Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!lll-tis!ames!hao!gatech!purdue!tlh
From: tlh@cs.purdue.EDU (Thomas L. Hausmann)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Learning arithmetic
Message-ID: <3310@arthur.cs.purdue.edu>
Date: 25 Feb 88 15:29:07 GMT
References: <4643@ecsvax.UUCP> <3482@killer.UUCP>
Sender: news@cs.purdue.EDU
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Purdue University
Lines: 38

In article <3482@killer.UUCP>, elg@killer.UUCP (Eric Green) writes:
> One of the shameful things is that a low achiever usually won't ever get such
> help. Inevitably, it is the least-knowlegable teachers that get assigned to
> "low achiever" classes. Teachers who barely know the subject themselves aren't
> going to be much help in showing students how simple the subject is.
> 
> >  I think that this is one of the seldom
> > mentioned reasons why the New Math failed.  Students who did have the 
> > capability to learn arithmetic (well enough to make change, etc.) but who
> > didn't have the capability to do both that *and* learn place notation/base
> > seven/binary arithmetic - were spending all of their time trying to master
> > wierdo bases - and therefore coming out with *nothing* of value.  
> 
> I was one of the experimental dummies used in the "New Math". I remember 3rd
> grade, "clock arithmetic". "Duh, what's this?" But Mrs. Pear, the teacher,
> didn't know, either, alas. It took me 10 years to learn that the denotation of
> a number and the number itself were two different things, and that was only
> because I started programming 6502's in assembly language.

What I found dissatisfying about "clock arithmetic" is that is was called
"clock arithmetic".  Why use modulo notation (4 congruent to 1 mod 3) and
call it modulo arithmetic.  I kept expecting hands to appear and tell me
what time it was.  As I said earlier and Eric pointed out.  It is often a
problem of the teacher not being comfortable with the material or they
(the teachers) have spent to much time trying to come up with a cute example
to keep the kids attention instead of telling the students EXACTLY what is 
happening.

> Eric Lee Green  elg@usl.CSNET    
> {cbosgd,ihnp4}!killer!elg       


      .^.^.        Tom Hausmann 
     . O O .       tlh@mordred.cs.purdue.edu    ( ARPA )
      . v .        ...!purdue!tlh   ( UUCP  )
     / | | \
     ./   \.       "Whooo do ya think you're foolin' "
______mm.mm_____
       \_/