Educating Kiddo

[LadyShea]

It's nice to have that alternative. I wanted to try our public schools Pre-K (to see if Kiddo was a good fit for PS), but is limited to 15 per school, and those who are at risk or below average or whatever they label it. They have to take a test and the bottom 15 get the slots. It's this state's version of Head Start I guess

[Qingdai]

That does sound like head start, 15 preschoolers is a large class depending on the number of teachers, which should be at least two teachers for a class that large.

The schedule is terrible for us, but it's school, not daycare.

My students who have sent their child to Head Start were quite impressed with it here.

[LadyShea]

Our Pre-K is a full school day, they do everything of the K-12 except ride the bus. Also, only a few schools have it, not all of them in the district. I think it was meant to be fully implemented state wide after going through tests schools, then they ran out of money.

Story of Alabama, no money

[Qingdai]

Yeah, it's all over. We were supposed to have full day preschool and it got cut to about 2 hours a day. No money.
I think you'd like the Reggio type of preschool teaching. It seems like it would be a good fit with your parenting style, and I do mean as homeschooling, not finding one in your neck of the woods.

[LadyShea]

I decided to use magnetic letters on a board last night instead of my construction paper cutouts. After a few minutes Kiddo was changing the subject and just being silly and saying he couldn't do it or whatever, so I walked away to do something else. Then he was all "But I want to do words!" so, from across the room, I said "Okay, spell mat...do it fast before I get there to check"...and he did. He did like 5 words that way, as long as I was not standing right there. Distance learning I guess.

[LadyShea]

ELGS, it sounds like your kid's school might be using the Everyday Math (or similar) curriculum...you are far from the only person (students and parents) that doesn't get it

Math wars - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Everyday Mathematics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Everyday Math
Reviews of UCSMP Everyday Mathematics (Chicago Math)

So Jim might have seemed the veritable symbol for the new math curriculum installed over the last seven years in this ambitious, educated suburb of Rochester. Since seventh grade, he had been taking the "constructivist" or "inquiry" program, so named because it emphasizes pupils' constructing their own knowledge through a process of reasoning.

Jim, however, placed the credit elsewhere. His parents, an engineer and an educator, covertly tutored him in traditional math. Several teachers, in the privacy of their own classrooms, contravened the official curriculum to teach the problem-solving formulas that constructivist math denigrates as mindless memorization. source

Basically there are many curriculum to choose from, and one of the benefits I see in homeschooling is being able to choose the best one for us, both for my kid and for me as a teacher AND as a parent.

[256 colors]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

ELGS, it sounds like your kid's school might be using the Everyday Math (or similar) curriculum...you are far from the only person (students and parents) that doesn't get it

When our daughter was in 5th grade (2 years ago), I went to a parent-teacher conference and asked about this "new math" that was so foreign to us. The teacher, who had also taught my husband when he was in grade school, complained that it was part of the government's "No Child Left Behind" program. She didn't like it either but it was what our School Board had chosen for the grade school.

[lisarea]

The term New Math is usually used to refer to a curriculum that was popular in the 60s, which was pretty significantly different from what they're doing now. (I just splain this because I was confused at first.)

As I understand it, though, the new "new math" is just an approach that emphasizes figuring problems out on your own, rather than memorizing pre-existing formulas. When I was in school, they took the opposite approach. Both my little brother and I were accused of cheating by the same teacher in the same 'advanced' math class for 1) solving problems using methods other than the specific formulas the teacher had memorized, and 2) failing to meticulously write out simple little arithmetic problems that we'd done in our heads.

So that, in a nutshell, is the old math. It's the kind of math where your algebra teacher thinks that formulas are like some kind of magical incantations you have to memorize, and is incapable of seeing the underlying logic.

It seems as though the criticisms of these techniques mostly center around them being taught exclusively, and the kids never really getting the benefit of learning more efficient ways to do things.

[maddog]

cue Tom Lehrer:


New math! New -hew -hew math

It won't do you a bit of good to re- view math!

It's so simple, so very simple,

That only a child can do it!

/Tom Lehrer


I got "New Math" in school, but I couldn't tell the difference between "New Math" and "Old Math." The arithmetic was the same no matter what.

#2317

[Nullifidian]

Originally Posted by erimir

Yakko does it with style. Although a couple of his facts are now outdated... He also includes a few non-nations to make the rhyme scheme work. And some alternate names (he uses Kampuchea for Cambodia, for example).

No kidding about the outdated material. Yakko sings that Germany is now one piece, but refers to "both Yemens" (the Yemen Arab Republic and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen). The first treaty agreeing on a monetary, economic, and social union of West and East Germany was signed on May 18, 1990. On May 22, 1990, Yemen was reunified, thus there was only a four day window when both these things could be true.

And Animaniacs premiered in 1993, well after the information in this song was already out of date.

