JoanneJacobs links to an article on constructivist math in Washington state:

Erin Bennett doesn't really care that her students can solve 12 x 3 = 36.

When the Columbia Elementary School teacher conducts a math lesson, she's more interested in how her students solve the equation, and if they can explain themselves well. And the right answer doesn't hurt.

"You did it in a really cool way," she told student Jarred Brutscher. "Tell us how you did it."

Brutscher wrinkled his nose and launched into a quiet explanation of his thought process: the fourth-grader knew that 10 x 3 = 30, and 2 x 3 = 6. So using those two equations, he deduced the answer....

Isn't that the DISTRIBUTIVE PROPERTY??????

I think it IS!!!!

WAY cool, Jarred!!!!!


Reading on we learn that--

Teachers hope as they, their students and parents adjust to new approaches to mathematics, students' affinity for the subject will grow.

Right. Good luck with that!

Then there's this:

"We're asking students to communicate their understanding," said Jim Carlson, a math teacher at Kamiakin High School in Kennewick. "That's what you need to do to be successful. You have to be able to communicate and to make connections."

I swear, these people are like Stepford wives.

Communicating!

Making Connections!

Robotically Intoning Various Assorted Gerunds that have nothing whatsoever to do with math!


So I'm thinking. If Success in the 21st Century is going to mean a whole lot of people running around Communicating and Making Connections, my best move is to head for the hills now.

Before I go, however, I'm going to take a moment to drop Ms. Bennett a note making a connection between Jarred's cool solution and the standard paper-and-pencil algorithm for multiplication. Seeing as how neither Ms. Bennet nor Jarred seem to have noticed.





Teachers trying to change the image of mathematics

update