sometimes, it's just embarrassing!
Remember my post on "discovering" short division, which had not been taught in our schools?
Well, I recently made a "new" discovery - another one that I should have known since grade school.
I was talking with a European relative who is studying engineering in England. We were talking about the quality of American Math education, and he said, "My American [engineering] classmates haven't even been taught what order to do equations in!"
Which left me rather awkwardly thinking, "There's an order?"
My math teachers in school never taught it! No wonder I had such trouble in Algebra!
Well, I went on the internet, and found this song
http://mathstory.com/youtubevids/pemdas ... -qyJcnzbW5It's funny, but as I'm teaching my kid math, I'm finding all the mistakes MY teachers made. I'm beginning to love math because I GET IT now!
Which leaves me a little embarrassed, but a lot smarter
Am I the only one who wasn't taught this in school?
It stuns me how people ask, "How will you teach your daughter something you don't already know?"
I got news for them - professional educators do that all the time - it's called "learning something new"