Everyday Math = junk
Readers respond in the NYPost to my column on Fuzzy Math.
My favorite:
I live in an Everyday Math district in Pennsylvania, and while scores on our state test, the PSSA, are rising, our SAT scores are dropping.
Our state standards and the PSSA are aligned with constructivist programs like Everyday Math. Even a perfect score on the PSSA does not ensure that a student knows the math that he should at his grade level.
A child could be getting straight As in Everyday Math and still be counting on his fingers.
I have heard Everyday Math referred to as “Every Night Math” because every night parents are teaching their children the math they should be learning in school or driving them to tutoring centers to supplement their education.
Sharon Collopy
Doylestown, Pa.
Here’s your Weapons of Math Destruction cartoon of the day:
And here’s your recommended resource of the day: NYC HOLD–New York City Honest Open Logical Decisions on Mathematics Education Reform, “a national nonpartisan advocacy organization that provides parents, K-12 educators, mathematicians and scientists, and others information resources and networking opportunities to support systemic improvements in the quality of mathematics education in our nation’s schools.”
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My 9 year old is an honor student in the 4th grade at his school. He is a good athlete and generally well-rounded in writing, grammar, music, art and science.
He gets good grades in math only because his parents are teaching him old time arithmetic, so he can understand what the “strategies” are for.
The school systems are puking all over our kids.
Everyday math is what Gore was using to keep demanding a recount in Florida. It is what Gore uses to prove Global Warming. The numbers just have to feel right.
Reason number ONE to home-school your kids.
Another good source for combatting the junk theory of “constructivist” math is Education Next, a journal put out by the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank out of Stanford. There are a lot of great articles debunking fuzzy math there:
http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext
Here is a good article about the crazy “constructivist” math approach here in Fairfax County, VA, which uses the Everyday mathematics series:
http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/3220616.html
An excerpt about the crazy result when you mix “fuzzy math” and “multiculturalism” from the Everyday Mathematics. The traditional method of computation is out; the “Egyptian method” is in:
nothing wrong with alternatives AFTER teaching the basic fundamentals. the educational system is about making drones. it is not about educating. sometime soon, hopefully, the voters will vote for school choice. so tired of the unions slam commercials against any changing of the educational system other than throwing money at the problem. and the poor teacher’s wages, blah, blah, blah..
crimeny crickets..
Amazing what kids are fed every day in our public schools. How in the world are they to survive in this world, based on the “touchy-feely” feel-good education provided by so-called ignorant education “experts” today? Glad my kids are grown up now. I worked for 4 years in a county high school here, as a nurse working with kids on ventilators, and it surprised me how different schools are from when I was in school. Once a teacher had to ask me for help in figuring out basic algebra…I ended up teaching the class, much to the delight of the kids. Civics/government class are taught by having the students watch movies. English literature, the same way….watching Hollywood movies based on the classics. “Can’t get the kids to read” was the response to my “why?” Not all classes were bad…some were taught very well, but there were others that were just sad.
Gabe…it was in Fairfax County where I worked,
I believe this is how they teach kids to figure out if they can afford a house.
I spent grades 6 through 12 in Fairfax County Public Schools and I think I was part of the last group of students to receive a decent public education there. While I distinctly remember a very liberal bias becoming commonplace (I argued a lot with many teachers who singled me out for being conservative), they taught hard skills. I left for college in the mid 1990’s and now that I see what has become of FCPS schools (and even my old hometown), I am glad I graduated when I did.
Very sad, FCPS used to be pretty good.
I am becoming wary of the thought of bringing a child into this world.
Ha ha!
They’re not. They’re supposed to become government-dependents and rely on a select few to tell them what to do, spend, eat, wear, and where to live.
Public schools are more about indoctrinating kids into liberal ways of thinking then they are about educating. Plain and simple.
Before long it’ll be “The jobs Americans are no longer qualified to do”.
In a lot of ways, we are already at that point.
Math as entertainment is one thing. In this case, however, there is nothing funny at all about fuzzy math.
