Posted on 09/19/2008 3:15:48 PM PDT by reaganaut1
If the child is motivated and can teach herself at home after school, Holt has wonderful resources on the web for math.
Go here:
http://go.hrw.com/gopages/ma-al.html
Choose a course:
Middle School Math, Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1&2, Geometry
Choose a book and click Homework Help and a list of Chapters pops up. Click them and access lessons with a VIDEO link. The videos are taught by Professor Edward Burger in a very clear way. Hope this helps.
My son is now in private Christian high school, but he went to public middle school in California.
He got to take a test to see if he could be moved up a year. In 6th grade, he took 7th grade math. In 7th grade, he took algebra I, and in 8th grade, he took geometry. Math was the only thing the public school was good at teaching.
I would be happy with just vouchers for special needs kids. That’s the kid that I have had the most problems with.
self bump
I would just let her cover what she wants to cover, and to hell with the public school math teacher.
One additional thing to try: If she demonstrates being way ahead of the class, a letter from your attorney on attorney letterhead asking the principal why the school is not providing your child an appropriate education might rattle some cages. Operate on the viewpoint that they will not give you anything they don't have to.
Thanks, you brought up something I’d forgotten to mention about our situation.
We were at the school quite often. ALOT. They knew who we were on sight that we were there and that we cared and we would fight for our kids. Phone calls don’t cut it. Too impersonal.
Some of the teachers and administrators actually appreciated, or at least respected, that we were personally involved in our children’s education. Many of them do care, but it’s usually not the ones that have any power to get anything changed.
I had this same problem with my younger daughter when she was in school. Tough it out. Don’t quit fighting for your child. It means a lot to them. Every state and school district is different. If they put their child into private school, just realize that all private schools are not created equal. There are all kinds on our area, good and bad.
FWIW- daughter is now majoring in Physics/minoring in Business in Junior year in college.
The Public Schools juggernaut is stupid enough to believe that students cannot learn without them. Between parochial, private, and home schools, this has not been true for a long time. Add to that the fact that Public School students in many cases learn in spite of the system rather than because of it.
The Public Schools think that by indoctrination and dumbing down of brighter students, the Communist goal of an “equal” society where everybody is equally miserable can be achieved. Not true.
Check out your local community college. At ours, admission was an easy entrance exam and minimal SAT score. Our daughter did her high school education there starting at 14, and our son began at 11.
Homeschool if you can.
“I am a teacher in a public middle school in Los Angeles. This is my advice.....”
What an interesting coincidence. I’m a former middle school student in the LAUSD. They were certainly educational times. Although I would hasten to point out that what I learned was probably more relevant for a life spent in prison than a life spent in society at large.
My advice is to pull this child out of the government school in question and do it now.
The school in question will never provide the quality of education that the parent can provide with a few used textbooks and some attention. The parent can spend countless hours lobbying for better treatment for her child, or spend the time simply teaching her.
I'm just the "mom" with the public school list, but I am pinging the teachers to see if they can help with any further suggestions.
There are just so many dynamics that could be at play here. In my case it was at the district level, because the school level was putting my daughter in classes above her grade level --- until some parents complained and the principal was told those programs were to end.
The teacher responded by simply giving my son **more** of the same boring work, and principal refused to have him tested. Private tested ( on our own) several years later showed that my children were in the 96 to 99% in math ability.
Solution: Homeschooling! I suggest that this parent homeschool trough Algebra II and then do what it takes to get her child into community college.
All 3 of my homeschooling children started community college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13. All 3 finished Calculus III and all general college requirements by the age of 15. The younger 2 earned B.S. degrees in mathematics by the age of 18.
This woman's story is soooooo typical. The idiotic teachers cry and moan that they want parental involvement. Then when they=y **do** get an involved parent that is plainly pointing out that the school is failing to meet the child's needs, the response is to stonewall. ( Go figure!)
By the way, parent-teacher nights are a utter and total **waste** of everyone's time. Completely useless!
I suspect what is really going on is that the school is looking forward and coming up empty. If the child is in 7th grade math in 6th grade, and presumably in 8th in 7th, where does she go in 8th if there is not a 9th grade in the school?
Just right out of the box, without more details, I would take matters in my own hand and look at the situation holistically. Taking math out of the equation - is the parent happy with the other offerings of the school? is the school meeting needs elsewhere? If this is just another problem in a long list of problems, I would look at homeschooling or online courses (If I know the state, I can give more advice on the online courses). If this is the only real problem, then I would leave her where she is, enroll her in an online class from a community college and request that she spend her math time on the computer in a supervised setting (library, back of class, etc) and let her use her time that way. There WILL be an initial 'no' from the school - because this is different and schools fear 'different' but the parent should stay with it and go as high as he needs to - including the superintendent and board of supervisors and letters to the local paper.
