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Kids & Maths

KIDS' MATHS DOESN'T ADD UP

Children are still struggling with basic mathematics and shunning libraries by using the internet for research, a new study says.
Ref. https://www.stuff.co.nz/hlc/1,,93498~3775397a10~,00.html

Maths and Kids

I think allot of this is due to the lack of parents help in kids learning. I had lots of trouble with math when I was a kid, but my dad was always there to help me after school when he got home from work. Math hasn't gotten harder, and kids haven't gotten dumber, its a lack of parental involvement. We have been working with our child in school because he is behind in reading comprehension and has an auditory processing disorder. The teachers keep telling us how awesome it is that we are so involved but I don't see us as doing anything short of what a parent should do. That, in my opinion is the root of the problem.

Kids & Maths UFO & Writing Art Education Sciences

At my graduation of high school, the principal read off the top ten fields of study that the graduating class was planning on entering. Engineering was last. I am the oldest of 4 children from my family that graduated from that high school and that was the last time Engineering was mentioned on that list. Generations before me looked at education as a way to improve themselves and end up with a better way of life than their parents. Today, schools are very different. The environment there has moved far away from education and not at the teachers will, but they haven't seemed to find a way to de-emphasize it either. In general, households are dual income and that means for less time with children. The kids have really made high school into a extreme popularity and fashion show. I saw this visiting the same high school I went to over the 11 years that there was someone from our family enrolled. We were all very good in elementary school, but results from high school definitely changed. Perhaps you can say that this was "first child/overachiever syndrome" or maybe it is a trend. Interestingly enough, the number of members into the National Honour Society decreased yearly as well. I am glad I was less cool than I could have been in high school and I got my Engineering degree as well and the financial security that it has given me.

I really believe it is a shift in the work ethic through time. It starts with the parents and filters to the children and they modify it further. IMO, the older generation (before me) believed if you worked hard (education as well as vocation) you can get ahead in life. They worked hard at school and at their jobs. Parents worked harder at parenting because they had to (this is really true before that evil invention the TV). Children worked harder because their parents forced them to at first, but then later for their own potential to reach higher goals than their parents. That really seems to have shifted today to something along the lines of: I am owed a good life, regardless.

Ask a child 50 years ago about math and you would probably get a answer about like this: I really hate math, but if I don't get it right the teacher will make a fool of me in front of the class.

Ask one today and you probably get something like: Math sucks and what do I need it for anyway, I have a calculator. If the teacher says anything to me about not doing my homework, I will just give some smart answer to impress my buddies who also didn't do any of the homework. The non-homework doer will be the talk of the school with his witty remark...thus reinforcing the idea tha education and its systems aren't nearly as cool as we are...