The "What's on your mind?" Thread -2017

[Margret]

Margret I didn't even attempt the equation. As we have discussed before, I have issues with arithmetic, much less mathematics. That isn't how my brain is wired. Now, I'm VERY good at some things to do with numbers, I see patterns very clearly, and I know how to look for numbers that are transposed and which numbers are likely to be written instead of OTHER numbers (5 for 8, 3 for either, 4 for 7) and how to know which it was, AND I know phi from pi (although fo and fum confuse me), but...once you throw that " * " in there, and the " ( ) ", I panic and my brain shuts down.

"Fo" and "fum" confuse everyone; they're nonsense words invented to make the giant rhyme (and they don't even succeed at that, since "fum" doesn't rhyme with "Englishman"!).

Beyond that, what you have is not an inability to do math, or to think mathematically; what you have is a phobia of math, which probably means that at some point you had a very bad math teacher. Someday when we can get together personally I'll introduce you to some techniques that will help.

Margret

 

[Margret]

Many schools are now dropping cursive writing. The kids only learn to print. I find that sad. Many other classes we once had are gone, too, to make way for new skills. Many children and adults can't think without a computer or even make change without a cash register or calculator. They know only the basics of using those. Try adding the extra penny to the amount you give one so you get a larger coin back. Do it after they've put the amount in and they will not be able to give you the correct change.

My husband often pays with $2 bills. A lot of the cashiers don't know if they are even legal tender. Some have refused to accept them. We've had to call for a manager several times, and once even that person was unsure.

As for incorrect words, the spell checker often puts one over on me that I don't catch. It makes for some interesting sentences. I know the correct word; the computer doesn't.

People in New Mexico sometimes have to explain they're not from a foreign country. Knowledge of geography is now nonexistent.

Sorry. This is a tall and large soapbox for me.

I was once in a gas station when their computer had gone down, and the kid who was clerking didn't know how to make change for me. I learned this in first grade, before we were taught subtraction! Our teacher set up a cardboard play-house store, with cardboard produce, and cardboard money, and taught us how to make change by counting up from the price to the amount tendered. So, I showed the kid how to do it. He got a look of amazement on his face as he saw how it worked, and how easy it was, and his manager mouthed the words "Thank you" at me as I left.

Beware auto-correct. Horrible things can result from it.

We're fond of $2 bills here, as well. Not to mention Sacajawea dollars.

Margret

 

[Willowy]

I'm OK with kids not learning cursive. I hate cursive with a burning passion and think it's worthless. It's messy and awkward and I just don't like reading it or writing it. Plus I have memories of crying kids hunched over their papers while the teacher berated them for not making their loops in the "right" direction. . .my parents have memories of the teachers doing the same but also hitting the kid with a ruler. Not worth it! Plus I know some older people who were never taught to print so I guess we can even it up now .

My brother writes "backwards" (he cups his hand like lefties do and makes his loops the opposite direction) and I shudder to think what would have happened to him if he had gone to public school. Your writing style is personal and nobody should be punishing you for not doing it their way.

I was taught to count change out by the veteran clerk at my first job. I always knew how to figure it by subtracting, that's obvious, but for some reason I had never learned about counting it back like that. Anyway I'm glad she taught me so early in my working life. I think schools need to teach things that are more relevant to daily life, like figuring percentage-off sales and balancing a checkbook. I know many normal adults who claim that balancing a chekbook is beyond their abilities. I find it to be the simplest thing in the world so I just don't get it!

 

[Margret]

I had a friend, Steve, no longer my friend only because he's no longer with us.

Steve had never been taught how to balance a checkbook, and to put things in the proper time frame, if he were still alive he would now be in his seventies. I know that he'd never learned how to balance a checkbook because he mentioned to me how much trouble it was giving him, so I taught him. He was astonished to find out that it's actually easy.

I wonder whether the simplicity of this is the reason it isn't taught? As I recall, I learned this from my mother, not in school.

