common core math

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Every once in a while I see a meme about Common Core Math - which is apperantly a new American system of solving math equations that seems significantly more complex than what I remember being taught in school. The argument seems to be that it supposedly makes kids understand the process behind the math equations.

Since there are people here who are young enough to have studied this system, I need to ask: Is it retarded as the memes suggest? Why was it created? Is it the regular case of a government organization trying to improve something and only making things worse?

 

[Bec]

Its shit.

 

[Absolutego]

It's just New Math all over again. This is a 55 year old song, and could just as easily be lampooning Common Core. I think these convoluted mind tricks and mnemonics/whatever appeal to the psychology of Education Theorists, and every other generation or so, the industry loses their collective memory of the last time they tried this and are convinced it's the Next Big Thing.

 

[Otis Boi]

When I was in first grade they I was in a Pilot course for what is now common core. It was such a shit show that after 4 months they dropped it.

It was weird because we had to do weekly test and had to send out these handbooks to some weird faculty. There also a government women who would watch the class at random intervals.

Common core is a great idea in concept but in practice it confusing and at best convulted

 

[Not Really Here]

They asked geniuses how they did math and figured tat was the easiest and best way to do math.

The problem is that normies don't reason the same way as smurt people do.

 

[Shadfan666xxx000]

It's basically a new fad to try and justify people's tenure. It's like those people who keep trying to come up with new ways to read when all you need to do with our alphabet is figure out the basic sounds.

 

[NOT Sword Fighter Super]

I misread that title as "common core meth" and got excited.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

My mom is an elementary schoolteacher. One of the things they have to do is they teach the children to do math a very specific way and if they don't do it that way it's supposed to be counted as wrong, even if it obeys the properties of arithmetic. For example, suppose you have 3 + 17. Maybe you want to do 3 + 7 + 10 = 10 + 10 = 20, but their method wants you to do it as 3 + 2 + 5 + 10 = 5 + 5 + 10 = 10 + 10 = 20, so your answer would be "wrong."

I made up that example, but there's stuff like that where they basically teach the method of derivation as though it is the source of the answer instead of just one way to it. It's completely fucked up and tramples all over how actual (college and graduate level) mathematics is done.

 

[ducktales4gameboy]

I've realized since quarantine how much trouble the younger generation has doing basic addition and subtraction and it's kind of distressing.

There's a game called Slay the Spire I've gotten a couple family members into in the last couple months. It's a good time if you like pure strategy games but what's relevant here is that it forces you to do simple mental addition, subtraction and multiplication constantly to the point where I'd consider it a decent teaching tool for simple math. An example of the most complex problem you'd need to solve would be something like evaluating if 4 * 6 * 1.5 + 8 >= 36 + 2 and both kids young enough to have been through common core have massive problems with this as for whatever reason they seem intent on doing the 6*1.5 before the 4*6 when everyone else will just glance at it and come up with 40 within a second or so. Is there something in common core that would tell you to bring decimals or fractions early, or is this just some really weird way they're taught to apply pemdas?

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I've realized since quarantine how much trouble the younger generation has doing basic addition and subtraction and it's kind of distressing.

There's a game called Slay the Spire I've gotten a couple family members into in the last couple months. It's a good time if you like pure strategy games but what's relevant here is that it forces you to do simple mental addition, subtraction and multiplication constantly to the point where I'd consider it a decent teaching tool for simple math. An example of the most complex problem you'd need to solve would be something like evaluating if 4 * 6 * 1.5 + 8 >= 36 + 2 and both kids young enough to have been through common core have massive problems with this as for whatever reason they seem intent on doing the 6*1.5 before the 4*6 when everyone else will just glance at it and come up with 40 within a second or so. Is there something in common core that would tell you to bring decimals or fractions early, or is this just some really weird way they're taught to apply pemdas?

They have to do the order of operations in a very specific way and they're taught that if use things like the Commutative or Additive Properties it gets a different answer than it actually does in real life. It's like the Abbot and Costello math sketch but real.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I've realized since quarantine how much trouble the younger generation has doing basic addition and subtraction and it's kind of distressing.

There's a game called Slay the Spire I've gotten a couple family members into in the last couple months. It's a good time if you like pure strategy games but what's relevant here is that it forces you to do simple mental addition, subtraction and multiplication constantly to the point where I'd consider it a decent teaching tool for simple math. An example of the most complex problem you'd need to solve would be something like evaluating if 4 * 6 * 1.5 + 8 >= 36 + 2 and both kids young enough to have been through common core have massive problems with this as for whatever reason they seem intent on doing the 6*1.5 before the 4*6 when everyone else will just glance at it and come up with 40 within a second or so. Is there something in common core that would tell you to bring decimals or fractions early, or is this just some really weird way they're taught to apply pemdas?

I didn't want to say it in the OP, but the tinfoil hat wearer in me as wonders if this kind of math is done specifically to gatekeep the populace from entering math heavy fields, making them entirely reliant on the "intellectual caste" for decisions.

 

[Unassuming Local Guy]

I've realized since quarantine how much trouble the younger generation has doing basic addition and subtraction and it's kind of distressing.

