So, the teachers saying show your work, or picking on hash marks, are really forcing compliance because there IS NOTHING ELSE THEY HAVE TO OFFER.
I think this hits on a really key issue (at least in our school district, gifted and regular classroom ed) - a large part of the problem imo with our math program here is that the teachers who are choosing the curriculum and who are implementing it at the elementary level are not math-brain-type folks. My ds' 2nd grade teacher was instrumental in selecting his elementary school's math curriculum. She's a talented Language Arts teacher, no question about it. But she was so clueless about math - she freely admitted to parents at one of our meetings that she didn't really "grasp the concept of a fraction" until she was 25. Yikes!
When kids get to algebra and beyond in our district, they are finally taught by teachers who actually (often) have degrees in math or science, who understand math and who are good at it and enjoy it. I think in many ways that makes up for as much of the difference in how kids feel about math as the type of math they are being taught.
polarbear
