I was nodding my head in agreement at the beginning of the article as he described the problems of students not being prepared for college level math. By the end, I was bristling like delbows when I realized this would probably just be fodder to accuse parents of "pushing" children into developmentally inappropriate math.
DD7 is on a different developmental path as Grinity described so well in another post and I copied below. To me it is developmentally inappropriate to focus on the speed of her math drills. Her basic addition and subtraction speed is fast enough so it's not a hindrance as she tackles 2 digit multiplication and long division. Isn't that the whole point of math drills and not just speed for speed's sake? Grrr!
Most children are on the normal developmental path, where their handwriting develops at about the same pace as their reading, and their ability to understand Math ideas comes AFTER they are wonderful at speed Math Facts. But the problem with norms, is that although they apply to most kids, they do not apply to all kids. My son is on a different developmental path, one which is quite common to gifted kids, and his learning needs need to be evaluated chunk by chunk instead of relying on norms. He is ready for bigger ideas, in Math and in Reading, right now, even though his fingers are still at age-level.