My point in brief is this .... figure out what is the best path in this situation and be a bulldog until it happens. The weak do not get what they want. It is only those who are tenacious in fighting for their kid that get results.
Good luck, freepmail me with state if you can
With no extra money at all, private school was never an option, and the concept of home-schooling had not been heard of yet.
I was perpetually 3 or 4 grade levels ahead of everyone else, because I just taught myself everything at home (such as algebra in 5th grade), while homework was page after page of mind-numbing boredom. The other kids used to get mad at me when a teacher would tell the class that they couldn't "grade on the curve" because I had gotten a 100 on the test. So having your fellow students mad at you is developmentally helpful?
When I was in high school, they refused to consider the possibility of letting me take even one course at the local college, since it would have been "developmentally harmful".
So I did the only thing any normal person would do - as soon as I possibly could, I skipped 12th grade to go to MIT and never looked back.
In fact, the guidance counselors were so alarmed at someone breaking the pattern (basically making them look useless), that they actively tried to discourage me AND told me that as soon I flunked out of college, I would have to come back the following year for 12th grade, and then I would be a year behind my classmates. (Needless to say, that was never a possibility.)
Hence, ever since then I have had great fun telling people what a fraud and waste of money public education is.
I was in that situation, I grew up in a small town and they took like 25 of us and put us in a “gifted” program. We actually didn’t go to the same school as the other kids our age and they wound up putting us back with the other kids after a year or two, I don’t remember.
I was always bored and daydreaming, I got A’s when I felt like it. If you can’t afford a private school I would suggest keep supplementing the learning to keep it challenging and interesting. Nothing wrong with independent studying, I would monitor it to keep directing her in the things that interest her, branch out into other areas that fascinate her, don’t push the things she doesn’t want to learn. A hungry brain will decide what it likes and won’t stop until it gets enough, just make sure it’s not overdone.
It sounds as if the district *could* do this, if the right person were contacted, but it does sometimes depend upon the state and the district. Some states allow students to skip grades, for instance, and others do not.
Also, as has been mentioned, in some states, gifted is considered special education, and gifted students must be given an “appropriate” education just as those with developmental or learning problems must be.
In our state, high school juniors and seniors may take college courses instead of high school courses, and the state pays for these courses, but that doesn’t help a 6th grader.
Also, while the student is working Sudoko puzzles in class, how are her grades? I’m thinking of a bright student I tried to get moved to a more advanced class, because this student can run circles around the students in the regular class, but I was unable to do so because the “available evidence” (the student’s middle school grades in my subject) did not show sufficient aptitude.
It depends on where she is what is available. Here in Florida a student may even though enrolled in public schools also enroll in the State Virtual School which offers math courses on a self paced basis. Then once the student has a basic understanding of algebra and is able to pass a community college placement test in algebra that same student would be allowed to dual enroll in college level math even if they were only a 9th grader. A piece of advice from personal experience be careful not to let the system destroy the interest in Math but on the other hand pushing the student too hard may lead to poor results as well. Math geniuses need to come from somewhere hope this student is our next one!
We had this as well. My son could have gone to the participating uni for some additional math, but the travel hassle and iffy neighborhood of the uni made it a no go. He still got into Michigan, which was all we wanted (well ok, I wanted him to refuse Harvard after it invited him to apply, but he would have gone to Michigan anyway). : )
My daughter is in the gifted program in our PS. She started this year in sixth grade. She immediately is taught at the seventh grade level. The policy is they will teach to whatever level math they have to. It is very individualized. They have a few students working on 9th grade level math already.
As a parent first and a teacher second, here is my recommendation, to basically echo what another has said.
Go up there, in person. Eat a solid breakfast because you may be a while and start asking questions. Don’t be rude, but politely, because you can, get answers. Get those in writing. I repeat: GET IT IN WRITING. Speak to the counselor, director of guidance, and if needed, principal. Be sure that you get all of this IN WRITING and if you don’t, DOCUMENT.
Spend as long as you can at the school level trying to get answers. If you are not satisfied, thank everyone for their time, get NAMES and head to the local board office. Ask to speak with the Superintendent. Right now. Make an appointment if needed.
Tear into the super like there is no tomorrow. Explain everything that has happened and why. You will eventually get what you want. If you can’t home school or private school is a choice. Personally, I wish you the best of luck for you and your child.
Btw, MOST states now have virtual (on-line) classes that students can take. It may be that this is a viable option, and if the state does have a virtual program, the school must offer the class if you request it. If they refuse, document, get in writing and email the state department of ed. That will dang sure get a ball rolling.:)
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