Posted on 05/30/2011 4:33:01 AM PDT by massmike
Yep. I doubt either one of those boys will amount to anything. The parents did these kids a great injustice.
“There is a high proportion of students in colleges from other states and countries. Tuition is much higher for put of state. Do you really think these students are paying that higher tuition? If not who is paying it for them? That’s what I want to know.”
A few years ago, I accompanied my daughter to her college orientation session - I was surprised at how many folks from New Jersey there were. I asked a few - as it turns out, out-of-state tuition in Virginia was comparable to in-state New Jersey tuition - so they were quite happy to pay the out-of-state rate. Colleges like that - because they make more money - and in fact, have a bias to accept someone out of state (or foreign) because they pay more money. So yes, I think most do pay the higher rate.
I honestly don’t think most colleges care whether kids are prepared or not, as long as they pay - especially if they pay the higher out-of-state rate.
If someone like your son shows an aptitude for rigorous study in college then I think doing what it takes (including some reasonable level of debt) to get there is better than not doing so. These kids are decidedly in the minority in college though.
a gentic is a light finger on the key. ;) It should have been plant genetics. He’s doing his internship this summer. That’s what the research grant is for and next summer he will have to go to Austin Texas to present his research findings.
Best way to explain what he is doing is to say that some medicines are expensive because they are derived from plants. Sometimes a lot of plants. Sometimes we can’t make synthetic medicines because we don’t fully understand the biosynthesis of a particular plant. That’s what he is doing is trying to fill in the gaps of a particular plant.
Trust but verify :)
Michigan State University.
“Trust but verify”.
How? Let’s say a kid takes an Algebra class. He/she gets an A. I would assume that the child mastered the subject during that year. Should you give your own Algebra test or question other parents about the teacher?
Always glad to see some home-grown talent.
My dentist is from India, my doctor was Japanese.
So far we haven’t had to go into debt. I don’t know if graduate studies work the same way though. He’s thinking of roughly 5 more years after he gets his Bachelor of Science degree next year.
Another advantage to the honors floor. These kids are all exceptional students. Our son always did very well in his math classes but he struggled with calculus. He was able to seek out students in his floor to help tutor him. He’s minoring in biotech. The kids in the honors college tend to be more studious. That isn’t to say that they don’t have fun, just that there is a bigger chance that they will support one another in their studies.
“Thank your gov’t schools for this great achievement despite increasing spending per student massively!”
Exactly.
Government runs schools just like it runs everything else—into the ground.
Who would expect any other result?
Send your child to private school or home school them if at all possible.
A good way to address this problem would be with software, not classroom instruction. This is because “remedial” learning is very individualized. So such software needs to do only two things:
1) Diagnose what knowledge it is they are missing. This is the more time consuming part, because it has to survey a lot of learning, to find the gaps in it.
2) Corrective drills on the gaps and insuring it is integrated into the subject area.
Classroom remedial learning is almost entirely wasted, because it is either re-teaching what is known, taking away from teaching about what isn’t; or trying to figure out what one student doesn’t know at a time, while ignoring everyone else.
That's a great idea :)
And if you're not conversant in math, learn along with your kid. Check out his textbooks at the beginning of the year. Take his tests. See how you do. If you're not comfortable enough to judge your kid's progress in all of his subjects, learn along with your kid. You may catch something his teacher misses or screws up.
To be completely honest, I do fine with English, Science, History etc... Math is not my best subject. (I am fine with regular math but forget Geometry, Calculus, and some strange subject called Trigonometry). LOL. Maybe it’s time for me to take some remedial advanced math at MY local community college!
With an A there isn’t much to question. Bringing home a D, you might wonder.
I don’t know if all schools have switched over to the same type of system we had here, but, about halfway through a marking period a page was mailed to the parents. The page listed each class and assignments and % completed and tentative grade. Then at the end of the marking period they sent out the ‘report card’.
Now, here is something that I found different. The older boy that lived with us, he was in some sort of alternative type school at the high school and his classes were on the computer. He would tell me he was so far in his classes, but I finally had him show me how that worked with his laptop and gee his %’s didn’t match what he had been telling me. He was supposed to have graduated the spring he moved in with us, but during summer school I found that he was over a year behind in his Algebra and some of the other classes. So, in this instance his parents could have been checking daily, but obviously they didn’t. Once he realized that I was going to be looking at it daily, he started getting nasty and argumentative.
“So far we haven’t had to go into debt. I don’t know if graduate studies work the same way though. He’s thinking of roughly 5 more years after he gets his Bachelor of Science degree next year.”
Good for you. 6 more years is a long time though....you’ll get conflicting advice on debt. I’m not advocating it - just saying that if your son has a likelihood of gainful employment as a result of his educational attainment, then there is some level of debt, if necessary to continue one’s education, that is not paralyzing.
It sounds like an ideal situation though. My youngest of 3 is going off to college next year. If I have any luck at all, my basement will remain unoccupied by returning kids - as all seem to have chosen fields where they are likely to be gainfully employed. (fingers crossed)
“From what I have seen, over a third of college graduates need remedial help.”
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Agreed, as soon as I read that headline I thought that I could rewrite it. More than a third of the recent college graduates I have met need remedial help to enter a real high school.
Do you have two in college now?
Fortunately, we have something called “edline”. Parents log on to it and can see what assignments are missing, the grades on quizzes/tests etc. I have actually caught some wrong gradings as well and a quick e-mail was able to rectify the situation (although not truly appreciated by the teacher in most cases). I check twice a week just to keep tabs.
I am a public school teacher who homeschools his children. The way you trust but verify is to see what they are teaching your kids at different learning venues (private, homeschool, etc.) I am amazed at what my 9th grade students are incapable of as compared with what my 4th grade homeschooler is asked to master! I am also amazed at how little the average public school teacher is unaware of what has happened to the curriculum. They see the lower level of student, but the slow drip-drip-drip that has softened the curriculum has gone unnoticed. By checking what is going on in other school settings, I believe you will get a sense of what your children’s contemporaries are learning.
It is NOT NECESSARILY only the school’s fault if a student fails to learn, in my opinion it IS the school’s fault if a student who has not learned graduates with a good looking GPA. Of course most of it is the government’s fault, they have been interfering in education longer than I have been alive and the results show. Anytime the government is involved in something where a government presence is not TOTALLY necessary no good ever results.
Very, very good suggestions! Thanks.
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