HELLO JI!

A WORD (OR TWO HUNDRED) FROM THE EDITOR

Image credit: SARAH PFLUG on Burst.

As kids head back to school this month after a super-extended break, worry lurks at the back of their parents’ minds. What will the new normal be like? Will the little ones observe the rules amid the excitement of seeing their friends and teachers again? And, in the midst of all this, what will the new math curriculum be like?

Ontario’s new math curriculum will focus on the fundamentals to better prepare students for jobs of the future. Developed over two years in consultation with parents, educators, academics and math education experts, the new curriculum for grades 1-8 promises to:

Build understanding of the value and use of money through mandatory financial literacy concepts;

For the first time, teach coding or computer programming skills starting in grade 1 to improve problem-solving and fluency with technology, to prepare students for jobs of the future;

Use relevant, current, and practical examples so students can connect math to everyday life;

Put a focus on fundamental math concepts and skills, such as learning and recalling number facts.

With extensive research and inputs from respected academics and interested parties – parents – this should make sense. But, one has to ask, coding or computer programming in grade 1 to prepare students for jobs of the future? Kids need to learn basic math first.

You can’t teach children how to handle money if they haven’t been taught the all-important multiplication table. If they can’t do mental math, no amount of coding will instil financial literacy.

I recall an interaction at a Canada Post outlet from many years ago. We’d purchased sheets of stamps to mail Christmas cards locally, to the US and internationally. The cashier had some difficulty adding it all up, multiplying the price of each individual stamp by the number of stamps per sheet. My husband, meanwhile, had kept a running total in his head and came up with the amount for each sheet before she could key the figures in. She evinced disbelief at first, and then, as he was proved correct each time, began to laugh. “Oh, stop showing off,” she said. “I haven’t had my coffee yet!”

There’s no arguing the fact that kids are way more tech savvy today than the adults in many families. “Our six-year-old grandson showed me how to tap the screen and hit Flip so he could better see the room I was in during FaceTime chats!” said a friend recently.

So they will keep pace with technology as they grow. But this focus on jobs of the future is just plain silly for kids in grade one. No one has any idea what skills will be required by the time they are anywhere near ready for jobs. Remember all those computer programming classes that young people signed up for decades ago? Technology had moved on before they graduated from the course.

Coding will teach children how to use technology, not how to design it. For that, you need to be able to do the math.

Shagorika Easwar