Urrggghhh!  I've run into this one before (read "sore subject").

The explanation I got (get this) is that "3 is the last digit used in ALL
calculations involving the number 346."

My response to the teacher was basically "Is that so!  Then please show
your work for the long division problem where the dividend is 346 and the
divisor is 2."

Shortly after she picked up the piece of chalk she conceded that 3 would
not always be the last digit used.

<begin rant>
My third child is now finishing Elementary school, and I am constantly
amazed by how poor the textbooks are, and how many errors there are in the
math textbooks.  Even when there aren't blatant errors, there are very
often word problems which are very ambiguous and very poorly written.

This may sound strange, but you know your child has a good teacher when the
teacher uses handouts of the teacher's own design rather than the fancy
pre-printed ones that come with the textbook.  Why?  Because from my
experience the good teachers know the material, know the books are garbage,
and create their own teaching materials so that they can properly teach
their class.  You know you have a good school when the principal allows the
teachers the flexibility to use their own materials.

Another measure of a good teacher is his or her ability to alternative
approaches to problem solving, and tolerance for the same.  Good teachers
know that different people (children) visualize math problems in different
ways, and that some students will not understand one approach, but
understand another.

One year my son was having problems in math (and he wasn't the only
one).  He even spent a couple of afternoons after school with the teacher
trying to learn the methodology currently in vogue.  After two afternoons
both he and his teacher decided he was hopeless.

After hearing from the teacher that he was hopeless and after his tears
subsided, I took him home and demonstrated the way I had been taught to
solve the problems, decades ago.  About 30 minutes later he was solving the
remaining problems on his own, and getting the correct answers.

The next evening there was a note from the teacher telling me (in no
uncertain terms) that I was NOT to teach my son any problem solving methods
that were not in the textbook.  Okay, so it was, in her eyes, better for
him to fail math than to use an "old" approach and succeed.  That's just
plain warped.

By the way, I never did figure out the "new math" way of solving the problem.

My children have had some great teachers, and a few (in the minority) poor
teachers, but I've yet to see any great textbooks.
<end rant>

John


At 2001-09-28 14:07, Mark Boyd wrote:
>This is a simple math question from my 9 year olds homework.  Could someone
>with a mathematics background explain the reasoning behind the alleged
>correct answer for me? Because I just don't get it.
>
>The question:
>         What is the last digit in the number 346?
>
>She answered 6 and so did I.  The correct answer is apparently 3.  Why?
>I've already written a note to the teacher requesting an explanation, but I
>was hoping someone in the group could come up with something better than
>"Because the book says so".
>
>Thanks
>Boyd.
>
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