DU Common Core Math ?

[zeitgeist]

And so 1+1 = potato
This is a fun thread where DUmmies do math.  <Warning> Head will hurt after reading this thread <you have been warned>

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/10024624080

pokerfan (26,335 posts)





About That ‘Common Core’ Math Problem Making the Facebook Rounds
 

 
 
   
 
 

That picture is especially popular on conservatives’ Facebook walls… and I’m sure one of your relatives has said something about it, too.

On the surface, it seems ridiculous. The top makes sense; the bottom is silly; screw you, Common Core!

Except that the top doesn’t make sense, the bottom does, and the connection to Common Core is completely misunderstood. (Says this math teacher.)

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2014/03/07/about-that-common-core-math-problem-making-the-rounds-on-facebook/

Lovely thread by the best and brightest on the interwebz

[Dori]

The example in this new way of thinking was making change for $20. 

I still don't get the formula.  If something costs $12, why would I give the cashier $32?




 

[Rebel]

This completely takes out the "thinking" aspect of math. Let's see these f'n idiots try to go about their daily lives using this math. I doubt anyone wants to sit their and wait while these retards are trying to come up with a figure using this new bullshit. It's turning kids into brain dead morons that HAVE to rely on aids to solve an equation. JUST USE YOUR F'N HEAD! ....but I'm bitching at the DUmmies so I realize that's a feckless point.

[JohnnyReb]

First lattice multiplication and now this crap.....how stupid do they want to make kids.

Charlotte N.C. is having a round. They are moving the school district lines around shifting students from the better performing schools to the lower performing schools so as to raise the scores.....or that's the way the parents and myself see it. Gotta do it to get Obama great leap backwards money.

[Rebel]

First lattice multiplication and now this crap.....how stupid do they want to make kids.

Charlotte N.C. is having a round. They are moving the school district lines around shifting students from the better performing schools to the lower performing schools so as to raise the scores.....or that's the way the parents and myself see it. Gotta do it to get Obama great leap backwards money.

Well, that's the lesson of Socialism, ain't it?  I see a lot of private school registrations in the near future.

[Ptarmigan]

Fuzzy math. 

[dane]

They do manage to talk something to death.  They all seem to be saying the same thing while not saying anything at all.

[cmypay]

And if your child happens to think for themselves and just does the math, they are WRONG! The right answer no longer matters, every single step must be performed or the answer is wrong.

[USA4ME]

It's the new math version of "redistribution of wealth."

.

[FlaGator]

DU Math was first introduced by McDonald's in the late 90s when they replaced numbers on their cash registers with pictures of food.

[98ZJUSMC]

DU Math was first introduced by McDonald's in the late 90s when they replaced numbers on their cash registers with pictures of food.

Heh.... no shit, they really did that?

<<<Hasn't been to a McDonalds since the 80's.

[marv]

joeglow3 (4,378 posts)
25. The problem is when teachers ONLY teach it the common core way

I am a CPA and have always loved working with numbers. My wife, not so much. Our son had some homework that made ZERO sense to our son, my wife and myself. After the two of them spending a couple hours, I sat down with my son. I looked at the problem and explained 2 or 3 different ways to get to the correct answer and one them really stuck him. We then spent time explaining how and why it works. We then showed how it was similar to the other methods. By the end, he understood all the different methods, except the funky one. He nailed them all, and was given an incomplete because he did not do it the "right" way.

Star Member kentauros (24,046 posts)
65. And therein lies the problem with The System,

i.e., who's in control right now. [b/They don't want the right answer, they want the right process[/b]

"Think the way we do, or you fail."

Common core math is just fun math using shortcuts and approximations. Try using common core math on your income tax.

Here's some real fun math....can you tell if this number is divisible by three in 15 seconds?

163548029464632893746209902344892982558

[jukin]

Common core:

1+1= POTATO
I CAN COUNT TO HAM!
MY FAVORITE NUMBER IS HAM!!

The absolute genius of Obama. Take the worst performing school system's superintendent and put that man in charge of the nations education. Oh and pay a lot of cronnies lots of money for pure crap.

[JohnnyReb]

Common core math is just fun math using shortcuts and approximations. Try using common core math on your income tax.

Here's some real fun math....can you tell if this number is divisible by three in 15 seconds?

163548029464632893746209902344892982558

Yes but I had to make the numbers larger so I could put my finger on them to keep my place.

[franksolich]

By the end, he understood all the different methods, except the funky one. He nailed them all, and was given an incomplete because he did not do it the "right" way.

That is a legitimate complaint, and if it's still going on, I'm pissed.

