Just teach my kid the math

"Homework" is supposed to be practising skills they have already learned so they can make it more fluent, and have to concentrate on it less when they come to the next thing to learn. Learning things is done with the teacher there to help anticipate, identify, and correct misconceptions.

If you want the parent to help with the homework, the parent will have to know the material they want to help with. In maths, that's rarely the case unless it's the same thing they learned. And that's now out-of-date.

Parents say they want their students to learn new, modern maths, and then insist that they are taught exactly what they were taught. And hated.

Having said that, I'm really not going to defend anything about the existing setup and system. This is a huge mess, and while I have my own ideas, there's no way a discussion here will change anything, and it's likely that things I do say will be taken out of context, twisted, and mis-understood.

So, I know a lot less about math than you do. However, I have been studying lately myself, and reading a lot of Martin Gardner and Serge Lang; Both of those (and many of the other math types I read) seem to hold that making math practical can be useful... but it's not the point of learning math any more than learning how to spell correctly is the point of studying literature.

> And teachers are trying to teach how to make change?

No, the "making change" comment is an example of how these techniques of thinking about numbers do turn up in real life.

> I understand “anchoring to fives and tens” but I don’t understand why anyone thinks it’s a good way to do anything except confuse kids.

It's a part of a broader strategy to talk about the structure of numbers and the operations on them.

> Does independent research prove these approaches increase numeracy?

Yes. I don't have access to it and can't give you any links, but there has been a lot of research about how to move away from the rote learning of algorithms and move towards understanding what numbers are and how they work. I've seen some of the research as a peripheral part of some of the projects I've been involved with, and it seems that these sorts of exercises really do serve to help students see more about what's really going on.

The problem is the parents pushing back because they don't understand it, and don't believe it can be useful or helpful. For me, it seems obvious that this is a better way to think about things.

There is a reason why most people hate math.

IMAO the current system of teaching math is ancient and above all deprecated. We should not punish our kids with it. I mean, what's the point of drilling stupid sums if you'll hardly ever need it in your life? I think it is totally stupid and irresponsible if anyone does calculations without a calculator for almost any application, not excluding: store checkout, health care, aviation, etc.. The current educational methods are way pre-computer era, it desperately needs an upgrade.

So why not start teaching kids concepts and let them use the technologies we create to solve problems that our minds are not wired for? Ever seen a teacher without a cheat sheet checking the answers? Guess why? Because their own calculations are too slow and above all not to be trusted! And should I not use a debugger because theoretically we can write proper code without it? Come on..

Please stop teaching our kids deprecated workflows. Teach them the best practice, the best way we know and can do now, because: "As the twig is bent the tree is inclined".

Is there a common core method to teach arithmetic in different a different base, like 8 or 16?

The "old way" algorithm still works with different bases, you just change extend or truncate the rule for when to carry.

Easy to teach your kid hexadecimal arithmetic using old way, like how my parents taught me in like grade 4 or 5 - and now I program for a living, haha