What was wrong with the old math? Have you ever sat down to help your child with their math homework only to realize that your college degree is useless in the face of third-grade math? Be honest, how many times have you heard your child say, “My teacher doesn’t do it that way!”? Don’t worry, I’m here to explain it all!!!
First off, I want to reassure you that there will be a time that you get to use all of those algorithms you learned to help your child! All of the stacking, carrying, borrowing will come back in their math lessons… about the end of 5th grade.
If you’re wondering about your child’s math skills and what to expect at each grade level, I have an Elementary Math Skills Checklist in my Freebie Library! Just click the button below to get the password!
Why Math is Different Than When You Were In School
Now… Why is math different? It comes from the realization that kids weren’t flexible in how they could use numbers. We had all of these rules and algorithms (the standard way to solve a problem) but kids didn’t know why that worked. They didn’t understand how they could manipulate numbers to solve different problems. Thus emerged “new math”.
“New Math” isn’t actually different, it just highlights things that educators took for granted and is more specific in teaching the ways that numbers work. Helping students understand digits in their place value have different worth. Giving students more efficient ways to solve than counting. The end goal of “New Math” is flexibility and efficiency in problem-solving.
Starting in kindergarten, teaching students to count by ones, twos, and then moving into number combinations. This shows students that 5 is the number representation of a quantity of items. Then in Fifth Grade students learn more efficient ways to multiply and divide, they begin working with complex fractions and decimals. All built on the knowledge they learned in kindergarten that a 5 in the one’s place is worth a different value than the 5 in the tens place.
What About Memorizing?
But what about memorizing? Shouldn’t kids just know? I would argue that memorizing doesn’t make a child “better” at math. In fact, it can be a hindrance if they don’t know why 7 x 7 = 49. Because if they forget 7 x 8 and don’t know that it’s just another group of 7 from 7 x 7 then they can’t figure it out. They don’t have the flexibility. What we are actually striving for is automaticity.
Automaticity is when something has been done so many times that it becomes automatic in their brain. This is where efficiency comes from. If a child has been exposed to various ways of seeing 7 x 7 then they’ll automatically know that it’s 49 and when presented with 71 x 7 they know that 7 x 7 is 49 so 70 x 7 is 490 plus another group of 7 is 497 so 71 x 7 is 497. Did you follow that? Don’t worry, there will be a video on my youtube channel soon explaining it!
I can’t tell you how many parents tell me “I’m bad at math and so is my child.” Please stop. Your history with math has nothing to do with your child!!!! I don’t believe that any child is bad at math. Some understand it more quickly than others, but that’s what new math is all about! It offers multiple ways to see and understand numbers so that more students “get it” and feel confident in their ability to do math.
But What Was Wrong With the Old Math?
I know, you’re still wondering at this point what was wrong with the old math. It’s okay… I’ve been there to. I get it, we all learned old math and can balance our bank accounts and count out change at the grocery store. The thing to keep in mind is that math isn’t just about math anymore. We are preparing kids to have jobs in the future that don’t even exist today.
I’m not teaching math to my fifth graders. I’m teaching logic, perseverance, flexibility, and efficiency. That’s what “New Math” is. Please don’t hate new math… it’s just different. I was a skeptic also. Now I use the strategies that I teach my students to solve problems in my everyday life and I’m much more efficient in doing so. So I promise, your child will “get it” and will be that much better for it. Until then… keep up to date with what’s happening here on my page, I have something coming that will solve all the problems (a little math pun, get it?!).
Wondering how your child is doing in their math skills? I have an Elementary Math Skills checklist that’s organized by grade level in my Freebie Library. Click the button below to get the password!
Leave a Reply