This MONDAY MUSINGS is about division. We definitely have political division issues in our country. Yet, I was faced with a different division upon my first day visit with one of my grands. It had to do with that day's homework.
It was third-grade math division homework. Have any of you done the new math lately? Her frustrated Mom had already resorted to calling another Mom, and I overheard something about a tutorial video parents could watch. As my daughter was lamenting her demise, I joined the exasperated, tired grand at the kitchen table, asking her if she would explain how she was tackling the problem. This retired educator felt if she could explain what she was doing, this division obstacle would be resolved.
Upon viewing the incorrect final answer, we needed to backtrack. There were so many boxes and lines to fill in. She explained she had to find the closest thousand and then subtract it. To add to my confusion, to the right of the problem was a column of multiplication problems to solve."Are you supposed to fill those in before tackling the problem?" She retorted, "I guess."
The calvary arrived before we could go any farther. Her Dad, who deals with numbers every day, translating architectural building plans to order materials, sat down with her. Boy, was I relieved.
Is 3rd grade division really teaching us something bigger?
Perhaps we as a nation need to reflect on using different approaches because we all need to benefit from the outcome...
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