SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

Math, Math, and More Math

Seems that the math problems plaguing our schools are not going away anytime soon. WISE Math and the Macleans article that Malkin previously posted on have turned a few heads in the media. 

The Fraser Report Card on Secondary Schools will be released in the next few weeks. Surprise. Math doesn’t get any better in high school. The reason? Well, SQE thinks it is the poor foundation that is laid in elementary school.

At the risk of sounding like the broken record, I dug out some gems from our newsletter archives on why the problems persist and what needs to happen. In A Bogus Dichotomy a math professor argues that basic skills go hand in hand with conceptual understanding and you can’t have the latter without the former.  Long time SQE supporters will recognize Charles Ledgers’ Spirit of Math drills that we wrote about decades ago along with JUMP math, another useful program to instill fundamental skills.

In the meantime, don’t forget our free Stairway to Math worksheets. Practice makes perfect.