alt.education

"Dom" wrote in message
news:a7174a22-3d26-4ca6-bb7a-3c3255e89d88@s50g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...

> http://mathgateway.maa.org/do/ViewMathNews?id=275
>
> New Mathematics Textbook is Drawing Ire
> March 6, 2008
>
> A mathematics textbook series has angered parents and elementary
> school teachers who say its methods fail to help children master basic
> math skills. But educators say it helps younger students learn
> mathematics in preparation for learning algebra.
> ...

I watched the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1qee-bTZI

My God. A complete dependence on calculators.

Idiots.

At the end of the video there was a comment to the effect that some college
students couldn't multiply 4 times 6 without a calculator. My first
question would be how in the Hell did he/she even get into college and/or
what kind of college was this.

Beside the point ... been there seen that. I was tutoring a student that
was taking Algebra II - during a solution I watched him use a calculator to
multiply 4 times 0 ... somewhat astonished I asked him "did you do what I
think you just did?" ... he very nonchalantly replied "yes, I was just
checking myself".

Want more? I tutored a student from a Catholic school - 7th through 8th
grade. I was really impressed. You could ask him to add 3/8 + 2/3 +7/9 and
he would dive right in and come up with the correct answer. His parents
couldn't afford to continue in Catholic school so they sent him to a public
school for the 9th through 12th grade - I continued to tutor him. The
school that he attended taught a complete dependency on calculators. If you
wanted to know the decimal equivalent of 3/4 you use a calculator - if you
want to know the decimal equivalent of 1/2 ... use a calculator.

Before long (less than a year) his math skills dwindled to an astronomical
low .. he had in fact developed a *complete* dependency on the calculator.
I continued to do what I could (as his tutor) but it was to no avail - the
teacher insisted he use a calculator for EVERYTHING. Believe it or not,
about 1/2 way through the 10th grade I asked him to add 3/4 and 5/8 by hand
.. couldn't do it without help.

Can a student graduate from high school not knowing how to multiply 6 times
4? Sure can. Can this same student graduate (or even enter) college not
knowing how to multiply 6 times 4 ... ?

Jerry