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THAT’S THE ‘NEW MATH5Kids Get New Perspective;Parents Get Con. *1 »•By GERRY OLIVER Dally Times Staff WriterPeople have been quietly screaming themselves into the mad house ever since schools announced the new math.”No one cares to admit he is stupid enough to find it difficult. Well, let me attempt to be an honest sduI.Once, many years ago (I suddenly find both numbers and numberals strangely evasive) I was an A student in old-fashioned mathematics.Recently, I decided to subject myself to the stresses and strains of “number lines,” Sets,” “regrouping,” distributive principals, scaffolding” and a variety of other allegorical terms that tend to create nightmares for homework-minded parents of today’s children.Or better yet, 2 plus 8 plus 3 plus 7. Or more simply, 10 plus 9 plus 1. Or any other combinations you might figure,(Figure? No, the new math doesn't use this term. It’s left open to all the usual joys of speculation.)tTo help understand the new elasticity that mathematicians have placed in numbers, I started at 3rd grade level. (My aptitude of past decades permitting skipping two grades.)Elusive TensDecades? Now that term gets us to the Base 10 number system that is generally taught for addition and subtraction.DiscoverySo Then J?7hat?Today's kids learn to visualize all the carrying” and borrowing” associated with addition and subtraction with the help of an abacus.What I discovered without anyone's actually saying so is that numbers no longer are the strong immutable guardians of measurement that they once were taught to be.They have failings too because they are something that human beings developed and which human beings continue to use. Maybe this makes numbers themselves more human and more understandable.Sixth graders are learning to find the “most accurate” measurement when dealing with fractions and they are reminded there is always some degree of error.”It’s all designed to take the mystery and monotony of rote memorization away from numerical operations.IT TAKES COURAGE—Richard Welfley, 11, of 137 Bortondale Road, Middletown, demonstrates the scaffolding system of learning: long- division, one of thenew math’s formulas for making numerals more un derstandable.HELEN HELP USI discovered my own stupidity a score of years too late.A score — now, how many Is that? Well, It’s an old term. Twenty Is the exact connotation.But let’s see. That can’t be quite accurate. Or is it?According to the commutative properties that modern mathematicians have found in numerals, a score might also be 4 plus 5 plus 4 plus 5 plus 2, Or it could be 5 plus 5 plus 5 plus 5.These terms are outmoded, however, and the whole thing is called “re-grouping,1’ and for good reason. The kids regroup beads on the abacus and actually see the numerical changes they are effecting.The number line” is still another way of visualizing what happens to numbers during mathematical operations. The line might be a string of numbers from I to 100. With a pointer or a piece of a chalk it can be shown how 5 plus 5 plus 5 plus 5 takes one to 20.New PerspectiveYes,- it’s a changing perspective that the new math has created. Numbers are becoming more manageable tools. And, paradoxical as it sounds, because of allowances for error greater precision can be effected.Tearing down the rote memorization system that previously prevailed in mathematics education does cause learning pains. But it is effective.Parents can complain about the difficulties of helping withFate of Youngest Child IsTo Get Teabag on 4th DunkDEAR HELEN:Just because I am the youngest, I always get not much.I always get the tea bag after ft has been used by Dad and Mom and my sister who is 12. I am 10. I think I should get the tea bag third once in a while. It is very weak when it is fourth. What should I do?DEAR SANDY: Yes - especially if my bottle opener isn't handy.DEAR HELEN:1 don’t know how many cards of sympathy I’ve sent in the past five years to people who have had losses through death. In all that time. I’ve receivedThis column is dedicated to family living, so if you're having trouble let Helen help YOU. ( She will also welcome your own amusing experiences. Address Helen Bottel in care of the Delaware County Daily Times, 18 E. 8th St., Chester, Pa.junior’s homework. * But w„S 8 says junior should havtr^help anyway?If he Is to cope wlth^the brave new world of space explorations and scientific achievements, independent'^ihi-tiative has to carry hinT forward. The new grammers have designeC^ir courses to provide the inceptive to do just that. . .v-..Wide Application,Injecting numerical /relationships into all phases of everyday life — collecting toys, putting, number tags on household chores such as washing, grocery shopping, getting youngsters to see the use of numbers —all this is part of the new math” program.The system looks complicated to those initiated at the start but the result is simplification— it means greater mental flexibility in handling numbers. And it does induce the reasoning/required for coping with higher math more easily.Take a chain of numbers'de-signed to show more than one arithmetic progression simultaneously. Add one accidental teacher error. Who discovered it within one minute flat? lt;A third grade student whq ‘was only a fraction of time alidad of a number of others ill:‘hisclass.«...’iNot So Dumb!■ K-J.DELAWARE COUNTY (PA.) DAILY TIMES, MONDAY, MAY 4, 194PAGE 8Who else discovered it almost joyously? I did, of course.®-Yes, it took three explanations of the scaffolding method- of long division (a lot of extra numbers, graphically arranged so that the divisional process can be visualized in units,..tens, hundreds, thousands) to determine what it was. /,And I’m still not certain I could do the procedure without help.But I discovered a third grade teacher’s error in the new math” through my own mentel processes. It was a real joy. Maybe I’m not quite as stupid as I thought.
Newspaper Details
Delaware County Daily Times
Chester, Pennsylvania, US
Mon, May 04, 1964
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Tamara N.
NA, 02 May 2019
Other Publications Near Chester, Pennsylvania
Chester Reporter
Chester Evening Times
Delaware County Daily Times
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