'New' Math

I realize that I'm opening myself up to a world of debate here, but I'd like to blog about the 'new' math being taught in schools in Alberta. I didn't hear about it until the last couple of months, to be honest. From the sounds of it, it was the same way for most people. However, did you know that it actually started being implemented in 2008, which was over 5.5 years ago? Why are people just starting to complain about it now? It has been fully implemented since 2012, which was over a full school year ago!

Normally I take a live and let live approach to whatever controversial topic is going on at the time. However, on this one I DO NOT! I am pro 'new' math. Here's why:

I was the kind of student who did very well in school when learning was still very much hands on. As soon as school became about teachers lecturing at the front of the classroom and/or letting textbooks do the teaching for them, I started doing poorly in school. If I didn't show my math work exactly how I was expected to think the process through, I was docked marks. Not because my answer was wrong (which it wasn't), but because my thinking process wasn't considered the acceptable one. I was an exceptional math student when I was allowed to figure things out in my own way, but the more rigid the thought process became, the worse I did. I would have excelled with this so-called 'new' math. And had this kind of teaching been applied in other subjects as well, I would have remained an honors student. However, I was taught fully on the 'traditional' system, where if you couldn't do things in a specific way then you were wrong and left behind in the dust. I firmly believe that schools and educators need to accept the fact that different people learn in different ways and that they need to support more than 1 way of learning so that more students can excel in their own way of coming to the correct answer. This math curriculum actually addresses the fact that there is more than 1 way to get there.

Furthermore, both of my children have been doing the new math program since they started school. To be honest, I didn't even notice that they were, I just remember thinking that I liked how hands-on they were with learning it. I assumed it was just their teachers finding a great way that works. Both of my boys that are in school do extremely well in math. They do these kinds of activities at home as well, and I can see how beneficial it is to them. When they, on occasion, don't get the correct answer the first time they DO self-correct and end up finding the right one in their own way. They are learning math skills that are actually applicable to the real world. Bottom line here is that I learned every single math skill that I still use in real life while I was in elementary school. I grant you that I'm not an engineer or anything like that, but I firmly believe that teaching math that is applicable to the real world is beneficial. If people are THAT adamant that their child memorize the multiplication table, then work on it at home for 15 minutes after homework or something. Be proactive in your child's education. Don't feed me lines about being a working parent. I was raised by a single working mother who still made sure to make time to help her kids with any and all school projects or homework they had. It IS possible to be a working parent and still be active in your child's education.

So there you have it. With all of the crap going around dissing on the 'new' math program, here was my side of the argument. For the record, I have read up on the new curriculum and how the teaching works before I wrote this. But this is Alberta. Even when we hate something, we're still unwilling to change it because it would appear that we hate changing it up even more. Don't get me wrong, I love living in Alberta and it would take a miracle to make me leave. But as a province we tend to be extremely resistant to change...That's just 1 mother's opinion, though.