70% of kids don't understand the equals sign

[Max™]

Well, maybe it's just from having a stupid fast typing speed, but since "order of operations" and "BEDMAS/FOIL" only differs by 6 keystrokes (17 letters + 2 spaces for 19 vs 10 letters, 1 slash, and two extended uses of the shift key for 13), it's hard to notice a difference, particularly when I'm not constrained by time issues. I actually had to google bedmas/foil though, as that isn't an acryonym I ever saw used.

[Korietsu]

FOIL = First, Outside, Inside, Last.

[Deadgye]

Perhaps it's because I'm a Canuck. I rarely heard the word parenthesis growing up, everyone just seemed to prefer the word bracket in math class.

Silly canucks, using brackets[] while everyone else uses parenthesis().

[Maguspk]

Math is not hard, those stupid acronyms are what make it hard. That's the kind of shit I hated teacher's doing, just show me a problem and how to do it not a stupid word that relates to 4 other words that relate to some other operation I do when I encounter some situation, talk about ass backwards.

[Kaisha]

Silly canucks, using brackets[] while everyone else uses parenthesis().

I'm probably going to get slapped for this, but I call [] square brackets.

[Max™]

Parenthesis: (
Square Bracket: [
Curly Bracket: {

[Deadgye]

Technically they're all brackets. Only () are called parenthesis though.

Spoiler: show

Wiki says:
* round brackets, open brackets, brackets (UK), or parentheses: ( )
* square brackets, closed brackets, or brackets (US): [ ]
* curly brackets, squiggly brackets, definite brackets, swirly brackets, birdie brackets, Scottish brackets, squirrelly brackets, braces, or gullwings: { }
* angle brackets, triangular brackets, diamond brackets, tuples, or chevrons: ⟨ ⟩
* inequality signs: < >
* corner brackets: ⸤,⸥; ｢,｣

[Max™]

What a twist, I think I just got out-wiki'D!

[sephir]

The only purpose that this sign (=) has is as follows:


=^.^= look at the cute kitty.

[Plow]

Math is not hard, those stupid acronyms are what make it hard. That's the kind of shit I hated teacher's doing, just show me a problem and how to do it not a stupid word that relates to 4 other words that relate to some other operation I do when I encounter some situation, talk about ass backwards.

I really hope you're not talking about FOIL, because it's literally a checklist, not some shit made up to remind you of something else so that you blah blah blah.

You do the first, the outside, the inside, and the last.

[NotGreyheim]

http://static.tvfanatic.com/images/g...sworth-pic.jpg

I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

[Diamicles]

A bad reputation that is entirely deserved.

The real issue in my opinion is that most teachers never studied the advanced material. They are not mathematician (or chemist, or physicist) that are teaching their own disciplines like it should be..hell, they rarely understand the usefulness of what they are teaching most of the time. While I'm sure some of them are smart, the one that parrot the curriculum without giving any insight won't be of much help for the kids.

Did you even go to college? Do you know anyone who majored in education?

If you get an education degree - this is at the college I went to at least - you MUST get a double major in whatever it is you will be teaching. I'm fairly certain that you have to do this at most colleges that have an education program that is worth a shit. Want to teach math? You better be able to pass at least differential equations, and trust me, you aren't passing that shit if you don't understand it completely.

That said - maybe it is more the fault of the way that teachers are required to learn the subject matter they are teaching - which in the end, leads back to curriculum, but the curriculum that is being taught at higher learning institutes, and what is required on the Praxis test.

[Sepukku]

This sounds pretty problematic, but what does it all equal??

[Uzor]

I blame the calculator for children's ignorance. They probably just enter the entire thing in to the calculator and write it down, saying "The calculator knows best."

I mean, writing it in to the calculator, 4 (+) 3 (+) 2 (=) 9 (+) 2 really DOES equal 11 if entered in to a calculator. Calculators are always correct!

[Cadsuane]

I never heard order of operations being used after the ninth or tenth grade. Algebra syntax makes it impossible to not understand.

So like, I don't understand, that's like not knowing long division after the twelfth grade. Come to think of it the only idea I still know how to do long division is because it gets rehashed into polynomial division.

