Every time a teacher emphasizes formula triangles, a student loses a chance to understand math.
And I am persistently undermined when I try to teach the algebra. 🤬
I cannot get algebra buy-in from my student who's struggling ... struggling bc he can't read the language of maths ... BECAUSE he is being taught to value janky work-arounds with blind memorization instead of ANY ACTUAL UNDERSTANDING AAARRRRGGHGHHHHHHHH HULK SMASH
@RealityMinus3
I've had conversations about formula triangles with various students in different classes in recent weeks.
"Can't I just use the formula triangle, sir?"
"If you know what's going on and the formula triangle helps you to answer a question then fine, but I'm never going to teach you it that way because whilst they seem like a good shortcut they're _really_ unhelpful for understanding _why_ it works."
I did have one occasion when a kid was trying to rearrange an equation of the form a=b/c, and he was struggling. After a while his eyes lit up and he said "ohhhh, I can make a formula triangle to do it!"
While formula triangles are terrible, the fact he came at one from the opposite direction under his own steam and managed to make a generalisation out of something that's usually only ever "taught" in very specific situations was actually pretty useful for him. This is a rare exception, though, in my experience.
@TeaKayB AAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH.
That poor kid!! He's clearly got capacity and intellect, and he's being smashed on the rocks of You Must Be Thick And Can't Do Maths Here's A Formula Triangle. That poor lad!! Nobody should have to reinvent the gods damned wheel like that.
RealityMinus3 & Zeke Rat
Tommaths (he/him)