Common Core is fine, people just hate it because it's different from what they learned. Its focus is on building blocks to the next idea. It's more focused on the way we do mental math than the way we were taught in schools. It requires a reasonable amount of training and teachers have to be open to it and not just blindly throw material at the students.

It won't catch on because people don't want to change from the way they did things.

I've read common core tests and would probably not do very well on them. The curriculum teaches students to think in absurdly specific ways. As one single example, have a look at this first-grade math test:

https://roundtheinkwell.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/the-math-test.pdf

Number sentence? Subtraction sentence? Common core creators think they're so damn clever creating semantically vacuous jargon that is meaningless to actual mathematicians, as if kids need more reasons to hate school and math. Get this garbage out of our schools. Yes I'm mad.

that is not a very smart kid

edit: i guess i should mention that i did worksheets like this without any common core as a small kid (1st grade-ish iirc) and it had nothing to do with common core. i don't thing the curriculum is as bad as a lot of people think.

I actually can't do some of my brothers 5th grade math homework because the questions are so vague. Before common core was enforced, the math they did at his district was pretty good with questions that have a real answer, now almost all of his assignments actually don't want an answer that makes fucking sense.

It makes my younger brother stress out because he can't do it. I'm taking my calc 2 right now and when he asks for help I normally can't help because what they try teaching is fucking retarded. Lattice Multiplication? Not a single soul actually does that outside of elementary school. Counting Tens? Everyone does it subconsciously, trying to explain it in the way they do is insane. The term "number sentence" is something from no child left behind and it's just as bizarre.

It's trying to do good, but it's going at it very poorly. EDIT: Owl, are you actually saying this is a good way to teach kids? Like it's confusing to adults, how can kids be expected to handle any of this bizarro-math well?

This looks fuckin crazy. Who decided this was the best way to learn? We have enough reasons to be worried about the next generation as it is

This is the same with me. Im a pre-calc student and I cant solve half these supposed "Sunshine State Standard" math problems that they give my third grade sister. Half of them are 4th-5th grade level, and the teachers don't go over it in class and half of them aren't even possible to solve.

this all looks like jeopardy, where they give you the answer and you have to guess the question.

This seems like a "Learn this one trick to be good at math..." approach. I don't think the issues with education typically stemmed from poor education, but from culture. I think our culture could learn some lessons from others around the world that place more emphasis on education.

Just teach the kids properly, and make them work to learn it. Otherwise you get people with 0 work ethic because nothing challenged them and you get people who didn't learn shit because making an effort to learn isn't in their culture.

Also this shit looks retarded, I'd be upset if this comes to Canada.

Alright so seriously what is #1 saying I dont get it

whole minus the part you know

OH I thought they circled the number if he got it correct

It's the exact opposite. It's not taking shortcuts, it's making you do all the steps that you do in your head with math out on paper. There are kids who don't learn that subtraction is just inverse addition until middle school when they start learning algebra. This fixes that. Give me a minute and I'll explain the thinking behind some of these test questions. The reason people look at them and are confused is because they're not in the classroom learning the method.

There's a difference between rewarding hard work, and forcing pedantry. This doesn't reward work, it forces arbitrary step taking.

A science project that ends with something exciting, like a cool chemical reaction experiment is rewarding hard work. Doing forced math problems is just rewarding dealing with bullshit bureaucracy.

My teacher went over these sorts of techniques and that's how it stuck in my 7 year old brain. It's always been here in a way, and was used effectively, just not formally tested on.

She happened to not do a shitty job with it though, idk what it's like down in the US.

By taking all the steps, you reinforce the entire process and you know why/how to shortcut in the future.

That's my take on it at least...

I feel that I shouldn't be learning a new "method" of subtraction from an elementary schooler, especially one that is more tedious than normal subtraction problems.

Yeah if people that are successful in doing high level math get confused by these methods, then the methods are fucked up. The fact that these policy-makers claim that they invented a new "innovative" method of teaching basic SUBTRACTION is a joke. There isn't some new secret method to this shit. It's almost like clickbait in math form.

I just went through that test and it was a little difficult to try to figure out what they wanted.

A 1st fucking grade math test shouldn't be difficult for someone who has taken 3 semesters of calc.

Sorry, I might have worded that poorly. I think I'm understanding the goals they have and I mostly agree with them. Personally, I learned similar techniques during grade school and I think it benefited me a lot, either that or I had an aptitude for math, but I did do mental math similarly.

This is my issue with it. Math is math, it should be universal. I should be able to go to nearly any country and be able to solve the math problems without any language barrier. Math should be almost entirely separate from language, as it's something more fundamental than language.

It's fine if they teach there methods, but they should be testing the students the same way they will be using math outside of grade school.

http://i.imgur.com/7ozbVS6.jpg

The whole minus the part, as Null said. Literally 6-5. The reason that the whole is in a cup and the part is shown in units is because they don't want kids to just look at the two and see that the whole has one more. They want the student to actually do the work of counting down from the whole to get the final answer. That helps alleviate problems that kids run into when they start adding/subtracting 3+ digit numbers and arent able to do quick mental comparisons anymore.

http://i.imgur.com/4tFkh7u.jpg

This one is pretty self explanatory. 8-6 is 2. Again, they want you actually visualize units so you dont just think in abstractions. The abstraction comes later when the mind is less focused on the concrete (usually around late elementary or early junior high)

http://i.imgur.com/GOpVI5d.jpg

If you dont get this one youre just dumb idk how to help you

http://i.imgur.com/JlrMrE9.jpg

Same

http://i.imgur.com/8NDyfYA.jpg

Same thing as #1. You're given that there are 8 in the whole and you know there are 4 in the hand on the left. It's forcing the kid to actually do the math rather than compare by sight.

http://i.imgur.com/T2ncCnb.jpg

Pretty simple.

http://i.imgur.com/ZEPdYaw.jpg

This is a typo, should be addition, unless they're renaming terminology more than I thought (Common Core does rename some mathematical terms which is what confuses a lot of parents. Neither way is necessarily right or wrong. The Common Core terminology falls more in line with what the terms actually do to the numbers, but I think it's kind of silly to change terminology that's been around for decades.

