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Notes -
From my experience with it, Common Core is the attempt to make people do "mental math". Instead of multiplying 12 x 13, you instead multiply (10 x 13) + (2 x 13).
The problems with it are:
I'd describe it as similar to communism - in a world where everyone behaves well and knows what they're doing, it's superior. In reality, you get a mess.
It can't be the only thing wrong with Common Core. No one would get riled up that much if the only problem was constrained to a single subject and to a specific operation. Also, how else would you multiply two double-digit numbers if not by breaking one down?
I mean, it's obvious to you that this is the exact same thing as "old school" multiplication - I don't think it's obvious to the average person (including teachers!)
A lot of people really just don't "get" math. Back in high school, I remember noticing at one point that 9 x 7 was one less than 8 x 8, 8 x 6 was one less than 7 x 7, etc. I remember going through a bunch of examples trying to figure out why this was - and ended up discovering the x^2 - 1 = (x + 1)(x - 1) equality that had been taught to me like 3 years prior. It hadn't even occurred to me that the equality represented something real - they were just symbols to manipulate. And I was considered to be really good at math!
So for someone who half-remembers their old math lessons, the new stuff just looks insane.
I'm also not stating this is all that's wrong with it - this just happens to be what I'm familiar with
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