I've read some posts recently that Algebra teachers dislike
it that middle school math teachers teach order of
operations with the PEMDAS acronym. I haven't heard a
satisfactory explanation for this reasoning yet. Could
anyone enlighten me?

I am a new teacher and teaching order of operations is one
of our student objectives for middle school students. I
had to "learn" the acronym before I taught it and
truthfully I cannot remember how I knew order of operations
when I was younger. Just seems like I knew it without any
acronym. (I am an older new teacher.)

I respect the high school math teachers' opinions because
the whole point of teaching is to carry what you know to
the next level, and if PEMDAS doesn't work at the higher
levels I want to know why.
I would really like some clear guidelines on this...from
both high school and middle school math teachers.

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