But I love the fact that it refers to Palestine as a state. I bet some people threw a shit fit when they saw that.

[LadyShea]

Obviously NCLB did not mandate certain curriculum, but many schools scrambled to improve their scores and kinda bought into whatever was offering fast and dramatic results. Curriculum is big business...look at the history curriculum fight in Texas.

Take a look at the "Math Wars" link in my previous post for the current set of issues. This seems to be a common argument against reform:

Constructivist methods which are unfamiliar to many adults, and books which lack explanations of methods or solved examples make it difficult to help with homework. Compared to worksheets which can be completed in minutes, constructivist activities can be more time consuming.

[LadyShea]

Um, so yeah, I sorta convinced my brother to consider pulling niece from public school. Because of his job, and being a single dad, he hadn't really looked at any alternatives....but when I opened my big mouth about some of the stuff I have researched he was all "You could help me"

WTF have I done? It may come down to me trying to formulate a plan for a 12yo.

[Ensign Steve]

OMG that sucks. It's cool at the same time, but damn.

[livius drusus]

Sweet! Now you can experiment on someone else's kid before you guinea pig yours.

[Ensign Steve]

I hadn't thought of it that way!

[LadyShea]

She would need some srs de-schooling. One of the things that put him overboard was how loud the Cop In Her Head (in the form of "teacher") is.

He asked her about her thoughts, feelings, and/or opinions on a few topics (like "what do you like about school") and she got this deer in the headlights look. Basically, she knows what teachers want to hear and see, and does that. Doing that gets her labeled as gifted and a good student. She had no idea what her dad wanted to hear, so didn't know how to answer.

My rebel bro was ashamed that he hadn't seen that in her.

[Qingdai]

At 12 years old, it might be part of a phase. Kids that age tend to be awfully conformist.

The petty is how you learn to rebel.

[LadyShea]

Part of it is the age, yes, but not all of it. Also, that age sucks so hard at school. I would choose death over repeating middle school...srsly

[lisarea]

I wish I could repeat middle school, because I can mostly beat middle schoolers up now.

[Ensign Steve]

I played viola in chamber orchestra in middle school, but not in high school because we didn't have one. I'd go back just for that.

[256 colors]

My daughter is 12, it would destroy her if we pulled her out of school. Then again, my kids love school. I am guessing that your niece is unhappy with her situation, that's a shame. I hope you are able to help her.

[LadyShea]

She loves school (though was unable to articulate exactly why). She was upset that we even talked about pulling her.

[256 colors]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

She loves school (though was unable to articulate exactly why). She was upset that we even talked about pulling her.

That's where many of her friends are, presumably. My daughter is very active in her school, with basketball, choir, and art club. My son is at a tech school, majoring in culinary arts while taking college prep classes. He didn't make the basketball team this year (the first year he tried out) but his school has a swimming pool, and he loved swimming "instead of" gym.

A few years ago, we considered moving out of NJ to save money but our kids got upset just thinking that they would lose their school friends. We promised them we would not leave town until after the younger one graduates high school. They're very happy where they are.

Your mileage may vary... I don't know your niece, but I know a lot of 12-year-old girls and I would not dream of taking them away from their school unless they wanted to leave. I thought she was having a problem, and that was why you wanted your brother to pull her out.

[LadyShea]

Yeah, I didn't go into detail or give any real context, sorry about that. She has a lot of problems, from my perspective (people pleasing, conformist, not a critical thinker, no initiative, no outside interests), some of them caused by her parents divorce and her mom subsequently leaving the state with no notice.

In short, I think she is at risk for victimization and/or poor decisions and/or negative socialization based on lack of independence and confidence.

[256 colors]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

Yeah, I didn't go into detail or give any real context, sorry about that. She has a lot of problems, from my perspective (people pleasing, conformist, not a critical thinker, no initiative, no outside interests), some of them caused by her parents divorce and her mom subsequently leaving the state with no notice.

In short, I think she is at risk for victimization and/or poor decisions and/or negative socialization based on lack of independence and confidence.

I don't mean to intrude, and of course I don't know all the details, but after everything else she has lost, she may view being removed from her school as having the rug pulled out from under her, and may develop resentment toward you and her father for taking her away from a place where she seems to be doing well (she's placed in the Gifted class, that's certainly something to applaud).

I can imagine there are plenty of kids who are being bullied or who face other situations that would make them want to leave school, but if your niece is not actually suffering abuse at the hands of her teachers or classmates, taking her away from her cherished environment may do her more harm than good.

Just because she attends public school does not mean that you can't teach her critical thinking skills, self-esteem, and other positive behavioral and mental attitudes. School is not a substitute for parenting, of course. If she's having psychological problems, maybe she needs counseling. But taking her out of school against her wishes may not produce the effects you hope to achieve.