Schools are making kids retarded

[Grandphoenix]

meh I still use my fingers and toes (jk on the toes) for some calculations

[Aksannyi]

I don't deny that they're dumbing down schools, but I don't think this is an example of dumbing down, this is a *better* system imho. Just because it's not what we learned doesn't mean we shouldn't advance. "It works" shouldn't be a justification for using an old system forever, and the reasoning behind this system seems clear to me. Currently and going forward anyone who goes far in math is going to be doing it in relation to computers, and this method prepares children to start thinking like that.

I don't disagree with much of your tl:dr but at same time it really has nothing to do with the subject, since most the people who don't like this system have no logical reason other than the fact that it's "different".

Personally I think you should homeschool your children anyways(assuming you have sufficient means to do so). Homeschooled children develop much faster and are much more knowledgeable on average, they also go to college 2yrs earlier(because there's no reason not to go to school at 15/16 soon as you get your GED). I was homeschooled and got my first degree by time most people were just starting college, it gave me a huge head start at life.

Yeah I realize I went off topic a lot here, lol. Kinda got into rant mode. RAWR. I always felt the older method was pretty easy on its own. IMO, it wasn't broke, so why are they fixing it? Seems like a waste to me.

[thestalkmore]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1qe...eature=related

A video that is complaining about New hoo hoo math and how it is being implemented.

This fucking scares me.

Teach the standard fucking stuff.

[Nystul]

Teach the standard stuff. Don't bring anything newfangled into this! Give the kids an abacus, put in some more corporal punishment. Teach them about the benefits of bloodletting. ALL STUDENTS WILL WRITE WITH A QUILL!

[thestalkmore]

Teach the standard stuff. Don't bring anything newfangled into this! Give the kids an abacus, put in some more corporal punishment. Teach them about the benefits of bloodletting. ALL STUDENTS WILL WRITE WITH A QUILL!

Everyone knows that when you don't have a leg to stand on, shoot for the straw man! These "newfangled" math techniques aren't the product of some revolutionary advance in mathematical thinking, they're the horrific afterbirth of a culture so obsessed with being revolutionary and advanced that it would rather adopt an ill conceived new teaching technique in an effort to look progressive than stick with something that is tried, true, and irrevocably efficient.

You're a fucking idiot.

[Grandphoenix]

You know I've always wanted to learn how to use an Abacus actually

[JigglyJam]

Seems like a lot more work to me. I was trying to see if there was some sort of pattern for the first and/or second page(s).

What do you do with fractions and decimals with that system though?

EDIT: That first (new?) method in the video is definitely more work.

[Colenzo]

Have you seen those chinese kids cranking out long division with those Abacii(lol?) its incredible. They can do these problems in seconds, im quite envious seeing as I suck at math. :/

[Senoska]

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/3357/abacusjq9.gif

Our school made us use it :<

[Senoska]

Abacii(lol?)

Abacus?

[Ksandra]

I agree on cursive though, cursive is just very out-dated and has no practical applications. If you want to learn cursive learn general calligraphy along with it, which does have a use.

oddly enough, while cursive isn't "required" studies show (and I've seen it myself) that learning cursive helps many kids have better handwriting (for their print). Because it teaches their hands to flow more. I worked at a bank long enough to know that yes having nice handwriting can be very important lol. You can't imagine how often mistakes are made 'cause some customer wrote a 6 that looked like a 0 >.>;

Everyone knows that when you don't have a leg to stand on, shoot for the straw man! These "newfangled" math techniques aren't the product of some revolutionary advance in mathematical thinking, they're the horrific afterbirth of a culture so obsessed with being revolutionary and advanced that it would rather adopt an ill conceived new teaching technique in an effort to look progressive than stick with something that is tried, true, and irrevocably efficient.

You're a fucking idiot.

QFT. If you guys want some fun into "revolutionary ideas" take a look at a method that is called "Whole language". Whole language for a few years replaced phonics in school. The idea behind it was instead of teaching kids c a t. They let them learn that "cat" = cat. (meaning not sounding it out anymore).

