Marilyn Burns Quotes

For the next little while i will be adding quotes from Marilyn Burns (Super Math Solution Teacher Extraordinaire). Please feel free to add your own comment or discussion tidbit in response to the quotes.

Today's Marilyn Burns quote is...

"Most of us learned the procedure for multiplying fractions--you multiply across the numerators and across the denominators--without understanding why. Frankly, it's easier to teach students the procedure than to help them make sense of why multiplying the numerators and denominators produces a correct answer. But teaching the why requires that teachers themselves have thought deeply about multiplying fractions."

Are we teaching the procedure OR the why, OR both? Let's discuss...