Old math still works the best

By Avelina (Belen) Lichtenegger

As a math teacher, I constantly research the best ways to deliver math concepts. The Oct. 17 article, "Newer new math," a concept aimed at making students "lifelong mathematical thinkers," is one of those that interests me.

I have high regard for school officials who strive to find the best for children's education. I hope the $34,000 allotted for the implementation of this new math curriculum in the Jackson School District will bring improvement to the scores on annual state assessments.

If this newly adopted program (the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project) also helps better prepare students for college math, then the $34,000 investment is well worth it.

As for me, I tried doing the new way of multiplying 43 by 63 as opposed to the old-fashioned way:

For this particular problem, I would prefer that students use the old-fashioned way. After all, this method has been proven to be effective. This way parents are able to help their children with their assignments, since I'm sure they know how to work the problem the old-fashioned way.

I agree the new method is a good exercise for mental math and reinforces the concepts of place value and the distributive property of multiplication over addition. I agree this could be useful for multiplication with single-digit multipliers. For example:

This is a good exercise in mental math.

But how about multidigit multiplication? For example:, 437 times 638 using the UCSMP method:

It would be easier to write the addends vertically to get the sum (which is the product of 437 and 638).

I agree this method reinforces the concept of place value. But how about the claim that the new method eliminates the need to carry numbers? In my solution above, we still have to carry.

Here's the old way of doing 437 times 638:

I suspect the use of calculators is encouraged for this kind of problem. I don't believe calculators should be introduced in the elementary level. Calculator skills can be acquired in just a few minutes.

I still believe the old way works best. However, I keep my eyes open for new and better ways to teach math.

Avelina (Belen) Lichtenegger of Cape Girardeau is a teacher.