Who remembers "New Math?"

[skygazer]

I remember being taught it but I sure don't remember anything I may have learned from it. I love it when school kids are turned into guinea pigs. :eyes:

[BrotherBuzz]

My mom, the mathematician, sure had fun with it

She had to teach both me and my teacher how to divide the 'old way' in order to understand the new way. :crazy:

[begin_within]

1. I remember it, yet I have forgotten it.

I can't remember if the math I do now is the new math or the old math. I guess it doesn't matter, as long as the answer comes out right.

[Sequoia]

2. I remember it very well, and I was actually thinking of it yesterday.

I remember when our teacher was teaching us this in 5th or 6th grade and we had to come up with symbols to represent a number so I chose a crown with 5 points (more like sun beams) and the teacher (whom we kids called "neandrathal" because of his slopping forehead) and he wanted the official 3 pointer and was upset when the kids chose my design. He was also the type of teacher who told us he'd smack us if we walked in front of him while he was teaching. A fine fundlemental christain school I might add.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

3. I love Tom Lehrer's take on it

Tom Lehrer's "New Math" (with his commentary in red)

You can't take three from two,
Two is less than three,
So you look at the four in the tens place.
Now that's really four tens
So you make it three tens,
Regroup, and you change a ten to ten ones,
And you add 'em to the two and get twelve,
And you take away three, that's nine.
Is that clear?

Now instead of four in the tens place
You've got three,
'Cause you added one,
That is to say, ten, to the two,
But you can't take seven from three,
So you look in the hundreds place.

From the three you then use one
To make ten ones...
(And you know why four plus minus one
Plus ten is fourteen minus one?
'Cause addition is commutative, right!)...
And so you've got thirteen tens
And you take away seven,
And that leaves five...

Well, six actually...
But the idea is the important thing!

Now go back to the hundreds place,
You're left with two,
And you take away one from two,
And that leaves...?

Everybody get one?
Not bad for the first day!

Hooray for New Math,
New-hoo-hoo Math,
It won't do you a bit of good to review math.
It's so simple,
So very simple,
That only a child can do it!

Now, that actually is not the answer that I had in mind, because the book that I got this problem out of wants you to do it in base eight. But don't panic! Base eight is just like base ten really - if you're missing two fingers! Shall we have a go at it? Hang on...

You can't take three from two,
Two is less than three,
So you look at the four in the eights place.
Now that's really four eights,
So you make it three eights,
Regroup, and you change an eight to eight ones
And you add 'em to the two,
And you get one-two base eight,
Which is ten base ten,
And you take away three, that's seven.
Ok?

Now instead of four in the eights place
You've got three,
'Cause you added one,
That is to say, eight, to the two,
But you can't take seven from three,
So you look at the sixty-fours...

"Sixty-four? How did sixty-four get into it?" I hear you cry! Well, sixty-four is eight squared, don't you see? "Well, ya ask a silly question, ya get a silly answer!

From the three, you then use one
To make eight ones,
You add those ones to the three,
And you get one-three base eight,
Or, in other words,
In base ten you have eleven,
And you take away seven,
And seven from eleven is four!
Now go back to the sixty-fours,
You're left with two,
And you take away one from two,
And that leaves...?


Now, let's not always see the same hands!
One, that's right.
Whoever got one can stay after the show and clean the erasers.

Hooray for New Math,
New-hoo-hoo Math!
It won't do you a bit of good to review math.
It's so simple,
So very simple,
That only a child can do it!


(It's much better when you hear him sing it)
On Edit: YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a81YvrV7Vv8

[Rambis]

6. who's on first?

;-)

[CottonBear]

4. It was horrible. 1969 -1975, grade school. My parents didn't understand it

and neither did I. Keep in mind, they were a surgeon and a physical therapist and they almost couldn't figure it out without extensive study. I don't remember a thing about new math and I am still horrible at math. It totally confused me and made junior high and high school quite difficult. I could do the work but I never really UNDERSTOOD what I was doing.

:(

[LostinVA]

9. I could have written your post

[CottonBear]

11. Oy! I bet there are many others like us. Math challenged to this day. n/t

[murielm99]

25. I was math challenged because of it.

It was fun to do the base 5 and base 12 stuff, but it did not help me understand algebra and geometry. Eventually, I took a pre-algebra and a geometry class, not for credit, at a junior college. I understood math after doing that, and found it to be fun.

I took a class a few years ago on methods of teaching math to elementary school children. The teacher told us that the new math was designed by some math professors at the University of Illinois. Those professors had not seen or had contact with children for many years, and there they were, designing math classes for them.

[Arkansas Granny]

19. I remember trying to help my kids with it. I would help them do the

problem and get the right answer and then they would tell me that I had done it the wrong way. Maddening!

