Translation: I’m embarrassed by the fact that I didn’t know the answer to my kid’s math problem, and that makes me mad, so I will now lash out at the institution that caused me to feel this.
Someone should tell him about wolframalpha.com.
Is this what happened with common core [ie “They changed the way they teach kids math, and I dont understand it now, therefor it is bad”] or is common core actually bad I was never clear.
Having standards at all is good, especially for kids who move a lot. The specifics of the standards are not ideal, but an improvement for most states. Then you have the modules, which are a set of prescribed units and lesson plans which implement the standards and are distributed to teachers. The modules are fucking awful, not evidence based, and were just written by textbook execs (not by curriculum planners or education researchers or even rank-and-file teachers).
Every school can either be an Adapt school or an Adopt school. Adopt schools teach the modules as-planned, page-per-page. Adapt schools receive different funding incentives but have more flexibility in how teachers teach the standards. Some Adapt schools still really hammer away at standardized testing and push the modules anyway, but generally Adapt schools are better.
Edit: also, regarding Common Core and math, the standards focus a lot less on memorizing pen-and-paper algorithms and a lot more on number sense and understanding why things work. So homework often looks more complicated because the skills it’s teaching are simple to hold in your mind, but harder to print on a page.
So not only did they change how math was taught, but most parents today were taught prior to these standards existing. Their kids are learning how to be able to change how they approach math problems without losing intuition, which is the very skill that the many parents trying to help them lack due to years of subpar math education.
so tl;dr better way to teach basic math?
ETA: I did actually read i just want to get to the core question I was asking lol
Its literally basic linear algebra, every adult with a high school education should know how to do this. Education should be the goal.
This isn’t even linear algebra, there is no set theory going on here at all.
It’s a pretty simple case of, find a common denominator, then follow simple BEMDAS ( Brackets, Exponents, Multiplication/Division, Addition/Subtraction) procedure. No testing, no complex relationships to remember, no real shortcuts to remember either.
the linear algebraic concept is that the equation becomes underspecified (and tautological in this case) if both sides of the equation simplify to the same terms. if you had two different expressions with a single variable and an max exponent of 1 that were set equal you’d either have 1 solution (the consistent option) or none (the inconsistent option. but you only get multiple solutions if the second expression adds no new information about the value of y.
it’s intuitive to jump to simplification but it’s good to know why you’re applying a specific technique. imagine if there were a follow up question that asked you to specify a third expression that equaled the first two but led to zero solutions. basic simplification won’t yield an answer because you need to provide something inconsistent - you get there by fixing one of the two terms and providing a different coefficient for the other.
Just…expand the brackets and see if anything jumps out at you. Come on now.
“Getting unstuck by applying a basic technique you already know without necessarily having a plan for what to do next” is a useful skill in countless areas of creative and technical work.
User name contains “smug”, can’t do a 12 year old’s math question.
Yup, checks out.
