Very interesting that the kids who understood math already can do the common core, and the kids who already had trouble have trouble with common core. I had never thought to ask that question, and I think it’s an important observation.
Nothing wrong with knowing how to approach a math problem more than one way, but I do hear a lot of parents frustrated with not being able to help their children with math. They say they wish the schools would give classes for the parents.
What I feel strongly about is at very very young ages, so k,1,2,3 I’m not very keen on word problems, or trying to incorporate more reading into math. Children lagging behind in reading comprehension can’t do math or reading if you make all math a word problem. Then the poor kids suck at everything! Let them be good at a subject. Reading is important, but some kids struggle with it, but are very smart kids.
I guess it would be worthwhile to see if children are doing better in math overall since we introduced common core. Another question I have is if the countries that excel in math teach math similar to common core, or do they use another program?
I was a math kid, and I didn’t always understand the math I was going, I just learned how to do it. Later the puzzle staretdd to fit together regarding the math and what the calculations really were.
A lot of math in the beginning can be done with memorization. Order of operations, times tables, how to carry a number. It’s formulas and practice. You don’t have to understand who subtracting a negative is a positive, you just need to know it is. I think kids get frustrated sometimes, because they are trying to understand rather than just accepting the rule. Sure, you need to understand some of it, but some math you can just do it. Or, I could anyway.