A recent study (http://www.redding.com/lifestyle/peek-into-brain-shows-how-kids-learn-math-skills) put brain scanners on children and watched how their brains learned Math. While Bill Gates is probably drooling at the thought, the study did confirm what many have long assumed- drilling students on math facts will pay off. “If your brain doesn’t have to work as hard on simple math, it has more working memory free to process the teacher’s brand-new lesson on more complex math.”
Knowing this information, one would assume the 21st century standards of college and career readiness would place a premium on memorizing math facts, but that is not the case. In fact, Common Core Math actually demands less fact memorization than the standards they replaced. Take Common Core Standards in NY, please just take them 🙂 (Be forewarned, fluency and memorization are two separate ideas. A child can fluently subtract 400-388, but can’t do it from memory). Look at the…
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The Season Of Myths 