Want Better Math Students? Make Kids Repeat K-6 Math Courses (if needed)!
Did you realize that at a typical community college, the most taken math classes taken by incoming students are Prealgebra and General Math, which are courses matching 5th through 8th grade level topics? See this sample of courses. And, many of the students taking this class are not 40-something year-olds retraining for a new career but rather 18-20 year old kids right out of high school? And furthermore, did you know that as many 15% of these students are not able to do 4th grade level problems such as “add 1/3 + 1/4″ without a calculator? I know this 15% figure from talking to some instructors.
Many will blame reform math for this problem, and I believe there is merit to that argument. But what about kids being taught a traditional curriculum? And most are. The answer to this question became very clear to me when I discovered my 9 year old daughter, who is homeschooled, did not have her multiplication facts and simple subtraction facts down. When quizzed, she could not tell me what 6×4 or 13-5 equals. So, we had her start doing some work on Math Blaster and flash cards. This helped. But, she missed a lot of problems when working through her Saxon 54 text. So, we simply made here repeat this grade in math this year. Why not? And, we are working with her intensively to get these multiplication and subtraction facts down. And she is getting them, slowly but surely.
Consider the fact that if a student does not get their multiplication, addition, and subtraction facts down, they can not do the following:
- Multiply larger numbers
- Long divide
- Add unlike fractions, since multiplication is required to get a LCD
- Do estimations
Imagine if your son or daughter were on a job and was unable to add 1/6 + 1/17 correctly without a calculator? This would be because they could not multiply 6 x 17 since they were unsure about what 6×7 equaled!
Holding back a child to repeat a grade and properly obtain these number skills is the nicest thing you could do for them, education-wise.
Good advice to repeat the course. Teachers must repeat lessons. But let us not forget that students must understand the basic principles. Teachers must know how students think and build from there. See “Teaching and Helping Students Think and Do Better” on amazon.