I visited a second grade classroom a few months ago. I did a cryptography lesson with them [blog post on that is forthcoming — way behind]. Part of that lesson required some basic arithmetic — the kind that second graders would be doing closer to the end of the school year. In the discussion, one of the points I wanted to make was that they used arithmetic to send secret messages and make up a secret language. The curious part was that I got blank stares. For a moment, I was perplexed and then it dawned on me — they don’t know what arithmetic is.

I asked them, “Do you know what arithmetic is?”. They confirmed my suspicion when they said that they didn’t know. So, I told them that what they are learning in their math lessons is a type of mathematics called “Arithmetic”. Amusingly, they responded, “No, that’s math!”. It is true that it is math, but how come we don’t tell students that what they are studying has a categorical name that’s less general than just “math”?

At some point, students know that they are learning Geometry in Math class. Then it shifts to that they are taking Algebra or Precalculus or Statistics and it is understood that those are part of math (subject).

Maybe this was idiosyncratic to the school, but I’ve heard other kids at other schools also not know the word “arithmetic”. What do you call second grade math at your school? Is it “Math” or is it “Arithmetic”? It’s not wrong to call it Math, but I am curious why we don’t also say Arithmetic.

Edit 1/24
After a number of conversations and as I thought through this some more, I’m remain ok with the blanket label of “Math Class”, but I still think it’s helpful to call Arithmetic, Arithmetic, when that’s what’s being taught. I remain ok with this because in second grade math, students are learning more than just Arithmetic. They are learning measurement, a general sense of numeracy [which we could argue is part of Arithmetic], a little Geometry [basic shapes], and other topics that don’t fall exactly into the land of Arithmetic. So a catch-all of Math, in that light is ok. In the same way, second graders learn about “science”. As a catch-all this good. But I think it’s helpful to give a subcategory when it’s relevant and meaningful.