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1. 

   luna.moon said, 2 months ago

   the evil child! she won’t need math where she’s going!

2. 

   The_JAM said, 2 months ago

   Grandma, just get the soap.

3. 

   IncredibleWerekitty said, 2 months ago

   That, or let her fail.

4. 

   4deerinmyyard said, 2 months ago

   Holly should be doing algebra–not just because that is where she should be, age-wise, but because algebra is FUN. She would be much more motivated to study math if someone would just let her in on the little secret that math is so much more than mere rote memorization of the arithmetic facts. I believed I was poor in math until I entered sixth grade. Nope; just lousy at memorizing tables, apparently. Once you get turned on to algebra in sixth grade, your li’l brain lights up. As for the tables, there are little tricks you can learn to help you remember each fact, and it is these tricks Grandma should be teaching. Flashcards should be used as bookmarks and coasters.

5. 

   lightenup said, 2 months ago

   I bet if Grandma asks her how much it would be to buy 8 headbands at $6 each, Holly would know the answer

6. 

   ejcapulet said, 2 months ago

   Personally, I couldn’t do algebra to save my life. X and Y meant zilch to me. However, stick me in geometry where the numbers meant real things and spacial concepts and that was just easy.

7. 

   AssOfDoom said, 2 months ago

   isn’t Holly like 13? Times Tables? get the kid to the slow class.

8. 

   Wolfdreamer250 said, 2 months ago

   I remember those days. I hated learning math. Of course my parents made the worse mistake any parents can make. They told me in third grade that Math was hard, but I still had to learn it. So from that day to this I still think of math as being hard.

9. 

   Macushlalondra said, 2 months ago

   I absolutely loathed algebra. I came this close to flunking it and barely squeeked by with a C-. After that I never took math again. I know how to add, subtract, multiply and divide but that’s it.

10. 

    Lewreader said, 2 months ago

    My big sister stamped on my foot every time I got a flash card wrong. Now she’s a federal judge and I have to hire someone to do my taxes.

11. 

    pearlandpeach said, 2 months ago

    the teacher for algebra was the head coach….he read from the book. Geometry and trig was a breeze but I still wish I could do algebra

12. 

    Jon Parker said, 2 months ago

    We learned multiplication tables in 2nd and 3rd grade!

13. 

    PhoebeDog said, 2 months ago

    Algebra and Geometry were Greek to me–now diagramming sentences, that’s where I came into my own.

    I could never grasp the concepts of any kind of math. I think it’s fascinating, but just never clicked in my feeble brain.

14. 

    SchmoozeMinkey said, 2 months ago

    jpnbama

    Yeah, that was second grade when I started school in the 50’s. Algebra was third grade. Which school for the mentally challenged is Holly attending? Or is this the best that American schools can do for our kids today?

15. 

    The_JAM said, 2 months ago

    Doom, Schmooze, Holly is in a public school. Enough said.

    Um…will I get pelted with stones if I say that I finished high school math one year before I actually graduated and was able to get a college trigonometry course in my senior year? Well, it DID kinda help that I never went to a public school….:D :D :D

16. 

    terryrindaljr said, 2 months ago

    Did all of you forget that Grandma is trying to “off the cuff” help Holly being Summer school was cancelled? Grandma might not have properly researched all of the age and grade appropriate materials. Both the Middle school and High school sent home a list of summer “study and fun” websites that my girls could go on to keep their skills sharp (not that I think they did, this summer).

17. 

    Cynyx said, 2 months ago

    I went to public schools from second grade on. We did the multiplication tables in third, algebra in eighth, geometry in ninth. My younger sisters went to the same school I did. None of them took advantage of the educational opportunities like I did. I now make 2-3 times more than any of them. Guess it all depends on the child….

18. 

    girl_geek said, 2 months ago

    In my public school we did multiplication tables in 3rd grade, pre-algebra in 8th grade, Algebra I in 9th grade. I know a lot of other schools offer Algebra I in 8th grade though!

