Math Rant

Anyone who has made the mistake of expressing interest in the details of our homeschooling has probably already been subjected to my math rant. But for posterity, I shall repeat it here, and warn that this is largely an editorial about the early math curriculum used by Huntsville City Schools in Huntsville, Alabama.

When I first pulled my first grader out of school in November, it occurred to me that in spite of daily math homework for nearly four months, I had never seen my daughter bring anything home but a single-digit addition worksheet. I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that prior to withdrawing her from school, I had never noticed this. She was so inundated with reading, reading, reading, that repetitive nature of her mathematics assignments had escaped my notice.

I grant that repetition is a necessary part of learning math at all levels. But four months of single-digit addition, with virtually no variation, is beyond necessary repetition. To make matters worse, when I began to evaluate my daughter's math skills, I found that she had virtually no addition facts memorized, still stumbled over 12, 13, 14, and 15 when asked to count from 1-20, and still wasn't positive whether 30 or 50 comes after 29, even though according to her report card she had mastered these skills. In spite of this daily repetition of addition, she could not easily answer calculate 20+1. If it wasn't able to be counted on her fingers, forget it.

It then occurred to me that in early elementary in Alabama, testing focuses around DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills), and to my knowledge at these early grades, mathematics is only minimally included in assessments, and thus in the classroom. In particular our school (Hampton Cove Elementary School) prides itself on its statistical superiority, and it is my theory that at least some teachers emphasize reading at the expense of other subjects. My own daughter's teacher even mandated that all her students participate in the extracurricular "Accelerated Reader" program.

Many educational experts will point out, correctly, that reading is the foundation for academic learning in school. But to diminish the importance of mathematics at this early age is a tremendous error. It is clear that the enthusiasm and emphasis placed on reading is not similarly placed on mathematics, as the sentiment is echoed by the majority of students all the way through high school and even college, where many liberal arts programs are devoid of any mathematics requirements.

Huntsville City Schools uses Saxon Math, a curriculum that has its advocates among public school educators and homeschoolers alike. I am not certain this curriculum was being used effectively at my daughter's school, but judging by what was brought home and her resulting lack of understanding, I can only conclude it is ineffectual for first grade, at least in my daughter's case. Doing more thorough research on the curriculum, it uses a "spiraling" approach that my husband (a physicist and engineer) had long criticized in California that unnecessarily delays learning. Common teaching methods in the United States "spiral" far longer than in other countries, and we continue to lag behind in math and science.

The curriculum is not cheap either. Our school, for its lack of funds, also hit up parents for $15 each to help offset the cost of this curriculum.

For $15, I purchased an entire semester's curriculum from Mammoth Math. The web site isn't as polished, but it is a solid curriculum, developed by an educator with a Master's degree in Mathematics from Finland. Within weeks of using this affordable, downloadable curriculum, my daughter obtained an understanding of place value and number patterns that she was then able to apply to addition and subtraction, expanding her mastery to something based on comprehension rather than repetition.

Again, repetition has its place, but devoid of comprehension, repetitive exercises are are a waste of time.