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"The government said the concerns, and a petition from a group called the Western Initiative for Strengthening Education in Math, led to an assignment for MLAs Russ Marchuk and Gene Makowsky to host eight consultation meetings with teachers and school administrators".

Wouldn't that be like asking the foxes to provide advice on why some chickens are missing from the hen-house.

There is something wrong when 12 grads can't make change. How do they teach math when the kids can't even count.

I bought a coke at the golden arches today, total cost $1.12. I presented $20.12 in cash. (a $20 bill was the smallest I had) plus .12 in coin as I didn't want a hand full of change back. The young lady was perplexed and didn't know what to do and had to consciously count out the 12 cents (a dime and two pennies) before she rang it in to the till. Then took a long pause to figure out how to denominate the $19 change. I don't know, maybe she was thinking about Newton's law of relativity or something and I caught her off guard.

mike

mike, so happy I'm not the only one.

Did counting change stop when the teachers decided our future was a cashless society?

I'd like to have a look at the textbooks (they do have books, right?) There's a lot of money to be made by selling a new program to school systems. They don't have to be good programs--just new and expensive.

Just the little bit I've garnered from the earlier discussions, I have a feeling the program is muddy, poorly structured and designed to produce kids who will not understand math. It also will be taught by teachers who themselves don't understand math. Tutor your own kids.

I had the privilege a few years ago when sitting in a upscale restaurant in Vancouver, the automatic till crapped out during lunch hour and the waitresses had to add the bills up by hand. It was so entertaining I stayed a extra half hour and the line up to pay was about 20 people long. The flustered girls had difficulty in simple addition and no clue in figuring out the HST on the total. Not a calculator in sight and many customers just tossed them their "best guess" and left. That's when I realised how the education system in math had gone to hell, as these girls were not stupid. Very entertaining as I had the table next to the till.

I just realized I need to start thanking cashiers for knowing math.

Soon enough, I should thank doctors how to do their jobs, too.

Oh, wait.

Teachers are not as important as they think they are.

If you complain about bureaucracy to bureaucrats, all you get is more bureaucracy. What else did you expect?

I am a teacher. The Saskatchewan government blew it with this announcement. Sask. and MB. use a textbook series called Math Makes Sense. It is a terrible text series. I tried it for one year, and basically threw it away. I know there are many teachers like me who are very frustrated with the math curriculum. I guess they didn't ask us for our opinions.

You don't understand, as a parent you're not smart enough to understand the fine nuance's of teaching a hard science.

If they have no grounding in math and the sciences then they'll have to go into the social sciences. 1+1=5 shouldn't matter to a sociologist. It's like selective or non-teaching of history, if the students are totally dependent then you'll never have to fear them leaving you (or the beliefs you espouse to them).

My kids, now in their early thirties, cannot figure out how I can multiply so fast. I had to learn the multiplication tables by heart as a kid in public school. 1 times 1 to 12 times 12. Too hard for the modern teacher to teach I guess.

When the goal of education has become promoting self-esteem and social justice, there's no room for subjects that students find difficult.

When the public education system is designed to serve the interests of the teachers union, there's no room for the interests of students and their parents.

No surprise, then, that Johnny flunks out of first-year university, even after it's been dumbed down and grades inflated.

WISE Math's great efforts came to nought. Should some dedicated but misguided teachers start WISE English to improve the reading and writing skills of students, they too will fail.

Shut down public education now. It is much more a harm than a good.

New Math. I did not no the old math was broken.

This must explain the way socialist countries are trying run their countries they are using the New Math and we are using the old.

Public Education Dumb by Design.

Several years ago I saw a math problem that stated:
Iif one disposable diaper takes 2,500 years to decompose in a landfill, how long will it take 4 disposable diapers to decompose?

yup, I used to win math contests

as they teach now, I'll still be able to win them long after they've shovelled the dirt over me

Denis, it's not that it's too hard. Multiplication tables were thrown out of curricula by education theorists just the way grammar was thrown out. Both are forms of learning by rote.

All of these, along with phonics, have been under attack for decades. And it's originated by the education theorists within the education institutes like OISE (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education). They were overrun many years ago by the social scientists of the worst kind, and public education has been suffering ever since.

