Middle school math

[fflintlock]

If little Johnny had 10 apples and Susan took 3, what was little Johnny left with?
An attitude, Johnny was mad that Susan took his apples...

 

[oldfella1962]

I ran into that many years ago at a K-Mart store. I bought some automotive items that I needed, handed the young cashier a 20 dollar bill just as the power went down in the whole store. The cash drawer had already popped open but the display telling her what change to give me back was of course not displayed with no power. The poor little lady had no clue as how to count me out my change. Finally an older woman walked over and gave her some help. A person that knows not how to change money can be cheated at any time and not know it.

Speaking of clerks getting cheated, this story from a Walmart a couple of miles from my house:

Georgia couple tricks Walmart cashier, easily walks out of store with thousands in merchandise: police

A sheriff's office in Georgia is looking for a man and woman who allegedly tricked a Walmart cashier and walked out of the store with more than $6,000 in merchandise, gift cards.

www.foxnews.com

But wait there's more! A few years back another Walmart in Oklahoma gave their daily deposits to their bank's pickup employee, but it was an imposter! The guy drove off with all the money!

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...truck-driver-walks-out-walmart-75-000-n387751

 

[Doboy Dawg]

Someone is going to have to show some examples of the math problems they are supposedly giving to 8th graders nowadays. What is so radically different about them since years ago? Math is Math and it always has been so for the last thousands of years.

Math is the single most important subject in school, maybe tied with science and history. Even if you start working at Micky D's at the age of 16 or so, you have the potential to impress the boss, if you are very competent in math. The boss at any job is overloaded with supervisory duties over employees, along with running the business. The ones who get advancement are the ones who prove they can help out the boss the most with their math knowledge.

That goes triple and quadruple for employees in a more mathematically advanced job, such as engineering or other technical field.

I wish I would have kept copies of some of the common core math lessons they were trying to teach my son in Jr. high. It was the biggest crock of crap I’ve ever seen. Most of the equations had to be solved in a block grid format. The blocks were all multiples of ten. Simple multiplication equations were accomplished in long form grids of blocks of ten. A simple 10x10 = had one hundred blocks shaded in. It would take 5 minutes to solve a 1 minute equation.

It didn’t get taught here more than one year because of the outrage by parents. When my wife and I went to the school to complain about it, we were told it really didn’t matter if the student didn’t solve the equation correctly since there really wasn’t any “wrong” answers. They only wanted to see if the students were making a effort to complete the lessons.

Welcome to Dumbocracy 101 basically every student passes and none can excel. Every child gets a trophy, not just the winners.

Our whole school board just about got ran out of town. They decided to ditch the common core curriculum and not a moment too soon.

 

[Duff]

Common Core Math Explained in 3 Minutes

A popular criticism of the Common Core State Standards is the way that students are asked to solve math problems nowadays. Simple equations now require multiple steps to solve—equations that once on

www.uschamberfoundation.org

Here you go. 3 minutes to explain 2 dumb ways to solve a simple math problem

 

[Qazaq15]

Someone is going to have to show some examples of the math problems they are supposedly giving to 8th graders nowadays. What is so radically different about them since years ago? Math is Math and it always has been so for the last thousands of years.

Math is the single most important subject in school, maybe tied with science and history. Even if you start working at Micky D's at the age of 16 or so, you have the potential to impress the boss, if you are very competent in math. The boss at any job is overloaded with supervisory duties over employees, along with running the business. The ones who get advancement are the ones who prove they can help out the boss the most with their math knowledge.

That goes triple and quadruple for employees in a more mathematically advanced job, such as engineering or other technical field.

You have to be able to write too. In a bigger organization you are only known by your reports and emails to a lot of people. If you can't write well, you'll look like an idiot even if you aren't. Spell check helps but using proper grammar goes a long way.

 

[BeerThirty]

For the record, not all public schools are teaching common core.

