Re: Excerpts from alleged 5th grade math anti-textbook

[arthurhu@comcast.net]

It just galls me that sane, polite people don't have the guts
to stand up and say "this is just plain stupid". Sigh.
> I don't have to agree or disagree with any particular textbook; range,
> median, mode, and mean are part of my state's curriculum, and it is mandated
> that I teach them.  Whether I agree with it or not.  If it is not in the
> book I'm currently using, I do it anyway.  It doesn't have to show up in a
> book to show up in the classroom.
> 
> I don't remember what grade I learned "average" in.  I know I already knew
> it when I ran into it in college; range, median, mode, and mean were all
> reviewed and used in my psychological measurement class.
> 
> I also don't think what age we learn things at is the issue; I don't really
> think that there is any one "age" that everybody should learn a particular
> thing.  Some are ready to learn sooner, some later.  It just matters that
> they learn.  Obsessing over what "age" or what "grade level" every isolated
> skill should be mastered is part of the current lock-step, one-size-fits-all
> obsession about how to structure curriculum.  I'd rather go in a different
> direction, and focus on making sure that every individual, no matter where
> they happen to be with their learning at any age, has access to
> opportunities to learn whatever they are ready for, and to go as far as they
> are ready and able to do.
> 
> Kelley
> 
> "We must be the change we wish to see in the world."
> -Gandhi
> 
> > So you do disagree with Dale Seymour Investigations that
> > that average should not be taught to 5th graders, and that
> > 6th graders shouldn't even be expected to know or be exposed
> > to the standard method? Do you think a college statistics textbook
> > should cover average, and its standard method, since research
> > shows "adults can't even grasp this concept?"
> >
> > Does everybody in this group believe that's its' harmful to teach average
> > or the standard method, or include it in state standards, since every
> > state standard specifies average at 4th grade, and every math textbook
> > ever written except the NCTM based books includes it at the 4th grade
> > level?
> 
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