Common Core Groupthink

It's dangerous to get your news from your Facebook news feed. It's often more one-sided than Fox News or MSNBC.

I keep seeing images like this one being shared.  They criticize the "common core" standard that's being implemented in New York State.  This post is less about that standard (because I haven't researched it enough) but more about thinking critically.

I first saw the above and thought:  "Wow.  What is this?  It's really stupid.  What was wrong with the old way?"  It's easy to fall into the trap.

But after I kept seeing this being reposted, I figured I might as well try to understand it.  Surely it had to be a joke!  Why would the state's top educators insist this must be taught?!

It took a few minutes (which is about a hundred times longer than it takes to click "like" and "share") before I came to this scary realization:  This insane way of thinking about math is actually the way I think about math!  (Even scarier:  It's probably the way you think about it, too!)

Sure, when you do it on paper, it's easier to line up the digits and solve it the way on top.  But you're only learning how to solve it.  On a piece of paper.  You're not actually learning about what the numbers mean.

When you're adding up your grocery bill at the supermarket or trying to figure out how much everyone should put in when you get the check at a restaurant, you're probably not going to sit there with a pen and paper, line everything up, and solve.  (OK, fine.  You'll probably pull out your smartphone's calculator app to solve it.  Or, even more likely, have someone else do it and hope it works out.  But that's NOT what our kids should be taught in school!)

Math is more than just digits falling into alignment.  It's a concept involving real-world quantities.  The second method works with this.

Why should kids be taught there's only one way to solve problems?  Why can't a second way be taught, especially if it's more intuitive and practical?

Parents are reacting to methods like this by pulling their kids out of class.  Not only does this keep our children from learning, it teaches them that they can just sit at home when they don't like something.  Maybe this is why U.S. students rank so poorly against the rest of the world.

Critical thinking is about more than just solving subtraction.  It's also a way to think about those social media memes.