Quote Originally Posted by ray1970 View Post
Some of the new math they are teaching these days is plain stupid.

I saw simple problems that could be solved in five seconds with about three simple steps but the way it was being taught to my kids the problem would take fifteen minutes, have about thirty steps, take up half a page, and still end up with the same answer.

I just didn't understand the logic behind taking a simple task and teaching someone a long, difficult, time consuming way of doing it. Must have been trying to prepare my kid for some kind of government job I guess.
This right here! It's the way THEY WANT to teach them that makes it so difficult, and I agree sometimes the questions they ask are so vague that they are harder to figure out than the answer is. It's not even about math anymore. My kids have trouble trying to figure out what they are asking for most the time, once they know that they can almost do the math by themselves. And they are only in third and fifth grade!