Common Core Frustration Response

I found an interesting article on The Mindful Mathematician's blog regarding the Common Core math curriculum and the frustration it causes.  This was my response:

I agree with the comment henance posted. It would be wonderful to learn every kind of way to do something, but the world wants us all (both kids and adults) to operate at such a breakneck speed in order to become "more profitable" that there simply isn't enough time to develop a full understanding of anything. I have a math degree and I remember taking the required differential equations class, doing well in it, and then asking, "What the heck just happened? I feel like I don't have a clear understanding of anything that went on!" That's because the course is mostly designed for practical engineering applications and is not focused so much on derivation. I think they blazed through the derivation portions so that the exceptionally gifted students got it, but the rest just had to memorize the formulas. And that's the way it is with most things. If the requirement was get a clear understanding of the derivation of everything, the course would have taken three semesters instead of one. Too expensive and not worth the effort. Whoever really wants to understand the derivations can do so in their own time.

I applaud common core for attempting to discover a more intuitive way of doing mathematics, but I have a son, and I can tell you that whether he uses the common core algorithm or the traditional algorithm, he's going to have to memorize it. In fact, most of the time I've spent with him on studying has been using those darn flash cards for him to memorize his multiplication facts. Those you just have to memorize. There's no other option. Can't do long division no matter what without memorizing those first.

I predict what's going to happen with common core math is that when students try to do homework most parents are going to see the algorithm they used and get confused. A LOT of parents help their students with homework after all. Some parents may be able to figure out the algorithm but some won't because they're too used to the traditional and have a hard time learning anything new either out of unwillingness or inability. I think if the education system really wants this common core thing to work it should send a handout to parents showing how these algorithms work before the parents get an unwelcome surprise.

Incidentally, there was an educational program introduced in the 60's called New Math developed in order to try to put us ahead of the Soviets at that time. I don't have a clear understanding of it, but I think they tried to expose really young students to the idea of doing the standard operations of addition, division, etc. with numbers in bases other than base 10. It failed of course. The big reason it failed was because people learn by experience better than by abstract reasoning. You have to go from the specific to the general, not the other way around. I believe that's definitely true, because an ellipse is a generalized circle and it's much tougher to work with. And the general theory of relativity is much harder than the special theory.

Fortunately common core doesn't seem to be quite as bad as new math. I don't know if it will succeed and the new algorithms will replace the old ones. I really don't see that much difference between either one though. It's not like the common core one is that much more obvious than the traditional one. They both take a bit of thinking to figure out how they work. I think we should have just stuck with the traditional methods to save the parents some frustration. Parents are already frustrated enough with increased health insurance premiums.