2+2=4 but how’d you get there?

Today I’ve been thinking a lot about math in today’s schools. I just finished Math 109 (math for elementary school teachers 1) and next week I will begin (math for elementary school teachers 2). I’ve been out of school for a while now and was blown away when I saw common core in action, and not in a good way. Until I took the above mentioned class. 

One of my younger sisters was completing a math sheet and I was flabbergasted at how she was doing it. What are we teaching our children? This is the most round about way to get to the right answer that I have ever seen. To be honest, I saw it as this over complicated method that had absolutely no practical application to the real world. I thought if this is what we are showing our kids, how will they be successful in the career world because numbers there don’t work like this.
Then I took my math class. It was a bit of an eye opening experience. For starters, I learned that this isn’t the only way being taught. It as an alternative way of thinking that might help kids get to the right answer. Not everyone can see a math problem and work through it the traditional way to get to an answer. I’ve learned many different methods now on how to get kids to understand a math problem. I feel like I have gained a powerful tool for my tool belt to teach someday. 

The funny part is that in my head, I’ve always used a non traditional way of doing math. If I see a problem that is 65+25, I’ll take 5 from the 25 and add it to 65 giving me 70. Then I know that 70+20=90. That’s how my brain has always understood math, and I didn’t even realize it.
I hope for the future I can remain open to new teaching methods without bias, because you never know how helpful they could be.


“Without mathematics, there’s nothing you can do. Everything around you is mathematics. Everything around you is numbers.” –Shakuntala Devi