dumbing down second-grade math
I taught second grade today. There was a math lesson dealing with mental math (seems like I *always* get mental math to teach, and I don’t remember ever *learning* mental math as a kid — I kinda think that once you can Do Math reasonably well, it gets increasingly automatic and thus can sometimes be done without pencil and paper… but I digress), and the introductory text (the “math story”) (!) had this kid in it whose thought process was outlined as follows:
I have 50 cents, which is 5 dimes.
This thing costs 30 cents, which is 3 dimes.
5 dimes take away 3 dimes is 2 dimes, so the change is 20 cents.
“Take away.” Seriously. Can we please use some correct terminology in American education? Please? (I read the story aloud, and I substituted “minus.” I am, in fact, fairly likely to judge people based on how articulate they are. Even if they’re seven.)
