It isn't the acronym, it is if you ONLY teach the acronym.
There are more grouping symbols than parenthesis. A lot of kids
think that PEMDAS is one step at a time (For instance they get
the mistaken idea that you first multiply, then divide.)
Operations have a hierarchy for a reason, exponents are
repeated multiplication, multiplication is repeated addition.
Multiplication and division are just mirror opposites, times 10
and divided by 1/10 give the same result. They need to spend
time understanding all of that.

Shortcuts without understanding is not learning. But it will
get them through the TAKS test, and therein lies the problem.
The time it takes for deeper understanding is unavailable
because we must teach a wide wide path by April. I understand,
I'm there. But I also have a class full of 8th graders who know
songs and shortcuts for mathematical operations who are unable
to tell me why it works.

I don't mind them knowing a shortcut AFTER they have learned
the whole story. It is sort of like when you say "the boy who
cried wolf" to someone who is telling something untrue for
attention. If they don't know the whole story the admonition is
meaningless.

On 6/22/09, DD wrote:
> 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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