My 3 years old just started to learn the basics of math. So, I have been researching on the web what are the best approaches out there… And I came across a very interesting article on Bloomberg with interesting take on concept on teaching… See for yourself.
By Susan Engel – The U.S. has a math problem. Despite all the time, energy and money the country has thrown into finding better ways to teach the subject, American children keep scoring poorly and arriving at college woefully unprepared. Just as bad, if not worse, too many students think they hate math. I propose a solution: Stop requiring everyone to take math in school.
People typically offer some combination of four reasons children should learn math: for everyday functions such as doing taxes, buying groceries and reading the news; for getting a job in an increasingly technologically advanced market; as a powerful way of thinking and understanding the world; to tackle high school or get into a good college.
Let’s consider these one by one. To some degree, children naturally learn basic arithmetic just by spending time with people who use it, and by carrying out such tasks as setting the table, going to the store or sharing toys with friends. Research shows that even illiterate children can compute sums quite quickly and accurately in familiar settings (such as selling produce on the street). Babies are born with an intuitive knowledge of numbers. It wouldn’t take much for schools to teach every child how to add, subtract, multiply and divide.
True, learning math can give us intellectual strengths different from the ones we get reading novels, studying history or poking around in a petri dish. However, these kinds of thinking are not necessarily tied to numbers, certainly not at the novice level. Advanced mathematics requires students to reason logically, be patient, methodical and playful in trying out solutions to a problem, imagine various routes to the same end, tolerate uncertainty and search for elegance. They need to know when to trust their quantitative intuitions and when to engage in counterintuitive thinking. We end up missing a chance to teach them what they would really need in order to go on to higher-level math or to think well. Instead of a good score in algebra, children need three things:
So here’s the plan. Teach young children arithmetic, a task that would probably take 20 minutes a day through the end of third grade. Spend the extra time on reading, and on the kinds of play that involve abstract thinking and problem solving. For young children, this could include building blocks, dominoes and playing store. For older children — chess, “Minecraft,” cryptography and the mental puzzles that can be found in a few outstanding math books, as well as in the brain teaser section of many supermarkets. Teachers and students alike would no longer be locked into a compulsory curriculum that is too much for some, too little for others, and leads very few children to true mathematical ability. We would give up little of worth, and make more room for truly valuable learning. That seems like a good solution to me.
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/2369491-155/bloomberg-op-ed-if-you-want-kids
