How would you answer this test question? From a 1st grade Common Core test.

[MineralMan]

68. No, it asks which is an equivalent subtraction sentence.

Equations are sentences. Four plus three equals seven. Seven minus three equals four. The two sentences are equivalent. The equations are equivalent. That is what is being asked. I was not taught this way, but I understand the reasoning. It leads to algebra, where the sentences might be written like this.

4+x=7
To solve for X, you rearrange the sentence (equation) to
x=7-4

The two equations are equivalent. That's how algebra works.

Basic algebra. Students who learn this early, using mathematics and equivalence, have an easier time with algebra. I learned arithmetic in the old-fashioned style, but equations like this were something I learned to rearrange very early, so when algebra came around, I had already figured it out. But I was a bright fucking kid and figured out a lot of math stuff for myself.

Now, they're trying to teach things like this earlier. Equivalence. The illustration is a subtraction equation. The answers are additions. You didn't learn it this way. They're teaching it this way, so kids will understand that equations (sentences) can be manipulated to be equivalent.

You don't understand the reasoning. The kids in that class do. That's why the answer on the test is correct. The kid understand what is being asked, because that's how it's being taught. Basic algebra will be easy for that kid, because of this teaching method.

I rest my freaking case.