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As a side note; There is plenty of useful math that many people need (or would benefit from) in the real world. Much math curricula is arguably poorly aligned t

As a side note; There is plenty of useful math that many people need (or would benefit from) in the real world. Much math curricula is arguably poorly aligned to needs, as it emerged from various historical flukes of design-by-committee. Popular math curricula is not perfect by any means. I recommend looking at high school or college textbooks and considering whether it is well prioritized.

Shorel 1mo ago
In principle I agree with you. The missing part of mathematics education, IMO, would be to focus more into developing the intuition of what something means, instead of the current focus on getting some (numeric) results.
- monocasa 1mo ago
  That was one of the biggest changes that happened with common core. Common core itself didn't really mandate this, but it took a reset of the curriculum to insert the new ideas like an emphasis on intuition rather than rote arithmetic.
  - annzabelle 1mo ago
    The problem with common core is that it replaced building arithmetic fluency with less rigorous ways of building intuition, leading to a generation of kids who never gained the basic math skills that are foundational to actually understanding the intuition. You can't just skip arithmetic drills in favor of intuition and still come out with students who are prepared for further study in math. There's a reason Kumon etc are so popular - parents are replacing the lack of mathematics drills in schools with after school options, leaving behind all of the kids whose parents can't afford it.
    - monocasa 1mo ago
      After school stuff like Kumon was popular before the switch to common core. And there still are arithmetic drills, it's just not the only focus in early math education.
    - sgarland 1mo ago
      Montessori. My kids’ school has kindergarteners solving trinomials [0]. My kids learned multiplication and division by 3rd grade. They’ve also memorized powers of 2 up to 2^20, but that was more me telling them about exponents one day, and then giving those as examples. However, they did learn binary trees (and binary) from their school. Kids can absolutely learn complex concepts early, they just may not be able to formally write them out until a few years later. But they’re kids, so who cares? By the time they need to be able to write out math equations, they’ll understand the underlying concepts on such a deep level that it doesn’t matter how long you make it, they’ll plow through it. I was a skeptic, and am aware that I sound like a cultist, but damn if Montessori isn’t something special. I highly recommend it. 0: https://www.montessori-theory.com/montessori-trinomial-cube/ https://www.montessori-theory.com/montessori-trinomial-cube/

Shorel 1mo ago

In principle I agree with you. The missing part of mathematics education, IMO, would be to focus more into developing the intuition of what something means, instead of the current focus on getting some (numeric) results.

monocasa 1mo ago
That was one of the biggest changes that happened with common core. Common core itself didn't really mandate this, but it took a reset of the curriculum to insert the new ideas like an emphasis on intuition rather than rote arithmetic.
- annzabelle 1mo ago
  The problem with common core is that it replaced building arithmetic fluency with less rigorous ways of building intuition, leading to a generation of kids who never gained the basic math skills that are foundational to actually understanding the intuition. You can't just skip arithmetic drills in favor of intuition and still come out with students who are prepared for further study in math. There's a reason Kumon etc are so popular - parents are replacing the lack of mathematics drills in schools with after school options, leaving behind all of the kids whose parents can't afford it.
  - monocasa 1mo ago
    After school stuff like Kumon was popular before the switch to common core. And there still are arithmetic drills, it's just not the only focus in early math education.
  - sgarland 1mo ago
    Montessori. My kids’ school has kindergarteners solving trinomials [0]. My kids learned multiplication and division by 3rd grade. They’ve also memorized powers of 2 up to 2^20, but that was more me telling them about exponents one day, and then giving those as examples. However, they did learn binary trees (and binary) from their school. Kids can absolutely learn complex concepts early, they just may not be able to formally write them out until a few years later. But they’re kids, so who cares? By the time they need to be able to write out math equations, they’ll understand the underlying concepts on such a deep level that it doesn’t matter how long you make it, they’ll plow through it. I was a skeptic, and am aware that I sound like a cultist, but damn if Montessori isn’t something special. I highly recommend it. 0: https://www.montessori-theory.com/montessori-trinomial-cube/ https://www.montessori-theory.com/montessori-trinomial-cube/