Margret

 

[Margret]

@mother dragon, I read your post about $2 bills to Roger and he "reminded" me (I still don't remember hearing it before, but he meant it as a reminder) about an ancient Reader's Digest story. Some small town was considering a new policy that one of their businesses opposed bitterly, so the business decided to fight back by reminding the town just how dependent they were on this business. They didn't want to get nasty about it ("Either you change this policy or we'll leave!"), so instead they instituted a new policy. They told their employees to begin cashing their paychecks directly from the business; in effect they began paying in cash while still retaining the paycheck system for everyone's record-keeping convenience. But when they cashed those paychecks they did so almost entirely in $2 bills. And, all of a sudden, gas stations, grocery stores, virtually every other business in town suddenly discovered that the majority of the money they took in was $2 bills. 'Nuff said. The town backed down on the new policy.

Margret

 

[foxxycat]

love these tidbits! Keep them coming! I still have a hard time counting back change but I can figure out the subtraction pretty well. We were taught money in 3rd grade=how to add and subtract it and word problems..I loved money..it was my favorite thing. I remember as a 10 yr old kid=I set up my kitchen like a country store-made price tags and charged monopoly money to my parents when they took a can of soda or a snack from the kitchen or cooked dinner-I also used to mess around with cooking and wanted to open a restaurant. I was very ambitious as a kid. I often did math problems no problem! My dad taught me how to put code into the computer to get a math question answered...many good memories of playing by myself involving money or store stuff! I was a strange kid! I always wanted to own a store-my mom worked at a small country store so I got to learn all the ins and outs as a 10 year old-even run the register but that got shot down fast by the mean bossman who was always trying to find a way to keep me away from her so he could sexually harass her..I knew what he was up to even as a bratty 8-10 year old..if I was in the store-he couldn't harass my poor mom. That's another subject! but yes I had many years of good math teachers-some stuff took awhile to get in my thick skull but once I got it-I got it and it was pretty easy to follow...my fav is algebra..solve for x.

 

[amysuen]

Yeah. I know about this, as the mother of two grown sons. I tried not to get overly attached before the actual wedding ceremony. I mean, I LIKED them (all, frankly), but I had to protect myself from hurting along with the girls when they turned out to be "Miss Right Now," not "Miss Right."

He's #4 of 6 (the oldest 2 are safely married), and I do try not to get too attached, but they'd been together over 2 years so that makes it harder. It's easier when it's a "flash in the pan" relationship.

 

[Margret]

Well, I went for a walk this morning, after watering my new rose bush.

The Milkweed are in full bloom, as are the Indian Paintbrush. The Cattails around the little lake in our park are beginning to fluff out nicely, and I saw a Red-winged Blackbird perching in them. The Thistles vary between budding out, full bloom, and going to seed. And on my way back I took the path through our green space (the law in my county requires developers to leave green spaces in developments, basically large vacant lots allowed to do what they wish, except that people make paths through them, and one of my neighbors has planted trees). I saw a small plant that I've never noticed before, though I'm sure it's been there. Ground cover, short, small dark leaves, and itsy-bitsy purple flowers, maybe 1/4" across, tops, that up close look like micro miniature orchids. One of these days I'll get enough phone space for some decent picture shooting; I hope they'll still be in bloom.

Since I got home I've been trying to watch past episodes of Torchwood on bbcamerica.com, and it's driving me batty. I'll get midway through an episode and the audio will suddenly go out of synch. I don't mean a second or two behind or ahead of the video, so that it looks like a foreign film that's been dubbed into English, I mean the video keeps right on going while the audio jumps back 10 or 15 minutes! Has anyone else had this problem? More importantly, have you found a way to fix this problem?

Margret

 

[Willowy]

The ground cover with purple flowers is probably ground ivy. Does it smell spicy when you step on it or pick it? I'd be OK with my whole yard being ground ivy, lol. No mowing! Or not much anyway, because it does get kind of tall if you don't cut it. Not like grass though.

I don't know how to fix your dubbing problem, but just want to commiserate. I hate it when the sound is off by even a split second! Such a distraction.

 

[Margret]

The ground cover with purple flowers is probably ground ivy. Does it smell spicy when you step on it or pick it? I'd be OK with my whole yard being ground ivy, lol. No mowing! Or not much anyway, because it does get kind of tall if you don't cut it. Not like grass though.

I don't know how to fix your dubbing problem, but just want to commiserate. I hate it when the sound is off by even a split second! Such a distraction.

