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The problem is we shouldn't be teaching math at all - we should be teaching problem solving. "Math" shouldn't even be a subject until senior high.
Assuming the topic is about math k thru 12. The media, advertising,government, and uncaring schools have let kids get used to instant gratification. There is no more spending minutes and hours learning to solve a math problem. Instead it's soccer, football, or clubs, or band afterschool and all kinds of "intramural" "special-ed" local school stuff. Oh I know how to use an i-pod/i-phone. Flip it out and tap the buttons. But they'll never learn how to design, program, or manufacture one. They're all made in China anyways. Instead kids are programmed to expect a union job in the future, or maybe military/police. Or maybe start out in sales, retail/food, or telemarketing. The powers that be would rather let the next generation of engineers in China design the next automated robots that build cars in the factories. Because what the heck , corporations (which control government) are making record global profits anyways this way with all the middle class jobs already in other emerging middle class countries. I recall having to train a younger guy at work. There was an arithmetic problem i.e. counting how much a bunch of items cost. The guy whipped out a calculator! He was proud of how fast he could type it in. He probably never learned how to do it on paper or in his head.. I had to teach him how to use Word also...
For most people, most of the time, whipping out the calculator is exactly the right thing to teach. Beyond the very basics, for most people learning math is about as useful as learning olde English.
None of the selections include parenting or homelife, nor learning, as if there were only teaching. To teach, at least the possibility to learn has to exist.
Some bastard named Dewey got control of education in the US. His philosophy was that any child that came to school with a belief in God was mentally ill and had to be cured... up until him Christians had been doing a lot of the educating and their belief was that any child that came to school should be able to read a Bible and figure things out for themselves... The constitution mandates that everybody has to be educated and I guess the reason was so they could vote intelligently... so Dewey started this communist/atheist downward spiral that nobody can put an end to for some reason.. I just sidestepped all that shit. My kids went to Christian schools and they LEARNED, A LOT... wow, I loved helping them with homework because I was learning...