What to Know
Being a parent is a humbling experience in many ways. And while it’s totally human to not have all the answers as a parent, one mom was pretty embarrassed when she couldn’t figure out how to help her six-year-old with her math homework. When did elementary school get so complicated?
In a viral video shared via TikTok, the mom shared the math problem that left her feeling totally stumped. Though she was admittedly embarrassed, other parents understood her pain because they wouldn’t know how to solve the problem either.
She had to go to her child’s first grade teacher.
Forgetting some of what you learn in school is not a unique experience, so many parents know there will come a time when their kids are learning things that they don’t really remember. This mom (@life.with.no.manual on TikTok) did not expect this time to come when her kid was in first grade.
Sadly, though, her child brought home math homework that she couldn’t figure out, and in the end, she had to go to the teacher for help. “I just had to have an embarrassing conversation with [my daughter’s] teacher because, at six years old, she’s now at the point where I don’t understand the homework that she’s doing anymore,” the mom said in her video.
Once she showed people the question, they immediately understood why the mom did not know what to do. After her child’s teacher explained how to do the homework, the mom explained it to her followers. She ultimately landed on the answer that 7 + 5 = 12, but she had to go through multiple steps to get there. She couldn’t understand why she had to do this. “Why can’t I just say seven plus five is twelve?” the mom said. “I don’t understand.”
@life.with.no.manual i fear this will only get worse #homework #math #commoncore #frustrating ♬ original sound – life.with.no.manual
Other parents (and teachers) agreed with her.
The way kids learn math now differs from what many parents learned. Now, instead of learning through repetition or rote memorization, kids focus on problem-solving skills and a more conceptual understanding of math. These Common Core standards for math are sometimes called “new math.” The methods used can feel more time-consuming or strange to parents who are used to “old math,” and many parents in the comments on the mom’s video expressed this exact sentiment. “That is more complicated than it needs to be,” one person wrote in response to the six-year-old’s math homework.
Another person wrote, “Okay yeah no me and my kid are failing because WTF is that?!” Because things have changed so much, some parents argued that parents need more support. Someone commented, “They need to send home books with instructions, not a sheet of paper with no instructions.”
But a teacher who commented on the mom’s video said it’s not exactly easy for educators either. “1st grade teacher here. Pray for us y’all. We are not ok having to teach this 😵💫” they wrote.
Clearly, this mom is not alone in struggling with elementary school math homework.
In October, Mathnasium reported that this is actually a problem for 60% of parents with kids in grades K–8 (according to a National Center for Families Learning survey). Even parents who don’t struggle with math might be confused about modern teaching methods, meaning that they don’t know how to teach their children how to solve their math problems the “right” way.
Some people who watched the mom’s video said they actually do math this way, and they think these methods can be great for kids to learn. However, even those who support these standards admitted that the instructions on the first grader’s homework were pretty confusing.
