4th Grade Common Core Math Problem Takes 108 Steps To Complete

” This would be kinda funny if it wasn’t so damn sad (or real life).

  Check out this video of mother-of-three Karen Lamoreaux, member of Arkansas Against Common Core, completely owning the ridiculous educational failure that is the Common Core State Standards in her testimony before the Arkansas Board of Education on Monday.”

Here is a written description of the process Ms Lamoreaux refers to in the above video : 

” A 2 step math problem in 108 irrelevant steps

  The question – There are 18 people. These 18 people counted up to the last person with a number that landed on 90. What is the number they counted up by, for 18 people to reach a number of 90 while counting by it?

  Obviously, to get this answer you should divide 90 by 18, which gives you the number 5. 90 divided by 18 equals 5. Therefore, the people said 5,10,15,20, all the way up to 90. If the student gives this obvious simple solution to this problem, they are marked wrong even though they solved the problem the most skilled and rational way.

  Here is how, with common core, the children are required to solve this problem in not TWO steps (90/18), but in 108 steps:

  They are required to draw 18 circles, and put 1 hash mark near each circle until they get to circle 18, loop back to the beginning with another hash mark near each circle to the end, and repeat this until they have drawn 90 total hash marks, and then count how many marks are near each circle. If they do it the mathematically correct way (90/18) they fail. “

What it looks like on paper :

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