They stopped after a few years when schools realized none of their kids could spell, and couldn't decode new words at all. But it was basically too late for those kids since they weren't going to spend time teaching 7th grades phonics. There is absolutely nothing wrong with phonics and they fucked up a bunch of kids up by trying to be "advance"

[Dolmen]

This is why we have cashiers that can't give correct change. Hell, there are even some registers now that tell how much of each denomination of currency to give to the customer. People are absolutely worthless. Growing up we had to memorize our multiplication tables, and then go to the teacher's desk individually to recite them. If we didn't get them correct, we had to keep trying (with a lower grade, naturally). I always found it insanely easy to do math, then again I was the math "champ" at my elementary school when I was in 4th grade.

Multiplication is simple:

124
x 25
-----
620
2480
-----
3100

124 x 5
124 x 2 with a zero at the end, and add it up.

Or divide 124 by 4 and then add two zeroes at the end.

[Naramaska]

This is why we have cashiers that can't give correct change.

I still get the most bizarre fucking looks when I hand people $12 for a $6.80 purchase.

[Cesaria]

I understand it, but it's a bloody confusing way of laying it out and the only reason I probably DO understand it is because of being a teacher myself.

We use the grid method to start off with (we do tonnes of partitioning 24 into 20+4 etc for years to try to get that place value sorted first) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_method and then once they've got that idea sorted, you can move onto the way we were all taught at school in the end. I guess it's a similar idea to all the diagonals but to me it just looks cleaner and makes more sense. A colleague at my old school tried to explain the diagonal one to us at the end of a staff meeting one time (because we're sad like that) and even HE got halfway through and forgot what he was doing.

As for why it's changed to doing things this way - a) because we were told we had to change, and b) it's all about making sure the kids understand what happens to the numbers rather than jumping through hoops to get the right answer without a clue. I personally think some of it is crap, but some of it makes more sense to me than the way I was taught at school that I promptly forgot the day I'd finished exercise 4B on page 52 (long division I'm looking at YOU) - the way it's taught now, I can do it and I understand exactly what I'm doing and why.

I still have to stop myself telling kids that to multiply by 10 you stick a zero on the end and have to go through the whole explanation that all the digits move to the place to the right, and a zero goes on the end to keep them in the right place... bollocks to that - you bung a zero on the end, always have and always will!

The bit about cursive writing is interesting - it seems to be creeping in over here at the moment that you teach kids to join digraphs (two letters together to make a single sound like sh, ch, th etc) from the start so they see it as a single sound when they're reading and writing. Seen that one in a fair few schools, and one school I work in a lot - the kids have handwriting I'm seriously jealous of - it's beautifully joined and spaced, and I have horrid handwriting and hate it.

[brisk]

Being a Junior entering high school, I always HATED the lattice method. It was just a garbled mess for the dumb who didn't like the traditional method. The only time I remember using matrixes is to multiple/divide variables/equations.

[Kuya]

It was just a garbled mess for the dumb who didn't like the traditional method.

Does not make sense.

[VZX]

Calculators are useless, all real math is done with symbols.

Damn right. Calculating is slave labor.
Real mathematicians deal with symbols and tell the people "now, calculate this, gimme the right answer".

I always hated math during my Jr. High school.. yknow.. doing multiplication using multiplication table. On Sr. High school, I liked it more, especially physics, swap some variables around, and do the calculation at the end. If I made a calculation error, I'd still get 80% of the mark getting the logic right.

[Cairthenn]

The atlases in the math books in that video made me die.

Her sarcasm fucking owns.

[Eratosthenes]

I remember back in elementary school, we had to take timed tests, where you had to complete as many problems as possible within the time limit. I have no doubt that the standard algorithm would wipe the floor with any of these other touchy-feely crap methods in a timed test like that.

[terranova]

To understand the stupidity get to pages 3 and 4 of this link.

http://www.coolmath4kids.com/times-t...ication-1.html

That method makes getting the answer a chore. The old method is faster..and as a person currently trying to get a GED and with one more test to pass(math), I would not to use that method in math.

I would hate to see how teachers are teaching division these days, or even fractions. Math is all about shortcuts - not taking forever to get the answer >_>. On a math test with 1h 45min time limit, ya don't have time to be drawing fucking boxes.