New Math
By Mike Speidel

Back in high school I used to tutor friends in math. And when I say "tutor" I mean go to the all night diner and when I say "friends" I mean girls I was chasing after. It was a good relationship, assuming they learned something while dodging my pitiful attempts at flirting.

Fast forward about 20 years and now it's my nieces and nephews that are the ones asking for help. Needless to say, times have changed.

For starters, I'm "Uncle Mike" now. Even amongst a group of pretty girls, I would not have liked that name (I think).

But much more has changed than what the kids are calling me. The way they go about their arithmetic, for instance, is much different compared to how I learned and think now. It makes it difficult to help out with homework when you don't understand it yourself, at least until you relearn a few things.

Essentially, the "new math" is a different way to approach arithmetic; it's focused less on solving quickly and efficiently and more on the critical thinking processes used as you solve. If you have kids in grade school, you're probably nodding your head in recognition.

The paradigm has shifted considerably from what I remember fondly from daily "Mad Minute" drills, in which the goal was to solve as many problems as you could in 60 seconds using memory/mental math. You would literally break a sweat and several pencil points as you scrambled to be productive and accurate.

Today, it's all about teaching our kids (and reteaching ourselves) to be methodical in the approach rather than memorizing multiplication tables. We're grooming the newest generation for problem solving ability versus straight line speed.

Not totally unrelated, Sightline training works in much the same way. I doubt anyone would say new math was inspired by our work in aviation, but our training introduces new concepts that fly in the face of how it's always been done. We're grooming the newest generation to build effective marking systems versus straight line speed. Maybe it's time your team gets proper training?

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