Math curricula have been changing in the school system in recent years, with many parents claiming that the “new” math is too difficult.
A mother named Tiesha Sanders recently took to Facebook to share her first grader's homework problem that she had no idea how to solve. “The new mathematics IS NOT!” she began the title of her post, along with a photo of the problem and a note she wrote to the teacher.
“Disclaimer: I'm not mad at the teacher, she's just teaching what she's supposed to teach. And #2, don't come here like we're the fools, I taught elementary school for the last six years, this question isn't like that! Plus this is first grade math,” the caption read.
The problem required the student to divide the number 27 into tens and ones and then into ones only. Her daughter, Summer, wrote that there were two tens and seven ones, so when she was asked for the ones again she assumed it was still seven. After marking the question wrong, Sanders left a note for the teacher asking for the correct answer to help her son next time.
“Hello!” The note began. “I just wanted to ask how Summer made a mistake on number 3. Her dad and I were going over her mistakes and wanted to make sure we were on the right track.”
Her daughter’s teacher responded to the note by writing, “Hello! “This is the new mathematics they have teaching us.”
“It's 27. He wants her to know that having two tens and seven ones is the same as 27 ones. If you have any other questions, you can call or text me.”
After the post, many people took to the comments agreeing with Sanders that the question was confusing.
“If they wanted her to break down the number and show the ways the number can be formed logically…why NOT = signs? For whom do arrows make sense? a comment read.
Another commenter agreed, writing, “I wonder why they wouldn't phrase it differently. Like maybe what is the tens place + the ones place = that stumped me because it's not very clear.”
Others decried the flawed structure of the question, saying: “But if they have the box that labels 'tens' and 'ones' and then they only ask about 'ones', how is this math, math?”
Someone agreed, adding, “The question sets them up for failure.”
This is not the first time a parent has publicly expressed confusion over an elementary school homework question. In December, a mother in Buckinghamshire, England, was so confused helping her six-year-old son with a worksheet that she posted the question in a private Facebook group.
“At first I thought I was losing my mind. I thought, 'What am I missing here?'” So I posted in a group with a lot of moms hoping they would have the answer,” said Laura Rathbone in an interview with Today.
The worksheet asked Rathbone's daughter, Lilly-Mo, to choose the odd item based on the five items she was given. The items listed were: friend, toothbrush, desk, silver and egg.
“So…my six-year-old daughter, who is a freshman, got this question about homework,” her Facebook post read. “It's confusing in my opinion, to say the least, especially considering the age she's targeted at… but I'd love to hear her answers!”
He added: “I think it's something you would personally find in a Puzzler magazine, but let me know what you think.”
