Word problem. How many white male police have been convicted of murdering innocent unarmed black males in america? Answer = 0.

I see what you did there. Politicizing the subject of math, just like in the video.

Very clever.

They play this like it's a hypothetical future when up here in my part of Canada it's actually more historical.

A teacher in Edmonton was fired for giving student's a zero on assignments they didn't hand in:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-teacher-suspended-for-giving-0s-1.1131453

After a few years in court he's won on appeal but yet to be seen if that's going to be the end of it. In my province of Manitoba, there is a tacit no fail policy in place where keeping any kids back a grade is almost unheard of. Not only does it require parent's permission and approval before holding a student back, but sometimes even then kids have been pushed along forwards a grade, ready or not.

If you look through and provincial standard math curriculum, it includes gems like this.

http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/math/mathcurr.html

For a problem like 7 + 5, providing the answer 12, is incorrect. You are instead supposed to show multiple methods of solving the problem, like saying 7 is the same as 2+5 and I know 5+5 is 10, so 10 +2 is 12, thus the answer is 12. It's absolute stupidity, institutionalised and made into a standard. The nutjobs like those in this video have already pretty much 'won' up here in Canada and the struggle is to get back to a sane world where Math and education aren't butchered.

What you describe is called a "proof" (a pretty simplistic one). It is not a new concept, it's an integral part of doing math. I learned that in the early 80's, right before trig/pre calculus.
Maybe it just seems insane because it's more advanced than your last math class? It's absolutely not institutionalized stupidity....it's standard math.

Edit:and now that I've watched 3 minutes of the video (all I could stomach) I'll call bullshit on your claim that this is normal reality in Canada. I've known Canadians, and they could do basic math, impossible if this was the norm. This is only acceptable in Waldorf schools, where it's designed as "learn at your own pace...or not". I heard the same bullshit here in America, and it was just as false.

Har har har.

I went through every calculus class my uni offered, so not so much.

Mayhaps I didn't explain the example given in enough length. The simple operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division all have a single correct answer. Insisting that students find multiple methods of performing those operations and demonstrate multiple different learning methods for them is mental masturbation. You could spend that same time actually moving on to the more advanced stuff that is supposed to 'in theory' prepare them for.

Another example was solving a double digit multiplication problem like 37*86. The marking example showed a student using the old school vertical method and showing their work to arrive at the correct answer. The provincial grading system declared that as WRONG. The student was 'falling back' on the algorithm and should have demonstrated the use of multiple methods of solving the problem. That is idiocy.

Basic add/subtract/multiply/division isn't MATH it's arithmetic and it's a basic operation with a single answer and so long as you use a correct method to arrive at the correct answer you are good to go. Teach students that foundation and then move on to teaching them actual MATH. Read through our provincial curriculum, they are STILL teaching add/subtract/multiply/division at the Grade 11 level in the curriculum on the premise that students are still 'mastering' something that should've been a given by junior high.

I didn't like doing proofs either. That doesn't make them less math.
That's proofs....not idiocy. Training your brain to see different routes to the correct answer makes more difficult math far easier.
People learn (or don't) at different rates. I took AP B/C Calculus while some friends were in remedial math. My cousin graduated (waldorf) and can't add double digit numbers. Now, if you can't place out of remedial math, that's a problem, but the fact that they don't just give up on 11th graders that still don't know the basics is a good thing.

Your missing the point though.

They start in grade 1/2 teaching you that 2+2=4 is incorrect. Instead you were supposed to write down:
2 is 1+1 and 1+1+1+1=4.

Then by grade 3/4 they are asked to solve 2+2. They now answer:
2 is 1+1 and 1+1+1+1=4

and are told incorrect. They are now supposed to use two different methods to solve the same problem and the correct answer is:
2 is the same as 1+1 so 1+1+1+1=4.
Alternately, 2 is 1 more than 1. I know 1+2 is 3, so If I add 1 that's 4.

Those aren't proofs. The addition operator isn't even a theorem to be proven, it's a definition.

I'm on board with teaching more advanced and abstract concepts in grade school. However, actually DO THAT. The stupidity of our provincial system is that they aren't doing that at all. They are performing all this mental masturbation to make basic arithmetic into some bastardised thing that kinda resembles proofs. You know, except the part where your 'proof' is worthless because solving 2+2 by replacing 2 with 1+1 is just substituting one axiom for another.

Teach kids the arithmetic and then teach them actual MATH proper, ideally easing them into the abstract aspect through algebra and not stupid tricks that fail to give them a good understanding of the actual concepts.

