Boomer generation DUer's-remember The New Math?

[bobthedrummer]

I remember it distinctly. After multiplication tables and learning long division, fractions, and everything else-we were told that although our answers were correct, the METHODS we had been taught were "wrong".

There's a lesson in that experience.

It seems that a lot of people have the right answers, but are told that how they got them is "wrong", thereby impugning them.

The old math often comes in handy today, IMHO.

Anyone else remember the introduction of the "new math"?

[Carni]

1. YES IT SUCKED

I got terrible grades in math all through school after they started with the "new math" thing.

They don't teach that anymore do they?

[bobthedrummer]

3. I have no idea.

But it seems as though the reliance on calculators and computers in the classroom has hurt other generations problem-solving abilities.

[Monte Carlo]

2. Please, let the rest of us in on the secret.

I was learning arithmetic in the 80's, and I guess I missed the whole "new Math" thing. I've heard about it before, but I have no idea what it is. Anyone?

[bobthedrummer]

4. It was mostly the introduction of binary code.

It was the first major step to robotics and computers.

It was radical then.

Can you do long division?

[papau]

12. and set and matrix and linear algebra concepts

It worked great for my kids -

but they had relatives who worked in this area for a living!

:-)

[bobthedrummer]

14. I'm kind of frozen at the quadratic expression level.

I kinda like statistics though {don't we all?} actually got an A in intro stats when I earned my B.A.-but the instructor allowed us to earn extra credit via various ways--ever work 10 hours doing a frequency table by hand???

[papau]

15. evil Prof!!!

but then in my Freshman year- Sept the first week in - we did a scatter experiment and had to write the freq table and get the usual averages.

Life has not slowed down since - until now!

:-)

[havocmom]

26. "Can you do long division?"

no, but I am hell at extrapolation

[BiggJawn]

5. Yes, and it handicapped me in math.

Tell a 7-y-o "You have the right answer, but you got it the WRONG way..." and see if he isn't totally mathematically fucked-up unitl he gets his first slide rule....

We were supposed to "Beat the Russians" with New Math, weren't we?

[bobthedrummer]

7. That was my experience too.

Maybe it's why I'm progressive.

I remember slide-rules! And flash-cards. And multiplication tables. And fractions.

I struggled with math after being told the methods I had learned were wrong too.

[murphymom]

6. Remember Tom Leher's New Math?

New Math Lyrics
Artist:Tom Lehrer


Some of you who have small children may have perhaps been put in the embarrassing position of being unable to do your child's arithmetic homework because of the current revolution in mathematics teaching known as the New Math. So as a public service here tonight I thought I would offer a brief lesson in the New Math. Tonight we're going to cover subtraction. This is the first room I've worked for a while that didn't have a blackboard so we will have to make due with more primitive visual aids, as they say in the "ed biz."

Consider the following subtraction problem, which I will put up here: 342 - 173. Now remember how we used to do that. three from two is nine; carry the one, and if you're under 35 or went to a private school you say seven from three is six, but if you're over 35 and went to a public school you say eight from four is six; carry the one so we have 169, but in the new approach, as you know, the important thing is to understand what you're doing rather than to get the right answer. Here's how they do it now.

You can't take three from two,
Two is less than three,
So you look at the four in the tens place.
Now that's really four tens,
So you make it three tens,
Regroup, and you change a ten to ten ones,
And you add them to the two and get twelve,
And you take away three, that's nine.
Is that clear?

Now instead of four in the tens place
You've got three,
'Cause you added one,
That is to say, ten, to the two,
But you can't take seven from three,
So you look in the hundreds place.

From the three you then use one
To make ten ones...
(And you know why four plus minus one
Plus ten is fourteen minus one?
'Cause addition is commutative, right.)
And so you have thirteen tens,
And you take away seven,
And that leaves five...

Well, six actually.
But the idea is the important thing.

Now go back to the hundreds place,
And you're left with two.
And you take away one from two,
And that leaves...?

Everybody get one?
Not bad for the first day!

Hooray for new math,
New-hoo-hoo-math,
It won't do you a bit of good to review math.
It's so simple,
So very simple,
That only a child can do it!

Now that actually is not the answer that I had in mind, because the book that I got this problem out of wants you to do it in base eight. But don't panic. Base eight is just like base ten really - if you're missing two fingers. Shall we have a go at it? Hang on.

