Common Core math problem with easy solution

[vraiblonde]

think about all of the math teachers you will put out of work

Not at all. Several people in this thread have commented that math is "rote" and that is not true. Math is tangible and demonstrable - parts of speech, spelling, and grammar are rote. But you can't argue with math, or at least you're not supposed to be able to. You can make up words and they become part of the English language, but you can't just decide that 2 + 2 now = something other than 4. Two apples in your basket, add two more apples to your basket, and you now have four apples in your basket, end of story.

What math teachers will do instead of having kids memorize some stupid x table is teach them the concept behind the equations. My statistics professor didn't teach us how to do long calculations or memorize formulas; what he taught us is what to plug into our graphing calculator, and how the functions relate to every day situations (i.e. why we're learning this crap in the first place). That, to me, is more important - learning what and why - than memorizing abstract equations while you have no idea what they mean or why you should know it.

 

[GURPS]

What math teachers will do instead of having kids memorize some stupid x table is teach them the concept behind the equations. My statistics professor didn't teach us how to do long calculations or memorize formulas; what he taught us is what to plug into our graphing calculator, and how the functions relate to every day situations (i.e. why we're learning this crap in the first place). That, to me, is more important - learning what and why - than memorizing abstract equations while you have no idea what they mean or why you should know it.

I see .....

 

[Tilted]

Why? How does it benefit someone to be able to whip out equations quickly in their head besides to impress people at a cocktail party? If you work with numbers for a living, chances are good you have a machine that does quick math for you. Kids can use calculators in school, so that's not an issue.

Seriously, why is it important that we be able to do math in our head anymore?

I was going to give a substantive answer to your question (no doubt a thorough and persuasive, multi-paragraph, one), but I figure it's more important to get an answer to this question:

Do people really do that, at cocktail parties or otherwise? Do math in their heads just to impress people? How the hell is supposed to work? I mean, e.g., has there ever been a case where doing 4 digit multiplication in their head got a man laid (where they weren't going to get laid anyway)? Count me as skeptical.

 

[vraiblonde]

Do people really do that, at cocktail parties or otherwise? Do math in their heads just to impress people? How the hell is supposed to work? I mean, e.g., has there ever been a case where doing 4 digit multiplication in their head got a man laid (where they weren't going to get laid anyway)? Count me as skeptical.

People show off all sorts of silly things in order to look smart and/or get laid. I think it's more likely that some Snerdley would quickspout math solutions at a party than a mugger would jump out of the bushes and demand that I quickly solve a math problem or he'll kill me. Chicks dig smart guys, so I'd guess that displaying a knowledge of higher math is probably the only way some guys get laid. Women, alas, have to show skin and buy good beauty products in order to get laid. Not fair.

 

[Tilted]

Not at all. Several people in this thread have commented that math is "rote" and that is not true. Math is tangible and demonstrable - parts of speech, spelling, and grammar are rote. But you can't argue with math, or at least you're not supposed to be able to. You can make up words and they become part of the English language, but you can't just decide that 2 + 2 now = something other than 4. Two apples in your basket, add two more apples to your basket, and you now have four apples in your basket, end of story.

What math teachers will do instead of having kids memorize some stupid x table is teach them the concept behind the equations. My statistics professor didn't teach us how to do long calculations or memorize formulas; what he taught us is what to plug into our graphing calculator, and how the functions relate to every day situations (i.e. why we're learning this crap in the first place). That, to me, is more important - learning what and why - than memorizing abstract equations while you have no idea what they mean or why you should know it.

No doubt, and I suspect that's much the point of this kind of teaching (though, again, I'm just guessing as I'm not familiar enough with it to know more certainly). It's important that people understand the why, the how - that they can conceive the big picture and the problem and then figure out the process that might best get them to the answer they seek. Far too often in math people don't really understand the why of the calculations they do, which limits their ability to figure things out beyond whatever they might be able to with whatever shortcuts they happen to have memorized. Most things in math are actually pretty darn simple. It's just that you have to understand the big picture well enough to get a good sense of what path will get you there - what process moves you from what you know to what you want to know. The individual steps of most of those processes are themselves typically quite simple.

 

[Pete]

OK, I am sure I will catch grief for this but I have and still do use what appears to be common core math. When I was a kid I moved a lot so I got behind in math. Memorization sucks for me so I learned "my own" method which appears to be the same thing as common core. So common core makes sense to me. I can see where it makes no sense to you all who did the memorization method.

