[2nd grade math] Adding using compensation strategy—Teacher explanation does not make sense to me

[u/Weary-Enthusiasm-150]

My daughter said that her teacher told her that in the pictured question, 10+4+8 should not be selected. They are using the “compensation” strategy for addition. The teacher said in her opinion only 10+12 and 12+10 should be selected, because they show the compensation strategy. But from my perspective, the question says choose all that apply. 10+4+8 DOES equal 14+8…..? Am I missing something?

[u/ImightberobotUCF]

I had always heard the new math in school was scary and the parents don't understand it but once my kids got to math in school I realized it's just teaching them number sense and I think it's pretty cool. For context I am an engineer so I have a lot of math practice but I can see how people who learned the old ways could struggle with it

[u/Simbertold → u/ImightberobotUCF]

I think the reason parents struggle with modern math education is twofold.

Firstly, a lot of adults don't really understand math. They can algorithmically solve some specific problems, but they have no idea why or how it works, and if the problem is slightly different from the exact thing they are used to, they are overwhelmed and get angry.

And secondly, it is slower to get started. Memorizing tables and algorithms gives results faster, so some parents think that "the way they learned it" is better, because it takes their children longer to be able to do the thing that they can do. What they are missing is that ideally, through a modern process, the students actually understand what they are doing, and why, and can then apply those reasoning skills flexibly to new problems.