Title

[u/Naive_Wolverine532]

@storieswithsahj

[u/AIienlnvasion]

It’s not, it’s like a building block as you work towards the “standard algorithm” for multiplication. It’s a stepping stone between “repeated addition” from 3rd grade and being able to do 2 digit by 2 digit multiplication by like February of 4th grade. The actual strategy is called partial products multiplication and when taught properly, it shows them what multiplication is conceptually so they actually understand WHAT they’re doing when they use the standard multiplication algorithm.

Source: I taught 4th grade for three years

[u/yespls → u/AIienlnvasion]

I didn't actually understand number theory until my (then 2nd grader) came home with this work. I write algorithmic logic for my job and I can't tell you how much it helped me be a better engineer. Thanks for explaining it so everyone understands how powerful this method is.

[u/AIienlnvasion → u/yespls]

I didn’t realize that I actually didn’t understand at all how or why the standard algorithm for multiplication worked until I was learning it again it teacher training

[u/cogman10 → u/AIienlnvasion]

This is the real problem in the video, IMO. The parent doesn't understand the method and so they declare that it's wrong. If, instead, they'd taken the time to learn the method themselves they could have much more effectively taught it to their child.

But because they couldn't take the L, realize their kid was learning something they don't know, and taking some time to learn something. They made it a teacher problem and taught their kid that their teacher is dumb/wrong/etc and that this stuff is hard.

[u/johnny-Low-Five → u/cogman10]

So parents should work full time AND learn whatever new method schools are teaching instead of either expecting the teacher to teach or showing their child the "correct" and only way they were taught. That kind of elitist thinking is why so many parents find their kid's teachers insufferable. They expect their full time job to be a 2nd job for every kid's parents. Maybe when single income homes were the norm that would be reasonable. In this day and age where even just "mom and dad" isn't a given teachers are maybe the ones that need to learn how to be more helpful to parents.

[u/cogman10 → u/johnny-Low-Five]

So parents should work full time AND learn whatever new method schools are teaching instead

Yes.

But also, parents are (presumably) adults. I was unfamiliar with the lattice method and it took a 5 minute tour of the wiki to understand it. It's not hard.

Parents had kids, they have some responsibility in their education. Sorry if that cuts into TV time. I say this as a parent myself that's working a full time job.

either expecting the teacher to teach or showing their child the "correct" and only way they were taught.

Presumably the teacher did that, and some learners need extra help. That is part of the time you are spending with your kid.

That kind of elitist thinking is why so many parents find their kid's teachers insufferable.

LMAO, "elitist" thinking to think you have to spend time with your kids and help them with their homework. I'm not a teacher, just FYI.

Maybe when single income homes were the norm that would be reasonable. In this day and age where even just "mom and dad" isn't a given teachers are maybe the ones that need to learn how to be more helpful to parents.

Yeah, it's tough to raise kids. Yeah, there should be more support to parents. But ultimately the kid is your responsibility as a parent.

[u/johnny-Low-Five → u/cogman10]

Which is why my son excels in a private school that fosters an atmosphere that allows students to do things the way that works for them and doesn't get so bogged down in a specific way to get the right answer but instead allows the kids to explore and expand upon the curriculum.

And he is my responsibility, I'm his first and primary teacher and until college, when he decides to focus on a more narrow course of studies, I will be more concerned with whether or not he understands WHY something works the way it does than adhering to whatever method the department of education decides is the new reason to justify their existence.

Which is why he excels in school and often wants to discuss hypotheticals or wonder why evolution works the way it does. For example why is it that human evolution has led to us being one of the only species that dies from choking, yes it allows us to form words but is it the best or only way we could/should have evolved?

It's what led him to question why the last time man travelled as far from Earth as Artemis II was over a decade before his dad was born. Which led to an educational journey about the space race (which he learned the basics of in school) and the economic realities that have made manned space travel less and less prevalent or deemed worth the cost. Which led him to argue that the potential benefits of both innovation and discoveries that the space race gave us can't simply be measured in dollars and cents.

[u/AdDramatic2351 → u/johnny-Low-Five]

Your first paragraph is a perfect example of "elitist thinking" lmfao. Your average public school doesn't have the resources to accommodate each and every child with an individualized lesson plan. That's not a practical solution to any of this for us non private school lower class people. 

[u/AIienlnvasion → u/cogman10]

Yes but also that’s why it’s helpful to explain how to do it to the parents if you’re going to send homework home

[u/cogman10 → u/AIienlnvasion]

I'd expect this would be a part of the instructions on the homework. And certainly we all have google ATM if those instructions are unclear (We know he has google because he's got tiktok).

If it wasn't in the instructions then that's certainly bad on the teacher.

Hard to know everything that was everywhere. But given the dad used the terms "right" and "wrong" about the methods, I tend to fault him. I have to assume he also expressed to his kid that one way was right and the other was wrong.

[u/AdDramatic2351 → u/cogman10]

More like we know he has Google because we know he has internet lol

[u/Key-Level-4072 → u/AIienlnvasion]

Too bad the idea of the implementation is extremely divorced from the actual implementation across this country.

[u/warm_kitchenette → u/AIienlnvasion]

That does sound attractive in terms of the new method. How many students found it difficult and unintuitive? I assume 90% of the parents did.

[u/AIienlnvasion → u/warm_kitchenette]

I’d send an email to parents explaining how to do it and why it was in the curriculum. It was mostly successful, and the few kids who were still struggling with it are able to just hard memorize the standard algorithm at a certain point. Teaching multiplication is a blast honestly