I still don’t know what they’re asking in that question after reading this…
I do kind of agree with that, though it’s not quite that simple. But the extreme focus on algorithm memorisation and efficiency of execution does detract from the actual core of math a lot. I was always bad at math in school, and it took me years after school to realise that math is about relations, not numbers. Nobody ever said so, much less did anybody employ teaching methods that would let a kid actually understand the meaning of it. If it wouldn’t have been for programming, I would probably never have realised it.
The only thing math was ever about in school was doing arithmetic operations in various algorithmic patterns, and do it fast (the second one essentially impossible for somebody like me), both skills that turned out to be largely useless in actual life (especially the second one). I can’t deny that I’m a bit frustrated about that.
Later me: This is how I’ve been multiplying large figures in my head for years.
Now I’m wondering since we basically became a new country/republic only 100 years ago maybe we incorporated more modern methods in to our school systems when adapting them over from the UK model?
Same for me.
I got so stressed in school over math that I developed a mental block that took a long time to get around.
Yet, in my younger days, when I worked in Heavy Industry, the familiarity with various materials lead to me just generally being able to ‘see’ things in a way that my brain could instantly understand & make adjustments… Probably the same way a blacksmith knows when to strike the metal by colour not temperature.
I actually really enjoy big maths, physics & chemistry, such as when discussed in the many nerdy documentaries I soak up…just don’t ask me to repeat it back.
Incidentally, my eldest child is extremely good at maths & the sciences yet sometimes displays the common sense of a Monty Python skit.
The teacher phrased it badly by calling it the “make a ten” method. I would call it maybe resting at the tens?
Children can do equations easily that don’t step over multiples of ten (like 6+3=9), but when it’s above ten they run out of fingers and get confused.
So the task is “8+9”. By “making 10” they mean, break the addition into two steps and “rest” at the multiple of ten. And then add the two steps together. 8+2=10. I rest on the step and remember I already added 2. So of the 9 I was meant to add, I now only have 7 left. And I am at 10. 10+7=17 is easier for children.
Basically they want you to see 8+9 as 8+(2+7). I might have swapped them 9+8 and said 9+(1+7). Same thing.
We literally learned this with wooden blocks of different lengths that made you understand numbers up to ten as volumes that fill a space of “10”. We would put a niner and and eighter block next to each other, e.g. in this case:
xxxxxxxxooooooooo (I can’t see that’s 17, so we rest at ten)
xxxxxxxxoo|ooooooo (Now it’s easier to see that it’s 17)
One European visualised it that way, and that’s why they hammer it into every child’s head. (I wonder how they teach it in, say, India or Japan?)
Do they not know alternative methods to teach children who don’t have the same intuition? Everyone can learn normal maths, but some teachers just ruin it…
I bet if the child had seen 8+8+1 instead, or 2*9-1, and solved that with ease, the teacher would have said “nah that’s the wrong method” which will confuse the child long term!
We learned the same method but we wrote it completely differently, interesting! We had labelled columns, the ones, the tens, the hundreds, the thousands. Which kept each step visually below 99. Your method spells them out (which is probably mathematically safer than trusting students to fill in the right columns). But why does your example write the intermediate results next to each other and not in rows?
Well said Jedidia, they don’t unlock everyone’s potential with “1 method”, quite annoying. We even had one maths teacher who kept telling us we don’t need to understand it “because you’ll never need maths anyway”!! (Luckily we also had very good ones who gave us fun puzzles to solve for which we came in early on Saturdays!)
My brother and I taught ourselves/each other a lot after we learned about a practical applications such as programming. Linear algebra was fun when I pictured it as a Minecraft-like gridworld (that was before Minecraft existed), and vectors were spaceships aiming at asteroids! my brother would rather write a program that solved his homework than do it the way they taught it.
I wondered the same. Columns are so nice and neat. I assume in the first example they just want the visual to help kids group in 10s making it easier to add.
And I am with you, just 1 method will never be enough. I use a combo of old and new, both of which have been around for ages.
Sooo… taking the complement? Indeed, maybe not the greatest way to put it. Now I would assume they practiced this in class and the pupils were familiar with the terminology, but I also get how the parent is like “Huh?”.
On the other hand, I know how difficult it is to explain such things and find good, understandable formulations. One of my boys seems to have inherited my slight discalculia and I had to do a lot of work with him because he just didn’t get it in school, and we had quite a few arguments (and shouting matches) about the terminology I was using. So I guess “make a ten” is a reasonable enough name…
My other boy can’t add +1 yet at 11, so there’s really not that much I can do to help him… It is interesting that he can count to 20 without issues, but the concept of “adding something to another number” still eludes him.
Being the smartypants I am, I would have drawn and written the 9+1+7 as well. I take issue with the teacher posing this as having only 1 solution. And I don’t like ‘make a 10’ in the wording. Since a visual is being used, I would say ‘group into 10’.
We used visuals and especially the little blocks, to group numbers but never was anything worded like the confusing example above.
Got hit by 2 derechoes last night. The first took out the power. The second took out cell service. Power might be back tonight.
Very unusual weather event.
Think I will sleep all day. Will be stormy all day.
my brother would rather write a program that solved his homework than do it the way they taught it. 
