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I look at my kids common core math. It seems like there is a big push for advanced math, Algebra taught in third grade. I can't see where in their life, my kids will ever use such math. Anyone care to tell me about your job that requires so much math?
I figure maybe a scientist or an engineer may need it.
I guess he wouldn't use a computer to do his calculations?
I figure the average person should be able to count change and balance a check book.
I also notice there isn't much of a push for reading, which gets used about every day. My kids have PE once a week, I had it every day.
Algebra isn't advanced math, and is incredibly useful in everyday life. Here's some basic algebra - if it costs $12 for a 16 oz. container of something, and $12.60 for a 18 oz. container, which is the better deal?
A solid knowledge of all math up to Calculus is important if you ever plan on doing any home remodeling, financial planning, comparing service contracts, baking, etc. Also, every state can implement Common Core however they choose and every school system and teacher can interpret state directives in a million different ways. Common Core just sets standards that have more of a focus on abstract reasoning and critical thinking, it doesn't dictate how those standards are reached.
Many of the folks involved in setting up CC thought that Paiget was wrong with regards to when concrete vs abstract learning could occur. They believe that abstract learning can occur at much earlier ages and that's why you see algebraic concepts being taught in elementary school now. The goal is to have Algebra taught to all eighth graders rather than leave it for high school.
Whether this is good or bad is yet to be seen as the shift is still fairly new.
The goal is to have Algebra taught to all eighth graders rather than leave it for high school.
Whether this is good or bad is yet to be seen as the shift is still fairly new.
Really?
I was taught algebra in 8th grade way back in the late 60s.
And my kids - 2002 and 2005 high school grads - were also taught algebra in 8th grade.
Surely western PA is not outside the norm.... or is it?
To the OP: Here's a math problem I frequently have to solve:
A medication comes as a powder in a vial of 1000 mg (1 Gm). You are supposed to mix it with 2.2 ml diluent, which gives you about 2.5 ml of liquid med. The patient needs 750 mg. How much do you give him/her?
Now some young nurses who've never worked outside the hospital setting would probably say "the pharmacist will figure it out". But you (generic) are working in an office and there is no pharmacist. You have to figure it out.
Sure, engineers and scientists use computers. But you know what they say about computers: "garbage in, garbage out". You have to know what numbers to put in and what to tell the computer to do.
Really?
I was taught algebra in 8th grade way back in the late 60s.
And my kids - 2002 and 2005 high school grads - were also taught algebra in 8th grade.
Surely western PA is not outside the norm.... or is it?
No. My kids, exactly the same age as yours, had algebra I in 8th grade here in the wild west!
Really?
I was taught algebra in 8th grade way back in the late 60s.
And my kids - 2002 and 2005 high school grads - were also taught algebra in 8th grade.
Surely western PA is not outside the norm.... or is it?
I'm in my early 30's and I took algebra I in 8th grade in NC. It was considered advanced math for the grade level, but the most advanced kids took algebra I in 7th grade, then geometry in 8th. The "norm" was to start algebra in 9th grade. Roughly, the kids who took algebra in 7th or 8th grade were the college bound students, and the kids who waited until 9th grade were not college bound.
I was an unusual math student. I was terrible at rote memorization. I struggled with multiplication and division because my teachers just wanted me to memorize the tables. Once I understood the concept, I taught myself how to use grouping to multiply and divide in my head. This turned out to be a really, really powerful skill because I can process larger numbers in my head without pen/paper or a calculator. It means that the assignments associated with most CC aligned math programs just make sense to me. It also means that the assignments don't make sense to most other people my age, which I think it often at the root of CC hate. I think CC implementation would be much easier if schools took the time to help parents understand (which assumes schools have the resources to do so, and that is a whole 'nother problem).
Students who take Algebra in 7th grade are the exception and not the norm. No matter how many people, most of whom have not spent a day in a Jr. High/Middle School classroom, say so.
Piaget was referenced a few posts ago. That's who, after decades of research and study confirming his Stages of Cognitive Development, is being ignored. The "who" in schools being ignored are the average kids. That's who school is really aimed at, the 70% who are average.
Smart kids, in most school systems, will always be accelerated while the slower, below norm, kids will have interventions.
Who Common Core will ultimately hurt will be the average kids, those whose development is following Piaget right down the line.
I'm in the last two years of my teaching career so I won't be around to see the carnage and the "WTF were we thinking?" finger pointing and the inevitable "teachers are to blame" default position.
As a note, I had one of those exceptional Math kids as my oldest son. In 2nd grade he and two other kids were pulled out for specialized Math classes which lasted until he graduated. There were twelve kids in his final Math class in high school. All had been identified in 2nd grade at the other cluster elementary schools.
Students who take Algebra in 7th grade are the exception and not the norm.
But my question was about it being taught in 8th grade.
A poster said grade 8 is the goal... I said grade 8 is the norm in my area (NOT grade 7!). And others concurred with grade 8.
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