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conulyEverybody is convinced that things were better when they grew up, and they use the most ridiculous ways to prove it. Inevitably, in some conversation about phonics, somebody who vaguely knows "phonics are better" but has no idea what that means will say that they know phonics are better because back in the 50s everybody learned from Dick and Jane and nobody of that age is illiterate today! And when talking about math, every single time, a dozen people will falsely proclaim that nobody was poor at math back when they or their grandparents grew up (whenever that was!) and that THEY certainly learned the traditional way - like everybody did up until ten years ago! (Some people never heard of New Math?)
Today I read one that made me roll my eyes. This kid was given two numbers - say 13 and 22 - and told to estimate the answer. She added the numbers, got 35, and was predictably marked wrong. This infuriated her father, as he commented, because "schools are just teaching kids what they'll never use instead of what they need to know!!"
I would've marked that one wrong too! She didn't do what was asked, which is round each number and THEN add. And I don't know about him, but I use estimation all the time. I certainly don't add up every single penny as I shop, I go to the nearest quarter. And I always find a reasonable range before adding (though if its only two numbers I do it without thinking) so that if I get a VERY wrong number I can tell before I check! But it's something about asking kids to estimate (never mind that, if my education was typical, most parents of my generation were formally taught to do that too) that seems to irritate people. People get irritated about lattice multiplication, but they get incensed about estimating and rounding. I just don't get it!
Today I read one that made me roll my eyes. This kid was given two numbers - say 13 and 22 - and told to estimate the answer. She added the numbers, got 35, and was predictably marked wrong. This infuriated her father, as he commented, because "schools are just teaching kids what they'll never use instead of what they need to know!!"
I would've marked that one wrong too! She didn't do what was asked, which is round each number and THEN add. And I don't know about him, but I use estimation all the time. I certainly don't add up every single penny as I shop, I go to the nearest quarter. And I always find a reasonable range before adding (though if its only two numbers I do it without thinking) so that if I get a VERY wrong number I can tell before I check! But it's something about asking kids to estimate (never mind that, if my education was typical, most parents of my generation were formally taught to do that too) that seems to irritate people. People get irritated about lattice multiplication, but they get incensed about estimating and rounding. I just don't get it!