[CottonBear]

21. The same thing happened to my parents. So frustrating! n/t

[Critters2]

24. My dad is a design engineer, went to college on a math scholarship

and couldn't help me with my math without first taking it into another room, figuring it out for himself and then coming back and TRYING to explain it to me!!

I've often said that I could be doing something that paid a decent salary--if I could do math!! But I can't.

[QMPMom]

26. It was horrible. My mom, an accountant, could not figure it

out and help me with it. All of my friends' parents were calling her for help with it and she was just as confused as we kids were.

[Reverend_Smitty]

5. What the hell is new math?

can someone explain it to me in a nutshell? How is it different from math we do today and the hundreds of years before the mid 70's when it was introduced in schools. I guess it went over as well as New Coke

[TrogL]

13. It was true mathematics as opposed to a bunch of tricks

Which was part of the problem - not many people can get their heads around true mathematics, hence most people get taught the arithmetic tricks for arriving at the same answer.

I loved it.

[Connonym]

27. Can you explain that a little further?

I don't understand, what does that mean true mathematics? What kinds of tricks do you mean? Like carrying over and borrowing, etc?

[sheerjoy]

7. Yep, sure do....

my kids tried to explain it to me.... didn't take.

[bikebloke]

8. Had it

I was taught New Math, but I couldn't tell you the difference. My parents, who were intellectually lazy, used it as an excuse for not helping with homework. They didn't think I'd twig on with non-math problems they couldn't help me with.

[bertha katzenengel]

10. I remember hearing it referred to.

Apparently, I passed math all through school. I don't know how.

Then I took a pre-algebra class at a jr college. WOW - had no idea how easy to understand it was.

What I DO remember is this country's ridiculous failure to convert to metrics. :eyes:

[NewWaveChick1981]

12. I do.

:hi: When I came home from school in the first grade (1969), I told Mom that we were learning "New Math". She said, "It's not new---it's the same as the old math but just presented differently." :P Mom had a Master's in Chemical Engineering from Penn State at that point, and she knew what she was talking about.

On another note, I remember hearing about "Fuzzy Math" from some idiot who knows nothing about anything. :rofl: :P

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

14. The new math was brought into my Catholic grammar school in

1966. I was in 8th grade and because I was already mathematically challenged, this made it even worse. Besides that the nun that taught math was probably 70 years old at that point and I don't think she understood "new math" either.

I flunked freshman alegbra because the teacher, the JV football coach, was a complete asshole and wouldn't give the six females in his class the time of day, but of course, all his football players passed.

My mother, RIP, made me go to summer school at a CPS high school because she refused to pay the tuition at another Catholic HS that offered freshman algebra during the summer, where the other 5 girls in my class went. Needless to say, I spent 6 weeks during the summer of 1967, showing up every day and not learning one single thing about algebra but somehow I managed to get a C in summer school.

In sophomore year I literally passed geometry by the skin of my teeth. To this day, I still think Sister Agnes Herbert just felt sorry for me and after that, no more math for me.

[Bunny]

15. I was taught Old Math, And to this day I suck at Math.

But to be fair, that has nothing to do with Old v. New - I just suck at Math, period.

[Deja Q]

16. I was taught Real Math, but understand the New Math concept. New Math is rather like

New Coke.

Nobody really got into it and people had to know the original stuff to properly compare it to.

[Gormy Cuss]

17. Me. I thought it was cool.

I was bored in elementary school much of the time except in math class. I remember trying to explain number bases to my mother. She listened intently and encouraged me even though she had a hard time understanding why I thought it was a great thing to know. It's funny but once I got to junior high my love of mathematics went down the drain. By the time I hit high school I slogged through it but never enjoyed it.

[Oeditpus Rex]

18. We had it in sixth grade, but damned if I remember

anything about it. :shrug:

Well, except integers. Oh, the revelation that we can count backwards from zero! Good stuff! :thumbsup:

[acmavm]

20. Base 5, base 10, all that crap that had no use or practical purpose

other than to get you into trouble for not doing it?

[billyskank]

22. Meet the new math

Same as the old math

I dare say.

[SmokingJacket]

23. It's back, or a form of it is.

It's called Everyday Math http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/

Boy, it sux. My son is in fourth grade and still doesn't know how to borrow or do two digit multiplication. We're in for some seriously tutoring this summer...

[krispos42]

28. I was a couple of decades too late

I went to mechanical engineering school, and I don't understand most of the stuff they're talking about in the Wikipedia article!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_math

If I try I can convert numbers to different bases, but I never had to do any math in it, thank god.

The only time it was actually useful to me was when playing the "Star Trek 25th Anniversary Game" on my computer. To finish one level to had to be able to convert one number to base-3 and another to base-4.