Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of memes and other references
on Facebook to the new insanity of common core mathematics. It seems a lot of
people share my opinion that this new math is utter pointless. I’m thinking
it’s a good thing no one had enough stupidity to unveil common core to the
world when I was in school. I just wouldn’t have done it. I had a hard time following
the rules as it was; especially things like showing my work.
For some reason, my teachers wanted to make sure I actually
understood how to do the problem. That was okay for problems that were a little
involved but when it came to basic equations, I just wrote down the answer. And
yes, I sometimes got marked down for it—that is, until I learned it didn’t
really matter what I put down to “show my work.”
I found that scribbling anything on the paper was enough to
satisfy them. So, of course, I had some fun with it. I’d switch problems, that
is, show the work for the wrong problem, but then put the correct answer. Or,
I’d show the numbers for an entirely different problem, one that hadn’t been
included on the test. And sometimes, I’d just write down random numbers and
then scribble over them so it wasn’t entirely legible.
And out of all the times of doing this, which was most of my
schooling career, I never once got in trouble—they never even mentioned it.
Maybe they knew I was playing games and chose not to play along, I don’t know.
Or, maybe they saw that I did know how to do the problems, and arriving at the
right answer was actually the important part.
Despite my refusal to always follow the “rules,” I liked
math. It was straightforward and logical—unlike other subjects—and I usually
did it in my head. In later years, for the more complicated problems, I would
do the simple parts in my head, maybe writing down those answers so I could
remember them, and then do the next computation in my head again. So, I really
had nothing legitimate to write down for the problem as a whole—although, I did
once suggest to my high school teacher that I could just draw a picture of a
brain and call it showing my work. Thankfully, he had a sense of humor!
But something tells me my tricks wouldn’t have worked with
common core. It seems the teachers of that are more interested in showing the
work than getting the right answer. And my stubbornness would have dictated
that I not participate. I know, I would have probably received a failing grade,
which would have perfectly illustrated my point of the absurdity of this “new
and improved” system—getting the right answers and still flunking.
But then, the only evidence of my flunking would be the
final grade on the report card, right? And in keeping with the spirit of the
correct answers being irrelevant, I assume it would then be perfectly
acceptable for me to switch my grade. On second thought, maybe common core math
wouldn’t have been so bad after all. ~
Bruce
A. Borders is the author of more than a dozen books, including: Inside Room 913, Over My Dead Body, The Journey,
Miscarriage Of Justice, and The Wynn Garrett
Series. Available in ebook and paperback on iTunes, Amazon, Barnes &
Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords. Amazon Profile
- www.amazon.com/Bruce-A.-Borders/e/B006SOLWQS.
Bruce
A. Borders is a proud member of Rave Reviews Book Club.
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