Borrowing

[omly]

Do you all remember borrowing? You know, it is that thing where when you are subtracting 2 numbers and you sometimes need to "borrow" from the tens place for example if you don't have enough in the ones place. Well apparently they have re-dubbed this "regrouping". Sounds all fancy like doesn't it? What was wrong with borrowing?

Comments

[motive-nuance.livejournal.com]

"Regrouping" is a more apt description of what's going on -- when you show what's going on in subtraction with visual aids, it looks like you're moving the things into different groups. "Borrowing" has all sorts of other mental/cultural associations that have very little to do with subtraction. Personally, when trying to teach subtraction to people who had made it to high school without having learned to do it yet, I tended to call it "making change".