From: neville@cs.washington.edu (Dorothy Neville)
Subject: Re: Math: Estimating vs Real Thing
Organization: Computer Science & Engineering, U. of Washington, Seattle
Distribution: usa
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 92 01:31:10 GMT

In article <1992Sep4.231812.18596@usho93.hou281.chevron.com> jsco@usmi02.midland.chevron.com (J. S. Comeaux) writes:
>My 5th grader is learning ESTIMATING , and I am p.o.'d because I think 
>the school should teach accurate mathematics  rigorously 
>until it is second nature.  Instead, just when she has mult and 
>division down, she spends several weeks on Estimating, like this:


Perhaps you should talk to the teacher instead of the net, or ask
someone in math education at a local college.  The current philospohy
of teaching math to youngsters encourages the teaching of estimation,
the idea is that students will get a better feeling for how numbers
behave.  This is one of the top priority curriculum items as
endorsed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

I, as a former math teacher, heartily agree. I think kids need solid
arithmetic skills, but that they also need to be able to estimate,
this gives them some feedback to check their accuracy, plus other good
benefits.  I also think that a 10 year old is old enough to understand
estimation.  Heck, a 5 year old is old enough.  Even younger.

This however does not, i repeat, does not, mean that I endorse the
methods that your daughter's teacher is using, on the contrary, I have
no idea if they are "good" or not.  Estimation ought to be taught more
as a game, something that boosts confidence in the nature of
arithmetic.  And not just another boring separate topic, one more
tedious arithmetic rule; it should come along with multiplication and
division in a natural manner.  If this is causing your daughter so
much stress, then probably it is being mis-taught, like so much of
math is, more as a method that doesn't make that much sense because
the teacher really doesn't understand the whys and wherefores, and out
of context is boring and frustrating.

uggg.  the failure of elementary school teachers to bring math
to life is one of the reasons I will consider homeschooling when/if
the time comes.  Or at least to seriously supplement the mathematics.
(and science, and history, and geography...)

ob anectdote.  I taught at a private K-12 school that prides itself on
all sorts of good things, college prep, whole child, all that stuff.
The second grade teacher was supposed to be really good, she won
awards in the community for her teaching.  She taught also at a local
teachers college.  Once she was teaching "how to teach math" or
something like that to prospective teachers, and she approached the
chair of the math department, a woman who taught in the upper school
with me.  Second grade teacher said there was a topic coming up that
she did not feel comfortable with, she really didn't understand it
herself and asked Chair if she would guest lecture her college
students.  Chair (who is a gifted math teacher, I learned a lot from
her) said sure thing, what is the topic.  Second grade teacher
answered "ratios and percents".  Gag, I would not want this teacher
trying to teach my second grader math if she "didn't feel comfortable"
with ratios!  OK, so Chair goes to class prepared with bags of M&M's
for all the student teachers.  Hands them out and asks students to
find out the percent of green M&M's in their bag.  And NONE of the
students could.  Now these are adults, all just about ready to enter
the classroom and teach your kids math.

Second scary elementary school math horror story: One year there was a
semi-student teacher, a former cop who went back to school and got a
masters in history, and thought he might want to teach elementary
school, so he was an assistant to the 5th grade teacher for a year.
Fifth grade teacher was happy to have the assistance, and there was
one topic that she hated teaching, so she assigned this guy to do it.
So guess what this cop with a history degree got a chance to practice
teaching on?  And got to practice under a teacher who admitting hating
the subject herself, so no good mentoring from her.  If you guessed
math, go to the head of the class.  Are there any elementary school
teachers who like math, who feel proficient with arithmetic skills
themselves, who can make mathematics really exciting and worthwhile?
I have met one or two, but they seem very much in the minority.

dorothy neville
(sorry for droning on like this, poor math teaching is just one of