To our new college graduates, repeat after me…”Do you want fries with that?”
heroyalwhyness~
That was entertaining, but it’s sad that some people watching that don’t get what is funny about that bit because they don’t understand even that basic math concept…
And speaking of “math as entertainment”, I don’t know who actually watches “Numbers” on CBS (I know my 20-something sisters like it, too), but I like to think that if a young person watched it regularly, they could see the importance of math in everyday life, and being able to do those “cool” (is that the math nerd in me coming out?) equations to solve crime might inspire them to pursue math as a vocation. One could only hope…
Anything designed by a bureaucracy ultimately achieves the EXACT opposite result of the stated intent.
Last year my city was proud to discover that its schools ranked lowest in the state in math.
So, with much wailing and gnashing of teeth they switched math programs.
To Saxon math. A program that home schoolers have been using for years.
Heh.
I do feel bad for the kids though. Many that I know are having to stay after school and work twice as hard to “catch up” to where the new math program expects them to be.
I see it as an admission by the school district that they have been wasting these kids time for the past eight or nine years. Of course, they haven’t refunded the taxpayer’s money for wasting it too. Maybe next year.
On December 7th, 2007 at 6:26 pm, meatpieandtatters said:
What you just wrote should be inscribed on every public building in America and posted in big letters above every chalkboard in every schoolroom.
I always liked real-world math eg:
Q: If you make one dollar and the federal government takes 30%, & the state government takes 50% of what the federal government takes, & the city takes 50% of what the state takes, how much of a raise can the teachers union get?
Answer: none. It all goes to the NEA.
I am so glad our son is grown and no longer under the control of the Public School system. No wonder kids are flipping out and going on the rampage they can’t handle real math or real life issues. Little Jonnie and Jane need to learn how to lose and fail it really does build character and when I was a kid it made me work hard to succeed. Of course I had my Father’s size 9 in my spine along with my Mother motivating me to work harder.
We just had an incident at our local high school today with a kid that can’t handle real life being caught with 3 boxes of .357 ammo in his school locker. Of course Idaho schools are a “gun free zone” no CCW allowed either, therefore a free fire zone. They found a list of 25 kids he was going to take out and one lives just a couple houses down the street. According to my neighbor her son stopped the kid with problems from hitting girls in school so that is why he made the list. Several parents on the local AFB were also notified and pulled their kids from school too.
This won’t make the national news, because there were able to stop him in time, but there were conflicting reports of the kid having a pistol and the Elmore County Sherriff was going around contact parents of kids on the hit list. From what I could gather mostly rumor the Sherriff’s department was not able to find the kid until about 2:00 PM Mountain Standard Time. Still needs at least 24-48 hours to get the real story, but our local small town paper will more than likely screw up the facts (they always do).
Scary stuff, but thank God someone saw the warning signs and sounded the alarm. Hope the kid gets the help he needs or is expelled. We don’t need anyone else going out in style to gain their 15 minutes of fame.
I think this is a plot by Kumon (google it) so they can make more money.
The schools are designing the curriculum to meet the expectation of illegals and other foreign students who cannot and will not learn English, refuse to study or apply themselves, and idolize criminals and thugs. This only makes the discrepancy between the haves and the have-nots even greater. The good news is that it gets easier for anyone with any sense at all to make a better life for themselves because there is no competition. This ridiculous approach to math is a prescription for failure in our culture. Well, we need people to do those “jobs” we all talk about.
Gabe and Gray,
And it was in Fairfax County that I pulled my oldest out of public school and started homeschooling 3 years ago.
#23 – so very true:
OT as far as math, but my stepson came home today with a newsletter about the Christmas program (although have to give them props that it’s not Holiday program), the top part in English and the translation in Spanish below. I really wish our founding fathers had established a language. I don’t care what language it would have been, at least we all would have been on the same page.
Oops – this is what happens when I type in the dark, I meant #24
Our school also does Everyday Math. My daughter, who was doing well at her previous school with Saxon Math is now clueless thanks to Everyday Math. Her last homework brought home was adding 2 digit numbers without carrying.
