To the Editor:
Let the federal government lay down a far-reaching law, and there sometimes is little common ground between those having to administer the law and those affected by the law.
Teachers, parents and students are struggling to make the mathematics Common Core standards in education work. There is good intent by educators on the standards and principles developed. The goals are commendable. There is unhappiness, though, with the huge changes in how students are taught.
There have been two major missteps in made in the past. If President Thomas Jefferson would not have had to compromise on his desire for the New Republic to have the metric system for measurement, we would not be having a conversation still on the metric system.
The other is being locked fairly tightly to the past, in that mathematics should be learned on a rote basis solving almost all problems with one computational method.
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There are many ways to address a problem, and multiple ways of reaching the desired solutions. Take fishing. A survey of different ages of people from different cultures on the best way to get a fish for your meal would find answers from noodling (using hands) to spearfishing. If you have multiple methods to fish, you will probably not go hungry.
Aberdeen is on the right track in having grade level presentations to parents on how to help their children develop their skills to approach and analyze a given math problem in many different ways.
We as parents who never were required as students to think laterally struggle to explain to our children how to do their homework. But this does not necessarily mean that the Common Core standards and goals should be thrown out entirely. Let us learn to utilize the benefits of Common Core strategies and move forward to better compete with other nations of the world. Let us find common ground as we go forward with the Common Core standards for
education.
Harry Everhart
Artesian
