Forget times tables and memorization techniques. Common Core standards expect students to understand why two numbers add up to make another, and the program comes with new teaching methods for children learning basic math.
Because this might cause some confusion for parents helping their children with homework, an NBC affiliate in Buffalo, New York, has put together six “Homework Helper†segments to explain to parents the new way of doing arithmetic, The Daily Signal reports.
Each problem takes a little over a minute of work to find the answer. For seemingly simple problems like 9 + 5, students are now required to draw out diagrams and break down numbers before adding them together again.
For the 38 states that will use Common Core curricula this year, parents might be left asking, “If it wasn’t broken, why fix it?†As for teachers who have had to adjust decades of teaching methods, 40% of them say they oppose the program – up from 12% in 2013.