Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth

I watched the video "Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth." My first reaction was "oh...great" because I teach at a school where Everyday Math is used. However, I was more thankful we do not use Terk after watching the examples! What the heck was that?! :) The woman said that students "rarely become fluent, confident, efficient math users" with these two programs. To me, that's enough information to burn both those curriculums!

Well, I can speak from personal experience teaching multiplication with Everyday Math. Last year when I was a third grade teacher, I had to teach using the lattice method. It was the first time I had ever seen it or heard of it. I had to have another teacher teach me. To me, it seemed like a novelty. It was a cool method to learn, but it was more of a second way than a basis of multiplication. There was nothing about place value and no understanding of the numbers being multiplied. The lattice method had more problems than it was worth. First of all, if I did not provide the boxes to plug the numbers in, it was always a mess. Plus, it took a long time to set up and it was difficult for students to get outside help because many adults were unfamiliar with the method. I tutored a 4th grader over the summer and all he knew was the lattice method. It pained me to watch him draw a box and fill in all the numbers. I taught him the traditional algorithm and it was a HUGE time saver. Plus, he felt much more confident about how to solve a multiplication problem.

Now that I'm in first grade, I do not have the same confusion with multiplication and higher level math. The problem I am running into is one that was stated in the video. Everyday Math does not provide enough practice, never allowing mastery. I saw this last year and I see it this year. Math is really about practicing until you reach mastery. Everyday Math will introduce a concept and then it either never comes up again, or comes up much too late without review.

My favorite part of the Everyday Math teachers manual is that it states to reach for a calculator when problems get "too cumbersome." If the curriculum can't provide an efficient algorithm and has to instruct to use a calculator, something is wrong. As teachers we should prepare our students to be able to solve math problems without having to rely on a calculator.

There is a general distaste for Everyday Math around the school. I'm tempted to send this video to them!