I have lost my mind

I read something today. It was awesome. I'll swear I read it here. but now I can't find it.

And it was SOOOO awesome.

So, because I cannot find the original, I will paraphrase it.

It was discussing how we add too much to the math curriculum and the kids can't get it. That we should simplify the curriculum and have them master fewer things. (I know that was the intent here in Georgia, but we still go in too many directions.)

1) If you repeated the number 8 one hundred times to someone (and they didn't hit you), you could ask them what number you said and the odds are great that they would remember.

2) If you repeated the number 32508 twenty times to another person (same number of digits) and asked the person the number at the end, you would have a pretty good possibility of success.

3) If you gave a person a 100 digit number, and asked them the first number (or the first 5 numbers) that odds for success are not good.

Teaching somewhere between #1 and #2 would lead to success. We teach #3.

Please let me know where I got this from.

Note: It did come from Kate Nowak at f(t) - but it isn't there now. You will have to make do with this poor substitute. Her post and the one she links to should be required reading and the first stepping stone to any meaningful discussion about standards based instruction.