. I'm also sure that you can conquer Common Core math, so good luck with that too. You're right. It's tough that parents aren't able to help their kids with homework, and I think that's the main source of the complaints with Common Core methods. Maybe I should produce a video series for an adult target audience about Common Core. Could be a hit... haha or maybe not.
Either way, I understand the textbook thing. Even now in graduate school, I'm glad I kept all of my textbooks from my undergraduate studies because I can reference them as I need them. Especially for things like calculus. Textbooks are another tough issue in schools. My wife tells me that the problem teachers have with textbooks is that by the time the school gets the funding approved to purchase a new set, there may be other better resources that have come out in the meantime, meaning the teachers are less likely to teach from the textbook.
However, there is an argument to be made about having reference materials available to students in tough situations like your niece. You might try asking the school librarian if something like that is available. Librarians are always extremely helpful human beings.
Best wishes moving forward. I hope she's able to recover in math. I credit my love of math as the reason I'm in graduate school now, so I wish her nothing but success moving forward.
Thanks again for your thoughtful response. I think conversations like these make me appreciate Steemit even more.