Teaching Less Math, Makes Sense

A friend of mine came across this article a while back and I am finally getting to blog about it. This is from a March 18th blog on Psychology Today's website. The author of the article talks about schools teaching LESS math to young elementary school students. Yes, LESS math! Now, I am all for less math, but seriously, the article points to several studies that show that this "less math" idea has a lot of merit. Here is the proposal:

"One of the recipients of this challenge was L. P. Benezet, superintendent of schools in Manchester, New Hampshire, who responded with this outrageous proposal: We should drop arithmetic! Benezet went on to argue that the time spent on arithmetic in the early grades was wasted effort, or worse. In fact, he wrote: "For some years I had noted that the effect of the early introduction of arithmetic had been to dull and almost chloroform the child's reasoning facilities." All that drill, he claimed, had divorced the whole realm of numbers and arithmetic, in the children's minds, from common sense, with the result that they could do the calculations as taught to them, but didn't understand what they were doing and couldn't apply the calculations to real life problems. He believed that if arithmetic were not taught until later on--preferably not until seventh grade--the kids would learn it with far less effort and greater understanding."The roles of play and curiosity as foundations for learning.”
(Peter Gray, March 18, 2010)

This makes sense to me since MOST kids today do not understand WHY math works the way it does. Memorizing the formulas and memorizing the "math facts" does not lead to understanding. I know, I am the product of the 1960's - 1970's NEW math that really just did not make sense to me. I learned math while homeschooling. Sure I knew how to do algebra and the "math facts" that are drilled into our heads in school but real understanding did not come until much later.

"Today whenever we hear that children aren't learning much of what is taught in school the hue and cry from the educational establishment is that we must therefore teach more of it! If two hundred hours of instruction on subject X does no good, well, let's try four hundred hours. If children aren't learning what is taught to them in first grade, then let's start teaching it in kindergarten. And if they aren't learning it in kindergarten, that could only mean that we need to start them in pre-kindergarten!"
(Peter gray, March 18, 2010)

The above statement reflects my children's generation. The competitive aspect of school really cranked up in the 1990's when parents were routinely doing the work that their kids should have been doing so that Johnny and Mary could get an A. Parents were concerned that their little genius get into the BEST most competitive preschool for goodness sakes! This all lead to certain subjects such as math being taught WAY too early for the child to grasp. The researcher, Benezet, then asked schools to try an experiment in math.

He asked the principals and teachers in some of the schools located in the poorest parts of Manchester to drop the third R from the early grades. They would not teach arithmetic--no adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing. He chose schools in the poorest neighborhoods because he knew that if he tried this in the wealthier neighborhoods, where parents were high school or college graduates, the parents would rebel.
(Peter Gray, March 18, 2010)

This experiment was a success!

“By "recitation" he meant, "speaking the English language." He did "not mean giving back, verbatim, the words of the teacher or the textbook." The children would be asked to talk about topics that interested them--experiences they had had, movies they had seen, or anything that would lead to genuine, lively communication and discussion. This, he thought, would improve their abilities to reason and communicate logically. He also asked the teachers to give their pupils some practice in measuring and counting things, to assure that they would have some practical experience with numbers”
(Peter Gray, March 18, 2010)

The results were fantastic! The students who did not learn formal math caught up within ONE year! Plus they did better on word problems.

Please read the whole article here:
Psychology Today
When Less is More: The Case for Teaching Less Math in School

Honors Programs

I mentioned honors programs in my last post. Let me elaborate here.

Valencia Community College offers the honors program to dual enrollment students. The student must contact Jackie Cole, the director of dual enrollment, to start the process. Eligibility is based on test scores and GPA. Please allow your STUDENT to do all of the college legwork as it is important that he or she gets used to the college environment. Dual enrolled students are considered adults at the community college and therefore must act as such.

UCF also has an honors program with the Burnett Honors College. A transfer student from a community college with an AA in the honors program can then get into the Burnett Honors College. The benefits of being in the honors program at UCF include priority registration, small classes, honors housing, scholarships and others.


Had I known about the honors college and what it entailed I would have really looked into it. A student at Valencia cannot register for an honors class without first being in the honors program.

If your community college in Florida is NOT Valencia, then please ASK about their honors program and your dual enrollment student. It certainly does not hurt to ask.

Honors Programs & Dual Enrollment

We've been extremely busy here so I have not posted in a while! My son graduated from the University of Central Florida on Saturday and then, of course, there was Mother's Day on Sunday! It is sad and exciting at the same time to have my "baby" graduate from college! Another chapter of motherhood is over and a new one can begin.


Another unschooled child has graduated from college with no stigma, no "gaps in education" and no problems whatsoever! A former friend was certain that I was doing the wrong thing by unschooling and not forcing the kids to "do work." Well here we are with both of them graduated from college with B.S. degrees (yes, go ahead and laugh, BS degrees!) and very good GPA's. My son is looking for work and planning on graduate school. He needs some more math to get into a top tier graduate school in economics so he's prepared to take a year to do it. However, if he finds a decent job before then, he will take that and postpone the grad school in favor of experience. What the heck, he has plenty of time!