Will explain more if you're interested. I didnt teach Common Core nor was I taught how to teach it but I know enough about it that I can generally explain why they do what they do

Rofl you messed up the first one, it's the whole has one more.

This is exactly the wrong thinking. The people who do high level math have history with this. Don't look at it as someone who's taken 3 semesters of college calculus (if this is high level math), look at it as if you're a kid who's never seen subtraction before. Learning it the way that Common Core is showing you is the way you're probably subconsciously doing now. The difference is that they're actually teaching it that way rather than throwing times tables at you till you've internalized every combination of numbers you'll need to put together. They're teaching kids to think, not to regurgitate.

My mom's been in the teaching game since before I was born and she's still in it as a tutor even in retirement, and she's told me that the Common Core is a good idea that needs to be refined and actually taught to teachers before it's taught to students. From what she's seen in the NYS public and private school system, almost every school teaches for "the tests" (ex. the PSAT, SAT, and ACT) and rarely do they teach for understanding. There's no unified education requirement and it allows schools to get away with JUST teaching for "the tests" and inflate grades for funding bonuses since the United States would rather pump money into DARPA, DiGRA, the NSA, pet projects, etc. for bullshit nonsense instead of education. Regardless, she's seen the counting circles inside of circles stuff that the current Common Core is teaching and she thinks it's the biggest dumpster fire she's ever seen (not her words obviously).

I can't speak for anyone else in NYC but when I was in 3rd grade or so my class got a demo of Common Core math called TERC which involved students making visual and physical associations with tiny to medium sized blocks: single tiny blocks would be 1 unit, 10 of those would be 1 row of 10, 10 rows of 10 would be 100, etc. The problem is, the principal decided that it would be an AWESOME idea to have TERC programs be the only way that math was taught. That was stupid and ruined the point of TERC. The new bullshit they've got in the common core with the circles and the bizarre tally marks? And that's supposed to be the standard of education that's supposed to be taught for understanding of all things? Completely retarded.
[Edit: these were physical blocks mind you, not drawings]

There's also a bit of a human element that's afraid of change in this, as well. If any of you have LinkedIn accounts, try to peep some of the "new SAT" discussion - lot of tutors are pissing themselves about the world is going to hell in a handbasket because the SAT team is making the test harder to combat grade inflation.

Dr. Duke Pesta talks about his anti-Common Core position and while anyone should take anything they see on the internet with a grain of salt, he raises some important points concerning the LibArts section, especially the "required reading materials" which are completely nonsensical for even middle schoolers because the topics they cover are such ones that they're not emotionally (biologically, as in their mental facilities have not developed enough) and intellectually mature enough to process. It's a pretty long speech even from the timestamp I've included so listen if you're interested, jump around to find the literature parts if you're not. If you ask me, I'll be against the Common Core until they fix it so that it allows teachers to teach so that students can understand; toss all of this art-fart and sociologist business into the trash.

That's not teaching thought, it's teaching kids to deal with the shit that some idiot bureaucrat came up with. This isn't the same education we had in the 50s and 60s when we fucking FLEW to the moon without computers.

The idea behind common core is a good one, but the way it has been implemented is a complete clusterfuck. The teachers don't get it, and that makes the student not get it. Teach the teachers the philosophy behind it, revise the logic in the math, and then it might work.

So you think that memorizing tables and taking timed tests is the better way of learning basic arithmetic? Because that's what we all did as kids. Maybe you were super smart and you learned how to think about that in a correct way, but let me tell you that most kids do not make the proper connections when they have to do that. They become great information regurgitators but they do not become great learners

I don't think memorizing tables and taking timed tests is the better way of learning basic arithmetic. Just because I think that doesn't make common core the solution. They had good intentions, but they ended up with something marginally better than what used to exist.

Just because I don't like common core means I like what came before.

This is the dumbest reason i've ever heard for being anti-Common Core.

yeah the average person really helped fly us to the moon

there are geniuses in every generation who go far beyond what is taught in elementary school. In that era the focus was on space flight, now it's computing and medical tech. We're transitioning into energy tech right now and there's a resurgence of interest in space. The average person does nothing to contribute to any of that. However, we can attempt to make the average person smarter in their day to day life by getting them away from rote memorization.

Rote memorization isn't good. But neither is this shit. NONE of it is good. NONE of this crap. I guess I must have a shitty reason because of all that rote memorization, huh?

I think Owl is definitely right on this one. Math has long been a subject that students have either understood or failed in simply because of the way it has traditionally been taught, which was rote memorization and table based solving instead of actual analysis and forming mental connections to real world problems.

The common core has taken the much needed step to push students in forming connections between the abstract math terminology of numbers and connecting them to actual problem solving techniques and logical analysis while promoting visualization as not many students (including myself an Electrical Engineering major) can properly visualize math in its more abstract functions.

It has failed however, to not use fucking horribly designed questions that look like they were designed by the most autistic of bean counters.