Oh dear lord they did it. The brilliant minds who have brought us the Common Core Standards have found a way to ruin math.
Math was my salvation when I would get my 5 paragraph essays handed back to me with enough red ink on them that I thought they might have been stabbed. Math was the place I could go and get the right answer. It wasn't up for debate whether my topic sentence was on point, my thesis statement correctly placed or if my participles were left dangling. You can't mark me wrong when I'm right.
Math was the place I knew. Black and white. Right or wrong. I may not do it your way, but I do it correctly. And, I'm not alone. I have seen hundreds of students with similar abilities to me; strong foundation, excellent spacial perceptive ability, the ability to compartmentalize, the ability to do numerous computations at once without picking up a pencil, etc.
And what do we do when we see a special talent? We make sure to try and change that person into who we think they should be. "You have to show all your work."
Now, the Common Core architects have decided math students must write what they do. Math students must explain their logic.
I could never have done that. Check that....I could have. I wouldn't have wanted to though. Math wouldn't have been as safe a haven for me had I been forced to write. This might be the correct road for many students. Not for all though. When will we realize we are all differently talented?
