[ExI] math education

[Dan TheBookMan]

On Dec 8, 2016, at 7:21 AM, William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com> wrote:
> About which I know nothing.  But - I read awhile back that the New Math was a disaster.  That was long ago, but are they still teaching that?
> 
> Then I read that kids should not start with arithmetic, way too hard, but with algebra - or something along that line.
> 
> Now you may know math but little about math education, but I am asking anyway - just how should math be taught, and when?
> 
> When I went to college, psychology could not be taken by a freshman.  As a psychologist I can tell you that there are some parts of it that can be taught to kids in kindergarten - and should be.  Maybe math shares some of that thinking.

Start here:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Math

When I was in high school, I read a book on the New Math. It was already a relic at that time. I thought it wasn't so bad -- teaching things like seeing negative numbers as related to ordered pairs and the like. 

On his math should be taught, are there any math teachers here who might answer that? My gut reaction is to say some cliche like 'it should be tailored to the student,' but I wonder if there aren't some methods that work well overall. 

By the way, I've seen with fellow students and relatives that the transition from arithmetic to algebra is hard. Not sure if that because arithmetic is taught first for so many years or just because algebra takes a more brain power -- or the way either is taught. (And I mean in the way these topics are defined in grade school -- not in grad school.;)

Regards,

Dan
  Sample my Kindle books via:
http://author.to/DanUst
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