Posted on 07/18/2008 6:28:41 AM PDT by wintertime
This article is about parents who are teaching traditional math at home on the sly to their children.
The previous article was pulled. Perhaps it was due to quoting Fox. I hope this thread is not pulled, the topic deserves discussion.
Wintertime
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
ROTF!
“Realistically, given the Bell Curve, how many students can really ever be able to understand the concepts underlying the basic operations of arithmetic? What percentage, realistically, will ever be able to understand and pass Algebra I or II????”
That is so true, but we have a bunch of Utopian dreamers who wormed their way into all our institutions since the sixties, and they can’t accept the fact that we are not all equal in all areas of endeavor, and math is an area that makes us even more unequal than many other areas of life. A lot of this crap is nothing but an unending and futile effort to prove that we are more equal than we actually are. And it’s an enormous waste of time for all concerned.
I hate to say never try to teach a pig to sing because it’s a waste of time and it annoys the pig, but... And, come to think of, not many humans sing all that well when we get right down to it. It’s a waste of time to try and teach many humans to sing, or to do much beyond basic math.
P.S. I am not a math wiz. Hubby and all the kids are. I just know what makes sense; actually my strong suit in spades is analysis.
lol! You caught me!
There was not a civil nor intelligent discussion to be had with either teacher nor the principal.
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BINGO! My experience completely!!!
Attempting work with or reform the government schools is like punching a bag of jello! A total waste of time.
By the way, can someone PULEEZE explain to me how teacher parent conferences help in any way whatsoever, except to waste a completely good evening?
Manipulative Math SUCKS.
My child is in a school using this joke of a program.. he’s going into 6th grade and still much count on his fingers to do simple addition and subtraction and does not have wrote memorization of these simple interactions solutions.... We forced him to wrote memorize his multiplication tables, which he has most of them, but not all, because there is no reinforcment in the classroom of these principles and because they move from one concept to another at blazing speed.. .its crazy.
I know I am going to have to privately teach him math, either myself, or by paying someone else to do it sometime in the next few years.
These “Utopian Dreamers” are Gramscian Marxists and Useful Idiots.
If you'll excuse a comment from a professional teacher, I do believe that I know best. It's very simple: I stand in front of a classroom full of kids 180 days a year and observe what works and what doesn't. I'd have to be pretty stupid not to have noticed what helps kids to learn and what leads to confusion. Also, I have several kids at home, and I know what works for them.
I think most parents are smart enough to teach their own kids 4th grade math. It gets a little more challenging when we reach algebra, and rather demanding for most but not all parents around calculus or for different reasons when the kids become teenagers. I also hope that most parents are smart enough that they know they should teach their kids math or at least review the math with their kids daily if possible and at least weekly whether or not that is convenient. I teach the top kids in an excellent and highly ranked school, and perhaps 90% of my students have parents who are involved in their learning. That is what works, and the only administrators/teachers who would object to involved parents are the ones who are not doing their job and hope to hide it.
Teach your kids the "outdated stuff", which is still in our curriculum but not at some other schools. Teach them their math facts, preferably using flash cards, and review annually at the start of each school year. Teach your kids long division. Teach them that the United States is a great country that has done great things (in most areas the schools will more than cover the warts in our history). As a teacher, I can tell you that a combination of some subject matter expert and an involved parent is what actually works best for most of the kids that I see. I'm not in a position to evaluate kids who never set foot in a formal school, since I don't see them, but my students more often than not tell me that they start out at Ivy League schools at or near the top of their class, and I give a big chunk of the credit to their involved parents, along with a substantial share of the credit for the motivated kid and for myself.
I like it. I do! ( Really!)
I know I am going to have to privately teach him math, either myself, or by paying someone else to do it sometime in the next few years.
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Guess who will take the credit for your hard work? Answer: The Teachers and Principal, of course! It’s their blue ribbon school that was responsible.
Guess who will blame you if your son has poor math scores: Answer: The teachers and principals will blame you for not having a good home life.
