I learned math the “old-fashioned” way: memorization, paper-and-pencil, sports statistics, and cheating. Later in my life, I was one of the first students in my grade to be able to converts weights from the so-called “imperial” system to metric an back again without missing a beat, which was quite profitable.

Nowadays, slacker teenyboppers use the calculators on their iPhones and laptops……I do too but that is irrelevant.

I also am very curious to see how johnh learned math in the Great White North………

I am a secondary math teacher in my late 20s. I have also taught at the elementary and middle school levels. I learned math differently than my parents but there is a greater divide between myself and my students. I firmly believe that the rote memorization of facts is the way to go. Many of my students have no idea how to solve simple arithmetic problems. I struggle to remind upper level Algebra 2 students simple arithmetic that they learned years ago.

Most students are so attached to calculators that they hardly know how to use. They know that the answer from the calculator is wrong, (it happens all the time when dealing with negatives) but they don’t trust themselves, they trust the incorrect calculator answer. I recently had a student plug a problem into the calculator. She was “checking” to make sure she was right that zero times 6 was zero! They have no trust in themselves! It is sad.

kms: thanks for the view from the trenches!

I would agree, that we’re teaching kids how to use a calculator rather than teaching them what the calculator does for them. Unfortunately, there IS a place for times tables, learning the basic axioms of geometry, and all the rest.

I would suggest that a huge part of the math/science illiteracy in this country is due to the fact that the vast majority of teachers are math and science phobic english and psychology majors. I don’t say that to denigrate anyone. If the teachers are afraid of math and science, how can we expect them to teach it?

I’m not suggesting we should go all the way back to teaching students how to extract a square root from a table of logarithms. I am suggesting that no child should be using a calculator until 6th grade at the earliest.

Long division is only one skill that is being lost. How about the ability to make change by counting it back (6.23..2 makes 25, 50, 75, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 10 makes 20) (if you can translate that it means you’re probably over 40 hehe) Give you all a hint: you can’t set up an excel sheet to do complex calculations unless you can write the equation you want down first.

I’m not sure that I followed any particular method. I remember having a math book and working a lot of problems by hand (even when they were perfectly “doable” mentally). And as far as “the start” where my dad and I are concerned, this seems to be immaterial — we both ultimately received degrees in computer science. To give credit where it’s due, however, I think the ‘ol math aptitude was helped a wee bit by the fact that the old man had me doing problems in hex and working simple algebraic equations when I was but a wee lad.

And if that came across as bragging, my apologies — as Popeye would say, I am what I am.

Slamfist: Thank you for asking. Now, I will tell you how I learned a little bit about math.

First, I learned to speed read when I was 4 years old. Richard Hawkins, a 90 year old retired school teacher taught me how. I speed read numbers just like letters. No different. The faster one can speed read, the faster one can do mathematical calculations.

Your reading could be a problem for you. You have read at least 50 times that I am Shawnee Indian, and as such am not from the North. I am from Southern Illinois, Shawnee territory.

Unlike you, I don’t even have a high school diploma. I don’t have any trouble with either math or reading, however.

You have a problem with reading. Go back and look at my post #8 in the thread on “Did the Union do the Right Thing?” Then look at your post #17. To any discerning reader you would look like a COMPLETE idiot instead of the moron that you may be.

Now for others: Teaching math is much more difficult today than it was 40 years ago. Students don’t see a need for it. Why would you need to learn math? The grocery ads say, “Buy 10 pounds of hamburger for $20.00,” For amusement, ask a check out clerk how much 2 pounds would cost. It will shut down the line for 5 or more minutes while they figure it out.

Traditional math also says that Sine waves cannot produce heat. Don’t even believe what conventional math appears to say. Innovative math allows me to have heat from sine waves, Sanyo will introduce the appliance that does that. (Sanyo bought my patent application)

Now for Slamfist: How many beans would it take for YOU to plant a row of beans 13 feet long if you planted them 1 foot apart?