A second aspect of the problem is "no child must ever be allowed to fail". To a certain extent this pressure comes from parents. So over time, you end up with a system where children can't read, can't write, can't do arithmetic, and have a functional vocabulary half that of the previous generation.

I agree with all the comments here. I’m a teacher too: too bad, rita and Teacher, that those of us with “feet on the ground” aren’t the ones to write the curriculum and math texts/workbooks. REAL teachers providing what the kids really need: that’ll be the day!

The math curriculum’s a mess: altogether wide and shallow, rather than narrow and deep. Until the end of grade four, with some related problem solving, the kids should just be taught the BASICS of Number Sense and Numeration as well as Measurement—to MASTERY, you know, maybe learn the number facts and conversions by heart. Try doing fractions with any facility if one doesn’t know the multiplication/division facts automatically or metric relationships. Instead, big time, from grade ONE, the curricula are crowded with “frills and furbelows” like Data Management and Probability, Geometry and Spatial Sense, Patterning and Algebra. A little of the latter is OK, but there are so many unnecessary extras to be dealt with that teachers—even if they know how to teach math—are scrambling so hard to cover the bloated curriculum, that the basics, basically, get shoved aside.

In most cases, forget, “discovery learning”: just teach the kids what they need to know and how to use formulas, as well as how to set up a notebook page, properly titled and numbered, with a work column, if necessary. Teach, using concrete materials, the BLACKBOARD (or whiteboard, these days), colour coding, and charts—anything to help the kids visualize what’s going on and to see how things work together. Leave examples on display. Provide templates that guide the kids as to how they’re to go about solving problems, e.g., stipulate that a labelled diagram and the use of a formula (or equation), as well as one’s calculations (some teachers—really!—only require the answer), and the final answer written in a sentence are needed. Just leaving the kids with a big, blank page doesn’t help them with task analysis and the steps they need to get the job done. (Even JUMP Math’s workbook pages are crowded, with no room for showing one’s work and writing answers.) I have a filing cabinet drawer full of templates to deal with the every textbook and workbook I’ve ever used.

And I haven’t even mentioned that too much of what the kids are being asked to do is developmentally beyond them. I’m teaching grade six math these days: it’s a challenge for me! In my day, I didn’t encounter some of the concepts until grade 10 or 11. And then there’s the emphasis on “Explain [in English] what you did.”—this is after a diagram and calculations already SHOW what one did. I’m good at English and math, I'm an ADULT, and sometimes explaining is really hard! And I often find that the kids haven’t even been taught the explicit math language needed to formulate their explanation. It’s frustrating! But who am I—and what educational bureaucrat would give me the time of day?

I love teaching math in the class and when tutoring (I’ll never be out of work!), and I do it well—but I grit my teeth at the substandard curricula, lousy texts (I generally ignore the Teacher Guides) and workbooks, shoddy teaching techniques, and, far too often, leaving the kids to sink or swim on their own. I love to roll up my sleeves and get down to work! I’m glad to hear of this initiative in Saskatchewan, but, indeed, it sounds like the fox has been set loose among the chickens. (Of course, the unions—don’t get me started on them!—have no interest at all in academics: they’re fully occupied with promoting Gaia worship and “social justice” issues.) What else is new?

A girl I once dated functioned at about a 6th grade math level, despite having graduated with good marks from the advanced math stream in her collegiate. When I asked her how this was possible, it turned out that her high school math class had consisted mostly of learning how to use a calculator.

I punched out when she had to ask me how to calculate what the final price would be after a 60% off sale.

A large part of the problem is the dependence on technology to perform basic mathematical functions. With the advent of the ubiquitous calculator most educators decided that basic mathematical skills are no longer required. Of course some of us learned the 'tables' and can do complex calculations in our heads while others can't add two numbers. The other day I was in the lumber section of the local Home Depot and I overheard a customer ask the lumber attendant for a length of wood using metric. The attendant fished through his apron and came out with a calculator and began punch in numbers. As I strolled by I 'stage whispered' "14 feet".

One more reason not to let proggies run anything!

The Church of Rome learned the hard way that teaching anybody who isn't a priest to read the Bible causes nothing but trouble, because then he soon figures out how the priests have lied to him. Catholic madrassas in French Canada had as their purpose teaching the doctrines of Rome and hatred of the English, to ensure that not only would they never escape the Church but that they they would leave their own children at the mercy of sodomite and pedophile priests.