Go order a copy of “Saxon Math” at the appropriate grade level for your son - probably Saxon 65. Get the test booklet and the answer manual and have him work lessons in the evenings. Have him do all the odd numbered problems - it’ll be faster and leave him time for his other homework. The lessons are easy to understand and the math is exceptional.
Es divertido como esta triste.
It’s as funny as it is sad.
I’m glad to see that you are injecting some reality into the conversation. “Reform” math is a crime against children, and the “math educators” pushing this stuff try to divert attention from the ineffectiveness of these curricula by accusing others others of not being willing to accept “diverse” approaches to mathematics. The traditional methods are traditional because they work. A child who does not know math facts by memory cannot succeed in any math related discipline any more than you can build a house without a foundation. By refusing to teach long division, these so-called educators are not only depriving children of the much needed intellectual discipline of learning an important algorithm, they are virtually assuring that the same students later on will be unable to do algebraic division. I could continue in this vein, but I’ll spare you...;-) Thanks again for the post.
CA schools still demand students PROVE their answers. It has to be essays, based upon the type of rainforest math that is taught. Essays. I remember learning to PROVE my answers.
And, unfortunately, many of the newer math means require essay answers because the newer means are based upon assumptions of provable math. True, these newer means are quicker; but require a tome to prove. My argument with the new math agents in schools is that unless the students have had TRADITIONAL math, they are and will be unable to explain/PROVE the newer math!
It's like writing macro's. Macros employ an interface (compressed translator) which shortens the verbiage required to write a routine in long-hand programming.
New math provides the macro language, making things move fast. But to fully prove a "macro", one is at a loss unless they also understand the initial, primary programming language(s).
Kudos! You are good at math, and this is excellent.
My high schooler does not perform any math in school without a calculator (since 5th grade - Connected Math is the publisher), therefore, she has forgotten her math facts - including how to draw a division sign and which number 'goes where.' She qualified as gifted in math in elementary school. Yes, I am using an "-ed" at the end of the word qualify.
Indoctrination, educrats not wanting parents to help the kids, "it's not fair" if some accel, etc. seems to all point toward a socialist/communist education system.
The State of Georgia BOE has restructured the entire HS curriculum to an integrated (reform, constructivist) math. Our students will no longer graduate from high school with Trigonometry, Algebra I, etc. written on their transcript. The courses are Math 1, Math 2, etc - where each year is a combination of classes -that terrific "spiraling" approach the educrats are so fond of using. It begins with the 2008-2009 freshmen.
Anyone who is capable of learning algebra, can teach it, given the right books. Anyone who is capable of learning higher level math, can find a way to learn it. “Experts” aren’t really necessary until calculus. Dedicated parents can do as good a job as the typical middle-school math teacher.
You have the techniques to teach math to 30 students. That means the middle twenty students proceed more or less at the right pace. The top five are bored stiff and staring out the window; the bottom five, totally lost. If you work with the slow kids, all the rest get bored. You don’t dare work with the top five at the expense of the stupid kids!
The homeschool mother of five can adjust better, letting her bright and motivate kid do two lessons a day and finish the book early, working through extra problems with her slower child, coming up with creative ways to explain particular concepts.
Parents who work with their child “after school” can do the same thing and should be encouraged to do so, not made to feel like renegades.
I’ve run into that also. As part of a transaction once, I gave the girl a $10 and she tried to give me $20 back. The worst one, that still makes me laugh, was the young clerk who added a zero to the end of the bill when entering it. She started to try to give me over $180 back. I explained to her that this was generous, but I gave her one $20 bill and she was trying to give me 9 back. She was still lost. I swear, it took her, another clerk, and the manager to figure it out. Sadly, they cancelled the order, rang it up again, and reentered what I gave the cashier in order to get it correct.
That’s to funny, I worked at a general store and could make change faster than anyone using the calculation function on the computerized registers. I could manually process credit card slips faster than machines do, even now...
When the power went out, the ~60-70 year old register with the hand crank on it came out. I was “in the zone” then :-)
You wouldn't believe the arguments I've gotten into in education classes making just that point! :-)
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