Before math is taught to any student there should be a full explantion of how the student will benefit from learning. Simple concept. It works. Nothing else does.

John: to one of your points: my wife was recently in a local coffee shop (not starbucks), and bought 1/4 lb of coffee listed at $12 per lb. She had to explain to the girl that her charge should be $3. ARGGGGGGGH

Certainly, there is an aptitude issue with math….but there is also the need to teach the basics. I was a ‘new math’ kid…and the school system pretty much dropped it by the time I was in about 6th grade. I learned algebra from an old battleaxe who taught it the classic way: lots and lots and LOTS of problems. Every day. I never learned how to factor quadratics because I missed a week a school with pneumonia.

You learn math by doing it. Over and over and over again. Show your work.

I was talking to a young man recently who was wanting to get into construction work, and couldn’t understand why his prospective employer asked him about his math grades. I explained to him that estimating the lumber needs for a house was a math problem, that used both geometry and algebra. Heck, I asked him if designing a hip roof was a geometry problem…and he looked at me as if I had a second head.

Why am I reminded of a classic song by Tom Lehrer called “New Math”?

re johnh (5) First, I am not slamfist! I am robsmyth! Yes, we are (usually) allies in the progressive cause, but NO we are not single identities like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or George Bush and Dubya, or Lou Dobbs and Lou Brock.

Second, Shawnees are NEVER from Illinois - they hate it there! Ask anyone! Every Shawnee I have ever met is either from Kansas City or San Diego. So, you must be trying to pull some kind of trick on us.

Lastly, I don’t grow beans! I grow other stuff! I am not Jack and the Beanstalk or anything like that. Therefore, I can’t answer your question - especially without my calculator.

re hs (6) “and bought 1/4 lb of coffee listed at $12 per lb. She had to explain to the girl that her charge should be $3.”

Actually, 1/4 lb is 113.2 grams, but is usually rounded down to 112 grams at coffee shops and other places which sell recreational substances, so by my calculations your wife was overcharged by 10.2 cents.

Well, hs (#3) I’m one of those math phobic English majors. In talking to folks over the years, it seems to me that if you’re good at math you’ll hate English classes and vice versa. I think it just has to do something with the way your brain is wired. Going from generalities to one specific correct answer, or taking one specific provable fact and moving into the arguable but unknown realms. Both sets of skills are valuable.

Me? I learned math by the old-fashioned rote memorization method. I never could figure out if I hated math because I was awful at it, or if it worked the other way around. It was always my worst subject, except geometry. For some reason I excelled at geometry–maybe because I could actually envision a square or a circle or a triangle. But even back in my day, standardized achievement tests put me in the 90 percentile for math. Knowing how bad I was at the subject, it was frightening to think that most other kids in my age/grade level were so much worse!

I was OK in math until 7th grade. Then “New Math” was introduced and I was lost. I finally got a great math teacher in college and managed to get through the math requirement for my major. Interestingly enough, she was “old school” and relied on tried and true fundamentals, not the latest fad.

Math is a beautiful thing.
I’m not sure about how my parents were taught math, but both had a solid understanding of it. I suspect that my father had the most traditional education since he was educated at a private school in Ireland. My children got a fine education at a public school and all had good scores in math. My daughter is an accountant. My youngest son is pursuing a degree in music, which requires good math skills.
As for myself, I was lucky enough to have excellent math teachers and parents who encouraged us to do well in school. My mother took me to the grocery store and had me keep a running tally, in my head, of the price of the groceries as we shopped. For me, it was a fun exercise that I continue to this day. I find it curious that the PD article suggests that some people think there is something wrong with adding two numbers by breaking them up into hundreds, tens and ones. This method is simply apply basic math properties (i.e. distributive, additive, multiplicative). What could be wrong with that?
I agree that technology like computers and calculators can keep the marginal math student from really learning. I think, though, that there will always be plenty of students who truly want to learn. To them the calculator will simply be a useful tool.