I have congenital anosmia; which is to say that I was born with (almost) no sense of smell. I have eucalyptus, damask rose bath salts, marijuana (nope, never smoked it, but I got a rather nice contact high once), and chlorine gas (now that was an experience) but not coffee, skunk, my own perfume, spices, or mint -- visitors had to tell me that the ground cover in my back yard was mint, from the smell. (They loved them so much that I dug one up and gave it to them.)

However, going on your suggestion I just Googled "ground ivy," went to Images, and found this:

The leaves seem to be a lighter shade of green, but those are the flowers, all right. Thank you.

Margret

 

[Mamanyt1953]

"Fo" and "fum" confuse everyone; they're nonsense words invented to make the giant rhyme (and they don't even succeed at that, since "fum" doesn't rhyme with "Englishman"!).

Beyond that, what you have is not an inability to do math, or to think mathematically; what you have is a phobia of math, which probably means that at some point you had a very bad math teacher. Someday when we can get together personally I'll introduce you to some techniques that will help.

Margret

I'm going to hold you to that. The problem arose in 5th grade when I had a teacher who should have had her certificate yanked. I have LOTS of scars from that woman.

I

Beware auto-correct. Horrible things can result from it.

Margret

LOL...I sometimes refer to that as "auto-spell." My youngest spawn told me in mock horror, "MOM! You're a WITCH! You should NEVER EVER use auto-spell!"

I had a friend, Steve, no longer my friend only because he's no longer with us.

Steve had never been taught how to balance a checkbook, and to put things in the proper time frame, if he were still alive he would now be in his seventies. I know that he'd never learned how to balance a checkbook because he mentioned to me how much trouble it was giving him, so I taught him. He was astonished to find out that it's actually easy.

I wonder whether the simplicity of this is the reason it isn't taught? As I recall, I learned this from my mother, not in school.

Margret

In my perfect world, parents would do this, but in my almost-perfect world, there would be a class in high school called "Life Skills." It would cover, for both sexes, very basic cooking and cleaning, basic garment repair (sew on a button, hem pants or skirt, repair a seam), basic auto care (check the "add somes"...add some air, add some water, add some oil), and basic finances (make a basic budget, balance a checkbook). OH, and household stuff...hang a picture and a curtain rod, change a washer in the sink, stuff like that.

My dad was a very smart man. When I turned 13, he had fake checks printed for "The Bank of Daddy." I "deposited" my allowance with him, and wrote checks for what I wanted to get. Now, my allowance was outrageously high, but I was expected to budget for MOST of my clothing, gas for the car, any and everything but room and board (well...they bought a very basic wardrobe for school, but it was VERY basic). I learned how to make and keep a budget very early on, as well as how to manage a bank account. LOL...I could even borrow money against the next month's allowance, but I had to pay it back with interest. Just like in the real world.

Since I got home I've been trying to watch past episodes of Torchwood on bbcamerica.com, and it's driving me batty. I'll get midway through an episode and the audio will suddenly go out of synch. I don't mean a second or two behind or ahead of the video, so that it looks like a foreign film that's been dubbed into English, I mean the video keeps right on going while the audio jumps back 10 or 15 minutes! Has anyone else had this problem? More importantly, have you found a way to fix this problem?

Margret

MUST go and see if the last 5 episodes are available. I've seen the rest of it.

The ground cover with purple flowers is probably ground ivy. Does it smell spicy when you step on it or pick it? I'd be OK with my whole yard being ground ivy, lol. No mowing! Or not much anyway, because it does get kind of tall if you don't cut it. Not like grass though.

Is that the same as Gil-Over-the-Ground?

 

[Margret]

I'm going to hold you to that. The problem arose in 5th grade when I had a teacher who should have had her certificate yanked. I have LOTS of scars from that woman.

I've known some math teachers like that; I have nothing but contempt for them. At my school we had one algebra teacher (fortunately I missed out on him) who regularly made fun of students for asking questions! Kids would leave his class in tears, and it was the best students he was attacking. Any halfway decent teacher knows that questions are a sign that the student is thinking and trying to learn. Totally disgusting.

LOL...I sometimes refer to that as "auto-spell." My youngest spawn told me in mock horror, "MOM! You're a WITCH! You should NEVER EVER use auto-spell!"