Ontario still funds Catholic "education." That should tell you all you need to know about whose side the Church of Rome is really on.

Of course children aren't learning anything in modern schools! They're not supposed to! Government-funded indoctrination in the civilized world has only one purpose, and that's to deceive children into sitting still and watching, or even cheering, as servants of the Father of Lies systematically destroy Christian civilization and replace it with something more to their master's liking.

Kathy(SDA), did you see the show yesterday in the HOC in the re to the Human Rights in Iran.
Isn't Ahmadinejad the human rights agent for women's rights?
Seems rather hypocrital of the ndp to even think about human rights in Iran when they couldn't be bothered with the Afghan women and girls who were led to the 'bloodbath arena' to be beheaded. I didn't hear the ndp scream blue murder on their taliban friends for such abuse.

Since the ndp 'luv' to call on the UN for every pricking nonsense why don't they call on UN to deal with Ahmadinejad. Why must we get involved.

Also, why not the gays in the ndp take a flotilla with their media included and travel all the way to IRAN to protest against Ahmadinejad?

It's like "sight reading" versus phonics.

Until you have a firm grasp of math an electronic calculator is jsut a paper-weight.

I seem to be an anomoly in my frequent use of square root....which electronic calculators facilitate.....without a grasp of math square root is as relevant as a neutrino to most of the population.

This comment following the story is worrying:

"As a grade 12 math teacher, I am dumbfounded by this decision. Part of the problem is that this is a curriculum that is common to many provinces. One big problem, for example, is that the Pre-calculus pathway is designed to be taught in approx. 125 hours per class. In Saskatchewan we have about 87 hours to do this. Attrition rates so far in these classes are huge as kids just can't keep up with this crazy pace "

Math, unlike other subjects, requires students to use and understand their previous years work. If you fall behind or there is inadequate teaching time as noted in the comment, it is very difficult to learn new concepts. Geometry, trigonometry, algebra, calculus and associated sciences are unforgiving for students who are still struggling with an automatic recall of multiplication tables and other basics. You cannot fake math and calculators are not a substitute for real knowledge.

Listen to the math profs and parents - they are seeing the long-term results of a couple decades of deteriorating math education. Teachers and administrators show only a small snapshot in time.

It doesn't matter where it's located, public school systems are not in the business of "educating" in the socialist micromanaging state, they are indoctrinators charged with conditioning children to trust the state and its agendas, disparage their parents and dissenters and become obedient unquestioning androids who will render their freedoms, will and productivity to the state.

The last thing state indoctrinators want is students who are efficient in the reasoning subjects like math, science.

I urge everybody seeking to assist their kids with their MATH education to please, PLEASE do you and them a life-changing favor by checking online the KHAN ACADEMY.

It's an astoundingly successful math education site, covering ALL levels from primary school right up to advanced theoretical calculus, it's ONLY online, and it's FREE, funded be generous donations from Bill Gates, whose kids get their math education there online!

Over a MILLION online math lessons PER DAY are given to users of the Khan Academy's website ... it uses brief 10 minute videos, visually illustrated and narrated by its founder (a recovering Connecticut hedge fund manager!), followed by short quiz questions ... when the student / your kid gets enough of the quiz questions CORRECT within in the time limit, it sends you an online message that the student is now ready to move on to the NEXT lesson ... this is CRITICALLY important, because ALL math is cumulative, so a lousy foundation makes for a lifetime of math weakness.

CBS "60 Minutes" did a wonderful segment on it earlier this year ... if you watch that segment online you will be hooked on the Khan Academy for life.

THIS MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU DO FOR YOUR KIDS TODAY ... please check out the Khan Academy. There's NO "catch"; it's NOT religious; it's FREE; they do NOT want any money from you, because the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funds it; it's an American based GLOBAL "math teacher" that threatens ivory tower educrats everywhere.

Davers6@11:51:
You are right, of course. The upshot of being forced to go elsewhere to educate our young is that tax dollars no longer pay for their education. Instead, they support a political movement, in thin disguise, dedicated to the corruption of education and knowledge, and to the transformation of citizen-sovereigns into mere subjects.

