content: As I understand it, common core is a series of tasks that need to be mastered. The "new math" that is being taught is an attempt to liven the steady review the kids encounter every year. I guess the idea is the teachers will present different methods to solve the same problems so the kids can choose whichever they find most effective.  As an older adult that wasn't presented with all the new methods until college. I think new math is neat. Somehow, throughout all my elementary education, I never grasped fractions, decimals, and ratios were interrelated. I didn't get the idea that a fraction was division and division was a fraction. That simple concept "solved" many of my connections. After that point clicked, calculus was a breeze. CALCULUS. The whole of algebra was a struggle because that simple concept elluded me.