Nah, the common core math method is different from the traditional notation I grew up with, but I get that it’s presenting kids with a variety of options to complete the problem so they can choose the one that fits their processing style. Whereas the “one size fits all” approach with traditional notation is intuitive for some kids, some kids can muscle through it, and some kids, well they end up being the people that say “I’m not a math person”.

Not to mention that my feeling isn’t just coming from the math work, if anything it’s the writing work that feels more advanced.