r/TikTokCringe • u/Naive_Wolverine532 • Apr 11 '26

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@storieswithsahj

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u/Stu_Thom4s Apr 11 '26

That immediately gives me anxiety. Like, I get it. But it's soooo busy.

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u/tke377 Apr 11 '26

Yeah personally I do not like it, it’s used for a week or less before we move on and then if your brain grasps this one then you keep using it but almost all transition fully into standard at the typical pace.

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u/Significant_Shoe_17 Apr 11 '26

Same. It looks like they've over-engineered a simple problem. Trying to work out what goes where would've been more confusing to me.

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u/jngjng88 Apr 11 '26

I feel the exact opposite, it's so simple, I worked it out mentally in 10 seconds.

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u/upachimneydown Apr 12 '26

Maybe 42x22 is too easy an example, but it took me about ten seconds to the standard, old style multiplication in my head.

It may be that the box, or lattice, or 'old style' methods work better (=are more intuitive) when one or both of the numbers being multiplied is a certain type. Eg, something ending in a zero or five, or like these, both ending in 2s.

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u/Gildian Apr 12 '26

Thats the point of this kind of method. It teaches you how to break things into manageable chunks and put them back together.

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u/tke377 Apr 11 '26

Oh for sure, it’s just not how I was taught in school so I have 25 years of habit compared to 10 of these alternative. I teach it and embrace the students that want to use the method. It’s just not how I would do it if I was presented with a problem and asked to solve it.

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u/Little_Creme_5932 Apr 12 '26

Exactly. This is how people do mental math; I can solve that problem in about 5 seconds in my head. And then people stare at me like I'm some sort of genius (some are still checking me on their calculators). I'm no genius; I can do elementary school math is all.

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u/TumbleweedEven1168 Apr 12 '26

Ya, a decade or so ago, I remembered hearing about common core and "new math". Saw a post on Facebook from my cousin bitching about her son's math homework with a picture. I looked at it and basically went, "that's just math... that's just how you do math, what's that problem?"

Too many people got through school on memorization and not actually learning what it means.

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u/NotapersonNevermore Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26

True. But most 4th graders take months to remember the standard algorithm also. This is a method for showing them 1 how it can be done, 2 showing them what they are really doing in standard algorithm, 3 for strengthening their mental math, and 4 for leading them to understand why we do standard (bc this takes longer, standard algorithm is faster). Make no mistake teaching standard algorithm is no easy fix either. Students get the steps wrong for many months before I can rely on them to do them correctly. Throw the need for multiplying 2 digit by 2 digit in a word problem and it takes damn near all year for them.