Priorities have shifted to teaching this:

http://bctf.ca/uploadedfiles/Public/SocialJustice/Issues/LGBTQ/Resources/GenderSpectrum.pdf

Once the kids have this knowledge it will secure a lifetime of employment opportunity. Math is so yesterday.

Second Davers6 suggestion. Brilliant site.

May I also suggest Kumon! Very powerful teaching method for basic math/arithmetic, involves constant practice doing it. Also good for English grammar and spelling. Not free but worth it.

I have also dug up in my travels Udacity and Sparkfun.

www.udacity.com/
learn.sparkfun.com/

Also ID Tech Camps for kids who want to learn C++, robotics, Android/Ipod ap development, and things of that nature. Goes from little kids to high school. Only in the USA but if your kid is gifted at all, might be worth the drive.

Generally I've found that here in Ontario, the Golden Horseshoe, the Center of the Known Universe where all is available, if you have a gifted pre-teen who's gung ho for electronics, robots or general programming, there is NOTHING and you get to drive to America.

I may have missed something someplace, but the best thing I found is Mac Venture camp. Mac is virtually unique in having an actual day camp with "Engineering" in the title. Unfortunately the level of challenge is "play with lego NXT" in the morning and "soccer" in the afternoon. Ok for the usual eight year old, torture for the gifted ten year old who burned through Lego NXT in a month.

This one too will keep their minds focused on the important things :

http://library.catie.ca/PDF/ATI-20000s/23212.pdf

By the way, I'm begging for one of you guys/gals to tell me I'm wrong, and there's this awesome resource in Toronto or Waterloo or where-ever. Drive an hour each way from here in Hooterville, I don't care.

Starbucks barristas!

Years ago on a barrista's advice, I started buying a blend of different whole beans: 1/2 A, 1/4 B, 1/4 C.

It was one of the most stressful transactions I've ever engaged in. I abandoned "the blend" (as I became affectionately known - my wife heard them!) after about a year during which period NOT ONE barrista could ring up the purchase without my tutelage.

Davers6 is right; Khan Academy is flat out awesome.

I started going through it after helping my niece out with her math (in Grade 11) - I found I had forgotten a few things, and it brought me quickly up to speed. It's a good way to spend some free time.

/mathnerd

Davers6, many thanks for the Khan Academy tip. I'll check it out.

My family and I moved to Phoenix from Saskatoon earlier this year. My 12 year old daughter was an A student in math her entire life. Within a month of being enrolled at a charter school in Tempe, my wife and I were brought in to discuss her math deficiencies. The bottom line is, she was grading at about 40% coming from the Saskatoon school system(a drop of about 40-50%). We were taken aback, and by surprise, at how far behind she was with respect to the students her age here in the valley.

She has spent no less than 8 hours a week on her own time reviewing and studying with me for the last 3 months to catch-up to her school mates so she can be on even footing next school year. We even pulled her from her club softball team to lighten her load! She has progressively improved from unit to unit, and I have little doubt she’ll get a high b on her math final tomorrow.

The biggest challenge my daughter faced, is that her base skill set simply wasn't there. Somehow, she's managed to maintain an 80%+ average in the Saskatoon school systems math program, but had difficulty with simple remedial skills like long division and multiplication. IMO she had become very dependent on using a calculator that the instructor will not allow at her new school.

We had no idea that our high achieving grade 7 daughter was so ill equipped, as we feel we were grossly mislead by the instructors in Saskatoon.

One major difference is that in Arizona, they have standardized testing called AIMS which rates them comparatively to others across the State. This compelled the schools to compete, as they are rated a to d on such results, and get funding based on the number of students they attract. Schools with higher ratings attract more students and get increased funding. Also, the students are tested via standardized test to determine their math grade level verses the curriculum. The Saskatoon school system appears to be a full two years (or 1 ½) behind that in Arizona curriculum wise. That said, Arizona rates among the lowest in the country for achievement.

I'm proud to say that today, she grades at a grade 9 beginners level which is the expectation at the charter school(one level ahead). The advanced class grades at grade 10 level (two levels ahead).

There is a massive problem with the Saskatoon math program. You folks with kids in the system should seriously consider alternative options such as having your kids tested to ascertain if your child is being evaluated, and instructed suitably. Like I said, we had no idea our A student was so poorly educated regardless of her marks.

