a strategy for first graders learning addition. If you want to remember what 8+5 is, you recall that 8 needs two more to be 10; take those two away from the 5 and give them to the 8, leaving you with 10+3 = 13
Source: Meet the New Common Core – The New York Times
My comment is:
These 1st graders are learning much more than arithmetic. They are learning how to think quantitatively. They are learning MATH.
The idea of reducing a problem to a simpler one that you already know how to do. That is math. There is a deeper insight that they are also acquiring – the idea of decomposing something into simpler parts, say 8 plus 5 into 8 plus 3 plus 2, and then putting it back together, making the problem easier.
This idea is useful in all levels of mathematics. It’s used in video and audio compression. Examples abound.
If these kids learn and keep going, they will not just be good at math, they will become good citizens, not so easily fooled by statistics they don’t understand, or incorrect estimates of the present value of Social Security debt.
But, alas, most probably won’t learn. To see why, see my other comment on this subject. It explains the most important observation in this piece – the one about teachers.
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