midwestyankee
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2003
- Posts
- 32,076
Math is no more difficult to learn than any other systematic subject. Consider the challenge of learning a foreign language in school as an equally systematic subject that is hardly rocket science but which is hard for some people.
However, much cultural baggage regarding the challenges of TEACHING math abound. Consider all the laugh lines built around poorly-constructed word problems: if Jose leaves a train station at noon, traveling east at 43 miles per hour, at what time will Waldo get laid in Miami?
Our children - and there's only one scientist/engineer in the bunch - were all introduced to some of te simplest concepts of algebra and geometry in early elementary school (around age 8 I think). The next year they learned a little more and then again in each following year they were presented slightly more complex concepts. By age 12 they were all fully proficient in the concepts that puzzled me in high school algebra I at age 14. Tis recursive method of teaching the concepts of math first is one of the predecessors of the math approach that's being taught through Common Core. It works.
However, much cultural baggage regarding the challenges of TEACHING math abound. Consider all the laugh lines built around poorly-constructed word problems: if Jose leaves a train station at noon, traveling east at 43 miles per hour, at what time will Waldo get laid in Miami?
Our children - and there's only one scientist/engineer in the bunch - were all introduced to some of te simplest concepts of algebra and geometry in early elementary school (around age 8 I think). The next year they learned a little more and then again in each following year they were presented slightly more complex concepts. By age 12 they were all fully proficient in the concepts that puzzled me in high school algebra I at age 14. Tis recursive method of teaching the concepts of math first is one of the predecessors of the math approach that's being taught through Common Core. It works.