I attended elementary school through the 4th grade in a small town alongside the Platte River of Nebraska, where conventional teaching of arithmetic was used.

Beginning with the 5th grade, I was one of those art-nouveau elementary schools in a small town in the heart of the Sandhills.  There, even though the teachers were more ancient than those I'd had in the previous school, all these "new" things, these left-wing teaching methods, were applied.

Long division was my downfall.  I'd learned it the standard old way in the old school, but the new school used a different way, probably some creation of the "childhood educator" the old terrorist William Ayers.

I tried, but I didn't get it.  So I continued doing long division the old way.

My teacher in the 6th grade was a real witch about this.  Even if my answer was correct, she'd still mark it as wrong, and keep me after school. 

Whereas I'd been indifferent, or perhaps mildly enthusiastic, about arithmetic before, I got really antagonistic about it beginning at that time.  I went all the way through high school without taking a single course in mathematics.

At the time, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln was compelled by law--it's not so any more, alas--to admit anyone who sought admission, who was a graduate of any high school in Nebraska, and so I got in there anyway.

But I had to take mathematics in college; there was no way out of it.

However, since I could now do the mathematics my way, it was a breeze, despite no high-school algebra, geometry, calculus, whatnot.  I didn't get As--they were usually low Bs and high Cs--but I think that was pretty impressive, given my previous non-learnage.

Even though I was getting a liberal arts degree, I still had to take four courses (12 credit hours) in one of the "hard" sciences--chemistry, biology, zoology, botany, whatnot.  I opted for what I figured was the easiest of the hard sciences, and took physics.  I got As in all four of them.

Teaching "there's only one way, and it's the new way" is shit.

[miskie]

A government liberal HAD to design this - Only the government would replace a simple subtraction problem with five addition problems and declare it better.

[JohnnyReb]

A government liberal HAD to design this - Only the government would replace a simple subtraction problem with five addition problems and declare it better.

Don't you see....it's the "Make Work" union way. The old way is to simple, to fast and puts workers out of a job.

[marv]

Yes but I had to make the numbers larger so I could put my finger on them to keep my place.

A pencil works better.

What method did you use?

[marv]

Today, they don't teach real math or English. Maybe the "'Old Fashioned' way" was better. In the real world, the product will fail if the process only produces an "approximate" product. Close only counts in hand grenades.........

[Skul]

Where did 15 come into play?
I know, I know, liberals fixin' shit that ain't broke.

[Purple Sage]

I'm guessing this example is misleading.  Obviously, nobody in his right mind is going to subtract 12 from 32 via several steps to get 20, but this is how I do math in my head for numbers not so obvious.  Also, there are extra steps in the example that is ridiculous.

Pretend this wasn't an easy example... bear with me.  I'd look at 32 - 12 and think, "I gotta get to 30".  12 plus what is 30?  18, 18 + 2 = 20.

Think of a number such as 3743 - 1649.  I'd think, "51 to round to 1700.  Add 2000.  + 43.  = 2094.

For myself, it's a faster and easier way to do math in one's head when one doesn't have a pencil and paper handy.  While I've taught all of my children standard math.  I also taught them how to do math "the easy way" in their heads.  It is also a good way to check one's math to ensure it was figured correctly when done the standard way in one's head.

Edit to add:  HOMESCHOOL.  You can teach your kids how to do math however you think best for them. 

[FlaGator]

Heh.... no shit, they really did that?

<<<Hasn't been to a McDonalds since the 80's.

[I_B_Perky]

Well I don't know what the hell kind of math that is.

However... there are all kinds of little arithmetic tricks in math you can do in your head that makes people think you are a genius. I remember back in some computer classes I had back in the 80's they had something called subtraction by addition. Had to do with assembler and how to calc stuff when you were writing assembler. This was in binary though. Some of that stuff was pretty neat. I remember in my Algorithm class how you could find the LCD of anything by adding certain digits of the numbers you had and get the answer in like 4 or 5 steps. This was in base 10 too. I actually taught it to Mom, she was not good at math, and she loved it so much she taught it to her 5th grade class for years. Can't remember it now and neither can mom. Got to be out on the net somewhere.

[landofconfusion80]

I had a first-year Geometry teacher in high school.  For whatever reason, I seemed to do well in this course despite a major deficiency in math.  The teacher was fresh out of Texas Instruments and was willing to think outside the box.  One lesson the other students just weren't getting.  I had figured out a much simpler process than what was in the book so he looked at that and just let me explain it out.  A huge boost for a student that wasn't accomplished in regular math courses.  A willingness to try a better method would be completely alien to a common core lesson today.

[Carl]

It looks to me like a way to reduce math to something you can do by counting on your fingers.