02-05-2015, 01:19 AM
Well, there’s lots of people can tell you 7 * 8 = 56, but if you say your need 7 feet of drip tubing for every one of your eight lemon trees, and ask to buy enough hose, they have to think about it and maybe use the calculator on their phone.
My own son wasn’t drilled properly on the multiplication tables by his third grade teacher; I had to step in and teach him myself. But that’s not because of Common Core, it’s because his teacher should have retired long ago. Showing a kid an alternate way to calculate 7 * 8 is not meant to supplant drills, but demonstrate a technique with numbers where they can verify the result because they already know their answer. 7*8 = 2*8 + 5*8 is pretty derrrr, but that’s how exactly I multiply stuff like 23*12.
My own son wasn’t drilled properly on the multiplication tables by his third grade teacher; I had to step in and teach him myself. But that’s not because of Common Core, it’s because his teacher should have retired long ago. Showing a kid an alternate way to calculate 7 * 8 is not meant to supplant drills, but demonstrate a technique with numbers where they can verify the result because they already know their answer. 7*8 = 2*8 + 5*8 is pretty derrrr, but that’s how exactly I multiply stuff like 23*12.