Common Core: Is it Helping or Hurting? - By Kayleigh Simpson
Here's a game to try. Add 8+5. Simple right? Most people can do this math almost instantly and get the correct answer of 13. Now try adding 8+5, but following these steps...
- Rewrite the numbers 5 and 8
- Find two numbers that 5 can break into. Of the possible pairs, choose the one that can easily add with 8 to get a sum of 10. (In this case, it would be 2 and 3. You can add the 2 to 8 and get a sum of 10).
- Then add the remaining number that you broke from 5 to the 10 you got previously (In this case you would add 3 to 10 to get 13).
The second way is more confusing, isn't it? The second method was based on the Common Core. Today, children are learning to not only add, but multiply, divide, and much more using obscure methods like this one. Although it may seem easy enough for some people, it makes learning a great deal harder for others. For instance, one student may know how to add by counting off of their fingers or by visualizing the problem. With the Common Core, even if they get the right answer using different methods, they risk losing points because they don't know how to do the math in the complex manner that Common Core teaches. Not only is it confusing for the students, but it's confusing for parents trying to help their kids because they were taught a different way.
Being an older sibling, I've found that since my parents never learned math in the strange ways it is taught today, I have the responsibility of helping my younger sister with her homework. It is stressful enough being a high school student. Adding the task of helping teach my sister math to the long list of things I already have to do is frustrating. Unfortunately, some people aren’t lucky enough to have an older sibling to help them.
Some may argue that Common Core improves problem-solving skills, but this is flawed thinking. As math gets more complicated, it becomes harder and harder to make a sturdy foundation with such complex and high-level thinking.
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| This graph illustrates the negative effects Common Core testing has had on student's test scores (according to Vox). |
That is really interesting, Kayleigh... I remember having to do problems like that when I was younger, and not only did it make math more confusing, but I do not remember any of the methods used that were meant to help! (I really like your game in the beginning... It definitely serves to remind older people of the struggles we often grow out of and forget.)
ReplyDeleteYour right the methods that they teach especially in math often times makes it way to complex and confusing when there is a more basic way.
ReplyDeleteIt's good of you to help your sister. Most parents are in that same boat because we did not learn that way.
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