The point I underlined about Grade 11 still covering it is important. The students are being left so confused about what they are expected to give as an answer that so many still don't know basic arithmetic by Grade 11 that they still include it as part of the basic curriculum.

Well, that's what I was taught were proofs, even if just proving simple addition....but that shouldn't be an introduction to math, I got them in geometry/algebra 2 my sophomore year.
Well, kids not understanding basic math isn't new either, senior year remedial math existed when I was in school, but wasn't the norm. If your assessment is correct, that's pretty sad.

All that said, I got paddled in 5th grade for insisting 4-5=-1. My teacher didn't understand negative numbers. Just saying, poor educators aren't a new thing, but they do suck ass.

The big problem is education is so politicised now that it's near impossible to figure out what's actually being taught and what stories are pure hyperbole. Here in the U.S. we've heard all kinds of insane claims about 'common core', most of which were bullshit, because making a federal standard for education wasn't what many wanted (how dare they tell us the war of northern aggression was about slavery, these slanderous accusations will not stand, sir) so a movement was born to oppose it by all means possible, which usually meant outrageous lies.
I'm really glad I don't have kids in school, I would probably home school them if I did.

I've basically been doing remedial home schooling in addition to our curriculum.

The results of our provincial math curriculum are so clear cut that our results on standardised testing like PISA have steadily dropped since it came in. Not to worry though, the standardised test is at fault and our province is working to stop taking the test. You know, as following the data and fixing the curriculum clearly couldn't be the answer...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/student-assessment-pisa-oecd-manitoba-1.3883344

*quality

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by lurgee.

Interesting discussion here. This is what comes of awarding PhDs in university Education departments: "must make simple complex", "must make simple complex", "must make simple complex", "must make simple complex"... keep repeating until PhD is awarded. I disagree with both newtboy and bcglorf to a degree - one approach to teaching is arithmetic and the other is math. There is a place for both in the curriculum: teach arithmetic to enable students to gain facility with numbers; in the higher grades, introduce concepts of mathematics theory so that they understand why arithmetic works and extends to higher math...

Think you might have a typo there, newt.
5-4 = 1
not -1
I even checked it on a calculator

also in plenty of programming languages, "2" + "2" does equal "22"

D'oh! You are correct, sir. I fixed it, thanks. Posting from a kindle, my proofreading skill is severely hampered.

I don't disagree with that. I don't understand how one could do any advanced mathematics without knowing arithmetic, so clearly it should be taught first.
As far as I was concerned, proofs were just demonstrating an understanding of arithmetic and how numbers and functions can be deconstructed in different ways. I hate showing my work, and almost failed that portion of algebra 2 because I just refused.

Could we see some evidence of a curriculum that asks for proof in the form of reducing all numbers to 1s and summing a list of 1s?

It sounds utterly mental, to the point i can't believe it without proof. I could believe that they may ask a kid to do that once or twice, with small numbers, to show that they understand from first principles what is actually happening, and perhaps to teach them to count better. But as a way of teaching to add, i need to see it to believe it.

@drradon: I agree with you 100% on teaching both and teaching basic arithmetic first and then leading on to proper math once that foundation is established.

@dannym3141,

I was first blindsided by it when my kids came home with multiplication homework and were adamant they couldn't answer it the way I was showing them because it would be marked wrong, it was the wrong way to do multiplication.

The link to the full Manitoba math curriculum is below. The worst sections are under 'Mental Math' with the idea being that you should be able to add/subtract/multiply/divide all numbers in your head with a dozen pages worth of tricks. The tricks being what newtboy was calling 'proofs'. Our curriculum calls them 'techniques' though and I've included an example from the Grade 3 curriculum verbatim after of how it is supposed to be 'taught'.

Overall Math curriculum:
http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/math/index.html

Grade 3 example:
http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/math/support_gr3/number.pdf

From page 56:
Describe a mental mathematics strategy that could be used to determine a given basic fact, such as
-doubles (e.g., for 6 + 8, think 7 + 7)
-doubles plus one (e.g., for 6 + 7, think 6 + 6 + 1)
-doubles take away one (e.g., for 6 + 7, think 7 + 7 – 1)
-doubles plus two (e.g., for 6 + 8, think 6 + 6 + 2)
-doubles take away two (e.g., for 6 + 8, think 8 + 8 – 2)
-making 10 (e.g., for 6 + 8, think 6 + 4 + 4 or 8 + 2 + 4)
-commutative property (e.g., for 3 + 9, think 9 + 3)
-addition to subtraction (e.g., for 13 – 7, think 7 + ? = 13)."

