Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy lost my cool at pick up today....

Update: they have put DS7 back in the proper math class. He is in 2nd and goes to 5th grade math. A combination of many consultations with a Davidson consultant and a visit from the psych who did DS testing seemed to have done the trick.

So he will go to school in the mornings for specials and math and come home after lunch for all other subjects.

Sounds like a good solution. I think you were reasonable too. I think learning to do things more than one way is a good idea but only if there is more than one sensible method. I don't think there really is more than one way at doing most basic maths.

So glad this worked out.

For multiplication, most of us memorized the times tables, and learned to multiply by what is described at this math advocacy link as the short method. (link- http://www.nychold.com/em-arith.html)

The other multiplication methods shown here are partial products, lattice, and Egyptian method.

Yes, they use Everyday Math at my son's school. It drives me bananas. Interestingly enough, my PG STEM background husband says that he actually likes Everyday Math. He thinks that if teachers are properly trained to teach it as it was intended, that it would be excellent for differentiation and acceleration.

DS is excited to go back to the class in which he was supposed to be. Of course, the 2 month detour has left a really bad taste in all of our mouths, including DS. He has written off the adults in his school as being "not aware" and "not caring" of what students need who are "not bad" and "smart".

Now I have a headache. But these different methods are just ways you would do it if you had to do it without paper. These problems are complex enough to different ways but the different ways don't need to have names and rules. If I am doing maths and I want to check my answer I would automatically use a different way (there wouldn't be much point doing it the same way).

I have never seen everyday maths but I would have no trouble with "calculate x then verify your answer", I would have a problem with solve for x using method a, then method b, then method c.

Of course checking using a different pathway didn't come naturally to me when I was 8.

I've just looked at this link. Oh, good gods in heaven, no wonder nobody is learning math anymore! Why do they have to make everything so freaking difficult? I practically gave up before I even got to the multiplication section.

There's a reason that all the traditional methods are known as the "short methods" -- because the others go all the way around Robin Hood's barn to come up with the same thing.

Interesting. They have many methods for each arithmetic operation, but they don't have the standard method for subtraction that is taught in most countries.

Thanks for that link! We are so early in the school academics that it was helpful for me to visually see what the "methods" conversation with my son's (former) math teacher was heading towards. And Yikes!! That approach is a nightmare for my mathy kid. Glad we are now doing math the old fashioned way at home.

What method is that? They have the one I learned, but I'm just in America.

I posted about it here.
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....ing_Ma_knowing_and_teach.html#Post167525
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....ing_Ma_knowing_and_teach.html#Post167548