But, but Miss...Is this right??

Reading though chapter two of our math text was the most time consuming thing I have completed this semester. The fact that there were no answers for the posed questions made me even more frustrated. Now, call me old fashioned but I've always been told that math problems have an answer. Cracking open this lovely text and finding an answer-less glossary was not what I expected. Even during my first year at University we had definite answers. You go to any of John O'Riley math tutoring classes, you PAY $20 to get the answers! So why have things changed? Have they even really changed?

I was in an grade one class last week and the students were completing sheet after sheet of math problems.
It looked a little like this:
1) 3 + 4 =
2) 5 + 7 =
3) 6 + 3 =
and so on....

As they were completing their worksheets the teacher asked me to give then a check (with a red pen) for the ones they had right and but a little dot next to the ones they had wrong.

There is no doubt that students need to possess these basic math skills but is there a better way to go about it? Needless to say I have a lot to learn about teaching math. I totally agree with the idea of having the child explore many options and use hands on materials but from what I observed there never seemed to be enough time in the day to give the children a chance to really bunker down and concentrate on the task at hand.

So, is math a humanity? To some extent I think it is. All subjects are, in the sense that they give way to social interactions. Students actually learn a lot more though social interaction (group work) then lecture or reading. The root word of humanity is human (obviously), and we are all guilty of being that! Math in a social context just seems much more appealing to me and I'm excited to learn how to teach that way.