There's a game called Slay the Spire I've gotten a couple family members into in the last couple months. It's a good time if you like pure strategy games but what's relevant here is that it forces you to do simple mental addition, subtraction and multiplication constantly to the point where I'd consider it a decent teaching tool for simple math. An example of the most complex problem you'd need to solve would be something like evaluating if 4 * 6 * 1.5 + 8 >= 36 + 2 and both kids young enough to have been through common core have massive problems with this as for whatever reason they seem intent on doing the 6*1.5 before the 4*6 when everyone else will just glance at it and come up with 40 within a second or so. Is there something in common core that would tell you to bring decimals or fractions early, or is this just some really weird way they're taught to apply pemdas?

In your example it doesn't really matter which way you do it. 6 * 1.5 is slightly easier than 24 * 1.5, or at the very least no harder, so changing the order shouldn't have any effect one way or another.

I didn't learn common core but I personally would have multiplied the 1.5 first, because I tend to multiply fractions/decimals as early in the chain as possible because they're more difficult than integers. The earlier you get them out of the way, the easier they are to deal with, and you're left with a bunch of nice easy whole numbers. That is, unless the product is itself a decimal or a fraction, but if that's the case it was bound to happen anyway so whatever.

Anyway, I tried to look up common core math once and it made no sense, but that could have just been the way it was explained to me. I don't actually know anything about it beyond a vague memory that it has something to do with breaking every number into as many tens as possible? Not my problem I guess.

 

[Seventh Star]

I have a mathematics-loving friend who knows a lot about the theory of maths pedagogy. He inmediately blasted it as autistic garbage. I understand some of it, but the question is why would you do such convoluted thinking for it? Furthermore, straight up telling kids that getting an answer is wrong because of the way they did it, when that way is extremely inefficient... and I stop wondering why school shootings are such a meme in the US.

I didn't want to say it in the OP, but the tinfoil hat wearer in me as wonders if this kind of math is done specifically to gatekeep the populace from entering math heavy fields, making them entirely reliant on the "intellectual caste" for decisions.

I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I didn't want to say it in the OP, but the tinfoil hat wearer in me as wonders if this kind of math is done specifically to gatekeep the populace from entering math heavy fields, making them entirely reliant on the "intellectual caste" for decisions.

I've thought it's possible it's a way to try to make the academically successful races equal with the academically unsuccessful ones by just lowering them to the same level.

 

[raspberry mocha]

I feel like they were trying to copy the Singapore Math method, but they didn't understand even that. If anything, it makes it difficult for parents to help their kids, even parents who are good at math.

 

[Sage In All Fields]

Having more methods is good, I'm pretty slow at calculating but it's much easier if I have a variety of methods I can mix and match depending on what's more efficient, common core doesn't seem to crazy to me. I still don't really know my times tables I just calculate them as needed based on other things I know.

 

[Driftwood]

Common Core uses a bunch of shit that assumes a student has the basics down, but they don't, because they teach the shortcut mental math first.

I get it when I see it, but it makes me want to commit sudoku when I see the kid does not even understand the basics of the problem, let alone the shortcut.

 

[Penis Drager]

Common Core uses a bunch of shit that assumes a student has the basics down, but they don't, because they teach the shortcut mental math first.

I get it when I see it, but it makes me want to commit sudoku when I see the kid does not even understand the basics of the problem, let alone the shortcut.

This pretty much sums it up.
Common core is basically all the same "tips and tricks" that people who learn the normal way usually figure out themselves or the teacher might mention in passing. People naturally begin doing math this way after they gain sufficient understanding of the problem. But CC skips teaching the "normal way" and instead just teaches the shortcuts.
It's like learning all the professional chess strategies without learning the basic game first. You discourage independent thought and encourage people to just follow step-by-step instructions. All while confusing yourself because you don't understand how the strategy is supposed to even work or its shortcomings.

 

[ducktales4gameboy]

In your example it doesn't really matter which way you do it. 6 * 1.5 is slightly easier than 24 * 1.5, or at the very least no harder, so changing the order shouldn't have any effect one way or another.

Yeah, it's a pedantic point. I was just pointing it out because I can remember in my early 90s math education having it hammered into me to deal with any decimals last if you were doing any commutative operation mentally, leading to 6*4 = 24 + (24/2) = 36. It's just weird how the curriculum has changed, but as long as it works..

 

[Seventh Star]

Having more methods is good, I'm pretty slow at calculating but it's much easier if I have a variety of methods I can mix and match depending on what's more efficient, common core doesn't seem to crazy to me. I still don't really know my times tables I just calculate them as needed based on other things I know.

The thing is, not only you aren't a kid, you can't really give children, hell even regular people all these methods to solving a problem, you should just go with the basics or a few of them. Go with a solid foundation in which you can then build other mathematical concepts on.

Plus making parents look like idiots for not following an specific method, while their older methods are not only very adequate, but also fast...

Yeah, it's a pedantic point. I was just pointing it out because I can remember in my early 90s math education having it hammered into me to deal with any decimals last if you were doing any commutative operation mentally, leading to 6*4 = 24 + (24/2) = 36. It's just weird how the curriculum has changed, but as long as it works..

"As long as it works" is a terrible idea for education.