6 thoughts on “California’s Math Framework”

  1. It also doesn’t matter because most people have little more use for math than they do the author’s examples of stepwise instruction, music and ski jumping.

    At the public schools I attended there were almost no music theory or performance classes for beginners. Students had to audition, demonstrating abilities cultivated by private effort and parents’ expense.
    One high school had an introductory guitar class that was open to all, but it was offered during only one period.

    For the most part math should, like music and ski jumping, be treated as an interest of the bourgeoisie.

  2. I believe that calculators are the biggest reason kids don’t learn the basics. If I’d had one, I’d have never learned the multiplication tables. As was, a paper copy had to be pried from my little hands before I would make the effort to memorize them.

    The truth is that effective elementary education, especially in the first few years, needs to be repetitive drill and memorization of basic structures like addition, subtraction and vocabulary. This is very boring if you’re the teacher, thus all these “new” revolutionary methods every few years.

    1. Yup. With spaced repetition, it is just like lifting weights. You don’t habe to worry about your muscles growing, it just happens when you get the reps in. Same with memory.

    2. Same here. My first semester at College we were taught the slide rule (still have that Versalog-II) but I bought a Texas Instruments calculator as well. Years later I spent a summer working in an Ice Cream freezer — my Seiko wristwatch froze and a LCD calculator display almost shattered at -12F! Everything was typically packaged in 3s, 6s and 12s so soon my lax mental muscles were reacquainted with ‘mental math’.

      Use it or lose it is my experience.

  3. Recently, I read an article about how some places are teaching “socially relevant” math. They presented an example calculation about a single mother needing to allocate her money. This was followed by a video about the hardships of single parenthood and a discussion. In essence, a math class might cover 1-2 actual math problems with the rest of the time being given to social justice indoctrination.

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