Showing your work (brought to you by medical cannabis)

[André Toulon]

Its no longer a thing but 💨💨💨 THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO, teachers used to mark off math problems for not showing your work.

This was such a shit concept, especially since basic arithmetic can be solved so many ways...so even if you showed your process, if it wasn't the process the teacher imposed upon you, you would still risk be counted off for it.

It's especially damning since I've always calculated basic numbers in my head... I had no work to show.

FF to now, and I'm not even sure if kids understand how math works...My nephew was trying to buy snacks at the game tonight and i watched a 15 year old add 12 and 7 on his fucking fingers...they can use calculators with no penalty so i get it.  So now I've changed my position...Like I think you can never learn math if you dont understand how numbers correlate.

Do you think forcing kids to write each and every step to get to an answer is necessary for brain growth, or is it fine to just cut out the "why" just to reach the finish line 

Edited 15 hours ago by André Toulon

[MasqueradeOverture]

A little after that, they took points off if you didn't do the problem via Common Core methods.

I'm so glad I missed that.

I'm so glad I'm done with anything past the basics literally forever.

[UwPp]

Man I thought I was going to learn something about medical cannabis. 

...

 

I should read better.

Edited 9 hours ago by UwPp
I should also learn how to spell too.

[André Toulon]

8 minutes ago, UwPp said:

Man I thought I was going to learn something about medical cannabis. 

...

 

I should read better.

I be apprehensive about what I post at 2am while stoned, so I like to put a disclaimer in case I wake up and be like "huh"

[scoobdog]

I’m not so great at math, so I get where it comes from, but I’m with you.  Showing your work is a prelude to Algebra and the general use of equations and formulas; after that it doesn’t make any real sense.  Most calculations are performed using visualization either wholly or in part:  having to write down every step tends to interfere with that process.

[Doom Metal Alchemist]

I can't remember what grade/subject where we were allowed to use calculators, but it was absolutely no earlier than algebra. Before that using a calculator was cheating.

[scoobdog]

1 hour ago, Doom Metal Alchemist said:

I can't remember what grade/subject where we were allowed to use calculators, but it was absolutely no earlier than algebra. Before that using a calculator was cheating.

When I started Algebra, graphing calculators were brand new, so calculators weren't really a thing.  I would imagine we would have been allowed to use calculators if I was studying Trigonometry in the '80s, since slide rules were antiquated.