Why it’s so Hard to Help With Your Kid’s Math Homework
This is why parents get frustrated with their kids’ math homework, and why kids may end up thinking they are not “math people”
By Jessica Lahey
Two years ago I walked into a car rental return center in Charlotte and interrupted Adrianette Felix mid-rant.
“I can’t even help my own child do her homework, it’s so frustrating, and I feel so stupid,” she said. “What kind of mother can’t understand first-grade math?”
Felix and I spent the next half-hour engaged in a spirited discussion about the state of math education in America; how we got here, why it’s changed; and where experts on math education hope it’s taking us.
The simple answer to why math education has changed, “Common Core State Standards,” is only part of the story. Math teacher Christopher Danielson outlines the rest of the story in his book, “Common Core Math for Parents for Dummies,” and it goes something like this: Math education in America has evolved in response to concerns about our international competitiveness, first with Europe, and later, with Russia and its space program. Consequently, American math education prioritized the education of professional scientists and mathematicians who could get…
