the New Math. I came home from college to find my 8 year old brother being taught about group theory. He had no idea, my parents had no idea, I had just finished studying int it in college. I tried to teach them all bu it was useless, then my parents wanted me to commute to college while my brother needed help with math, but I refused, and went back, but came home every weekend to help him even though my dating life was screwed. The school finally abandoned teach this to 8 year olds.
My problem is the private contracts for testing. I think the common core should be for results, the methods can be more than one. No two kids are exactly alike. I bloomed with algebra in junior high, but found my girlfriends "couldn't do math" it was a boy thing, so I had one friend I tutored every day (she was really bad), other friends I taught at lunchtime. I found not everyone learned the same way and I had to tailor it to them. too bad budgets are cut and teachers can not personalize the lessons. Right now I work with kids for charity so they can get their community service hours in, they should have kids help tutor and give them hours for that.
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