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I love new math ... But this isn't new math, this is the math they're trying to delay teaching because it doesn't give kids good understanding of place value. It's a cute video though!

@mrbee: Here is a youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/6funswede

Wow that's confusing. In New Zealand we teach math using the Numeracy Project - its awesome!

Basically the kids can use any technique they want to solve problems, no way is wrong if they can explain how they got the answer.
Of course teachers teach them basic skills to do this, but the idea is to get away from the algorithms and more into problem solving, such as rounding numbers up in their heads.

I am a teacher and my 6 year olds solve problems in their heads. For example 126-18 they would add 2 to round it up to 20, so 126-20 = 106 and then add 2 so 108.

I wish I was taught math like that when I was at school, its actually so much easier.

Yes. This is how I've always done this.

When I was in school, we had an academic contest called Number Sense where you had to do a timed test of progressively harder problems totally in your head. A lot of the "tricks" we learned to be good at this are now being taught as the new math, so I do not think it is hard - it is how I typically do math anyway.

I don't think it is so much new math, but trying to teach kids to understand why the tricks work in math rather than rote memorization that so many people of my generation did. So many people think math is hard because they don't understand the whys.

@Mamaof2: that's way more complicated then it needs to be!

I am so confused

@Mamaof2: So, you have to do addition to solve a subtraction problem? I don't understand the logic behind the method, truth be told. I know part of it is so that kids don't memorize and they work out every problem, but I don't know if it's the best method.

@blackbird: Good points! I am firmly in the "I hate math" camp but you are so right. My hate hasn't helped me get any better and I certainly can't help my kids with it. Not to mention not every kid learns the same way and teaching different ways may reach that kid who was struggling with the "old" way. Ya know?

@.twist.: Totally, I just think that SOME kids may like this method...and some may like the other method...and that's ok. Lord knows I approach problems differently than my coworkers but it's not necessarily right or wrong in the end when we arrive at the same conclusions. And i hate being told "you're looking at this wrong". Well, am I really? *shrug*.

This shit was the bane of my existence in calculus, but it did stretch out the old brain fibers

@Mamaof2: Eh, that's something he's going to have to do ALL THE TIME as he gets older, so maybe it's good practice? heh. Glass half full here

@looch: @Mamaof2: It's all about getting the numbers to an "easy" number - like a multiple of 5 or 10.

I can do "new math" in my head naturally as long as I'm doing it in a way that makes sense to me. But I don't always get a lot of these problems I see online because my brain just doesn't get it. In this example, I agree with the dad...

@ShootingStar:

@ShootingStar: I get that people think that response is funny, but I think that dad is obnoxious and arrogant. The number line is doing exactly what he is doing, but illustrating it in a different way. An "electrical engineer" should be able to figure that out. The error "Jack" made was that he forgot to subtract the tenths place.
The writing the the dad put on the number line is confusing.

@TemperanceBrennan: I do thinks its funny because I am so lost - even after reading your answer I still cant figure out how you know that and I was really good at math growing up! This new stuff makes me feel so dumb!

The purpose of the "new math", and I hate that term with a passion, is to get kids to have mathematical fluency. We want children to be able to manipulate numbers in their heads to enable them to have multiple strategies to solve problems. It's good teaching practices. Granted, there are methods that are bat shit insane and make no sense to me, but they make sense to some kids.

The kid messed up because he didn't subtract 316, he subtracted 306- three big bumps (100s) and six little ones (1s). He should have gotten to 327, then 227, then 127, then 117 (counting backwards by a ten) and then 111 (counting back six ones).

@ShootingStar: OoOoo he has a whole bachelors degree in Engineering!!! Color me not impressed And it would not result in termination. Big fat eye roll from me. People do things in unusual ways all the time at work...and nobody cares about the process so much as the end result.

Adults don't like this because we don't understand it. It's new/different/weird/more complicated. It's just something that *we* would have to be taught, too, in order to be proficient enough to help our kids out. But of course it's hard to us, we didn't learn how to do it this way and we've had 30+ years of it being cemented the other way.

@TemperanceBrennan: They do at some schools in my city (UK)! They have classes at the school for parents to attend (not compulsory) to get them up to the required standard to help their kids with homework. They show you how to do maths etc the way they are teaching it as opposed to the way you learned it.

I totally get this "new maths" now I've read about it. Its like if you had to give someone change - you wouldn't get out a pen and paper and work out how much to give them, you would count up from the amount you had charged them to the nearest 10p (with copper coins), then nearest £ (with silver coins), then the nearest note (with £ coins) then use notes for the rest.