My DD in yr 3 has been learning subtraction using the method that ?borrows? from the next column. She found it hard but had started to get the hang of it. Her teacher had been on paternity leave and when he came back decided that this was an inappropriate method for this age group and is now teaching them the dcomposition method ? which to my mind is totally ridiculous and a backward step. She finds it easier of course but it seems absurd to go backwards when so many of the class had grasped the idea of the original method. And DS has been taught to use a number line for subtraction ?..doesn?t seem to help him much. I always want to use the bus-stop (as his teachers calls it) but we aren?t allowed to .
Now what I don?t understand is why the teaching of maths is so tied up with methods. They seem to be counterproductive. DD for example will be sitting doing her maths hw and needs help - I sit down and help her, she starts to understand and writes down the answer. Then in a total panic she realises that she hasn?t used the ?way that Mr W? showed them, and rubs the answer out and starts crying. DS doesn?t give a stuff about rules which is why he doesn?t concentrate in class (and I?m always being called in to talk to his teacher) and why he does his maths hw in double quick time and 100% correctly because he does it the way he wants and not the way he?s taught. Why does it matter how they understand the sum? As long as they do and they get the correct answer? It bothers me because I was the same as DD ? I spent the whole of my school years as a mathematical dunce because I was hung up on methods and rules. My dad used to walk out of the room in the end in sheer exasperation because he knew I understood the maths but I didn?t understand the method ? he was sh*t hot with maths and it drove him mad! It wasn?t until I left school and used maths in the real world that I realised I actually had quite a mathematical brain - it all makes perfect sense to me and I can see that numbers can be manipulated in many different ways. Even now when I?m helping with hw I can actually instantly see the answer on the page but once I try to use the particular method the DCs have been told to use it all gets muddled. It seems to me that it constrains any natural mathematical ability that children might have.
Can any teachers enlighten me please? And would you be bothered if a parent told you they didn?t want they child taught ?methods??