Long Division Smells

Idea: Why teach long division if no one uses it in real life?

Let's Look it Up!: From R. James Milgram of California State University Northridge at a 1999 Conference on Standards - Based K-12 Education (http://www.shearonforschools.com/why_long_division.htm)

Skills Directly Associated with Long Division:

• Students cannot understand why rational numbers are either terminating or (ultimately) repeating decimals without understanding long division
• Long division is essential in learning to manipulate and factor polynomials
• Polynomial manipulation and factoring are skills critical in calculus and linear algebra: partial functions and cannonical forms

Long division is the only process in the K - 12 mathematics curriculum in which approximation is really essential. The process of long division is a process of repeatedly approximating and improving your estimates by an order of magnitude at each step. There is no other point in K - 12 mathematics where estimation comes in as clearly and precisely as this. But notice that long division is also a continuous process of approximation, the answer keeps getting more and more accurate and when the students learn how to do long division with decimals they learn to carry the process to many decimal places. This leads naturally -- in a well conceived curriculum -- to students understanding continuous processes, and ultimately even continuous functions and power series. The development of these skills are all contingent on a reasonable development of long division. I don't know of any other or any better preparation for them. (Milgram, R James)

Reflection 1: Long division seems to be a foundation for a lot of math that students will be learning in high school and university level classes. I really shouldn't be the one to neglect them of this material and this knowledge. Although I am not a large fan of the process that long division brings, it will help students to understand more that is to come. Like anything worth doing, it will take time.

Reflection 2: I am willing to give long division a chance from reading the transcript of Mr. Milgram's speech. He seems to be passionate about the subject, so I feel I should to.

Reflection 3: When I don't know the answer or am unable to sound intelligent on a subject, I'll Google it.

Reflection 4:Of course I knew all along the importance of long division!! It still smells, but I'll do it.

Milgram, R. James. "Why Long Division." College of Science and Mathematics. Northridge, California, 1999