Prompted by an article in today's news (and NOT his father) Seattle blogger Max Rosenberg, 9, sounds off about fuzzy math. It seems that for once, the Seattle School Board is showing a modicum of sensibility. But it's early.
In my class when I get an answer wrong, it's marked as wrong, and I have to fix it.....I'm glad that the Seattle School Board is holding off on fuzzy math textbooks. The right answer doesn't always matter, like the moral of a story, but in math, spelling, and grammar, you can't change the way "through" is spelled, or that 67 + 54 = 121.
For background, a few recent SP posts on fuzzy math - here, and here; and this link to the advocacy group "Where's The Math."
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at May 12, 2006 12:40 PM | Email ThisI am in favor of an approach that combines drilling with conceptual understanding. If someone knows their times tables, but can't figure out a story problem, then have we succeeded? No.
I remember I hated math story problems. We weren't given a set of tools to figure them out. And I graduated with A's in math at both the high school and college levels. It wasn't until I started working that I had to apply the math that I had learned. Then I figured out how to structure problems so they could be solved.
Posted by: Janet S on May 12, 2006 01:17 PMIf you do not memorize sentience structure, you will never be a novelist.
Basics need to be learned. Once you have these tools mastered then you are taught how to apply them to real problems. This is done through word problems.
Posted by: Fred on May 12, 2006 01:39 PM