Well, he does have a point.

MUST go and see if the last 5 episodes are available. I've seen the rest of it.

Currently it's the first five episodes of the first season, for the next six days only. I'm down to the last two of those. It took me two tries to actually get all the way through episode 3, and I've tried twice (unsuccessfully) with episode 4. I wonder whether time of day might have something to do with it. Maybe I should try in the middle of the night.

Is that the same as Gil-Over-the-Ground?

Yes, it seems to be.

Margret

 

[tallyollyopia]

No, (X-X) is not written out in the equation. Neither is (L-X). Both of those are part of the "..." that tells you to repeat the pattern through the entire alphabet. This is deliberate; if the equation were written:

it wouldn't really be a puzzle, at least not for any kind of techno/math geek, which these students presumably were. The challenge of the puzzle is to see beyond what is written down to what is actually there, and to see the one term that's just a little different from the others and answers the question. And that "..." is ubiquitous in mathematical equations; it's the only way there is to write some of them. It is essential that students who are taking any kind of higher math courses (like E.E. students) understand it. My friend didn't give his students this puzzle as some sort of test; he was trying to teach them, and he was appalled when his teaching tool turned into an impromptu test of their fitness to be in his course. However, he clearly needed the information. You can't teach people by teaching over their heads, which is what he would have done had he remained ignorant of their true level.

It's not really important to the discussion that the students didn't figure out the puzzle. The important thing is that they didn't understand the clues, which were designed to lead them to (X-X). They didn't know how many letters are in the alphabet, and many of them couldn't even count how many letters are in the alphabet, presumably because they never learned the alphabet (or else they couldn't come up with the radical idea of counting, which is worse). Not being able to solve (or enjoy) the puzzle is worrisome, given their choice of major. Not knowing the alphabet, however, speaks to a general failure of the education system, which is what we were talking about.

Margret

I've had a lack of math problems with ... in the middle of them, so I didn't know what the dots meant.

Many schools are now dropping cursive writing. The kids only learn to print. I find that sad. Many other classes we once had are gone, too, to make way for new skills. Many children and adults can't think without a computer or even make change without a cash register or calculator. They know only the basics of using those. Try adding the extra penny to the amount you give one so you get a larger coin back. Do it after they've put the amount in and they will not be able to give you the correct change.

My husband often pays with $2 bills. A lot of the cashiers don't know if they are even legal tender. Some have refused to accept them. We've had to call for a manager several times, and once even that person was unsure.

As for incorrect words, the spell checker often puts one over on me that I don't catch. It makes for some interesting sentences. I know the correct word; the computer doesn't.

People in New Mexico sometimes have to explain they're not from a foreign country. Knowledge of geography is now nonexistent.

Sorry. This is a tall and large soapbox for me.

I had a customer from New Zealand (I carded him for beer), and another customer (local) asked, "Where's that State?"

I was once in a gas station when their computer had gone down, and the kid who was clerking didn't know how to make change for me. I learned this in first grade, before we were taught subtraction! Our teacher set up a cardboard play-house store, with cardboard produce, and cardboard money, and taught us how to make change by counting up from the price to the amount tendered. So, I showed the kid how to do it. He got a look of amazement on his face as he saw how it worked, and how easy it was, and his manager mouthed the words "Thank you" at me as I left.

Beware auto-correct. Horrible things can result from it.

We're fond of $2 bills here, as well. Not to mention Sacajawea dollars.

Margret

I have this one customer who was shocked that I knew what two dollar bill was. And the plant across the street pays in gold dollars (Sacajawea and the presidents).

I'm OK with kids not learning cursive. I hate cursive with a burning passion and think it's worthless. It's messy and awkward and I just don't like reading it or writing it. Plus I have memories of crying kids hunched over their papers while the teacher berated them for not making their loops in the "right" direction. . .my parents have memories of the teachers doing the same but also hitting the kid with a ruler. Not worth it! Plus I know some older people who were never taught to print so I guess we can even it up now .

My brother writes "backwards" (he cups his hand like lefties do and makes his loops the opposite direction) and I shudder to think what would have happened to him if he had gone to public school. Your writing style is personal and nobody should be punishing you for not doing it their way.

