F Minus by Tony Carrillo for January 25, 2024

to give parents a pain in the …. cheeks

Oh, it’s the New Math — the New Math / It won’t do you any good to review Math / It’s so simple, so very simple / That only a child can do it. (Anyone who doesn’t know where that’s from?)

All I remember is that a + b = c….

I remember New Math. Most of my class couldn’t do it. Have an Old Math filled day my friends.

I remember having to talk to a maths teacher in primary school about a weird way they were teaching my son how to multiply numbers together. For a start is was a rather odd way anyhow (but was told it explained tens and units to them better) but the real kicker was that it didn’t work for numbers bigger than double digits. So a bit useless really. The teacher admitted it was not much use, but they were told they had to teach it. Apparently it helped them understand better. I taught my son the good old way and it blew his mind when he did a 10 digit multiplication with ease.Modern maths – spits in the bin! Besides – isn’t modern maths now just a calculator?

I knew math when it was the new math, but thin gnu math…

Math is hard, hope is easy.

If you have no interest you have no chance. Blame your failures on the schools, it is good for your ego.

It’s not rocket science. Yet.

Meet the new math, same as the old math. I won’t be fooled again.