<p>We were purchasing a car this week, and, on the bill of sale form, the numbers just did not makes sense. Using mental math was enough to bring me to the conclusion that something was just not quite right, but we broke out the calculators to figure out where the mistake was. </p>
<p>I teach elementary school, and I do worry about the curriculum, particularly in math and science. It seems to me, in the push to be more competitive in these areas, we are actually going in the wrong direction. We (teachers) talk frequently about how we cannot teach to mastery, because we simply have to move along to the next thing in the curriculum. We have to teach, even if it’s only in an introductory fashion, all of the concepts that will be on the standardized tests at the end of the year, and that they will be expected to be familiar with in the next grade level. The math book we are required to use is confusing and flies through important concepts, or makes huge assumptions about the student’s background knowledge. In one lesson the book may have students “learning” several different methods to find an answer. There is nothing wrong with demonstrating that there is more than one way to do something, but it confuses the kids when you try to show them too much at once, but, because we don’t know exactly what will be tested, or which methods will be emphasized, we are reluctant to skip as much as we’d really like.</p>