Math talks at home...

As we talk about multi-cultural education and also about math talks, I wonder about the different approaches to solving math problems.  My take-away from the math talks so far, is that any accurate discussion of strategies promotes mathematical literacy: indeed the goal seems to be to tease out a variety of strategies for any one problem.  Nevertheless there also seems to be an emphasis on teaching the language and techniques of the current curriculum, and not to honor the techniques of parents, with the idea being that often parents know the algorithm, but not the reasoning behind it.  Yet, the most powerful math discussion I can imagine is parents and kids sitting down together to sort out why or how an algorithm works, or to convince each other of the validity of the approach taught in school.

Incidentally, it is fun to see the varieties of notation for long division from other countries: long division notation for several countries.