So, take 24
+18
Most of us learned by adding, starting on the right and then carrying the one over above the column on the left.
Everyday Math says you round by adding 20+10 = 30
Then add 8+4 = 12
Then add 30+12 to equal the answer of 42.
Now, while this may be a helpful way of doing mental math for some, it is adding more steps and making the problem much longer. My daughter was completely lost then I reminded her of the way she used to do it and she got them done in no time (and correct)
I wrote a note to the teacher explaining that the method was too frustrating and time consuming and that we did it with carrying – the old fashioned way!
We got the assignment back and were asked to do it the “right Everyday Math” way. Now even my daughter will tell me we have to do it this way becaues her teacher told her!
For this reason, and others, we are pulling our kids from this school at semester. My husband, who is an engineer, was shocked at how they are teaching math.
I want her to do as well as she can in math, and if she learns it the old fashioned way and gets the right answer and understands math then that is how she should be doing math!
Make believe math. How innovative.
My heart goes out to all the students and parents/guardians who are being cheated by their school districts. Good math skills are essential in this world. Life is tough enough without the “system” short changing them on education. What a scandal.
+2 points for effort on the part of my school district. They are a TERC system… however… the teachers complained about the last of standard algorithims so they teach both.
I was homeschooled with the “Math it” Game and Saxon math.. Saxon rocks..
I see, nowadays, they let students use calculators in math classes. Saw a lot of those. How do you learn basic math and algebra by using a calculator? I guess the class would come to a screeching halt if the batteries went dead. Back in the early 60s they came out with “new math”. Wasted 8th grade trying that stuff. Best we had to use was a slide rule. Anyone remember using that?
#32 graysonret,
I remember slide rules; in fact, in one class we had to learn how to use it, but we couldn’t use it in class after that. If calculators had existed when I was in school they wouldn’t have been allowed in any school I went to. I was also fortunate that “New Math” came out after I was in school so I got to miss it.
Soon they public schools will show students how to fill out paperwork for Medicaid.
The only math they need to know, according to state standards, is how to figure out an amount for a lawsuit and how to stash for drugs, smokes, and other necessities.
Yes, our school district has suffered through EveryDay Math now for a few years. It was a running-point in our last School Board Elections.
We had one teacher honest enough to say that she would close the door to her classroom and teach math, but not with EveryDay Math, so the kids could learn.
For us, however, the nightmare of EveryDay Math is gone – we’ve just started homeschooling and are free of that junk.
Math may have been my most difficult subject, but I know how to make change. Being a constant at restaurants around town, I run into kids who have no idea how to make change without the computer or a calculator handy.
Do society a favor the next time you run into the situation: take ten seconds and show them, they need help.
Let’s see how the teachers like it when we apply Fuzzy Math to their paychecks! Or better yet, we tell the local school boards they don’t need a levy increase because according to Fuzzy Math they have enough money already.
Russ N #35 – how is homeschooling going? We start up in January after we withdraw our girls from the public school they are in.
I read that the state of Texas is saying no to Everyday Math. The state board of education voted to end funding for the purchase of Everyday Math materials in the state.
jenmom #38
Sorry to butt in, but I wanted to congratulate you and Russ N on your decisions to home school. It’s not the easiest thing in the world, and some in society will think your nuts/crazy/stupid because you want to educate your kids and spend the whole day with them (?!?).
Our key to getting things going smoothly was to get a good curriculum, we use k12.com. Another thing that can help is getting involved in a local home school co-op (but, be warned, some home schoolers are weird).
It’s a lot of work, but the rewards for you and your kids are priceless. I teach my boys (8 & 9) science and history and my wife takes care of reading and math. I got to teach my kids about the rise and fall of Rome. I got to teach them about the birth and rise of Islam (from daddy’s perspective). We can now discuss the Renaissance, the discovery of the New World, magnetism, human migration, the weather, electronics, human motivation for exploration and conquest (mostly money & land) and tons of other stuff.
