I understand the OP's frustration. My kids have also been estimated to death.
From what I've seen, the problem isn't that they have to estimate per se; I agree with Iucounu that this is an important skill. The problem is the way it's taught, which results in the kids having to "learn" stuff that they don't really have to learn. So, for example, they learn "front end estimating" and "cluster estimating" and rounding. Plus, they have to drill down and learn how to estimate answers (say a sum) by rounding the addends to the nearest hundred, ten, one, tenth, hundredth, thousandth, etc.
What frustrates me is that each act of estimating is taught as a discrete idea. It would all be a lot easier if they were taught the basic principles and shown how it all fits together.
Actually, I think that this problem is a fundamental problem in US math education. Stuff is taught as discrete ideas, and few if any attempts are made at showing kids patterns in mathematics, why stuff works, and that so many things are interconnected.
Last edited by Val; 11/08/12 11:28 AM. Reason: Clarity
