Struggling with How to Learn

Have you ever felt fairly fluent at something only to realize that the way you are fluent is obsolete?  What I mean is, the way you know how to do something is not the way that it is done any more and therefore you are not doing it right by doing it how you were taught.

What I am getting at is math these days.  I graduated high school in 1997 and I had my last math class in 10th grade.  I did have one college math class in about 2000, but that is it.  I now have a 10 year old daughter and she occasionally needs help with her math homework.  When I look at her math sheets I am stunned.  I literally don't know what it is asking for!  I want to be a help to my daughter but more than anything I find myself frustrated and feeling like a bit of an idiot.  I mean, I am 34 and getting good grades in my college classes, I should be able to help my 5th grader with her math assignments.  But, alas, as frustrated as I get, it doesn't help me figure out how to help her.

When I started this particular math class I was REALLY dreading it.  I am not a fan of math, besides what I like to call baby math, such as 1+1=2 and 2-1= 1.  I was going to have to learn this new age math and it was not going to be fun.  But on one of the first days of the class I watched a couple videos that really got me thinking.  The first video I watched helped to solidify what I had already thought, this new way of teaching math was for the birds.  The video is titled, Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth, and it stars M.J. McDermott.  It basically goes over math as it was taught to me years ago, the classic algorithms.  And goes on to say that the new style of teaching is confusing and pointless, at least that's my take on it.

Then, after reading some of the discussion posts from my classmates and watching the second and third videos, I came to a different conclusion.  The second and third videos are titled, Math Education: A Response to 'An Inconvenient Truth' part 1 & 2, by James Blackburn-Lynch.  He is basically refuting what McDermott is saying in her video and begging the question, why do we have to continue to teach the new generations the same exact things that we were taught as children just because it's comfortable for us.  He says that there is value in teaching our children the reasons behind the math problems and not just making them memorize a bunch of problems and their answers.

So, as this class progresses I expect to learn more about how my daughter is being taught math now and also my own stance on which way of teaching math is better.  Just because something is familiar doesn't mean that it's right.  On the other hand, just because something has been done a certain way for ages doesn't mean that it has to be changed!

I found a wonderful website for my son and daughter to use to practice their math skills.
IXL Maths

Links to the videos:
 An Inconvenient Truth
 A Response pt.1
 A Response pt. 2