They learn what we think is important and what we believe will serve them best in life and they now know & understand things at 8 & 9 that their Jr. High and High School friends don’t know yet.
I got to sit with my 9 year old last year while he figured out how to calculate the area of a right triangle. He knew how to figure the area of a square and so we set the triangle up as a kind of puzzle for him. I could see his little brain working on it and the moment he figured it out you could tell as the comprehension spread across his face. Now, instead of feeling stupid about math, he sees math as a puzzle to be solved and knows that he is capable of doing it. I suppose that any parent who helped their kid with his homework could experience this, but we get to see it all the time.
As the public schools continue to fail our kids more and more of us are picking up the mantle of home schooler. Congratulations again.
When teachers get lazy or could not pass the exams on the subject, they come up with a dumbed down version of the subject, lobby through the NEA to get the State to buy off on it, State standards change and BINGO!
State Test scores go up and SAT scores circle the bowl!
Graysonret and Don Miguel (#s 32 and 33)– I, too, remember slide rules. I still have a couple where I can find them, although I majored in something other than engineering (differential equations did me in). At the time Alexandria, Virginia, taught slide rule for multiplication in the 7th grade (self-paced learning, one could learn division if one were fast enough), and then there were questions on every math test after that that had to be done with the slide rule.
I changed schools systems and took a one quarter long slide rule class in 8th grade to learn more than the C and D scales. I was able to use the slide rule in my 9th grade science class as it was a skilled that we learned. Calculators, which were very new, were forbidden as “any fool can punch buttons”.
Thanks 29Victor #39 – I appreciate the words of encouragement! I know it won’t be easy but I am looking forward to it. Yes, people may think we are nuts and I know of many moms who think there is something wrong with me for wanting to be with my 7, 5 and 3 year old all day. But that’s ok – I’ll gladly do it.
Russ N and JenMom..
Congrats on Home schooling..
Saxon Math is what you want for teaching Math..
if anyone questions you about ’socialization’ of your kids, remember how many situations in your life are you among 30 or so of your age group.
you can say back,
1.) My kids will be among a more diverse age group.. and diversity is good for them.
2.) Have you really seen the public schools? They Suck.
3.) I would have put them in private schools to get good education but I had no vouchers. (so they get a better education at home
Wasn’t this done in the movie musical, ‘The Music Man’ with Robert Preston?
this think and play method on teaching the band to play the instruments?
What the he** did that quote at the end of the post mean?No wonder the kids aren’t learning anything.
Saxon Math is what we’ll use. They taught it at the private school my girls went to and my oldest really did well in math.
As for criticism of our decision to homeschool, the only people who are against it are our parents. Whenever I share with anyone around here (we are in Oklahoma) that we are homeschooling, I hear only positive things. I think that is because this is such a supportive state for homeschooling and so many people do it that it.
JenMom #38 – it has gone very, very, VERY well. One of our children was a C and D student in the public school; he is now an A and B student.
There are lots of things we still don’t know we don’t know, but the ability to have our kids stay on a subject until they get it and having our evenings free of homework: priceless.
My wife gets the kudos – she does the teaching. The history lesson the other day morphed into a discussion on mountains which morphed into a discussion on plate tectonics!
But she had a blast and the way she described all the stuff clicking in the minds of our kids: more priceless.
It is obvious that the schools do not want to teach our children academics. That might make them intelligent enough to see the world rationally. The schools would rather teach the children liberal, socialist, activist, “morals.” This gives them the brain-dead drones they crave today and the people that will need gov’t aid tomorrow.
The majority of Americans think the schools should teach academics and the parents should teach morals. Unfortunately, it’s interesting that we pay taxes to have it the other way around.
I’m sure this isn’t what Roger Waters had in mind but when I picture public schools today, I see the movie, ‘Pink Floyd; The Wall’ with ‘Another Brick in the Wall, Part II’ and all the kids falling into the meat grinder..