Everyday Math Makes Me Want to SCREAM
This post may contain affiliate links.
I don’t normally loathe things. But I loathe Everyday Math for the hell it put my daughter through and the poor math foundation it gave her.
Thank you so much.
You Don’t Know How to Subtract, Mom
My breaking point came one Tuesday evening. My sobbing seven-year old daughter told me I didn’t know how to subtract. To learn, I needed to read the four page Powerpoint presentation on her teacher’s website. (Here’s another teacher’s Power Point.) Four. Pages. ABOUT SUBTRACTION. (But, um, I do know how to subtract, don’t I?)
So, like any normal parent, while opening up the file, I ranted on Facebook.
(Did you know there’s a Facebook support group for people like me? –Parents Against Everyday Math.)
Her subtraction was backwards.
It looked like this:
Now, this kind of method is fine for mental math, sure. But NOT for pencil and paper algorithms – it’s confusing and takes too long!
To make matters worse, it’s certainly NOT a good foundation if the math curriculum doesn’t continue like this through middle and high school. A Facebook friend wrote, “After 6 years of homework battles in elementary school, kids get to un-learn [Everyday Math] in middle school with traditional math. How does that make sense to anyone other than the self-appointed Einstein raking it in?”
Everyday Math Leaves Kids Behind
It was bad enough in first grade when AJ didn’t learn money in the one week it was taught, or time in the one week that was taught, or the addition facts when they were taught. She fell farther and farther behind with the promise that the curriculum would spiral back around eventually.
Her teachers through out these years reassured me that, she’d catch on when she was ready and that the research on Everyday Math was extensive, and it was a really a good way to teach math.
[Insert bad word here that starts with BS.]
Because those statements weren’t true. Not good research. Nor did she catch on eventually. (Google EM research and you’ll see, I’m not going to go into it here.)
Since AJ hadn’t learned the basics, she couldn’t catch on to the next spiral months or a year later.
She believed she was stupid.
Conversely, students who excelled in math weren’t challenged at their ability level and were bored. Herein lies a big problem with Everyday Math — it teaches to the middle so you hit the middle kids and leave out the rest.
Blame the Teacher?
An Everyday Math trainer told my friend that it must be because the teachers were incorrectly implementing the curriculum.
Is the curriculum that easy to mess up?
I don’t think so.
. . .
New Math
In a recent phone conversation, Audra Haskins, Director of Lower School at Aspen Academy in Colorado, explained this about Everyday Math, “It doesn’t go deep; there’s not a lot of repetition, review, or application.”
A teacher friend of mine from Twitter added, “The material jumps around so much that mastery is not achieved on any level (at least in second grade.) It doesn’t make sense. I hate it! I am worried about the future of my students because I felt like I didn’t teach solid math this year.”
Investigations is another curriculum in the New Math genre.
Haskins said, “Investigations is designed to assume the kids are good at math and know the skills and apply them. If kids don’t know it, they’re never going to get there.”
Mom of eight and blogger, Gretchen White commented on Facebook, “I LOATHE Investigations. I’ve ranted about it extensively. It’s the main reason we left our former school. I remember our 2nd grader having to count the pockets in our family for homework one night and I realized it was failing him as a mathematician. I’ve been happy with Saxon, although I know there are plenty of Saxon critics. It seems like “real” math, for lack of a better word.”
Want to read more concerns about Everyday Math? Try Concerned CT Parent, Ed Weekly Blogger, Rational American, Amy Johnson, Andrea Merida, parents on this forum, Rox Dover, and Parent Pundit.
To summarize,
3 Reasons I Hate Everyday Math
- Everyday Math does not teach basic number sense.
- Everyday Math makes simple math operations harder than necessary.
- Everyday Math does not differentiate for kids who need longer time or kids who need to move faster.
Cue Music, Enter . . . Singapore Math
We moved schools to one with a FANTASTIC math curriculum — Singapore Math. It goes deep into twelve concepts and teaches to mastery (meaning that kids learn it before moving to a new concept.) Tomorrow I share my happy experiences with Singapore Math. 🙂
What does your school use for math? Or homeschool? What do you like or dislike about it?
I am currently a 5th grade teacher who has to teach Everyday Math for every single math lesson(yeah right). Everyday math is not the answer for all math students. A good teacher knows this and will find what works best for each skill. I use it as a resource for help when needed. I hate it has gotten a bad rap because it is really great for problem solving but not so much for basic skills. I don’t even teach the new math ways for solving a problem. That just confuses kids. I just wish our district would see it as a resource and not the whole math curriculum.
I taught EM to third graders and I really have mixed feelings about it. I like the program because it teaches the concept, rather than just the procedure. BUT, I agree that the material is scattered around and you don’t focus long on one given topic. My weak students didn’t take to the program very well at all. And it frustrated me that the students had to learn 4 or 5 different ways to do multiple-digit multiplication. Waaaay too confusing for some of the kids to handle. I’d say for advanced math students perfect.
I was a 3rd grade teacher a few years ago and had to teach this… All of our team struggled with it every day! We didn’t even understand it, how could we teach it if we didn’t even know it, I told my principal I couldn’t teach it because I don’t believe in it and she ended up moving me to a differnt grade level and I taught reading and writing… I HATE IT!
Wow, so sad for the kids!
We started homeschooling last year using Math U See. Didn’t love that either. Same kind of backward working of the problems. Using Teaching Textbooks this year and LOVE IT. EM is what the elementary school we went to used. Our problem is that unless you have the money to put kids in private school, you are stuck with the math program at the local public school. We just opted out of all of it. =)
good to know – thank you! Yes, you’re right. Most people are stuck in the curriculum of their public school. 🙁
We homeschool and use Math-U-See. After looking at the EM, I don’t think the two are similar at all. MUS teaches rounding and estimating, just so the student can understand what the answer will be close too, after they estimate they solve the problem in the traditional way. Of course MUS isn’t for everyone, but I don’t think you can compare the two.
thanks for sharing, Gabrielle.
Thanks for the informative post! 🙂 Our district uses “Bridges”…. does anyone have any insight on it? We’ve had a lot of frustration in our house too with Math… and that “Mommy dosen’t do it right”… 🙁 I’m also wondering if things will change with the “common core”, and if all states will be using the same or similar curriculum???
I’m not hopeful about Common Core to be honest. Time will tell —