 

[oldfella1962]

I wish I would have kept copies of some of the common core math lessons they were trying to teach my son in Jr. high. It was the biggest crock of crap I’ve ever seen. Most of the equations had to be solved in a block grid format. The blocks were all multiples of ten. Simple multiplication equations were accomplished in long form grids of blocks of ten. A simple 10x10 = had one hundred blocks shaded in. It would take 5 minutes to solve a 1 minute equation.

It didn’t get taught here more than one year because of the outrage by parents. When my wife and I went to the school to complain about it, we were told it really didn’t matter if the student didn’t solve the equation correctly since there really wasn’t any “wrong” answers. They only wanted to see if the students were making a effort to complete the lessons.

Welcome to Dumbocracy 101 basically every student passes and none can excel. Every child gets a trophy, not just the winners.

Our whole school board just about got ran out of town. They decided to ditch the common core curriculum and not a moment too soon.

"It didn’t get taught here more than one year because of the outrage by parents. When my wife and I went to the school to complain about it, we were told it really didn’t matter if the student didn’t solve the equation correctly since there really wasn’t any “wrong” answers. They only wanted to see if the students were making a effort to complete the lessons".

If this were any other subject than MATH I can (sort of) see the point about not being any completely "wrong" answers. But it's MATH! The whole idea of math is the fact there is no room for debate. It's not horseshoes or hand grenades - you need to be exact with math. Granted I HATE math because I'm terrible at it - but I respect math and see the need for it to be exact.

 

[BeerThirty]

"It didn’t get taught here more than one year because of the outrage by parents. When my wife and I went to the school to complain about it, we were told it really didn’t matter if the student didn’t solve the equation correctly since there really wasn’t any “wrong” answers. They only wanted to see if the students were making a effort to complete the lessons".

If this were any other subject than MATH I can (sort of) see the point about not being any completely "wrong" answers. But it's MATH! The whole idea of math is the fact there is no room for debate. It's not horseshoes or hand grenades - you need to be exact with math. Granted I HATE math because I'm terrible at it - but I respect math and see the need for it to be exact.

When I was in my junior year of high school back in the early 2000s, they actually did an experiment with us to consider introducing common core into the school system. It was only offered to students with a B-average or better. And, they pitched it to us by offering us college credits if we passed, but failing did not harm our GPA. Up to that point I had been a straight-A student in traditional math: algebra, geometry, algebra 2, trig and stats. Anyway, I can still remember struggling to maintain a D in that common core math class, and remembering how far-out the math techniques were. The teacher would have to spend the entire class period walking through only one or maybe two whole problems.

 

[Qazaq15]

How does common core even work when you're doing more advanced math? My impression was it was for solving what I call "calculator math". The rules of algebra are what they are.

 

[Doboy Dawg]

How does common core even work when you're doing more advanced math? My impression was it was for solving what I call "calculator math". The rules of algebra are what they are.

Q that’s just it, I’m not sure it does work. I believe it’s intended purpose was to bring everyone down to the same level. I called it Communist Math.

Thankfully my son was only taught that crap for a year. He went on to excel in math in high school and college. His older sister majored in math her first two years of college before changing her major. She was able to help him with his advanced college math.

 

[RamblinWreck88]

What they're talking about with arithmetic makes perfect sense... I just am not so sure that can be taught. I use a lot of different shortcuts to break down a numerical operation, but that just came naturally from doing a lot of problems. I'm glad nobody ever taught it to me.

When it comes to core mathematics being applied to advanced maths, I really have no idea how it would even attempt to fit in. But I will say that I much preferred older textbooks when it came to advanced mathematics... So whatever they were doing back in the 70's or 80's seems to work great for advanced maths.

 

[Oldstick]

You have to be able to write too. In a bigger organization you are only known by your reports and emails to a lot of people. If you can't write well, you'll look like an idiot even if you aren't. Spell check helps but using proper grammar goes a long way.

That is very true. And if I wasn't already retired, I might be canned after they reviewed my first post.

 

[alphachief]

It true…but I remember my Dad saying the same thing about new math when he helped me with my homework in 1970!