I agree with you m0nky. I was an advanced math student and my daughter is an avg student in math because of the way she process the problems. I teach her the way I was taught and it's so much easier for her. Her teacher teaches it in a way that is more complex. It appears the basics are skipped and I am a proponet of having a good basic foundation to build on. I, being the parent had to tell her to work the problems in a way that is best for her. So far, I have not had any problems with the teacher marking her work wrong, but I'm prepared to fight it all the way if I do. This "new" math sucks. Bring back the basic foundations. I remember in high school, one problem could take up a half of sheet of paper. Now, the new way of teaching skips several steps and leave the children confused. BRING BACK SOME RETIRED MATH TEACHERS...

Why are they bringing in an educator from New Jersey? Is there no-one in-state qualified to lead the session?

Parents need to be involved with their children's education whether or not that includes helping with homework. Too often the teachers get blamed for problems that are actually due to the parents' failure to stress the importance of education within the family. Proper education is a parent-teacher partnership, and not everyone understands or supports that.

m0nky, That's exactly the problem my daughter had when I taught her an "easier" way. Then when she was told to illustrate how to slice a loaf of bread into 12 pieces w/ the smallest number, she cut the loaf in half lenghtwise then 6 slices....12 pieces, but not the size and shape the teacher wanted. Not that she mentioned that, but my daughter got an F. So much for imagination and learning how to solve a problem on your own.

i think one of the most frustrating things i ever encountered in school while i was growing up was when my father taught me to do multiplication in my head by breaking down the problem. like 12 x 15 can be broken up into (10 x 15) + (2 x 15). since they basically made us memorize the 1 through 10 times tables this made doing larger number so much easier. BUT when i did that on my homework in grade school my teacher marked it wrong because i didn't do it the way she showed us how to in class. BUT my dad was teaching me the basics of algebra at a very early age by doing this. Its not always the parents that need help teaching kids...sometimes the teachers are too thickheaded to let a kid learn something differently if it still works. because of my dad i can multiply 257 x 13 in my head in a matter of seconds.