[seri4l]

For some reason we had something like common core math in my elementary school in the early 2000s and I just had a traumatic flashback. Teacher forced us do EVERY sum like this:

17890 + 456 = 1 x 10000 + 7 x 1000 + 8 x 100 + 7 x 10 + 0 x 1 + 4 x 100 + 5 x 10 + 6 x 1 = 1 x 10000 + 7 x 1000 + (8 + 4) x 100 + (9 + 5) x 10 + (0 + 6) x 1 = 1 x 10000 + 7 x 1000 + 12 x 100 + 14 x 10 + 0 x 1 = 10000 + 7000 + 1200 + 140 + 6 = 10000 + 7000 + 1 x 1000 + 2 x 100 + 1 x 100 + 4 x 10 + 6 = 10000 + 7000 + 1000 + 200 + 100 + 40 + 6 = 10000 + 8000 + 300 + 40 + 6 = 18346

We had to write down everything and weren't allowed to skip ANY step, let alone write down the answer directly. Being taught sums and multiplications graphically is cool, I guess, but this was outright psychological torture.

[replygirl]

My English teacher in the seventh grade had us write a short story without a single pronoun and without repeating any adjective, verb, or noun. It was basically a hazing, and probably the biggest factor in my being an ok writer

[quacked]

Wait, did it reduce the quality of your writing or increase it?

[replygirl]

It was a helpful exercise for stretching one's ability to express meaning. The constraints were there to force you to write more thoughtfully; the stories were probably trash even for that writing level, but that pacing and practice were what mattered

[kevin_thibedeau]

This has some value in reinforcing that decimal number representation is just a shorthand for polynomials but definitely misguided as a "normal" method of addition.