    I loved all kinds of math until I got to upper-level college math courses – once you start proving stuff just for the sake of proving it with no application, it’s no longer fun to me ;) (I got a second major in math, since my other major required so much math it was only 3-4 extra classes.) But I loved the first few semesters of my math major! And the one grad-school level math class I took … ugh …. :P

    My brother-in-law, on the other hand, is getting a PhD in pure math / abstract algebra / etc…. that’s crazy math IMO ;)

19. 

    aerwalt said, 2 months ago

    Never could remember tables. Could derive, though.

20. 

    kab2rb said, 2 months ago

    Multi tables where fun for me. I was never taught(spl)sorry, algebra. I went to public schools. I and my husband refer this back in the dark ages. Where my kids went to school in a small town there math was different and they had no clue about algebra.

21. 

    kab2rb said, 2 months ago

    Don’t know if grandma is up on Holly’s math where she needs to be. I do not think I could do Holly’s type of math by grade level.

22. 

    jmworacle said, 2 months ago

    Holly, you’re going to need math in order to determine the amount of tip you are due while you are working at “Hooters”.

23. 

    sgt.angua said, 2 months ago

    girl_geek, Thanks to you I am not the only one on this board who doesn’t hate math!
    I am a girl as well and certainly a geek. Math can be pretty great, at least at college level, after which it can be frustrating at times (when you don’t get it) and mindblowing at other times (when you do). I took a graduate course in math as well, which was very tough, but I had a great TA who helped.
    I feel that, consciously or subconsciously, people condone not working hard to try and learn math, when they say “I couldnt do math to save my life”… I feel like the subtext there is “too cool for math”. Am I way off base, you guys? I think one thing schools need to do is NOT send out the message that its ok to dislike math or to not try.
    A young age is the best time to learn math and its very, very hard to learn when you’re older if you havent been learning in middle and high school. Like anything (e.g. playing the piano) it doesnt come easy if you want to be good at it. It’s hard, but it has to be done because once you get past the initial effort, you’re coasting and you reap the benefits.

    I wish people would tell their kids that there is nothing like learning, and there’s no excuse to not to try to learn.
    You’re NEVER too cool to learn.

24. 

    Ushindi said, 2 months ago

    I think a lot depends on how your brain is “wired”, so to speak. Math was always easy for me, and I enjoyed it all through school, taking whatever courses I could. Sadly, I seem to have absolutely NO artistic talent - I can draw a stick figure, but that’s about it. However, I have a sister who just hates math, had problems constantly, but makes a living from her paintings and drawings - great talent. Interestingly (at least to me and my ex), my daughter has a lot of talent artistically, but not mathematically, while my son is like me, poor kid. Great at math, but can’t draw to save his life. No one played gender favorites or encouragements, it’s just the way it worked out.

25. 

    Selma_F said, 2 months ago

    what bugs me is that it seems like everyone is relying on calculators way too much. I know that it helps if you’re doing big problems, but I’ve seen kids have problems multiplying 4 and 3. Or even dividing 8 and 2. That is pathetic.

26. 

    kattbailey said, 2 months ago

    I went through algebra 2, good grades. But there are still areas of the times tables I have to think through (the 8s are one- but multiply by 4 and then by 2)

    I have a mild learning disability that wasn’t diagnosed until college. I struggle with straight memorization.

    But my method, I can do quickly enough that if you don’t know how I did it you’d think I had it memorized.

    I have a college degree- bleeep laude as well. It’s in history, since I can discuss the concepts and ideas and what led to what (even the profs had the dates in their notes). Dad has the same problem, but for him math’s easy, and it’s spelling and a few writing things he has to work with.

    He has a PhD in Chemistry, uses math all day every day, and doesn’t care how I multiply. My method works and quickly.

    Half his majors can’t seem to do basic algebra but tested out of the math requirement (basically Algebra 2 revisited) because it’s a multiple choice test and they put the most likely answers in the equation and saw if it gave the answer!

27. 

    kattbailey said, 2 months ago

    Okay, they bleeped “with honor?” I get it, I get it, but …

28. 

    eatteaphonenome said, 2 months ago

    Holly, knows this. She’s actually very intelligent. Her real problem isn’t that she’s stupid. The real problem is that she’s bored.

