- #1
Justice Hunter
- 98
- 7
The new curriculum schools are teaching now for math in elementary is Common core, which is a visual representation of addition, subtraction, multiplication etc...
I've seen a couple videos, articles and stories of some, what i believe to be, outrageous accounts of unfairness towards the answers given to some of the questions they have on tests.
A recent example is the teacher that marked a 3rd grader wrong for answering the following question, in the following manner :
Q: What is 5x3?
A: 5+5+5
the "correct answer" was 3+3+3+3+3.
Now I can sort of see why the students answer might not be the most mathematically correct answer, but i think it urks me to think that they are still "wrong" according to this new curriculum.
I think the most important concept in physics and mathematics, is that there are multiple ways to arrive at the same answer. Mathematics and physics have evolved through out history to find the most simple and mathematically beautiful paths to an answer, but i think this is getting out of hand. If students aren't challenged to think in ways different to the mainstream, i fail to see how there will be any advancement at all in future generations to come, if we are all thinking the same way.
Also, for those familiar with common core, why is it that 3+3+3+3+3 is more correct then 5+5+5 if they are both non factor-able(prime numbers)?
Couldn't an even more correct answer be 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1 ?
I just don't see how this can even be a question in the first place, when it can be answered in so many different, equally logical ways.
I've seen a couple videos, articles and stories of some, what i believe to be, outrageous accounts of unfairness towards the answers given to some of the questions they have on tests.
A recent example is the teacher that marked a 3rd grader wrong for answering the following question, in the following manner :
Q: What is 5x3?
A: 5+5+5
the "correct answer" was 3+3+3+3+3.
Now I can sort of see why the students answer might not be the most mathematically correct answer, but i think it urks me to think that they are still "wrong" according to this new curriculum.
I think the most important concept in physics and mathematics, is that there are multiple ways to arrive at the same answer. Mathematics and physics have evolved through out history to find the most simple and mathematically beautiful paths to an answer, but i think this is getting out of hand. If students aren't challenged to think in ways different to the mainstream, i fail to see how there will be any advancement at all in future generations to come, if we are all thinking the same way.
Also, for those familiar with common core, why is it that 3+3+3+3+3 is more correct then 5+5+5 if they are both non factor-able(prime numbers)?
Couldn't an even more correct answer be 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1 ?
I just don't see how this can even be a question in the first place, when it can be answered in so many different, equally logical ways.
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