Math homework comes with a rule nobody says out loud. On a lot of homework sheets, only one path to the answer counts. One math teacher’s son found another path, and it was right. He blamed himself anyway. If your child has done the same, your worry makes sense.
FROM THE VIDEO
Key moments from the Make Math Moments podcast, with two math teachers:
Common questions from parents
Does my child still need to memorize math facts?
My child’s math answer was right but marked wrong. What should I do?
Why does my child’s math homework use drawings and models?
Should I get my child checked for a math difficulty?
A boy found a real pattern in his math homework. The sheet marked it wrong, and he blamed himself. Why facts vs. understanding is the wrong fight.
Do kids need math facts or real understanding?
For years, math teaching has swung between two camps. One camp says to drill the facts until they are fast. The other says to teach what the numbers mean first. Teachers even have a name for the fight. They call it the math wars.
In 2008, a U.S. federal expert panel looked at this question. The National Mathematics Advisory Panel called the debate “misguided.” Its report names three things: understanding, fluent steps and quick fact recall. It calls them “mutually supportive, each facilitating learning of the others.” That panel worked from the research it had in 2008. It did not settle every question about teaching. Still, it points one way. Your child does not have to pick a side. We keep a plain summary of what studies found about math.
The two teachers in the video land in the same place. “You need both,” one of them says. “The actual strength is in the connection of the two.” That link is the thing to watch for. Take a child who knows 6 times 7 is 42, and also knows why. That child has two ways to find the answer.
Ask how your child got there before you look at the mark.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
Why would a right answer get marked wrong?
One of the teachers shares a story about their son. His homework showed a pattern: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18. The sheet asked for a rule using multiplication. It wanted “times 3.”
The boy saw something else. He looked at how each number grows into the next one. Three to six is times 2. Six to nine is times one and a half. Nine to twelve is times one and a third. That is a true link between the numbers. The sheet marked it wrong.
Then came the hard part. The boy blamed himself. “I was overthinking it,” he said. “I should have known that.” The teacher saw it another way. The boy could get a zero. Or his thinking could be “valued.” That would “affirm his identity as a mathematician.”
To us, this is a system problem, not a child problem. In our view, a one-path class teaches children to doubt their own good thinking. So ask how your child got there before you look at the mark. We wrote more about kids who lose marks for a different method.
Key takeaways
- Both matter: Facts and meaning help each other. A federal math panel said so in 2008.
- A new path is not a wrong one: Look at how your child got there. Then look at the mark.
- Ask your child to show it: Use buttons, coins or a sketch. You will see the thinking.
How do you help your child connect the two at home?
Start by keeping the facts. The video is firm about this. “Of course we need students to know their facts,” one teacher says. The trouble comes from “relying solely on memorization.” So practice the facts, then ask what they mean.
A few things to try at the kitchen table:
- Ask “How did you see it?” Ask before you check the answer, and hear the whole path.
- Ask your child to show it. Use buttons, coins or a quick sketch. Three groups of four, laid out on the table, is 3 times 4.
- Let the drawings stay. One teacher in the video holds a math degree. He used to skip the area model. He thought it was for kids who could not go fast. Then he saw how the picture and the steps fit together. He calls that moment a “math epiphany.”
- Borrow the teachers’ test. Two teachers made a rule for their own teaching. If they could not show an idea with objects, they did not understand it. Try the same check on tonight’s homework.
Notice your own feelings, too. One teacher came into teaching with math anxiety. The teacher calls it “a poor sense of my own ability.” If math was hard for you, that feeling is real. To us, that feeling is not a verdict on you or your child. Here is more on what math anxiety is and what helps.
Confidence doesn’t follow competence. It runs alongside it. When you ask how your child saw it, you show their thinking counts.
A child who knows 6 times 7 is 42, and also knows why, has two ways to find the answer.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
You want your child to trust their own thinking in math. A system that marks only one path as right works against that. You are already your child’s first teacher, no credential needed. When math is hard, the free screener asks about more than math. It asks what you see at home, and it does not diagnose. Start the free dyscalculia screener.
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