Is Long Division Important?

Long division is a very old concept that is almost forgotten, because many students now rely on calculators.  Some people might argue that it is irrelevant for children to learn about it, and that it could be very confusing.  I feel that all kids should be introduced to it, because it helps them understand the definition of division.  Long division is only confusing when being taught the wrong way. 

In order to help kids understand this process, it is of utmost importance to use base 10 manipulatives.  It should not be a big deal if kids do more steps at the beginning so long as they understand the concept.  The best way to illustrate how to do long division is dividing the given number into 100's, 10's and 1's.  For example, if we're trying to figure out how many times 3 goes into 36, the students should first build the number 36 as three 10's and six 1's.  Next, they have to divide those 10's and 1's into three equal groups.  It turns out that each group would have one 10's and 2 1's, so the answer would be 12.  Once the students grasp the idea by using manipulatives, they can start showing their work on paper.  The teacher must encourage them to still use notations showing 100's, 10's, and 1's.  This process might sound tedious and long at first, but once students are comfortable with it, things become much better.

We should never discourage a kid to learn about long division.  It is a straight forward process if taught correctly and students can benefit a lot after being introduced to it.