Maybe it is as you say. I don't have kids in school, so it was all a big nothing burger to me written off as a bunch of Karens needing something complain about for whatever purpose it serves them.
Common Core: "Common core math is a set of national educational standards that push kids to think of math equations differently. With common core math, kids begin questioning the relevance of each equation. Instead of just solving an equation for its sake, common core math makes children deliberate the reason behind the equation."
oooooh, scary. making kids think. me thinks that's the issue.
That's the theory, maybe. I have kids in school. In practice it seems more like simply rote memorization of multiple techniques to solve a problem. It's especially hard when a child figures out his own way, but is graded/marked on doing it the specific way(s) a homework or test question demands.
this is actually something i had to endure as well specifically from knowing these tricks and being well practiced in "doing it in my head". i had to be retrained to show my work. each new teacher would assume i was some how cheating on the homework by just writing the answers. that may be harsh, but that's the way it was always received. if they weren't going to give me the benefit of the doubt, why should i for them?
the thing that convinced me to switch to elaborately showing my work was partial credit. in the competitive tests, if you didn't know the correct answer, you'd look at the next 3 questions to see if you could answer them. a skipped answer was counted as wrong, and points deducted. since the test increased in difficulty as you progressed, you'd have to consider how many questions you were skipping and if it was better to just stop.
in classes, even if the answer was incorrect, if you showed your work you could receive partial credit. if it was clear you were using the right steps to get there but forgot to carry a one or skipped a step somewhere else but it was clear that the basic understanding on how to solve the problem was close, you could avoid a big goose egg for that question. IIRC, the AP exams were like that as well. more about showing understanding of the process than just the correct answer is what they were trying to achieve.
Common Core: "Common core math is a set of national educational standards that push kids to think of math equations differently. With common core math, kids begin questioning the relevance of each equation. Instead of just solving an equation for its sake, common core math makes children deliberate the reason behind the equation."
oooooh, scary. making kids think. me thinks that's the issue.