Comment by dorchadas | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dorchadas | Hacker News Reader

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And, as a former secondary math teacher, I would argue that the use of a calculator has absolutely created a generation of zombies who can't do, or understand, basic math. We're talking simple things like multiply, or figure out how many Monsters they can buy for $5, or calculate change.

If they can't do basic arithmetic, there's no way they can understand the actual concepts underlying math, or have any type of number sense (and they don't; though, granted, neither do most of their elementary school teachers). It'll be absolutely horrible if they have no idea of how to craft a coherent argument, or deeply think because ChatGPT just spews out something (and who knows if it even gives factual answers; they'll never know to check). Couple this with other issues arising from over reliance and overuse of smart phones and we're setting ourselves, and them, up for a grim future facing serious existential problems (.i. climate change)

I have a question for someone with your perspective: something I've been wondering is should we be using programming to teach the underlying concepts of basic math? Would learning the algorithms of math be a more appropriate way of conveying the theory to students?

I think there is still some algorithm-based teaching, or at least the students I taught had been taught via algorithms. The simple O(n^2) multiplication one, or long division, or adding/subtracting with carrying/borrowing. I know a lot of the perceived complaints about the 'common core' change were a push away from this, though I never had any of those students (too young, and I left teaching two years ago, at least for now). That said, I think the common core way was a better way to go about it to help kids get a number sense.

I see so many kids who don't know that, for, say, 28 + 35 you can simply rearrange this to be 30+33. They have no concept of what addition means, or how you can regroup parts. Same with breaking down multiplication and how you can do it by parts and then sum it. They have no concept of how the numbers work, basically, and I don't think algorithms would give them that sense, it'd just give them steps to compute stuff.

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