    Used to be they put kids into “tracks” (smart, average, below average). and taught to meet the needs of those “tracks.” Now they can’t do that because it “hurts the slower students self-esteem as they are labeled dumb.” (I can label chicken soup as tomato all day long, but at the end of the day it’s still chicken soup)

    So the teachers end up teaching to the middle. The smarter kids end up bored and tune out. The slower kids end up lost without a clue. Toss in the forced mainstreaming (forgetting there is a reason they do not belong in the mainstream) of students with behaviour problems causing constant disruption, it is a miracle any learning occurs in America’s classrooms.

    America’s children. They may be dumb as rocks, but they feel good about it..

29. 

    lectrice said, 2 months ago

    I wish I could go back and relearn math!

    I still remember the day when I realized I hated math…it was back in elementary school, and we were all doing Math minutes, meaning that we had to finish as many math problems on a sheet of paper in one minute. I would always get so frustrated when I only had two rows of problems done when most of the class had finished all of theirs when the minute was up. I think that if the teacher had me compete against myself instead of the other students that I wouldn’t have become so closed minded about math after that point.

    I didn’t do well until the last year of Middle School and then High School when I had two really good math teachers who drilled everything in my head.

    I can still work the formulas in alegbra, but I can barely add, subtract, multiply, or divide in my head. It must be done on paper, otherwise the numbers fall out of my head. That part still frustrates me!

    The same goes with a math problem that I can’t apply to real life. I always was able to cream the other kids at word problems because I understood what I was supposed to do then! I couldn’t get geometry though…odd, isn’t it?

30. 

    RinaFarina said, 2 months ago

    Reading these comments about math makes me cringe. It’s so badly taught! I was lucky - I was so good at it that no teacher could keep me from learning it. Then later on, after I grew up and was teaching computer courses (which I find trivially easy compared to graduate-level math courses), I would be talking to a woman and she would say that she has always hated math, she’s no good at it, and I would always make the same comment: “It’s probably because you had a bad teacher.” To which the woman would say, after reflection, “Yeah.”

    Another factor for women in particular is that they were (probably still are) told that girls are no good at math. Didn’t make me unable to learn math, but it did have an influence on me - I concluded there must be something wrong with me as a girl since I found math so easy and loved it so much!

    I could write a book on this subject. Obama is talking about reforming the school system. Hope he puts in a requirement to have very, very good teachers with advanced degrees who are good at explaining. Knowing something does not guarantee that you can explain it properly. (Take heed, all you poor parents who try to learn about computers from your children, and fail. You’re not the ones at fault!) I used to sit in class and think, “The teacher shouldn’t have put it that way, she’ll confuse people, but I know what she means.” Then after class my friends would come and ask me to explain what she had said…

    I have just one more comment, and that’s about the Montessori system of teaching arithmetic to small children with the aid of coloured blocks of various sizes. This method works very well, because it gives them a real, physical connection to the numbers. No memorization. For example, if you have a block 4 units long (I think an inch might be too small to be a good size for a unit, for a child), another one 3 units long, and another one 1 unit long, you can see with your eyes and feel with your hands that 3+1=4. Exactly. Also that 1+3=4.

    I apologize for the disjointedness of this comment. I get carried away when I think about math.

31. 

    Myshta said, 2 months ago

    My niece is a tick older than Holly and can’t add, subtract, multiply or divide in her head. Why? Because she was allowed to use a calculator in class and on her homework since the first grade. I didn’t get to use a calculator until my second year in college, and didn’t really need it then.

    She couldn’t add 13 and 10 together without help, said that she was allowed to use the calculator on her state exams and was getting ready for the PSAT, and was going to have to have a new/better calculator for the exam.

32. 

    Johanan Rakkav said, 2 months ago

    Leaving aside the problems or benefits of how math is taught…

    If I understand the implications of what I’ve been learning lately, indeed how well one deals with math (and in what direction) is largely based on how one’s brain is wired. All else being equal, someone whose mathematical intelligence is higher up in the hierarchy of cognitive processes (this is Jung-speak here) is going to do better at math than one for whom the process is lower down. But then, there are usually tradeoffs: those who aren’t good at math are often very good at something else, and for the same reason.

    Two Jungian personality types have the reputation of being very good at a great many things. Each happens to be the “Shadow” of the other. :)