It is obvious that the "math war" will continue for quite a long time. The concerns that I have expressed come from personal experience with my son.
I do understand and accept the fact that children need to construct their own meanings in mathematics....however, I also believe that this is only ONE PIECE TO THE PUZZLE. You can talk all you want about algorithum practice in Investigations, but my experience shows me it simple was WEAK at best. And, by the way, YES OF COURSE, I spoke to my sons teachers about these issues. They simply had no answers to my questions.
The issue of children making up missed time is critical. The time lost is simple that with Investigations - time lost. I will agree that there are those exceptional teachers out there that will somehow "make the time up", but practically speaking, this does not happen...and did not happen with my son.
Another issue that I found disheartning is the idea of Intervention with those kids that didn't get it. Where in the Investigation program is there opportunity to "go back" and try it again - or heaven forbid - take a different approach. As far as I, and many other parents could tell, there wasn't any.
I will concede that Investigations may be a great program for an experienced "good math teacher." However, not all teachers experienced.... and not all teachers are good math teachers.