You can't take three from two,
Two is less than three,
So you look at the four in the eights place.
Now that's really four eights,
So you make it three eights,
Regroup, and you change an eight to eight ones,
And you add them to the two,
and you get one-two base eight,
Which is ten base ten,
And you take away three, that's seven.

Now instead of four in the eights place
You've got three,
'Cause you added one,
That is to say, eight, to the two,
But you can't take seven from three,
So you look at the sixty-fours.

"Sixty-four? How did sixty-four get into it?" I hear you cry.
Well, sixty-four is eight squared, don't you see?
(Well, you ask a silly question, and you get a silly answer.)

From the three you then use one
To make eight ones,
And you add those ones to the three,
And you get one-three base eight,
Or, in other words,
In base ten you have eleven,
And you take away seven,
And seven from eleven is four.
Now go back to the sixty-fours,
And you're left with two,
And you take away one from two,
And that leaves...?

Now, let's not always see the same hands.
One, that's right!
Whoever got one can stay after the show and clean the erasers.

Hooray for new math,
New-hoo-hoo-math,
It won't do you a bit of good to review math.
It's so simple,
So very simple,
That only a child can do it!

Come back tomorrow night. We're gonna do fractions. Now I've often thought I'd like to write a mathematics text book someday because I have a title that I know will sell a million copies. I'm gonna call it Tropic Of Calculus.

[bobthedrummer]

8. LOL!

Thanks, murphymom!

Are you a teacher?

[murphymom]

10. No, but I do remember New Math

I think I was in the 5th or 6th grade. I'm trying to remember where I first heard that Tom Leher song - I think it was on That Was The Week That Was? Gad, I'm getting old!

[geniph]

19. Tom Lehrer was GOD!

and boy, did he ever hit that nasty nail squarely on the head! I had forgotten some of those repulsive methods until I read those lyrics!

[DinahMoeHum]

9. For the damage they did to a whole generation of schoolkids,

the motherf**kers should rot in hell.


:grr:

[bobthedrummer]

11. It confused the hell out of me and a lot of my friends.

I lost interest in math after that, which was somewhat of a mistake.

[supernova]

13. I remember New Math

and to this day do not like math. :grr: I totally did not relate.

[silverlib]

16. Yes,

I was in the eighth grade and still blame the experience for being "sufficiently deficient" in math.

[5thGenDemocrat]

17. Not only remember it -- I still use it (sometimes)

For example, 21 x 18 is just 2 x 18 (36) x 10 (360) + 18 (378). I can do simple multiplication in my head faster than you can punch it into a calculator. Never did understand all that base six, base seven stuff, though, nor why it had any relevance to real world math problems.
John
BTW, for all I know the METHOD above may very well be wrong. But it works for me.

[bobthedrummer]

24. I go out of my way NOT to argue about methods

if we agree on the answer.

And not just in math!

[LuLu550]

18. old, new, it didn't matter, I didn't get it

[amazona]

20. maybe a bit young to be a boomer...

...a late 1950s model here. But we still had "the new math." It was the same as the old math if you ask me. It didn't interfere with me going on to calculus and differential equations, and doing very well in those subjects. Hmmm. Maybe I should have gotten certified as a math teacher.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

21. Was this on an episode of Schoolhouse Rock

The x 2 table specifically (you know, the Noah/Elementary my Dear) towards the end?

[alcuno]

22. It's now called "reform" math and it's total garbage.

Have you ever seen lattice multiplication? I rest my case.

[roguevalley]

23. yeah, front end add subt, and all the rest. I flunked math from eighth

grade on because of new math.

I still remembering trying to explain how ten divided by three still equaled one remainder seven even while the whole class told me I was wrong. To this day I don't get it.

But then, I don't get stem and leaf and all the rest and I taught school for 26 years.

[ScreamingMeemie]

25. Not a baby boomer, but we had new math and my baby boomer

parents had no freaking idea how to help us out.

Laura-mathematically challenged to this day...but I can right a mean term paper!!!

:7

[yardwork]

27. I Hated New Math

It made me think I was bad at math. It wasn't until I was 29 and in graduate school that I realized I could be competent at math.

I like the different ways my children are being taught to solve problems now.