Long division hasn’t changed, I have.

It was one of those awkward, “It’s not you, it’s me” conversations I had while watching over my daughter’s shoulder as she figured out answers to some basic long division questions but in a “take one down, pass it around” kind of way totally foreign to me and the rest of the town elders.

She asked me for help which I was more than happy to do. Who needs dinner anyway?

I looked at the question and said, “Okay Hanna, how many times does two go into four?”

It seemed to me there could only be one response–twice or two. (I guess that would be two possible ways to respond).

She started frantically writing numbers on the paper, arrows with long lines, setting down her pencil to count on her hands, seven burpees, reading her horoscope and only then did she come up with “twice?” (two, also acceptable) with a heavy lean on that question mark because she was really puzzled by this exercise.

I was puzzled by the burpees.

I tried to break it down in simple terms and approach this thing the way I had with teaching the kids how to tell time, how to count money and fractions.

“If you had four gummy bears and two kids, how many would each get?”

Hanna: That’s easy, two.

Me: So pretend the four in the long division question is the pile of gummy bears.

She started counting on her hands again, drawing three dimensional cubes, asking if she could phone a friend.

She was not interested in my help when she realized ‘my help’ meant doing it my way.

Hanna: That’s not how we do it!

When did new math become old math?

The new way of doing new math seems a lot more complex than anything we did at that age.

I guess the benefit of the thrown in cardio does have some advantages.