Word: mathes
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...past five years, the national conversation on education has focused on reading scores, math tests and closing the "achievement gap" between social classes. This is not a story about that conversation. This is a story about the big public conversation the nation is not having about education, the one that will ultimately determine not merely whether some fraction of our children get "left behind" but also whether an entire generation of kids will fail to make the grade in the global economy because they can't think their way through abstract problems, work in teams, distinguish good information from...
...National Council of Teachers of Mathematics experimented with a new form of teaching. They proposed that teachers should let children explore their own methods of problem solving—diagrams , tables, and calculators if necessary. Unfortunately, allowing children to find their own ways of dealing with math problems as opposed to emphasizing the mastery of basic math drills has not gotten results. The Bush administration has created a panel to do research on teaching math as a response to this problem. But they would save a good deal of time and effort if they took hints from some...
...should look to other countries with high achievements in math to determine which teaching methods are effective and how to implement them. The more time that students spend practicing basic math skills, the better their proficiency. In the U.S., the standard of math lags behind because in-class time is not sufficient for some students to master a certain topic, and the students do not spend enough time outside of the classroom working on that topic. The government should work with parents and guardians to ensure that students practice a lot of math after school or at home because...
...Japan has showed us, the answer to our mathematical dilemma in the U.S. is a five-letter word: Kumon. Kumon is one of the largest math and language tutoring methods in the world. Kumon is also a tutoring center for students that was founded in Japan, but has branches in the U.S. It uses repetition and drills to teach students basic computational skills. Students are given packets with exercises they can complete at their own pace. Once students complete the packets, they turn it in for a grade and, depending on that grade, students get packets of the same level...
Kumon and other similar teaching methods are the best way to ensure that students practice math skills outside the classroom. Mastery is something that takes time and practice even for some of the most gifted students. The government should focus on ways to fund tutoring through schools or through local organization so that it is available to all students regardless of economic background. Instead of trying to come up with some revolutionary method of teaching math, we should simply learn from what Japan and other foreign countries are doing. Tutoring is best in small doses: not too much to overwhelm...