[Drex]

It doesn't help that people are becoming more and more obsessed with making children feel good. My summer course instructor told us yesterday that she went to a teaching conference a couple months ago, and one of the debates was whether red pens were appropriate for grading. She said many of the teachers there felt that it "made children think they did something wrong" when the teacher marked something in red.

NO SHIT SHERLOCKS, THEY DID

[Silviya]

Most of my math teachers K-12 taught out of the book. Most of them didn't even understand the "why is this useful" themselves. It wasn't until I got past algebra that the teachers actually knew the material they where teaching and why it is important to learn (both practical uses and as a base for higher level math).

I always knew most people (most Americans?) sucked at math when I found out the majority of people in majors outside of Math, Science, or Engineering couldn't even solve a two-equations, two-unknowns problem. Let alone show a basic understanding of Trig.

[Kaylia]

Did you even go to college? Do you know anyone who majored in education?

If you get an education degree - this is at the college I went to at least - you MUST get a double major in whatever it is you will be teaching. I'm fairly certain that you have to do this at most colleges that have an education program that is worth a shit. Want to teach math? You better be able to pass at least differential equations, and trust me, you aren't passing that shit if you don't understand it completely.

That said - maybe it is more the fault of the way that teachers are required to learn the subject matter they are teaching - which in the end, leads back to curriculum, but the curriculum that is being taught at higher learning institutes, and what is required on the Praxis test.

I majored in physics, and I've seen a ton of new physics/maths teacher being formed in the early year of my major since they were sharing the class. I'm also living around many high school teachers, and I was able to stay updated on the current maths/physics curriculum.

Do you have any ideas how many times I heard something like "why are we learning complicated stuff like this? Its not like we will need it in high school" from students in education. Do you really think such person will share his passion for sciences and mathematics? It's not that they can't get the job done on a basic level, but teaching require a little more than that.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's not a double major that is required, it's the equivalent of a few first and second years classes.

[Narol]

Not to mention school systems screwing over their entire class base. Smart kids don't get to advance much, they have to be wrangled back

I think the absolute best example I ever saw of this was in grade 10. The teacher basically showed no regard for anyone getting a B or higher and devoted many hours of his own time so that the airhead bimbos and retarded jocks could improve their grades from a C- to a C+. When asked about this, he basically said that smart people can help themselves, so all the attention should go to the slower students.

Thankfully, there's some mercy in the world, so he only lasted that one year. But that doesn't change that my school only had a small handful of dedicated math/science teachers and most of those classes were taught out of the textbook by gym teachers.

So like, I don't understand, that's like not knowing long division after the twelfth grade. Come to think of it the only idea I still know how to do long division is because it gets rehashed into polynomial division.

My school had a raging hard-on for synthetic division, which I never actually learned because I found long division easier. Hell, looking at the wikipedia article on it against the one for polynomial long division, the latter still makes perfect sense to me while the former is some kind of voodoo math. Make of that what you will.

She said many of the teachers there felt that it "made children think they did something wrong" when the teacher marked something in red.

"You didn't do it wrong. You just did it differently."

[Max™]

I majored in physics, and I've seen a ton of new physics/maths teacher being formed in the early year of my major since they were sharing the class. I'm also living around many high school teachers, and I was able to stay updated on the current maths/physics curriculum.

Do you have any ideas how many times I heard something like "why are we learning complicated stuff like this? Its not like we will need it in high school" from students in education. Do you really think such person will share his passion for sciences and mathematics? It's not that they can't get the job done on a basic level, but teaching require a little more than that.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's not a double major that is required, it's the equivalent of a few first and second years classes.

To get a teaching license in most places you need a Bachelor's of Science in Education, you can major in a particular subject and minor in education in cases of specific high school type education, or major in education with minors in particular fields you'll be teaching, as is generally done with the earlier grades.

https://www.phoenix.edu/content/dam/...BSED-E-003.pdf
EED 415, 420, 425, 430, and 435 are elementary teaching methods math/science/health/social/arts courses.


Telling a student they did something wrong is less useful than asking them how they arrived at that answer, so you (and they) can identify the error in their thought process, and correct THAT.

If I expect you to mark C, and whack your hand because you marked B, did you learn to mark C, or learn to NOT mark B?