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1. Skilled vocational workers need advanced Geometry and Algebra skills, my Grandfather was a machinist, and calibrated machinery to craft turbines for Hoover Dam. He made good money, and never went to college, but he could do math in his head. 2. My Mother has an MS degree in Math, and did struggle with employment, due to issues with not understanding how to get along with others. Just because you are smart, that does not mean you can hold down a job. 3. My daughter has severe learning disabilities, and struggled with math, and reading. I was told that I was setting my child up for "failure" when I put her in regular math in high school. Nope, I just had an expectation that she could do it, even if we did do 4-5 hours of homework a night, she learned it. Of course, it was helpful that her Grandmother was her private math tutor!
That's exactly what I did. It was hard, but she improves and does not rely on me too much now. I was a Math major, but I have to read different books to The bigger challenge for me is to convince the teachers to set high epxectation. Now I understand if the teachers told me they do not have enough resources, I am not sure what happens in other district, but those teachers in my school would just brush me off and used "she has a disability" to answer every questions I asked.
The problem is not with the math being taught, it's with the math being learned. A large portion of any nation's population will be math-challenged. It's not a subject that many enjoy. Many more struggle mightily to master the simplest aspects of it.
I teach HS juniors and seniors. Probably half cannot reliably do basic operations with fractions, which I think is an elementary level objective. No matter how many times we go through it (and it's NOT tough) the same kids simply cannot pick it up.
The problem is not with the math being taught, it's with the math being learned. A large portion of any nation's population will be math-challenged. It's not a subject that many enjoy. Many more struggle mightily to master the simplest aspects of it.
I teach HS juniors and seniors. Probably half cannot reliably do basic operations with fractions, which I think is an elementary level objective. No matter how many times we go through it (and it's NOT tough) the same kids simply cannot pick it up.
Why beat that same dead horse day after day?
Perhaps if it was taught in a different way, the kids could pick it up. The problem is often that what is done is to repeat the subject in the exact same way. Of course, if a child did not get it that way the first time, they won't get it the second or third time.
OTOH, teaching for understanding in a new way can help that same child to learn what to do.
Here's a link to visual fractions that you might want to use:
Perhaps if it was taught in a different way, the kids could pick it up. The problem is often that what is done is to repeat the subject in the exact same way. Of course, if a child did not get it that way the first time, they won't get it the second or third time.
OTOH, teaching for understanding in a new way can help that same child to learn what to do.
Here's a link to visual fractions that you might want to use:
Well, I don't teach math. My subject is science and my classes are 11th/12th graders. They've had years to catch on to this before they walk in my door. I give them a brief overview before we use fractions in my lessons. It's a skill they're expected to have gained long before they get to me. And it's only a small (but necessary) part of what I'm teaching them. So, I can't go back to 5th grade to catch them up. I just see how many have gone so far w/o being able to master such a simple skill.
They do teach too much math yet look at how obtuse and unethical our corporate leaders are.
Financial corporations hire PhD mathematicians to create the calculations they use in their so-called derivatives. A guy with a new PhD and few job offers can be persuaded.
Well, I don't teach math. My subject is science and my classes are 11th/12th graders. They've had years to catch on to this before they walk in my door. I give them a brief overview before we use fractions in my lessons. It's a skill they're expected to have gained long before they get to me. And it's only a small (but necessary) part of what I'm teaching them. So, I can't go back to 5th grade to catch them up. I just see how many have gone so far w/o being able to master such a simple skill.
many may be due to lack of proper teaching.
I am not sure whether I brought up in another thread. When my kid was in 5th grade, she was pulled-out for Math and Language Arts. She knew multiplication well, but a kid in her class didn't. I approached the teacher to ask for recommendation for Language Art private tutor, in our sd, teacher is not supposed to tutor her own kid. Then I also asked her how would she teach Math, she said she would just ask just give the kid the multiplication table and move on. BUt then immediately she bragged about how well she tutored multiplication table (privately) and in 3 months, her private student was able to know the multiplication table. I decided to pull my kid out of her Math class on the spot. She had only 5 to 6 kids in her class and I knew them well, I didn't see a reason the kid couldn't learn. I know the class and they all have average to above average intelligence.
The problem is not with the math being taught, it's with the math being learned. A large portion of any nation's population will be math-challenged. It's not a subject that many enjoy. Many more struggle mightily to master the simplest aspects of it.
I teach HS juniors and seniors. Probably half cannot reliably do basic operations with fractions, which I think is an elementary level objective. No matter how many times we go through it (and it's NOT tough) the same kids simply cannot pick it up.
Why beat that same dead horse day after day?
I blame spiraling and throwing too many concepts at them at one time at too early of an age.
Many of the newer curriculums are doing this now in hopes of exposing them to more concepts at younger and younger ages. They are given 5 different ways to subtract for example, and they don't have enough time to master any one of them IMHO.
I remain of the thought that 3rd graders need to have proficiency in basic operations instead of getting them to learn about 'function boxes' and trying to figure out more than one way to get a correct answer so early in their math studies. It sets many of them up for frustration and does little to build confidence IMO.
I think it's backfiring in a big way once they get to college and need remediation in concepts they should have mastered in 5th grade. Then everyone panics over our kids not 'competing.' Small wonder to me.
Each person thinks they have the right answer here yet everyone is saying different and some contradictory things. I haven't really heard anything new though and have seen everything tried in public education. My viewpoint is that we focus so much on reading and constantly use it in our lives and that is why we are comfortable with it. I don't see reading being as rigorously tested as math, yet I doubt our reading and writing skills are much superior than our math skills. Each school has a library that focuses mainly on reading and has a full time librarian, but where is the math room and the full time mathematician? Most of the teachers I have known in elementary have a strong preference for reading over math. Mostly all of their big activities and projects focus on stories they are reading or historical figures and nothing about math.
Don't forget though that we are one of the top countries in the world as far as math education according to test scores, so we can't be doing everything wrong. 4th graders were ranked 11 out of 36 of some of the most developed countries in the world, beating out countries such as Germany, Denmark, Australia, Austria, Sweden, Italy, Scotland, New Zealand and Norway. Not bad for the diverse and transient population we have in the U.S. 8th graders did even better ranking 9th out of 48 countries. This is according to TIMSS 2007. I think the belief that education is so bad here in the U.S. is a media creation for sensationalism. Nobody wants to hear the story that the U.S. is doing a pretty good job at education. We wanna hear how many countries we lost to and use test scores that show us as poor in education. If you look for media stories about the TIMSS 2007 there is hardly anything because it shows us as we truly are, one of the top countries in the world in education.
The problem is that they teach a lot of math without teaching understanding math. Mostly they just keep kids busy without really challenging them intellectually. That really sucks. They teach them memorising formulas that they do not understand which is absolutely not what math is about . the system puts at disadvantage students who really think and tries to understand.
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That's exactly what I did. It was hard, but she improves and does not rely on me too much now. I was a Math major, but I have to read different books to The bigger challenge for me is to convince the teachers to set high epxectation. Now I understand if the teachers told me they do not have enough resources, I am not sure what happens in other district, but those teachers in my school would just brush me off and used "she has a disability" to answer every questions I asked.
Math professor argues we teach too much math
