Math lover Brett Berry understands the current frustration behind Common Core math. 

And indeed- frustration there is. Just last month, a father's gag check to his son's school using Common Core math strategy went viral after parents across the country shared their disdain for the new methods being taught in their children's classrooms. 

Berry wants to encourage all these frustrated parents and other Common Core math critics to sit down and take a look at why this “new” way will benefit learners far more than the old.

It has been proven through research that children who are struggling with math are more likely to succeed if they are encouraged to continue rather than told that some people simply are not good at math.

Berry agrees that math is not too hard or that some people are inherently bad at it—but that "memorization and algorithms are not the best ways to retain information.”

In order to help reach the students who struggle to retain and regurgitate math knowledge, Berry argues that the creative aspect of math needs to be embraced—as Common Core math does.

This creative aspect is referred to by Berry as “number sense.”

"Number sense allows us to have an arsenal of ways to problem solve, including but not limited to the traditional algorithm,” she says.

And Common Core encourages that students understand that this arsenal exists—allowing them to truly understand math problems even in the event they forget an algorithm.

"The Common Core math standards are an attempt to expose your child to this flexible way of thinking. It may not be perfect, but it is in the right direction,” she says.

Read Berry’s full post here.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

10/26/2015