Common Core Math

[He Man]

Has anyone here tried learning common core math (mainly to teach their kids)? What is your occupational background and do you consider yourself good at math?

Just wondering what the gripe is about. I went through the common core method and thought it was a wonderful graphical way to explain how math works, but I also do math on a daily basis being an engineer. its not really all that fast to do on paper (in fact its pretty dumb on paper to do as your normal method), but it works pretty well in your head and i found it does a great job of explaining what something like 398-234=164 actually means.

Ive been reading about people not understanding it, and its been getting flack for years now. I got interested because people posted up some visually disturbing methods to do math. But it really wasnt as bad as it looks.

The word problems though, are classic math word problems that need a lawyer to decipher the actual question. But thats not common cores fault, its just a the way math word problems are.

[Dirty Duc]

I consider myself good at math, but I failed to adequately understand integrals (differentials are okay because of the cheat... don't know what to do with them, though).  Common core is kind of how I do arithmetic in my head.  Simplify the complex and multiply as appropriate.

My educational background... was eventually codified in a liberal arts degree.  I'm older than you, but younger than DP.

[Speeddog]

Can you show an example of how Common core does 398-234?

[Dirty Duc]

Can you show an example of how Common core does 398-234?

400-250 is 150. (-2+16=14)
150+14 is 164.

That doesn't improve "teachability" any more than knowing the "exponent trick" in differential calculus improves knowledge about how to apply math to a given situation. 

[JohnEE]

400-250 is 150. (-2+16=14)
150+14 is 164.

That doesn't improve "teachability" any more than knowing the "exponent trick" in differential calculus improves knowledge about how to apply math to a given situation. 

Young Engineer here. I've seen some examples of it, and it always seems like it's more work. But then again when i try to explaining moving the decimal point over once then multiplying by 2 to leave a %20 tip, people look at me like i'm explaining differential calc. What ever works for you is the best way, for example I was taught how to do division the long way on paper. Then i figured out how to do it the short way and never looked back. Everybody has their own way of understanding and applying math.