I was taught to count change out by the veteran clerk at my first job. I always knew how to figure it by subtracting, that's obvious, but for some reason I had never learned about counting it back like that. Anyway I'm glad she taught me so early in my working life. I think schools need to teach things that are more relevant to daily life, like figuring percentage-off sales and balancing a checkbook. I know many normal adults who claim that balancing a chekbook is beyond their abilities. I find it to be the simplest thing in the world so I just don't get it!

@mother dragon, I read your post about $2 bills to Roger and he "reminded" me (I still don't remember hearing it before, but he meant it as a reminder) about an ancient Reader's Digest story. Some small town was considering a new policy that one of their businesses opposed bitterly, so the business decided to fight back by reminding the town just how dependent they were on this business. They didn't want to get nasty about it ("Either you change this policy or we'll leave!"), so instead they instituted a new policy. They told their employees to begin cashing their paychecks directly from the business; in effect they began paying in cash while still retaining the paycheck system for everyone's record-keeping convenience. But when they cashed those paychecks they did so almost entirely in $2 bills. And, all of a sudden, gas stations, grocery stores, virtually every other business in town suddenly discovered that the majority of the money they took in was $2 bills. 'Nuff said. The town backed down on the new policy.

Margret

What was the policy?

love these tidbits! Keep them coming! I still have a hard time counting back change but I can figure out the subtraction pretty well. We were taught money in 3rd grade=how to add and subtract it and word problems..I loved money..it was my favorite thing. I remember as a 10 yr old kid=I set up my kitchen like a country store-made price tags and charged monopoly money to my parents when they took a can of soda or a snack from the kitchen or cooked dinner-I also used to mess around with cooking and wanted to open a restaurant. I was very ambitious as a kid. I often did math problems no problem! My dad taught me how to put code into the computer to get a math question answered...many good memories of playing by myself involving money or store stuff! I was a strange kid! I always wanted to own a store-my mom worked at a small country store so I got to learn all the ins and outs as a 10 year old-even run the register but that got shot down fast by the mean bossman who was always trying to find a way to keep me away from her so he could sexually harass her..I knew what he was up to even as a bratty 8-10 year old..if I was in the store-he couldn't harass my poor mom. That's another subject! but yes I had many years of good math teachers-some stuff took awhile to get in my thick skull but once I got it-I got it and it was pretty easy to follow...my fav is algebra..solve for x.

My biggest problem with math was that, when I was learning, we'd be taught straight problems, but then on the math test we'd have word problems that we had to translate into the straight problems before solving them--and we were never taught to translate.

I'm going to hold you to that. The problem arose in 5th grade when I had a teacher who should have had her certificate yanked. I have LOTS of scars from that woman.



LOL...I sometimes refer to that as "auto-spell." My youngest spawn told me in mock horror, "MOM! You're a WITCH! You should NEVER EVER use auto-spell!"



In my perfect world, parents would do this, but in my almost-perfect world, there would be a class in high school called "Life Skills." It would cover, for both sexes, very basic cooking and cleaning, basic garment repair (sew on a button, hem pants or skirt, repair a seam), basic auto care (check the "add somes"...add some air, add some water, add some oil), and basic finances (make a basic budget, balance a checkbook). OH, and household stuff...hang a picture and a curtain rod, change a washer in the sink, stuff like that.

My dad was a very smart man. When I turned 13, he had fake checks printed for "The Bank of Daddy." I "deposited" my allowance with him, and wrote checks for what I wanted to get. Now, my allowance was outrageously high, but I was expected to budget for MOST of my clothing, gas for the car, any and everything but room and board (well...they bought a very basic wardrobe for school, but it was VERY basic). I learned how to make and keep a budget very early on, as well as how to manage a bank account. LOL...I could even borrow money against the next month's allowance, but I had to pay it back with interest. Just like in the real world.



MUST go and see if the last 5 episodes are available. I've seen the rest of it.



Is that the same as Gil-Over-the-Ground?

That doesn't seem like a bad system.

 

[tallyollyopia]

Had work last night, work tonight, and a store meeting today. Really tired, type more when I have the energy to do it.

 

[Margret]

I've had a lack of math problems with ... in the middle of them, so I didn't know what the dots meant.

