The best calculator in the world
Ok…so I am full of school topics at the moment. Probably because I have a child that is about to start school….and I am paranoid as H E double hockey sticks! We have chosen to put her in a small private school, and I pray it is the right decision, because the public school system seems to be severely lacking in the ability to teach out children anything!
Our nephew is another example of problems we have witnessed with the education our children are NOT getting!
When Matthew was 14, he and my brother shared a house with us. When Matt needed help with homework we all chipped in and helped him out in areas that we were strong in. Actually very good for him because my brother, husband and I are all pretty smart cookies in our own ways…(me being the smartest of course…LOL). Anyway…The first week of classes, Matt came home from school with a list of items he was “Required” to have in his classes. I do not remember the entire list, however I do remember thinking at the time that it was rather strange that we paid all this money in taxes to support the school system, yet the parents were now having to pay for material that was always provided by the schools before. This really didn’t make since to me, seeing as how I know that there are hundreds of “families” that do not have children, or who’s children are already grown and gone that are still paying taxes for this purpose…so…
oops! I’d better leave of there or I’ll get way off topic here and begin a true rant!!
Anyway, back to the original topic…I remember one “Required” item in particular was a Texas Instruments calculator that the average cost was $150, and here I was thinking…“$150.00…with all of us working we could get it, but how ridiculous was that! What happened to the kids that had parents and family that couldn’t afford it!!” The fact is this “Required” item would cost them their grade if they did NOT have it, leaving parents with no choice but to go and get one.
So off to the store we go to get this calculator and off to school Matt goes.
Matt comes home from school one day and sits down at the table to do him homework while I cook dinner. I remember he was working on Positives and Negatives. He is trying to figure out a problem, so I tell him to draw a positive and negative graph that he will find it easier to do the problems until he understands the concept. Nothing…silence…I turn and look at Matt and he has the quizzical look on his face, and I say, well did you do it? To which he responds, “I don’t know what you mean.”
Once again, I find myself shocked and wondering what they are teaching our kids in school. I go and sit down beside Matt and draw a single line across the page with an arrow at each end representing the continuance of the line…(Hmmm, wonder if I can make one here). Then in the middle I put a 0 (zero) and on the left of the 0 I put +1 +2 +3 +4 +5, etc., on the right of the 0 (zero) I put -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 and so on. So it looks something like this….
<–+10–+9–+8–+7–+6–+5–+4–+3–+2–+1— 0 — -1– -2– -3– -4– -5– -6– -7– -8– -9– -10–>
Ok, so once the chart is drawn, I tell Matt that if he has a positive number and wishes to remove a negative number from it that he can use the chart to help….basic addition and subtraction really. So if he has a problem that looks like this 108 – (-100) = a, then his answer would be 8 or +8 because he would take the higher number and move in the direction of the negative arrow. On the other hand if he has a larger negative number than a positive, such as -12 + (+10) = a, the answer would be -2, because you begin at the larger number and move in the direction (positive/left or negative/right) of the lower number to attain the answer.
Once I showed this to Matt, it was like a HUGE light bulb going off and he was off and running with his math homework…WITHOUT THE TEXAS INSTRUMENTS CALCULATOR!
Sure, I showed him how to do it on the expensive “Required” calculator too…but man I can tell you I was never so proud than when he told me he would rather do it the way I had just taught him over the calculator any day of the week!
It was such a wonderful experience watching Matt actually learn…he would sit at the table every night while I cooked dinner and work on his math homework, with my husband or me helping…and every time he crossed a hurdle, it was like watching a toddler taking their first steps all over again. Matt got so good with math that he did not ever use the calculator.
Therein caused a problem.
One day, they were given a pop quiz and Matt had been told by his math teacher to solve a problem on the board. Matt went to the front of the class and really made us proud. He did the entire algebraic problem long hand and arrived at the correct answer without using my silly lines or the expensive calculator. His teacher told him to erase the board and to do it correctly that there was no way that his answer could be correct, that he had to use a calculator in order to get the answer.
Matt became quiet upset and told her that he would rather use his brain, which was a much better calculator than the piece of plastic that she was holding in her hand, and that she should check his answer for correctness before telling him the answer was wrong.
You see the things is the teacher was unable to do the problem in the same manner and only knew how to use a calculator, therefore she “Required” all students to have a calculator so they would learn how she knew it. So she told Matt that since he did not use the calculator that he had failed the quiz.
Now, you tell me…what the heck is wrong with this picture? The brain is the best calculator in the world and it does not need the assistance from an electronic calculator to solve math problems.
Our kids need to be taught how to use their brains BEFORE they are taught how to use the items such as calculators. Proof of this can be seen everyday just by going to the local Walmart, McDonalds, or any other retail location and witnessing how the kids are unable to count change back to a customer if they do not put the exact amount of money they have received in the register.
This is so sad and we as parents need to wake up to the fact that our kids are NOT being taught, instead they are being dumbed down.
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