tatankz (October 6, 2008 at 1:29 pm)

dude, where do u think the water down the sink goes into?to the sea eventually..

Haakon45 (October 6, 2008 at 6:39 am)

If the water gets really high and flooding most of the world. Well i live near the sea, and dont want to drown, so i got to thinking. Maybe if we lower the sea level a bit, when the water level rises then it wont rise high enough to flood.Anyway, heres the plan. Everyone who can should take a bucket of sea water and pour it down the sink. If lots of people put the effort in, we could lower the sea level substantially and create a better world for our children to live

shoppinmommy (October 6, 2008 at 2:29 am)

Bravo! With one child in Singapore Math and another in Everyday Math, there is no surprise to me that Singapore is an average of 2 years ahead of US students in math. Your examples clearly show us why.

Ren520 (October 5, 2008 at 11:17 pm)

im not criticizing the US system,it's just that the schools don't push , well its actually the kids, they aren't pushed hard enough to learn, which results in very poor mathematics skills. of course im not saying all,it's just the majority...

Aokiji1 (October 5, 2008 at 10:27 pm)

Not all kids in the US have "really poor math skills", and how exactly does this make you sick? America has one of the best educational programs in the world next to Singapore, Russia, Japan, and China so I find it hard to believe that our math curriculum is "poor".

pres411 (October 5, 2008 at 9:58 pm)

I am a middle school student in california...i use the algorithms in my public school.

lyykemath (October 5, 2008 at 7:18 pm)

Ms. McDermott...all I can say is fantastic! You've pretty much summarized what I feel when I assess the middle school kids. I think that both drill based and application based curricula is the way to go. I teach middle school math in Pakistan.

intuiit (October 5, 2008 at 6:09 am)

To know about other methods is fine - just don't let it get in the way of crucial development during primary school - the way kids do maths then is the way they will do maths in high school and life.Just because these unrefined methods are what was used by "ancient cultures" - doesn't mean we should be adopting them.That said - all the methods presented here, when practiced long enough, may be used mentally and can be efficient due to use of partial maths - each step being obvious to solve.

RedHeadedZero (October 4, 2008 at 5:07 pm)

I use the cluster form all the time. I am considered to be one of the smarter people in my class because I excel at using it. But yes if i was writing the problem out I would use the first form. But I do the entire cluster form in my head and it helps alot. I hate it when people in my Pre-Calc class grab their calculators for small problems like the example shown here. On paper the first form should be used, but you can put the cluster form into good use if you do it all in your head.

Ren520 (October 4, 2008 at 8:45 am)

it's such a shame that kids in the US have really poor math background. i think i learned this in 3rd grade back then in china. and when she wrote out the 26 x 31 the first time,i mentally solved it before she used the algo to solve it, i did 26 x 30 + 26 .made me sick.