So, I've tried to educate myself.
Read the link supplied by Val (thanks!) and am beginning to understand how common core standards came into being in the first place and are actually somewhat based in singapore maths, which I understand are actually the go-to curriculum for gifted homeschoolers (European parent here, so total outsider, remember?)
Googled a bit and found this to be instructive:
http://www.mes.weakleyschools.com/Singapore%20Math%20pages/L12-11_parent_letter.pdfSounds familiar - that's how my kid is being taught maths in elementary. Only they don't teach him by using Latin terminology (decomposing? Are kindergarten teachers really trying to teach kindergartners by telling them to "decompose"?), they teach him by providing sample problems so kids can figure out what they are supposed to do. I always felt that these 5000 different ways of showing that 4 and 3 is 7 would drive me nuts, but I suppose that is very much a gifted kids problem and most kids will really be helped by building number sense. So it is up to elementary teachers to use some common sense as well in how they, um, actually, teach, ie help both kids who struggle and gifted kids to understand what they are supposed to do, and then maybe not make gifted kids who get it do all 5000 ways but give them something more interesting after the first 300 or so...
It can't be that hard. They all have a BEd, right? What did THEY learn?!
