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Word-based problems in mathematics are a good thing, except that possibly at the primary school level the focus should be on basic numeracy as opposed to the sophistication necessary to translate a text into numbers.

I am willing to believe that SATs are a bad thing.

When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. — John M. Keynes

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu May 15th, 2008 at 04:40:35 PM EST
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Oh, I'm not against word problems, as such. They're an essential part of numeracy-if you can't choose operations to solve a real-life problem then, for most people, what is maths for?

It's just hard-and counterproductive-to see confidence draining from children for whom they're still a step too far.

by Sassafras on Thu May 15th, 2008 at 05:21:46 PM EST
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