Re: [Phys-l] Old News That Stays News

[chuck britton <cvbritton@mac.com>]

'New Math' came along shortly after the Sputnick wake-up call.

	My sister in the second grade was using the same words that I was  
being introduced to in NSF summer math institutes.

		i.e. associative, distributive and commutative properties


I could have handled those concepts in the second grade - but they  
would just be a fun add-on to the rote work.

It was in the second grade that I finished up a one and two digit  
exercise in addition and decided to go back and repeat the problems  
with subtraction instead of addition.
This was just to fend off boredom.

When I came to the somewhat unexpected 'problem' of subtracting seven  
from four - I just made up a new notation - the answer is clearly  
'three in-the-hole' so I wrote down the three and drew a circle  
around it to signify 'in-the-hole'.

I had written down the 'correct' addition answers so the teacher  
wasn't bothered too much with the extra scribbling.



On Jul 20, 2008, at Jul 20(Sun) 1:03 , John Denker wrote:

> Here's something you don't see every day:  An informative, non- 
> polemical,
> non-hysterical news article about new math ± old math.
>
>     http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/07/18/ 
> renegade.math.parents.ap/index.html
>
> >  Story Highlights
> >  # Parents sometimes struggle with kids' concept-based math curricula
> >  # Method teach the ideas behind mathematics, rather than rote  
> > procedures
> >  # Parents don't understand the new methods; can't help with homework
> >  # Rebel parents teach kids the old -fashioned math methods
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