Sorry for the hasty comments full of mistakes I’m sure.

correction

and I have little doubt she’ll get a b *minus* or better on her math final tomorrow.

more comments

My daughter maintains to this day that she's NEVER seen long division until I taught her this year! I also had to teach her about proper decimal placement for long division. I suggest middle school parents in Saskatoon review this stuff with their kids. You might be surprised what they don’t know. Without these skills, it's near impossible to reduce fractions ect...

Also, the instructor DOES NOT give any partial marks. Wrong is wrong! This is a much higher standard IMO, as you must be absolutely correct to get any credit. No partial marks for trying.

Also, we get progress reports monthly, between report cards, with the entire mark breakdown, including assignment marks, so the parents know exactly what their child is up to, and if they are turning in their assignments. The instructors give 0s for late and incomplete assignments. No partial marks! And; the student is reprimanded if they do not return with a signed form stating the parent has reviewed the progress report.

Just a few items different from what I was used to in Saskatoon.

All of that said, I feel very fortunate for the experience of this past semester. I am thankful that we were able to address these issues with my daughter, even though it's been quite a blow to my daughter's self-esteem. Today she's feeling reasonably confident, but it's been a long and stressful haul for the both of us.

The good news is, last week her math teacher took her aside and told ther that "I know you'll be one of my star students next year". I'm very proud of her.

My kid's grade 4 teacher has been shackled by the principal to teach the math curriculum provided by AB Education. It does not teach addition/subtraction or multiplication/division tables - which she asked to do and got told 'no'. No basics, as stated above in many great posts!

I complained to the admin and got the answer: teachers are teaching curriculum. I asked my kid's teacher about it and she told me to do this at home. She has had her hand slapped on other things as well.

I had to get a tutor for my kid in grade 2 as he was reading at grade 1 level halfway thru grade two. In ONE month the tutor had him at 2.5 reading level (as measured by the school)

I emailed our past AB minister of Ed. and complained about the curriculum. Need for tutors... etc. He pompously said AB rates very well on the PATs (prov. achievement tests) when compared internationally. Yes, Mr. Lukaszak - because parents and tutors are teaching them what they need to know.

SIGH.....

Check out the WISE site to really get a feel for how irretrievably broken public education is in Canada and the US.

It all arises from the fact that parents have no choice; they must send their child to schools in their district, which can run the schools as poorly as they want to.

A student has no hope of understanding Algebra if they lack going in a perfect mastery of at least the 9 x 9 multiplication table, and of course, all addition facts.

Schools routinely teach operations with fractions as if the topic were a daytrip on a package tour. Students must possess the same mastery with fractions as they have with the basic multiplication and addition facts.

Indiana, thanks for your comments. None of this surprises me, and your daughter’s extremely fortunate to have such an engaged and able parent.

But, I definitely disagree with the pedagogy—and fairness—of an “instructor [who] DOES NOT give any partial marks. Wrong is wrong!” In math, that’s not the way it works—I’ll give an example below—so, I don’t agree that “This is a much higher standard IMO, as you must be absolutely correct to get any credit. No partial marks for trying [sic].”

E.g., Re a three-step solution to a word problem, worth, let’s say, 7 marks: let’s say the student clearly shows the first two steps, maybe with equations, and also calculates the correct solutions. Then, let’s say the student again indicates the correct third step in the process, but makes a minor error in the calculation, e.g., forgets to add a regrouped number. Why, if the student has indicated a perfect understanding of the process to solve the problem, should s/he be docked all the marks for a minor calculation error? E.g., In a solution like the one I’ve mentioned here, the student would get full marks for the three correct equations (3 marks) and the two correct calculations (2). S/he’d be docked one mark for the error and another for the sentence answer to the question that was asked. So, this student would get a mark of 5 out of 7. This student didn’t just “try”: this student had a real handle on what needed to be done, and how to do it, and deserved the 5 marks. Zero out of seven would not only be a very poor indicator of this student’s ability, but very discouraging.

Despite my disagreement with the teacher on this point, s/he sounds like a keeper! You and your daughter deserve to be proud of what you're accomplishing. BRAVA/O!! And I wish you both every success!

