I hold an M.Sc. in Math and Ph.D. in Theoretical Computing Science (very similar to Math). My partner holds an M.Sc. in Computing Science and Ph.D. in Math. (We switched :-)) We have two daughters enrolled in Grades 4 and 6 of BC Public School System. I have decided to start documenting the problems I observe with my grade 6 daughter's Math education.
Our daughter who is grade 6 recently started bringing her Math textbook home. The book is from the series Math Makes Sense and we are completely shocked by the way the book is written, its sloppiness, ridiculous examples and unsolvable exercises, which I am going to point out. I am not going to go out of my way to criticize the book; I am only going to write about the problems with the exercises my daughter was assigned as homework. These are numerous enough. I am also not going to check if the solutions given to the exercises are the official solutions given by the authors of the book, or by the teacher.
It might happen that I inadvertently criticize my daughter's teacher, which is not my intention and for which I am sorry. None of what I write should be taken as a personal critique of any individual, but as an example of how the system is failing the students.
Before I start, I want to let you know that I am not the first mathematician to criticize the Math Makes Sense series of text books. For example, look at the article by Dr. Malgorzata Dubiel from SFU in http://cms.math.ca/notes/v44/n5/Notesv44n5.pdf.
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