We’re continuing our series of posts on how to build robust thinking skills instead of forcing our children to walk with crutches.
When we say, “Use this method, follow these steps,” we teach kids to be mathematical cripples.
If your student’s reasoning is, “I followed the teacher’s or textbook’s steps and out popped this answer,” then they’re not doing real math. Real mathematical thinking says, “I know this and that are both true, and when I put them together, I can figure out the answer.”
But what if our kids get stumped on a fraction calculation like 7/8 − 1/6?