I have learned quite a bit about the special advanced programs at UCF and will share these in the coming posts. As a homeschooling parent I just did not know about these programs and how to get my kids into them. I'm afraid that may cost my son a possibly good graduate school. Frankly, a lot depends on his GRE scores so we shall see. I need to do some legwork to see how homeschooled kids can get into some of these programs such as leadership and honors.


Recently Valencia Community College has allowed dual enrollment students into the honors program there. Of course it is expected that these students will stay after high school graduation and finish the AA degree with honors. This is a big deal! Many students did not take dual enrollment courses since they would not be part of an honors program, but now it is available to them! Please check the website for the requirements to get into the honors program and also speak to the director of dual enrollment, Jackie Cole.

Unschooling Smear

I clicked on an article on Parent Dish, which should have already warned me not to, and discovered this article about unschooling. The article is written by ABC news after the reporter talked to a couple unschooling families. My blood is boiling over this because it totally misrepresents unschooling and does not have follow-up about unschooled kids who are now grown. Why didn't ABC news talk to some of those people? Probably because it would not meet with their agenda to smear the homeschooling community and the more "radical" unschoolers. Can you tell it pisses me off?

My kids were unschooled. My son was 10 and my daughter was 13 when we first began the homeschooling journey that quickly led us to unschooling. They were in charge of their education, for the most part, even to this day. My son is graduating from the university in May with a degree in economics and my daughter graduated a few years ago with two degrees, one in real estate and one in finance. Obviously unschooling works and allowing your child to have control over his education is a good plan. I call it being respectful to your child. Is it for everyone? I would have to say NO WAY! However, if you are interested in unschooling pop me an email. It can be found in my profile. Unschooling, it works.

You can read the offensive article here:
The Unschooling Movement: School's Out Forever

Cheaper College

Just want to get this out there, YES I watch American Idol. There I said it! After the show last week I kept the TV on and watched the local FOX 10 PM news for a little while. On that show there was a segment about online college classes from a company based in Virginia and ONE of the community colleges here in Florida has allowed the credits. My thought here is, if ONE allows the credits how can the others Disallow them?

The company is called Straighter Line and they appear to offer 11 college courses that the Florida community college allowed as Florida college credit. These are pretty basic classes but the BEST part is that they are CHEAP! OK not cheap, cheap, but MUCH cheaper than taking the classes at the local community college as a college student.

Obviously, Dual Enrollment is cheaper still if your child is still in high school, but when your child graduates, and looks into college, this may be a good option! Looks like there is a monthly fee of $99 and then the courses are $39 each. Holy cow! If your student is motivated, he can zip through some of these courses quickly. There is a one-time fee option, without the monthly subscription plan, of about $399 per course instead.

Lake City Community College is the Florida community college that has allowed these credits. If this sounds interesting, go to your local community college and find out if they will accept the credits from Straighter Line.

For more information check this out:
Straighter Line

AP Classes Revisited

I thought that it would be a good time to revisit the AP class question. Your kids should be deciding their junior or senior year courses and the question of AP may come up.

Many parents are not exactly sure what AP courses will mean for their child so let me explain. First off, your child does not get college credit for passing the AP course. She will have to pass a one-day rigorous AP exam. She can receive all A's during the school year but MUST pass the AP test with a 3, 4 or 5 in order to receive college credit. Many students do not pass the test. I think the percentage runs just under 50% who do not pass the AP test.

Your student will also take this AP course for an entire school year which is, in Florida, the equivalent of two college semesters. If he receives a 3 on the AP test he will receive the credit for one college course. He could have had two courses during that time.

Please read this post by clicking on the link below:
To AP or Not to AP

Sometimes schools do not tell parents which college classes are received for the AP course. I have seen MANY students from local schools take AP Human Geography and not receive the college credit from the university they attend because only ONE of the state universities I looked up offer the course! What a waste of possible college credit time! A good advisor can help you choose which courses will be useful to your student.

Please read this post by clicking on the link below:
More on AP Courses

If you have any questions please e-mail or post a comment. I will be glad to help!

Test Taking and College Admissions

Does your college bound child have to take the SAT? Good question with no easy right or wrong answer. Generally, yes, he would have to take the SAT or ACT test. Universities expect them and base admission decisions on these test scores. However, your student can get an AA (2-year) degree from a community college and then transfer to the university without having to take the SAT or ACT. This is for Florida since I don't know what the rules are in other states. A student with a 2-year degree from a state community college MUST be accepted into a state university. Of course it MAY NOT be the one your child wants to attend. Be aware.

Before your child enters the community college through dual enrollment or after graduating from high school she will need to take the CPT test for placement into math and English courses. This tests college readiness in English and math and is required if there are no other test scores. So a test must be taken but the CPT is not for admission, it is for placement.

Many colleges do not allow a student to dual enroll without reaching college level on the CPT test so please ask about the testing requirement.