Demystifying Math

Let me expand on yesterday’s post about a poorly written math standard in Michigan, because that standard is just one way in which we make math much more inaccessible than it should be.

Take multiplication: the most common way of saying 4 x 7 is “four times seven.”  But to a third grader, honestly, what does that phrase really mean?  Why not say “four groups of seven” instead? 

Similarly, we should read 5 + 6 as “six more than five” (or “five added to six”) as opposed to the inherently meaningless “five plus six.” 

10 – 4 is “four less than ten,” not “ten minus four.”

When we change 4/10 into 2/5, we did NOT “reduce” that fraction (at least not according to the standard definition of ’reduce’), yet that’s exactly what we often say. 

And when we solve a problem like 28 + 24, what exactly are we “carrying?”

My plea: Ban words like plus, minus, times, borrow, carry, and reduce from your elementary math classroom, and replace them with genuine phrases that represent what is actually occurring.

Is College Overrated?

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently published an interesting article entitled “America’s Most Overrated Product: the Bachelor’s Degree” which asserts that “college is a wise choice for far fewer people than are currently encouraged to consider it.”  Definitely worth the read.