Are You Smarter Than A Second Grader?

i volunteer in a second grade class in a SF public school during math time. apparently the big thing in education pedagogy these days is re-inventing the wheel, which means the kids are learning how to calculate multiple-digit addition and multiplication using means completely foreign to me, which means i am of ZERO help to them, master's degree be damned. today, after two months, i finally figured out addition:

  123
+456 

step one: how many hundreds do you have? 100 + 400 = 500 
step two: how many tens? 20 + 50 = 70
step three: how many ones? 3 + 6 = 9
step four: add up your totals from steps 1-3: 500 + 70 + 9 = 579
your answer: 579


does this remind anyone else of figuring out your tax forms?


now i just have to master multi-digit multiplication.