No, most people wouldn't, just as most people wouldn't know what the parentheses and asterisks mean. That's why I included that information. (Not intended as criticism of you.)

My biggest problem with math was that, when I was learning, we'd be taught straight problems, but then on the math test we'd have word problems that we had to translate into the straight problems before solving them--and we were never taught to translate.

Sometimes I think that schools positively test potential math teachers to see whether they're bad enough to hire. I've said for a long time that at some point in, say, fourth grade (is that when they introduce word problems now?) the teacher should give the students just enough word problems for the kids to figure out that they positively hate word problems (kids always do). Then the teacher should say, "Would you like to learn a trick to make word problems easy?!" And when the students jump on the idea, introduce them to algebra, since it's specific for word problems. Don't tell them that's what you're teaching them -- it would just spook them (and their parents) unnecessarily. Then, at the end of the year give them some kind of certificate stating that they've passed a beginning algebra course with flying colors.

What was the policy?

Roger doesn't remember, and I don't remember the story at all except from what he told me last night. He read it a very long time ago.

Had work last night, work tonight, and a store meeting today. Really tired, type more when I have the energy to do it.

Have a good rest. You need it.

Margret

 

[arouetta]

I've said for a long time that at some point in, say, fourth grade (is that when they introduce word problems now?) the teacher should give the students just enough word problems for the kids to figure out that they positively hate word problems (kids always do). Then the teacher should say, "Would you like to learn a trick to make word problems easy?!" And when the students jump on the idea, introduce them to algebra, since it's specific for word problems. Don't tell them that's what you're teaching them -- it would just spook them (and their parents) unnecessarily. Then, at the end of the year give them some kind of certificate stating that they've passed a beginning algebra course with flying colors.

The problem is that word problems and math formulas are two different kettle of fish, regardless of people's fantastical wish that word problems are math. Word problems are language and communication, not math. Take someone who either has a communication disorder or dysgraphia. They will get one or the other (depending on disorder), but you can show the steps over and over about how a word problem translates into an equation or how an equation can be worked out by adding people/objects, and it just won't translate in their brains. It's impossible. Because one is language and one is math. Word problems should be banned...or moved to English class. I always thought word problems were annoying as crap, too much nonsense hiding the numbers. Then I had a kid with a severe communication disorder and she got into school. To this day I don't think she could do a traditional word problem, despite being incredibly talented in math.

You want to teach algebra? Teach them to read music. Music is math made audible.

 

[Margret]

The thing is, word problems are practical math, the kind that adults do all the time. Any time a child has a learning disorder, accommodations of some sort will need to be made. The challenge is to come up with the accommodation that will actually work for that child.

Over 40 years ago, I worked as a teacher's aide in the math department at a local middle school (though at that time we called it junior high). One of the teachers gave me all of his "problem" students, essentially because he wanted me to babysit them and keep them out of his hair. They were all boys, and most of them were extremely rowdy, and delighted in being disruptive and bullying the other students. I could do nothing with them, sorry to say. For starters, I was too small; they saw me not as an authority figure but as a potential victim, and I didn't have any training in how to handle that situation.

But one of them was different. He was a nice, rather withdrawn kid, who just had trouble understanding math. I think he must have had some trouble with other things as well, because he was right on the edge of being labelled "mentally retarded" (the catch-all label for all kinds of learning disorders back then).

It quickly became obvious to me that this was a smart kid; he just thought differently. When he got frustrated with the lesson he would draw pictures. Really good pictures, completely from his imagination, and extremely well thought out. I remember one picture he did of a deep sea diver. There were bubbles rising from the diver's exhalations, but they weren't a steady stream of bubbles, there were several separate groups of bubbles, because people don't exhale in a steady stream. That's very sophisticated work for a seventh grader. If you forced him to stop drawing, he would take a piece of paper and tear it up, so he could put it back together like a jigsaw puzzle. It quickly became obvious to me that this kid thought visually. He was having trouble with fractions, so I showed him how to turn them into drawings that he could manipulate in his head, and once he had that down he began doing them in the usual way because he finally understood what the numbers and symbols meant.

That obviously won't work for every child with a learning disorder, and it only worked for this child because there happened to be someone there who could afford to spend some time with him one-on-one, tailoring the course's content specifically for him.

