Dad left questioning his "sanity" over 7-year-old son's math homework
A dad ended up turning to social media for help after a question in his 7-year-old son's math homework left him questioning his "sanity."
Debate over the value of homework continues to rage among parents and educators alike. A 2013 study published in The Journal of Experimental Education did little to settle matters.
Researchers conducted a survey based on a sample of 4,317 students from 10 different high-performing high schools in upper middle class communities.
The results indicated these students completed an average of more than 3 hours of homework per night, with decidedly mixed results.
While these students were shown to experience greater behavioral engagement in school, they also struggled more with academic stress and physical health problems. Researchers also concluded that these students suffered from a lack of balance in their day-to-day lives.
Mark, a father based in Lincolnshire in the U.K., supports the idea of giving children homework. "I support them having homework. As a child I hated it as all children probably do. But I see the value of it now," he told Newsweek. "Although I did it before the days of group chats and AI and all that."
Yet while Mark may be way of the influence of modern technology, he found himself on social media, posting to Reddit under the handle u/kumquat_may, to try and get help after becoming stuck on a time-consuming question in his 7-year-old's latest math homework.
The question asked: "Eva is working out what fraction is shown on the number line. What mistake has Eva made?"
A diagram of Eva's workings was presented alongside the question alongside a drawing of Eva stating: "The number line shows eighths."
Mark posted a photo of the math question, writing: "My 7-year-old's homework is making me question my sanity. I can't see any mistakes? The number line appears to, indeed, show eighths."
He said he posted the question to Reddit as he felt it was "worthy of discussion" and potentially wrong. "I thought it might have been a trick question with the eight segments," he said. The post earned over 1,400 upvotes, with other users quick to weigh-in and show where Mark and his son may have been going wrong.
"The number line actually shows 7ths," one explained, with another elaborating further: "It's called the fencepost error and it's been written about for thousands of years. The Romans needed to know about this so they could work out how many pillars to put around a temple."
A third added: "As someone who sells fencing, I'm amazed at the amount of people who don't realize they need that extra post. I never knew there was an actual term for it though, so thank you!"
A fourth put it in slightly different terms: "The example I saw had a cleaner working 8-12 o'clock on floors 8-12. Perfect right? A floor per hour. Except... that's five floors and four hours."
Though the answer proved relatively straightforward, Mark wonders if it could have been presented differently. "I think it wasn't worded particularly well, considering it was aimed at a 7 year old," he said. Despite this, he was appreciative of the help social media provided.
This isn't the first time a dad has found himself stumped by a child's homework assignment and gone viral as a result.
One dad in Virginia admitted he was having a "hard time" with his son's first grade math problem. In another instance, a second grader's pizza-based question on fractions proved similarly perplexing.
Then there was the math question about dividing up a sandwich that featured a major flaw one 6-year-old girl was quick to spot.