TEST

LOOKOUT

I'm tossed-up on this one, as I generally agree with you. In the beginning, I actually instructed my daughter to "show all her work" so as to get some partial marks. Much to my chagrin, she was getting 0s on questions where she answered 3/6 instead of 1/3. In fact, I was somewhat angry about this; but, instead of venting on the teacher, I instead instructed my child to find-out exactly what the teacher is looking for, and product such a result. I also took solace in the fact that she was understanding the material, and simply had a presentation problem. Believe it or not, I don’t believe that ‘marks’ are the end all and be all. Especially at this age; and this is what I’ve explained to my daughter. I’ve expressed to her that she’s starting from way behind, and not to worry about ‘marks’ but instead to focus on improvement. I also explained that these trials and tribulations will make her stronger down the road, as she’ll see that with hard work, she can accomplish that which she’s set-out to do; even, if it looks grim right now( this was a month or two ago). Believe it or not, my daughter got more gratification from the teachers private comments than she did from some of the better marks that have come lately.

Personally, I’d rather see the lower mark with the ‘lesson learned’, than the higher mark without said lesson. IMO this has hurt her overall grade, as every mark counts when you are coming from behind; but, as the saying goes "what doesn't kill you...".

Now, I'm not certain my child has an excellent teacher. Partially for the reason stated above, but I am certain that the expectation from the principle, down to the teachers, is very high. For the record, I'm not sure if the "no partial marks" is a school philosophy, or just that of that teacher.

All of that said, the silver lining is that my daughter has learned the value of producing exactly what the teacher expects through her own mistakes. The pain of seeing those 0s on questions she's gotten almost correct has motivated her to do better. THAT is the crux of the positive I see from that method. The fact that it teaches that 'almost' right isn't good enough. Food for thought anyways eh lookout?

Thank goodness the founders of wisemath.org are doing something to try and improve public education. In Manitoba, it's too bad the government, teachers' union, and educational ideologues want to protect their monopoly on sub - par public education. It's sad that too many parents just don't give a damn. Wake up people. Man y of your children's futures are being destroyed by the public education monster.

Makes Make Sense is 100% awful, horrible, evil, math program. Sorry, just have to say it. My kids are suffering under it, and I want to burn the books. Those who wrote that book series should hang their heads in shame.

As for the Kahn Academy, sorry but it is *highly* overrated. Further, the fact that Gates has thrown money at it should give everyone pause. Bill Gates has little appreciation of education.

What is needed is better math teachers, and a math schooling that focuses *first* on mastering the basics. It is not unusual to find kids who graduate from high-school and still cannot multiply 8 times 9.

My daughter had some Korean exchange students come to her school last year, same age as the other kids, and they blew the Canadians out of the water with their math skills. They were so far ahead it wasn't even funny. They didn't learn using Maths Make Sense, nor did they learn from the Kahn Academy. They acquired their skills from teachers who knew what they were doing, teaching a math program that *worked( and that focused on the basics first.

"THIS MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU DO FOR YOUR KIDS TODAY ... please check out the Khan Academy"

WRONG WRONG WRONG!

I've looked at hours of the Kahn academy, and it is not the most important thing to do for your kids. If you don't like the math education your child is getting, teach them yourselves.

The Kahn academy does not provide anything like the insight required to understand important math concepts. It is just a regurgitation of basic textbook material via a mostly one-way interaction. Absolutely 100% overrated.

I can teach my kids in 1 hour what it takes Kahn two weeks to do. But if you want your kid glued to the computer screen as a way of learning math, then so be it.

Food for thought, for sure, Indiana. Everything you say makes sense to me. And it sounds like you and your daughter have a fine attitude and are making adjustments and improvements in the situation in which you find yourself. I’m definitely impressed!

But I’d say that not awarding part marks for work correctly done is very bad pedagogy, for a number of reasons: how discouraging for a student who’s done most of a question correctly, to be awarded a zero: even driving tests allow a minor error here or there. Some students would be so afraid of making even a small mistake, that they’d stop trying: all or nothing is not a good way to encourage risk taking and to help students who lack confidence. (My students’ mistakes are also really important diagnostically: it helps me to see where/why they’re having troubles. I sometimes say that the mistake is the door to getting it right. Mistakes provide opportunities for both clarity and avoidance in the future. In a learning situation, to characterize mistakes as simply bad and an automatic zero is, IMO, most unproductive. You might consider discussing this with the teacher. It’s true, marks aren’t everything, but zeroes definitely don’t help a student’s average—and, from what you’ve said, are a very poor indicator of a student’s actual abilities. How does that help anyone?)

