Please don't think I am crazy but......

[mbw12]

I am becoming my parents already! I can't do my son's second grade math!!!!! AARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!! I was taught growing up to add right to left, than carry over to the tens, than carry over to the hundreds, etc..
He is being taught to add left to right (or some crazy s%#* like that) We are not to talk about carrying numbers over because they won't be doing that, because they are adding left to right. It would freaking help if they sent home their text books, so that I could atleast read HOW he is being taught, so that if he does need help, I could freaking help him at home. I wound up going onto Google, typing in, "adding left to right" and found some website called the math doctor that basically explained to me the philosophy of it and how to do it. (and I do have to say....that it makes adding in your head much easier than the way I was taught, by adding right to left, than carrying over to the tens place, than carrying over to the hundreds, etc) But still....come on....it wasn't that long ago that I was in school....and NOW I AM OBSOLETE!!!!!! LOL!!!!!
anyway, just needed to vent....nothing makes you feel more old, than finding out that we use the "old math"....I remember my parents saying stuff like that to me when I was a kid...and I thought they were just dumb....now I know better!!!!!!!

 

[pattyT]

I am sooo glad that I am the only one who is WRONG when it comes to elemetary math these day
DD says I am doing it WRONG but we get the same answer - go figure

 

[Sparx]

wow. I am STILL IN SCHOOL, and if my teacher told me to do that I would think she's crazy. It just doesn't make sense
'old' math......'new' math
999+465........999+465
1464...............131,514

It just doesn't make sense. I mean how can you NOT carry? Please tell me I am doing something wrong.

 

[aprilgail2]

When m ynephew was in school and I was helping him with his division we did it totally seperate ways..he was stuglling with how the school was teahing him to do it,..I showed him my way and he grasped the concept one two three!!

 

[mbw12]

Well.....this is what I found:

Quoted from the math doctor webpage:


The basic idea behind this doesn't really depend on the order of the
columns: we add tens to tens and ones to ones, and if the "ones" go
beyond 9, we move the tens into the tens column. The "new way" does
exactly this; the only real difference is that it "carries" after
adding the original numbers, rather than as part of the tens column
when it is first added. That is, you add the tens to get 20+10 = 30;
and you add the ones to get 5+5 = 10; and then you add these together
to get 30+10 = 40.

 

[CrazedDisFan]

Ok this is ridiculously confusing. Now, my question is, next year are they going to confuse those poor children more by teaching them 'to carry over'?

I have a daughter in third grade. The math has gotten far more difficult over the years. What we were once teaching in 5th grade is now taught at 3rd grade level or even lower. It is more difficult for our students, parents and staff to learn/teach. Yet, we are still far behind in our math skills in comparison to China.

 

[MinnieM3]

In my 3rd grade I teach adding from right to left. Have no clue how they'd do left to right


I did teach subtracting with borrowing differently than some of the parents had learned; I told them as long as their kid understood I didn't care which way he did it. Just had to show his work.

 

[DisneyArk]

My DS is in 2nd grade and he is also learning to add from left to right. It seems so strange to me. When I check his work I do it from right to left and carry. Our way seems faster to me! Below is an example of what he was doing. Isn't this going to be confusing when he is adding numbers with more digits???

47
+26
----
60
+13
----
73

 

[Kermit]

My DS is in 2nd grade and he is also learning to add from left to right. It seems so strange to me. When I check his work I do it from right to left and carry. Our way seems faster to me! Below is an example of what he was doing. Isn't this going to be confusing when he is adding numbers with more digits???

47
+26
----
60
+13
----
73

That's interesting. That's the way I usually add things when I don't have paper and have to do it in my head. I do it the regular way when I can write things down, but grouping things like that makes it easier when it's in my head. Sometimes I'll also do it like:
47 + 6=53, 53 + 20=73
That way works better when you have more than 2 numbers.

I think that the ideal way to teach math is to teach it the standard way, and then once students really get it (which probably won't be until at least jr high), show them that things aren't set in stone. Give examples of other ways think through mathematic principles, and let them choose the ones that work best for them. I don't like it when people teach "shortcuts" to kids who don't fully grasp the concept. Then they just end up memorizing the shortcut, rather than really understanding how the numbers work together.

Sorry, that got longer than I intended. I get more passionate than most people about the way math is taught. I think we'd have a lot fewer people who weren't good at math if students had teachers from the very beginning who really got math. A second grade math teacher needs to know a lot more than second grade (or even 8th grade) math.

 

[scoutsmom99]

wow I'm sooo glad I don't have math work!!! I don't get the adding left to right thing at all even with the examples. Math+Me=Confusion

 

[tiff211]

That's why I married a teacher. I didn't get the old math never mind the new math!!

 

[stinkerbelle]

omg...my future children are screwed.
I still used my fingers to count
(product of the "calculator generation") heheh

I can see "grouping"...but the left to right is odd.
Yes, it looks cleaner then the 1's and 2's next to the next number when you 'carry'...but it's odd to me. just 'cause i'm used to the right to left way.

 

[HayGan]

Oh you guys are making my head hurt

 

[Jeafl]

In our school they teach the University of Chicago math program. For multiplication they learn THREE different ways of doing a problem including some kind of "lattice" procedure which involves using some kind of grid that looks like a tic tac toe game. They come up with the right answer, but I am totally confused as to how they get it.

 

[Pam]

I have not been able to help my kids with homework for years!

In fact, I have to keep asking them to turn the DVD player on for me.

 

[ForTheLoveofDisney]

That is wild. I tried it and part of me wants to say it's easier, I'm just not used to it but I agree with one of the posters above who said right to left should be taught first so that the fundamentals of math are "gotten" and then in Jr. high show different ways of doing math.

Thanks for sharing,though, it's fun to learn something new.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

oh man - my kids were in a school using the University of Chicago Math program for a couple of years. I honestly went to EBAY and bought some Saxon math books, and they learned Math on the sly at home.

my oldest had one teacher in 6th grade who would get pissed off at when he would do his algebra "using a wrong" method.

I'm so glad I don't have to go to school anymore.