FRUSTRATED

It is only the 6th day of the school year.  We are officially ONE week in today.  And this momma is feeling frustrated and aggravated with Clara's math class.  Shocker, right?  Considering how I myself totally suck at math and have never been a fan of the numbers game?  But no...THIS frustration is directed at the teaching.  And Obama.  And his cursed new Common Core standards.  This is the first year that the new curriculum is being taught in the Arizona schools.  I was warned this summer by her previous teacher that I could expect some bumps in the road.  That the gifted children, especially, would struggle with the new program.  The idea is that it is not enough to just learn the math concepts.  You have to be able to EXPLAIN them.  And not just put into words that the rule for, say example,
7 - (-4) =11, is that when you MINUS a negative number, the minus sign becomes a plus sign and you actually add them.   While CORRECT, it is no longer the RIGHT answer.  NO.  This very correct answer is now a wrong answer.  Clara's teacher told her that she needs to pretend she is explaining it to her MUCH younger sister so that she can understand it.  Clara has wracked her brain and she can't simplify it any further.  It's totally stressing her out.  And as her mom I'm thinking...not so much about how to simplify the answer...but rather...well, here's MY line of thinking.  For one...we don't actually HAVE a younger sibling.  And even if we did...because the imaginary sibling is YOUNGER she wouldn't be sitting in an ALGEBRA class because she'd be in her OWN class getting the appropriate foundation and background so that when the day came that she SHOULD be sitting in an algebra class and learning algebra concepts she would be able to grasp the perfectly correct and acceptable explanation that two minuses make a plus sign.  The end.  What can I say?  I'm a rebel that way.  I did try to be more responsible and I started researching ways to further simplify and explain what that concept means.  I sat through countless videos and tutorials, math raps (ugh) and dry explanations.  And here's what I discovered.  Pretty much NOTHING that will help her.  Nearly all of them arrive at the same correct conclusion that is now NOT the correct conclusion.  And I am officially more confused than ever and convinced this math stuff is a racket!  I have always just known what I know...what I was taught.  I was TAUGHT that two negatives make a positive.  It always WORKED in the equations exactly the way it was supposed to.  And that was that. Many, many years later I STILL know that two negatives make a positive.  But now...now I'm beyond confused and have no idea what I know anymore and am starting to suspect maybe I don't actually know anything?  Or maybe I do know it...but don't know I know it?  Or maybe I THINK I know it but don't actually know it or maybe only know parts of it or only know it to a certain degree?  I think, that in trying to help simplify this one math concept the first week of school, I may have, in actuality, wiped out SEVERAL years of my own math schooling.  I understand that the schools want the kids to learn to think differently.  I get it.  But you can't just undo 6 years of educational training and fix it by telling them to FIGURE IT OUT, which is what her teacher did.  Nice.  If you want them to think differently, you have to TEACH THEM TO THINK DIFFERENTLY.  Grrrrr.  I'm fired up this morning and ready to go have a little sit down with a math teacher.  I'm sad that all of this is going into place this year and messing with my girl and her confidence level.  It's so frustrating to be the parent on the sidelines who can't even really help her because WE don't know how to think that way.  I suspect it is going to be a long year and a rough ride on this common core train.  I hope this week is not an indicator of what is to come, but is simply a little bump in the road.  I don't want her to hate math and all it takes is one year with the wrong teacher to kill it for a kid.  Here's hoping this isn't the year of the math slayer.