And what about the kind of kids I taught for decades as a special ed. teacher? Most of my students arrived in my program with very low self- confidence because they were so far behind academically: until they encountered the modified program I provided to suit their level, they were all too used to failure. All or nothing would have further handicapped and discouraged them: my goal for them was success, not failure. Lastly, all or nothing, in a situation that is NOT all or nothing—it’s not like being pregnant or not!—is simply not fair! And, as far as I’m concerned, teachers need to be fair: definitely dock marks when the expectations have not been met—but award marks whenever they are.

Good luck to you and your daughter!

KHAAAAAAN!
KHAAAAAAN!
KHAAAAAAN!

Oh?

Sorry, wrong Khan.

When I see the SDA phrase "the world has too many journalists" I think that notion can be extended to many different fields. In Education, I would suggest that there are too many PhD's and consultants who are desperate to stand above the crowd. One way is to come up with some revolutionary, new, wonderful way to teach something--preferably one that requires a revolutionary, new, wonderful and very expensive new curriculum. Think of the spin-offs. Textbooks. Classroom materials. Workshops to sell your product. Invitations to conferences. The deference accorded to everyone who makes their reputation on the backs of people trying to do the job in spite of you. Rejoicing and celebration all around.

As a young teacher, I was taken in once or twice by the fervor and conviction of such snake-oil pushers. I devoted myself to practicing their methods, convinced these would help my students achieve at heights hitherto unrealized. I too had visions in my head: Master teacher, parents weeping in gratitude, grown students returning to tell me how my algebra manipulatives had changed their lives.

Over time, I became wary of the sales pitches and started to take my cues from the students. If they did badly on tests, I knew that we both had more work to do, and I had to find another way and a better way to help them.

I also learned there was no one-size fits all. Sometimes the discovery learning approach worked brilliantly. Other times, it meant kids spinning their wheels. It did not result in better understanding (the kids "own" their learning). It resulted in a lot of confusion. A 30 minute lesson will often suffice where 4 hours of discovery will produce nothing at all. If your class time is pared down to 87 hours in a semester (or less in the summer school credit mills) a lot will have to be left out if you're going to force kids to discover everything. I liken discovery learning to the shaggy dog jokes. You engage in a lengthy, rambling narrative and by the time the punch line comes, you're annoyed.

There's nothing magical about teaching math--or indeed teaching anything. Experts like to get all mystical about it and promote an aura of superiority. Really, it's quite simple. You have to know your stuff AND how to teach it. (Knowing is not enough.) You have to care if your students succeed--really succeed, not just feel "good" about themselves. You need an iron persistence. You have to demand a high standard from yourself and from your students. You have to like kids--really like them, not indulge them. It also helps if you can filter out all the static from the bean-pusher admin who care more about looking good than being good.

I think the Khan Academy is brilliant. But even more brilliant is a parent who sits with his/her kid and spends time on those crucial things.

Several writers have commented about fractions. They are pesky and very much neglected in elementary schools. I don't know why because they are so necessary later on. Kids who are taught to convert every fraction to a decimal with their calculator will be forever hamstrung. For one thing, many fractions don't work out to exact decimals. For another, it's pretty hard to solve an equation that contains a term like x/x-1 with your elementary school calculator strategy.

Nor do I understand the experts' resistance to drill and repetition. It can be made into a game and it can be fun. Not all rote learning remains "rote". Often, these bits and pieces assemble into that "aha" moment, a brilliant flash of intuition that would never arrive if you don't have the pieces to work with. It's like a kaleidoscope. Every once in a while, you get a dazzling pattern. And if you never get the Damascus moment (Wow, I get factoring now!!! It's so beautiful) you at least have something reliable to get you through. "Invert and multiply" is a totally mindless way to describe division in fractions...but I use it as a mental trick and it never prevented me from understanding the real concept later on. Why can't we have both? The tricks and the understanding?

Something that is not mentioned here, is the connection between musical and mathematical ability. I've always thought that this offered some prospects worth exploring. Hmmm. Maybe I'll write a brilliant curriculum...collaborate with Philip Glass....Riches!!!