Posted on 07/25/2008 10:31:21 AM PDT by reaganaut1
My wife and I have 3 children (ages 1, 3, and 5), and we recently purchased a home in Winchester, Massachusetts, because its schools have a good reputation and its students do well on the MCAS . I looked at the "Academics" section of the school district web site and found "Math literature lists" (what happened to textbooks?) for various grades. The 4th grade list at
http://mail.winchester.k12.ma.us/~mkerble/mathlists4.doc
lists dozens of books, including
Count your Way Through Africa
Count Your Way Through Arab World
and 7 move "Count your Way" books
Amazon says the "Count your Way Through Africa" book "uses the Swahili words for the numbers from one to ten to introduce the land, history, and culture of Africa."
A school teacher who reviewed the book says
"Learn How to Count in Kiswahili! [...]
A very nice informative book that taught me a lot about the African continent and how to count in Kiswahili too! I wll share this with my class during Black History Month."
Fine, teach about Africa in social studies class, but this has nothing to with math! Even if the books were a serious effort teach kids to count, that ought to be mastered in 1st grade or kindergarten, not 4th grade. They need to work on abstract concepts such as fractions and decimals.
"Homeschool!", I hear you Freepers shout. We probably will not, since my wife is a doctor, but it's clear that if we send him to the public school, we had better take the math education into our own hands. We have been using the Singapore Math series, and our precocious 5yo is already in book 2A adding and subtracting 3-digit numbers with carry over.
Winchester is an affluent, mostly white (with some Asians) suburb of Boston, where most students do go on to college. I suppose most kids learn math anyway, maybe directly from their parents or through tutoring programs like Kumon. But what are we paying teachers to do? It reminds me of the recent article about "renegade parents" who teach their kids basic skills such as long division at home, because they are not covered in school.
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2008/07/15/renegade_parents_teach_old_math_on_the_sly/ .
Your wife is a doctor? Private school!
I had that a similar experience in Alexandria VA. I gave the extra change to make a whole dollar and the cashier said, "We can't do that." I said, "Sure you can." He went and asked his manager.
I got my dollar.
Sarcasm? I hope...
bump
Calculators and velcro.
My kids were never allowed calculators during their homeschool career.
I never allowed footwear that didn't tie.
Between calculators, velcro and TV, I'd guess at least 50% of basic skills are not lost, but never learned, to the detriment of a child's (and ultimately adult's) ability to formulate thought processes (sp?) required to reach a conclusion quickly and easily.
I am a math teacher in a private Christian School. My duties include teaching upper level math and science courses for college credit. These are introductory college courses identical to those offered at our local community college. I find that my students cannot do the mathematics required to do these courses. They are woefully ill-prepared in both algebra and arithemtic—I must take precious class time to remediate these kids—and these are high-achievers!
Most of the blame lies not with the students, as they are hardworking and willing to learn. The blame lies with the New York state curriculum. The curriculum uses a technique called cycling, which means the teachers hop from topic to topic, never dealing with anything in depth. Too much time is wasted in review. There is also the push to be fun and relevant—our own district actually BRAGGED that it no longer troubles the poor kids by demanding third-graders learn times tables.
There is also a trend toward cooperative learning (very chick-friendly). So awful is this program that fully 65% of our districts’ students failed the first Math A (9th grade) exam when the course was offered in 2000. There is a parent group at one local public high school whose name is “teach our kids math”.
The final straw is the push in new york against elitism. Honors courses in math do not exist—yet “tracking” is ok in sports and in music—after all, who wants their band to sound bad or their sports team to lose?
What a parent can do is to get involved, I guess. And find individual teachers who are good. And investigate private schools.
If they are teaching that in math, imagine what there teaching in the other classes. Private school.
Footwear that doesn’t tie is a great invention!!!!!!!!!
My daughter is special needs. She can do lots of things (ride a bike, swim, great at math). However, she cannot tie her shoes tight. She finally was able to tie them when she was about 9 or 10, but they still always come untied. A couple of the kids that have similar problems are in high school, and they still can’t tie their shoes tight.
Anyway, we are very thankful for shoes that don’t need to be tied.
I would die without velcro. I hate tying shoelaces. My 10 year old daughter is better at tying laces than I am, I hate it that much.
As for calculators, we rarely use them around here. My daughter helps me with my books, she's pretty much in charge of inventory control and never uses a calculator, and rarely, if ever, makes a mistake.
I’ve been homeschooling and teaching for years. I would NEVER public school at this point. I’ve seen too many horror stories.
At the least, the kids are indoctrinated with multiculturalism and liberalism. And thrown into a group of peers that have selfish, modern, mindsets.
There are other alternatives to public school. Explore.
Down here in FL we have lots of kids virtual schooling, while running their own businesses and /or exploring their special giftings on the side.
My oldest son will be starting his second year (8th grade) in private school, with a classical education. We tried a year of public middle school and he was bored out of his mind. The quality of the education was not only poor but as they get older the troublemakers in the class become worse and more dangerous. Public schools are not an ideal place to learn, there are too many distractions. It is costing us a fortune for tuition now and that will double when we send the 5th grader there next year. I will most likely have to get a job in order to pay the tuition for both of them but I can’t imagine a better investment.
Dedham here.
It’s a completely different school now since i graduated in ‘85.
My comment is directed towards the rest of the child population.
Must be homecoming, today.
The first school I ever went to was the Longfellow school in Roslindale.
As a kindergartener that building scared the crap out of me on the first day with that wrought Iron fence surrounding what looked like a gothic mental institute.
I don’t even know if it’s still standing anymore.
I get chills just thinking about it. :)
Yesterday i went into walmart and the total was 55.26. I gave her 65.26.
Her: you gave me too much.
me: Yea i want 10 back.
She proceeds to give me back 9 dollars and 26 cents even after having punched it into the cash register. The end result was me having 9 ones and a dollar in change.
That is nothing of course from what happened at McDonalds a week earlier.
I order a big and tasty meal and 2 chicken wraps. She punches in a grilled chicken sandwich meal, 2 large drinks, and 2 large fries. I give her my money and start adding it up in my head noticing the total is way off i ask to see the recipt (they always throw them away and don’t give them to you at this mcDonalds.) I see what is on there and tell her. Once she finally got it “right” she tells me i have to pay again and begins argueing with me. She finally calls over her manager. The manager gave me back a dollar and 2 cents without even looking at the totals. She wouldn’t give me the recipt because they had already thrown the new one away. I finally just left not caring about the 3 or so dollars.
You should have asked us before moving there, really. Not joking around, not being funny...I used to live there.
We are in the suburbs of Chicago. When our son was in 3rd grade, they brought in the University of Chicago math program. It also used the cycle system and relied on calculators. When asked at what point in the cycle they would require mastery, they had no answer. Mastery is not part of the program. We ended up pulling our son out of public school the beginning of 4th grade and homeschooling. I figured if I had to spend all that time after school teaching him math, I might as well just do it myself and save time.
We put him into a Christian private school the 2nd half of 5th grade, where the academics were at a significantly higher level than the public school. Our son has thrived in this enviornment. He was allowed to take 7th grade math during the summer between 6th & 7th grade and started algebra in 7th grade. He is now 15 and will be a junior. He will be taking calculus at the community college (his school doesn’t offer it and sends the students to college). According to the college, most kids coming out of our public schools are extremely lacking in math skills.
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