Tabor City tribune. (Tabor City, N.C.) 1946-1991, 1962-10-31

/ NsASNA SkatAe -A2tfl .
enjoy 1t, and be interested il,
going ahead with the mathe-
! mates program.
Traditional arithmetic dwelt
too much on learning the COM
putation skills and not enough
time spent on using them.
! Arithmetic has been so IAN
s,ver minded" that some things
which should come before the
answer is sought have been
neglected.
We now realize that the a
bility Ia solve problems involv-
eS a lot more than facility i'm
computation.
Our present day interest in
mcaningful arithmetic stems
from a desire to eliminate the
slaring errors of tell and
90" method of teaching. Teach
crs of arithmetic today are
concerned with developing
meanings and understandings.
a program which involves
much more than just the abil-
!ty to compute.
The summary statement in
the twenty-iirSt yearbook Of
the National Council of Teach
erS of Mathematics predicts
that INSTRUCTION III mathcmat-
les for general education will
come To rely moic and NOR"
on the implications of the fol-
lowing: learning is thinking:
successful thinking is possible
q, any grade or achievement
level; successful thinking is
heavily dependent on concepts
and relationships: The Satisfac-
tons following successful
thinking provide enduring en-
I!chmcnt for the learner"
Someone has said that learn
ing is the ability to think, To
make wise choices. to under
stand relationships, to project
from the known To the I'M
known" In our more modern
procedures III the teaching of
arithmetic all of these ideas
are involved. Our approach is
through understanding instead
of memuriZation alone. through
pupil discovery instead of Just
being told.
We will hear much in the
future OF the "diScuvery meth
3D."
Arithmetic requires more
abstract thinking than any 9TH
Cr subject taught in the prim-
cry or middle grades. That is
one of the main reasons for
abandoning the rutc method Of
teaching, which actually en-
cCuraged children NOT To-
think. People used To be told
that there was Just ONE RICH;
way to find an answer or the
whole example was wrong.
They We're taught to follow
rules exactly and told 20 ''ncv-
CT mind why" Now our teach
erS encourage the pupils Ia
discover new methods, 10 rca-
lie that many times there are
several different ways To dis
cover the correct solution. This
encourages thinking on the
part of the students, not lust
mCmorization. II increases their
faith in themselves, one quail
y which is necessary to both
Dung and old. We are aware
that boys and girls are not
made up of mcn'al ability a
lone but OF emotions, needs.
purposes.
The backbone in the philos-
Ophy of our schools is that our
first grade pupils understand
our number system, not just
learn to count. The primary
concepts brought out first are:
one-to-onc correspondence, ra-
tional counting, place value
and base. In the first grade
these concepts are developed
ny use of many experiences
with concrete objects, too
numerous to elaborate on here.
From the concrete experiences
they are then guided into
pictorial representation OF
things and finally into the use
81 number symbols. All of this
IS procedure Of readiness.
which is d prerequisite To all
learning
First grade children are not
told that 2 plus 3 equals ).
but are led To discover this fact
for themselves by the handling
of many objects again and
again, To verify and rc-vcrify
until understanding is attained.
The transition from the con-
crete To the abstract should not
be too abrupt. Children's num-
Der concepts develop slowly
and a relatively long time may
be expected to elapse between
a child'S first introduction 10 q
process and his mastery of it.
Hence a strong readiness de-
velopment is provided for each
new concept. This paced de
velopment of number ideas re-
cognizcs that children must be
in possession of major concepts