I don't know of any way to design a program that will work for every child. I do know that doing away with important content because some children will be unable to deal with it does a disservice to other children. The ideal answer would be small classes, with good teachers who are able to spend one-on-one time with all the children, but I don't see that happening any time soon. So, assuming for the sake of argument that we actually can't afford to pay teachers what they're worth, and provide them with the best environment for teaching, what would work? The only answer I know is to look for good teachers, the kind who are willing to go above and beyond anything that we should be expecting from them based on the amount of money we pay them, and give them their heads. Let them experiment with different teaching methods, let them take their students as far as those students are capable of going, and provide them with whatever support they need to do that. And when a kid shows up with some sort of learning disorder we need to put that student in a smaller class, where the teacher will be able to devote the necessary time to help the student. And I'm not talking about labeling children in ways that will hamper their ability to reach their full potential, or about deciding that they simply aren't capable of learning, I'm talking about giving them the time and attention they need.

If you would like to read about a couple of fairly innovative approaches to math that have worked well in practice, and withstood the test of time, there are a couple of books I would recommend. The first is How To Solve It, by George Pólya How to Solve It - Wikipedia, and the second (which you may have trouble finding) is The Trachtenberg Speed System of Basic Mathematics, by Jakow Trachtenberg, translated by Ann Cutler. I find Trachtenberg's long division method and method for finding roots to be less than useful, but his multiplication and addition techniques are sheer genius. Trachtenberg system - Wikipedia (the Wikipedia article is no substitute for the actual book).

Music is wonderful, and it's a great pity that it's one of the first programs many school districts cut when they decide they need to save money. But if we need more math teachers we aren't going to get them by requiring them to become music teachers as well. And if you want a technique that will work for all children you won't get that from music, either. I love music, but it doesn't link in my head with mathematics. I understand the mathematical foundations of music, but when I listen to or make music I don't hear math, I hear music, and I can't imagine a way to use music to do algebra. (If you have one I would be extremely interested to hear it; it sounds fascinating.) And what do you do for the tone deaf students? There is no one-size-fits-all. The best we can manage is one-size-fits-most, and then do a bit of tailoring where it doesn't fit.

Margret

 

[Docs Mom]

Margret , I love flower puzzles!

Is it Ajuga?

I haven 't read all the messages yet...maybe someone else got you the answer...
Lisa

 

[arouetta]

The thing is, word problems are practical math, the kind that adults do all the time.

I have to respectfully disagree. Word problems are not practical math. My daughter can make change in her head (even after the dreaded "wait I have change"), re-proportion a recipe, figure out her paycheck and do basic budgeting. Any weakness in practical math has everything to do with her developmental delays and nothing to do with her math skills. However take any of those situations and write it down as a word problem and she simply can't do it. She can't solve it on paper even though she routinely does those things in life because word problems are solely a communication/language practice exercise and not a math exercise.

Edit: Now for the math part, which I should have also addressed originally. Wiki has a decent overview of the general connection, several educational sites detail little bits of that connection. Students with musical training do better in algebra because the brain processes both in the same part. Music incorporates a Fibonacci sequence. When reading music you have to take into account multiple variables (like clef, meter, tempo, the symbols noting the fractions of each note, where on the staff the notes lie, dots and ties, tones and semitones, key signatures and the noting of sharps and flats and naturals, the correlation between sharps and flats (C sharp and D flat for example) and more which I've forgotten since my musical training was half a lifetime ago. Taking all of those variables into account would create some really crazy algebraic formulas. The numbers you plug into each of those variables create the song, and changing so much as one number completely changes the song into a different song.

 

[margd]

View attachment 185968 Margret , I love flower puzzles!

Is it Ajuga?

I haven 't read all the messages yet...maybe someone else got you the answer...
Lisa

Yes, it's Ajuga and a very nice photo of it, too. Ajuga is a wonderful little ground cover - it grows well in the shade and produces flowers of the most exquisite blue/purple. The leaves are also attractive and evergreen. My garden in the back of my old house was so shady that grass wouldn't grow, to I gradually started turning it over to Ajuga. It was perfect - it spread quickly and we could walk on it in a pinch.