3X6 to me early on was 3X5=15+3

 

[Pete]

Now if only we could get the other 150 or so other countries to change.

View attachment 104742

Hey Vrai, here it is again!

 

[glhs837]

Yep, more than one way to skin the cat. What appears to be happening is that in the rush to explore those alternative methods, they become the required methods. Instead of offered ways that different brains might grasp math better, it becomes "this is the new only way". Like saying that some folks can only dance by doing limbo, therefore, if you cant limbo, you fail at dance class. God help me if I were ever forced to use Apple products. They are easy to use intuitvely operated machines for millions, I simply stuggle to use them. Just the way my brain works. Damn good thing there are alternatives I can use. Would suck to be told that if I can operate an Ibook, I simply suck at computers.

 

[GURPS]

Chicks dig smart guys, so I'd guess that displaying a knowledge of higher math is probably the only way some guys get laid. Women, alas, have to show skin and buy good beauty products in order to get laid. Not fair.

since when ....

 

[vraiblonde]

3X6 to me early on was 3X5=15+3

Now, why could you remember off the top of your head that 3x5 is 15 but not 3x6 is 18?

 

[kom526]

So it would seem that the educational paradigm changes every 4-5 years. It must be interesting for the inventors of the system being replaced. Their latest-and-greatest method is dumped in favor of an even 'better' method.

I wouldn't say 'changed' so much as tweaked and re branded as *NEW!* and *IMPROVED*, but 4-5 years seems to be the cycle. What else changes every 4 years ...

 

[GWguy]

Now, why could you remember off the top of your head that 3x5 is 15 but not 3x6 is 18?

Because it's easy to count by 5s to 15. 5, 10, 15. But also because we were taught to memorize that fact, and it stuck better than counting by 6s.

 

[PeoplesElbow]

What they are trying to do is introduce the concept of take a problem you don't know how to do and turn it into a problem that you do know how to do. This is big in algebra, trig, calculus, differential equations etc. Introducing this concept as a way to add, subtract, multiply, and divide is silly however.

As an engineer one of the very first thing I heard in my Engineering 1 class my freshman year of college was how poorly public schools teach math and I pretty much agree. The math department at my college in general did a pretty poor job of teaching math. It comes down to in real life every problem is a word problem, why do they arbitrary throw arithmetic problems on paper that have no meaning. Instead of having 15/3 = on your math homework it should be more often written something like John has fifteen oranges and two friends that he wants to share them with equally, how many oranges does john and each of his friend get?

I use to tutor college algebra and calculus and I can tell you that just about every student I tutored that said that they were bad at math didn't really know if they were or weren't they had just already decided that and were destined to fail at it. When in grad school I had an epiphany about learning math based subjects, stuck to it and I never had to do homework or rarely study again while all of my friends were in the do problems, do problems, do problems mode. The few students that I was able to get to listen to me on that small concept never again needed help in math, and I worked my way out of $10/hr so maybe I wasn't so smart after all, lol.

 

[Pete]

Because it's easy to count by 5s to 15. 5, 10, 15. But also because we were taught to memorize that fact, and it stuck better than counting by 6s.

Ding.

Of course that was an example but it is not far off. Nearly every arithmetic problem I have revolves around 5's and 10's and their multiples. I do it so fast it isn't an impediment, I took stats, calc and algebra 2 and got all A's in college so it works. In algebra it was a good thing because I could factor in my head quicker than the memorizers because of the way I manipulate numbers in my head.

 

[RoseRed]

Ding.

Of course that was an example but it is not far off. Nearly every arithmetic problem I have revolves around 5's and 10's and their multiples. I do it so fast it isn't an impediment, I took stats, calc and algebra 2 and got all A's in college so it works. In algebra it was a good thing because I could factor in my head quicker than the memorizers because of the way I manipulate numbers in my head.

Some people have a knack for math. I am not one of them. I have been tutored in Algebra 2 or 3 times and still wasn't able to grasp it. Anything beyond that...

 

[Pete]

Some people have a knack for math. I am not one of them. I have been tutored in Algebra 2 or 3 times and still wasn't able to grasp it. Anything beyond that...

I could help you and then you would be in the movie "Good Rose Hunting"

 

[RoseRed]

I could help you and then you would be in the movie "Good Rose Hunting"

Who gets to play my part?

 

[Pete]

Who gets to play my part?

You

 

[RoseRed]

You

How boring is that.

 

[Pete]

How boring is that.

Ok, how about Jennifer Lawrence?