elementary school math-fact challenges

[chhotii]

Here's what I don't get: I've been told that the MCAS is un-timed. (Is this true?)

If this is so, why is there so much emphasis on doing the math-fact sheets as fast as possible? Timing them and so forth? For some kids, rising to the challenge will work. But there are some kids (such as Sophia, and at least one other kid you know...) for whom the timer causes so much activation of the sympathetic nervous system that it impairs both performance and learning. In a big way.

Mathematicians are not judged on speed. So why is math treated like a track event in 2nd grade?

Comments

[gosling.livejournal.com]

I do this too. Also, I was so terrible at the "speed and accuracy" (which was really speed) tests in the early elementary years that it was basically assumed I had no math ability at all, an assumption I did not actually think to question until many, many years later.

(I will note that my father, who was a quite competent physicist, was considerably worse at that sort of speed calculation/memorization than I was. He also essentially saw the world in mathematical terms much of the time as far as I could tell.)

[sweetmmeblue.livejournal.com]

I was terrible at it because it made my disgraphia worse. I knew the answer but when I went to write it it came out wrong.

[gosling.livejournal.com]

I had that problem pretty much entirely throughout my education. In my first year chemistry class in college I was often essentially teaching the (perfectly competent) tutor things she knew less well than I; nonetheless I was unable to pass the class because of exactly that problem. (If the tests had been untimed I could have gone through and checked my work several times until I caught all the transposed and otherwise misplaced numbers. I did fine in the untimed class assignments; they just took me a while longer than some people.)

I have wondered for close to thirty years if I have undiagnosed disgraphia.