Now before you think me and observe there's nothing wrong with showing kids some extra tricks to help them, that is NOT how this is supposed to be used. If you read further, students are REQUIRED to "explore" multiple methods of calculating answers and must demonstrate they know and can use all these 'tricks'. So instead of providing assistance for difficult calculations as it should be, it's used to make ALL calculations difficult, and create extra work, AND makes kids just learning the concept completely overwhelmed with everything you MUST know to get a right answer to 2+2=4.

And here's the link to the Grade 11 review of the basic arithmetic:
http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/math/ess_mm_gr11/full_doc.pdf

And for the Grade 11 students and teaching them to add/subtract/multiply and divide, the teacher's guide describes this like a subjective discovery process with quotes like this:
"Consequently, mental calculation activities should include periods for thought and discussion.
During these periods, the teacher should encourage students to
-suggest a variety of possible solutions to the same problem
-explain the different methods used to come to the correct answer and their
effectiveness
-explain the thought process that led to an incorrect answer"

An important note is we are not talking about solving complex word problems here or anything, but specifically for calculating a basic arithmetic operation with the different methods being those described from back in Grade 3 already outlined above.

Well, more than 0.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/27/us/tulsa-deputy-manslaughter-trial/index.html

Still pretty awful, but they don't have complete impunity. From another CNN piece :

<quote>Between 2005 and April 2017, 80 officers have been arrested on murder or manslaughter charges for on-duty shootings. During that 12-year span, 35% were convicted, while the rest were pending or not convicted, according to work by Philip Stinson, an associate professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.</quote>

Got a link to the second article? I would like to read it.
I'm sure you noticed the man in the linked article 1)isn't a police officer and 2) wasn't convicted of murder, he was a deputy convicted of 2nd degree manslaughter.
C-note is a broken record with this claim, but cannot offer any evidence that it's true....and public statistical records are intentionally unavailable.

@bcglorf

I'll have to take your word for how they're marked on this, because you've talked to the teachers and whatnot, and i've spent 20 mins looking at the document without finding any regulations on it. I spent most of my time reading the examples. The rest was chock full of text and a bit hard to digest so like a true scientist i gave up.

I can't defend that, i think in essence they've got a very good idea. I've always been good with maths, and i remember when i was learning what i thought were hard bits, i'd find shortcuts a lot like they suggest. And by luck that helped me a lot with more advanced maths. I think these methods are great to set people up for algebra, infinitesimals and therefore calculus. But it's also a very top heavy burden to place on a learning mind, and you're presuming they'd have a use for it, or have the knack for it. And then if you test them on it, you're testing their ability to do stuff they don't need yet.

The way you say it, it's like it was designed by someone with a bit of a gift for maths but no idea about teaching, or kids, or how other people think. These are great ideas for pushing kids to better understanding though. Could easily confuse people.

I went through and can't find the grading example that they had when I was dealing with this with my kids. If I can get the spacing right they showed the student's work as below, with the proper pen marks for 'carrying' if you were doing long hand multiplication:

37
*23
------
111
740
------
851

The marking guidelines stated that this was to be marked as INCORRECT, because the student was falling back and using the algorithm and the correct answer was to formulate multiple different strategies for solving the 'problem'.

A better answer would have been 10 times 37 is 370, so 20 times 37 is 740, then 3 times 37 is 111. So 740 plus 111 makes 851.

Even that though was NOT a good enough answer. No, the BEST answer was the above and then a second method like calculating 25 times 37 and subtracting 37 twice as an alternative solution.

Great discussion but I think the point the video makes is that the emphasis in education has changed from molding kids to meet a standard to molding educational standards to fit the kid. Parents are now their child's advocate as opposed to being part of the education process. Schools are so afraid of bad press or being sued that they won't stand up to parents and their outrageous sense of propriety. All of this combined results in a broken education system.

Like it or not, parents need to stop and realize that in most cases teachers are trying to prepare their kids to survive in a world that's NOT going to conform to their unique little quirks... a world that's NOT going to accept that 2 + 2 = 22 because that's just not how the world works.

Thank you for taking the time to lay this all out and provide links to the curriculum, I appreciate it. As a Canadian abroad, I had heard that some of the requirements were going a bit sideways, and down here in Texas the schools are a bit of a mixed bag as well, but your situation is worse (my wife teaches Algebra and Calculus at the junior high). Just "Wow" ... I have no words. I feel sorry for the poor kids who are smart enough to know the answer in their head, but are forced to spend their progressively fewer hours of free time to figure out this bullshit.

Thanks again.