What’s the right way to teach kids math?

Hi, this is Seth Meyers from the Lonely Island and Seth Meyers podcast. Oh, you guys, I don't have to tell you, nobody gives comedy more material than politicians, huh?

That's right.

Yep. But you know what? Sometimes there's too much of a good thing, 'cause this year's political campaigns are gonna spend $10.5 billion on midterm ads, you know, and that's just distracting. Oh, wee, wow, that's a lot of money. Yeah, the numbers back it up. One in three Americans were so distracted by current events in the past year, they forgot to come up with an idea for dinner, according to a Harris Poll. That's a real crisis. We need to give people a solution to that crisis. You are, Kev, on the count of three, what's the solution? One, two, three.

Burritos. It's an easy solve for dinner.

Sausages for dinner. [laughs] Johnsonville sausages is the protein of the people.

That's a way better idea than burritos.

[laughs]

I'm burrito'd out.

Okay, great. It's affordable. It's down to earth. It hasn't forgotten where it came from. It's the candidate you totally want to have a beer with. For dinner in America. Paid for by the Johnsonville Fund to keep America juicy.

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Hi, I'm Rebecca Zandbergen, and you're listening to The Current podcast. It is October now, and millions of children from across this country have settled back into their school routines. Still, there is concern students aren't learning what they need to, especially when it comes to math. OECD standardized test scores out last month show basic math skills have fallen to the lowest lever- level they've ever been in Canada. New Brunswick is experiencing the sharpest decline. The CBC's Julia Poguel went to one school in Gimli, Manitoba, where staff say big changes have meant big results for kids on their math tests. But along the way, she unearthed a deeper controversy about the best way to teach math. Here is her documentary, Are Your Kids Learning Math the Right Way?

20 divided by four is what, Jackson?

Five.

Five. 12 divided by four is what, Veta? Three. You got it. 14-

I'm inside Dr. George Johnson Public School in Gimli, Manitoba. Grade four students are sitting quietly in rows, calling out the answers to a timed test they've just completed. It's something that happens most days in math class here.

Uh, I like it.

Why do you like it?

Um, I just, I, I like math. I, I don't really know. Like, it's hard, but I, I like it.

14 divided by seven is what, Karina?

Two.

Two. Excellent.

Focused kids in individual desks reciting answers to math questions. For some of you out there, you might be thinking, "Yeah, that's math class, so?" Well, at a time when math scores across the country and globally have been on the decline, turns out how you teach young people math is a hotly contested topic.

You don't compromise between good instruction and bad instruction. Why would anyone do that?

As we get a bit exhausted with, you know, sort of this conversation about it being a dichotomy, because that way of thinking about it is both divisive, but it's also false.

But in Gimli, Manitoba, they've started to use something called direct instruction. And according to Jessica Warden, who works for this Manitoba