‘New math’ question for six-year-olds baffles the internet

It’s a maths question aimed at six-year-old pupils, but even the children’s parents have been left scratching their heads at a problem which requires something known as “new math” to solve.

The question requires the person to “fill in the missing numbers” in a number box, breaking down 27 into ‘tens’ and ‘ones’, before asking how many ‘ones’ there are in total.

Many may take the logical approach of splitting it into two tens (for 20) and seven ones (for seven), but this answer saw a pupil named Summer get a big ‘X’ from her teacher, to the confusion of her mother, Tiesha Sanders.

She shared a picture of the problem to Facebook and wrote: “This new math is NOT IT!”

In addition to the maths problem itself, Ms Sanders penned a note underneath the question and said: “Hello! I just wanted to ask how Summer got #3 wrong? Her father and I were going over her mistakes and wanted to be sure we were on the right track.”

The teacher replied: “Hello, this is the new math they have us teaching. It is 27 … 27 ones.

“It wants her to know that having two tens and seven ones is the same as 27 ones.”

And Ms Sanders wasn’t the only one baffled by this explanation, as one comment reads: “The hell?”

“That’s goofy af,” said another.

A third asked: “But if they have the box that labels ‘tens’ and ‘ones’ then only ask for the ‘ones’, how in the entire world is this math, mathing?”

Even teachers appear to loathe the concept of ‘new math’, as well, with one writing: “And I hate teaching it! I be just confused as the parents.”

Make it make sense.

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