[ds9]

Teaching concepts as well as techniques is definitely the way to go. The problem with "Common Core" appears to be that complex procedures have been selected as the way to teach concepts.

Taking the problem in the illustration, subtracting 12 from 42, the four-step process is ridiculous. The way an adult would look at it in a real-world situation is to recognize that the 12 neatly coincides with part of the 42. The relevant concept is units of 10 and of less than 10. One might use a somewhat different concept for a different question.

I'm not sure of the best way to teach the concepts - cover base 10 and places first, I guess, and then talk about how and why adults who are good at math perceive problems in certain ways. "Common core" looks like about what I would expect when the USG takes a basically good idea and mashes it thru a bureaucracy.

[ktsmith]

> The problem with "Common Core" appears to be that complex procedures have been selected as the way to teach concepts.

This really doesn't have anything to do with common core. Different curriculums that the school districts choose to purchase and implement go about achieving the goals of common core quite differently. Everyday Math is mentioned in another comment and is mostly awful. It's pretty widely used though. We are actually moving to a house in my wife's school district this summer so that our son doesn't go to school where we currently live to avoid both Everyday Math and an equally awful reading curriculum.