I was just watching a piece on CBS Evening news. It was about elementary school children and Math being taught in "exciting new ways".
At the end of the piece the leader of this brave new "close enough" fuzzy math made the statement : "We really can't spend our time and resources teaching these kids the old way of doing math. We have to prepare them for the jobs of the future where they will need to know the new and improved math." (I'm working from memory, so it isn't exact, but close enough)
Then they said "For more on these stories go to cbsnews.com" which I did but was unable to find anything about it there. Sigh.
What about it? Is there a new way to do math that humanity has missed these past several thousand years? Is the new emphisis on just getting "close enough" with an answer what our children need to succeed in the "new jobs" of the future?
Originally posted by StarValleyWyI found an article on it: http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon_3_7_03mc.html
I was just watching a piece on CBS Evening news. It was about elementary school children and Math being taught in "exciting new ways".
At the end of the piece the leader of this brave new "close enough" fuzzy math made the statement : "We really can't spend our time and resources teaching these kids the old way of doing math. We have to prepare them ...[text shortened]... with an answer what our children need to succeed in the "new jobs" of the future?
Sounds like yet another thing created by people who never taught and foisted on students and teachers.
Originally posted by pawnhandlerThanks for that.
I found an article on it: http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon_3_7_03mc.html
Sounds like yet another thing created by people who never taught and foisted on students and teachers.
Have you had any experience with teaching? The only thing I have done is "fill in" my grandchildrens math with a bit of practical practice and teach by example. Their first four years in school were dreadfully lacking in learning basic skills.
I thought them the instinctive "Sets" idea and it helped. "How many do you have if you add two sets that have 4 rabbits in each set?" "How many ways can you break those two sets into other sets where the sets have at least two rabbits?" kind of stuff. They both are at the top of their math class at this point, but... oh what I wouldn't give to have old ChronicLeaky tutoring them! I am a programmer, but you would be surprised how little math that entails. I did teach my fifth grader grandson to count to "100" in binary, base 8 and base 16. He thought that was quite cool.
Originally posted by StarValleyWyThat solves the question who is CBS' news viewer.
I was just watching a piece on CBS Evening news. It was about elementary school children and Math being taught in "exciting new ways".
At the end of the piece the leader of this brave new "close enough" fuzzy math made the statement : "We really can't spend our time and resources teaching these kids the old way of doing math. We have to prepare them ...[text shortened]... with an answer what our children need to succeed in the "new jobs" of the future?
I heard they still had one.
Originally posted by Merk😀😵
That solves the question who is CBS' news viewer.
I heard they still had one.
What can I say? Guilty as charged. I look at it as a duty though. One must know the enemy if one is to be victorious. I also force myself to do the pablum on the national commy waves... both radio (NPR) and tv (PBS). It's a "slug-fest"... but somebody has to keep track of the slugs.
Originally posted by StarValleyWyDo you get the impression that NPR news is trying to copy BBC?
😀😵
What can I say? Guilty as charged. I look at it as a duty though. One must know the enemy if one is to be victorious. I also force myself to do the pablum on the national commy waves... both radio (NPR) and tv (PBS). It's a "slug-fest"... but somebody has to keep track of the slugs.
Originally posted by MerkIt is more than an impression. It is big time commie penis envy.
Do you get the impression that NPR news is trying to copy BBC?
They see what BBC has done for the party in europe and want it so bad they can taste it for us poor ole' backards ermericans.
They even hire people with phoney brit accents... which is really stupid. The real thing isn't that expensive
Originally posted by pawnhandlerHaving read this article it seems to me that the author is very sensibly advocating a return to the traditional 'rote' teaching of the rules of arithmetic so as to provide his pupils with a firm basis for further incursions into the realm of mathematics.
I found an article on it: http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon_3_7_03mc.html
Sounds like yet another thing created by people who never taught and foisted on students and teachers.
Originally posted by Thales2Yes. I posted this because I googled "fuzzy math" to see what it was. This seemed to provide the best explanation.
Having read this article it seems to me that the author is very sensibly advocating a return to the traditional 'rote' teaching of the rules of arithmetic so as to provide his pupils with a firm basis for further incursions into the realm of mathematics.
I consider myself a mathematician at heart, before anything else, though by trade I teach mathematics at the college level. I'm often at odds with those possessing "doctor of education" degrees who endlessly advocate one bright idea or another as some kind of panacea for all that ills math education in the US. Gee-whiz technology is not the key. "New" or "fuzzy" math has proved and continues to prove to be a total disaster. The "rule of four", "Bloom's taxonomy", "rubrics" -- all of it is largely crap being pushed into classrooms by people who themselves are seldom found in one. There is only one sure way to learn math: lots of drill and hard work. That's it, in my view. Not everything worth doing can be made "fun" or even immediately "relevant". The relevance of an endeavor may only become apparent after months or years of study. Technology and snappy software comes and goes, but the essence of mathematics, as a system of logical thinking and analysis based on a few self-evident axioms, requires only paper, pencil, and thought.
Originally posted by StarValleyWyI can't speak for the US but I suspect that maths has gone the same way there as here.
I was just watching a piece on CBS Evening news. It was about elementary school children and Math being taught in "exciting new ways".
At the end of the piece the leader of this brave new "close enough" fuzzy math made the statement : "We really can't spend our time and resources teaching these kids the old way of doing math. We have to prepare them ...[text shortened]... with an answer what our children need to succeed in the "new jobs" of the future?
Primary school maths has descended into farce. My school takes 13 years olds of average ability. Most of them struggle with their times tables. If a student arrives from East Europe or East Asia they are nearly always better at mental arithmetic and years ahead in algebraic skills.
The drop in standards is down to a number of factors, the testing system, decrease in male teachers, decrease in teachers with maths skills, decrease in competition, lack of discipline.