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

[infinitedomain.livejournal.com]

Borrowing is classist and stigmatizes poor kids who are always asking other students if they can borrow some lunch money.

[dr-zhivago.livejournal.com]

crazy fancy new-fangled hippie math...

[mytheria.livejournal.com]

probably some theorist declared that borrowing will confuse kids because they think they have to return it to the next column somehow. Or some aburd over processed reason like that. And i remember when the term borrowing was being berated by my bio-father as being 'new math'.

[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".

[k00kaburra.livejournal.com]

Bah. Why would you go and rename it?

[indicolite.livejournal.com]

Well, if I put my geek hat on and remember my group theory, you are moving the number you are "regrouping" from group to group (the additive groups of natural numbers modulo 10, feel free to ignore this part) - and I kind of agree that "borrowing" implies that you have to give it back. If you have never heard of borrowing, you would know it as regrouping and hopefully grow up just fine. However, if I see a term that is actually accurate with respect to university-level algebra, it makes my new-math radar beep - but as long as the kids learn how to do it, and get it down to reflex, who really cares what they call it?