Posted on 12/15/2004 5:22:25 AM PST by OESY
I agree! When my daughter was in 2nd grade she had questions like: "Estimate 50+47". On a test she said 97 for this and got it wrong. She's now in 3rd grade. She was supposed to write a paragraph telling in words a hypothetical new kid, "Judy", two different ways of multiplying.
What crap! Why don't they just teach the multiplication tables to kids that age and younger.
Polls have shown that just about every parent believes exactly that. "It's the other schools" that are lagging.
App,
Oh, don't even get me started on *ahem* gifted children.
I work at a small private college. Over the summer the school hosts a variety of camps and programs for young people- music camp, sports camp, math camp, etc etc. One of these is specifically for "gifted" children.
A friend explained that yes, alot of them are gifted, by any measure. But many others are simply children of parents who insist that their progeny are gifted but are not especially so. It's funny, but I feel for the kids.
A feeling reinforced on pick-up day at the end of camp, when the campus is covered with Mercedes SUVs and imperious parents.
Because of the short attention spans of the teachers.
Actually, our school tests them. A lot of parents get upset because their kid doesn't get the label. I told the gifted director to tell them that gifted kids get more homework. Homework is the great burden of the soccer class.
Both my kids are eligible for gifted but we only do it for my son. My daughter was too close to the line and I didn't want to risk piling too much on her. Middle school will be tough enough. Of course, my "gifted" son can't even find his gloves 99% of the time and couldn't tell you a thing he did in school. He tests off the chart in math but can only remember that some kid shot milk out of his nose at lunch. All the gifted kids are like that. You can tell the gifted kids at school because the parents are standing over them in the lobby speaking to them like they don't speak English "Where...is...your...history...book?".
Actually, they teach them different methods to see how many kids can come to the same conclusion using different methodologies.
Here's a great site that goes further into the matter.
She had it marked wrong because she was wrong. Estimating was one of few parts of math classes I had a hard time with because I would always want to use the exact answer.
The primary use of estimation in school is in long division (do they still teach that?). The first step of doing a division problem like 348 / 14 is to estimate how many times 14 will go into 348. It is about 20 times, so 2 is the first digit of the quotient and you multiply 20 times 14 and subtract that from 348.
It is tough to do that without a good handle on how to make estimates.
Good rant to your young friend. Only one change: HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS have died of malaria who would not have due to the DDT demonization.
Hysterical, and in my personal experience, accurate description of gifted kids. I agree and applaud your evaluation of whether to place your daughter in that section.
You are EXACTLY right. I finished my master's degree in math 2 years ago. While working on my degree, I was a graduate teaching assistant at the university and taught classes (by myself) to the math education students. It absolutely floors me that I wouldn't be hired to teach math in a public school but the people I was teaching would - and some of their math skills were unbelievably BAD!
"and some of their math skills were unbelievably BAD!"
If they were good at math, they wouldn't have filtered down to the education department.
The problem is Prentice-Hall and other textbook publishers. The books are terrible and are intent on brainwashing, not teaching.
Don't blame Bush for all this; the "no child left behind" is an attempt to fix things that have been in rapid decline for years.
Back in 1967 my 4th grade teacher said that once the Feds got into Public Education it would be ruined. She was right - way back then.
Things have been going downhill since they created the Federal Department of Education, which by the way couldn't keep its own books straight during the Clinton administration and had no idea where their money went...
mostly into unscrupulous employees pockets......
When my kids were in Public School in the late 1980s - early 1990s they had Outcome Based Education. Nothing was ever so stupid. It taught to the lowest common denominator. My son was supposed to teach the slower students instead of moving ahead himself in math. My daughter was assigned to babysit the two downs syndrome kids in the hallway so they wouldn't disrupt the others in class because she was the only one that was able to entertain them. Needless to say she didn't learn much, and I transferred her to Catholic school.
Since I don't have kids in Public school anymore (Thank God), I can't say what effect No Child Left Behind is having, but I'm sure whatever might have been good about it is being perverted by the local liberal educators to ensure it won't have any benefit.
Abolish the Federal Department of Education and reform the Colleges of Education everywhere !!!
"The problem is that those who achieve proficiency in math and science are in the business sector. They do not stay in the teaching profession."
One of the best untapped sources of telent for teaching math and science is retired engineers, yet the state school boards fail to recognize that. The only teaching qualifications they recognize are "NEA accredited" education degrees. A few school boards have "alternative certifications", yet with many roadblocks.
Some of the best engineering professors I have found at New Jersey Institute of Technology were retired engineers (many from Bell Labs, when Bell Labs was an R&D leader), with P.E. licenses still active and still doing some consulting work. Real world background, instead of purely academic.
bump
Someone please remind me why teachers unions were against
standardized testing for so long?
Additionally people who taught math/science at a university level can not teach at a high achool without first going through a ridiculous "teacher-ed" program.
The kids usually love a knowledge rich teacher and perk up when being taught by someone with real world experience. The other teachers HATE how the students love a real world teacher. The jealous ones make life hell for the teachers that the students like.
Saw a stat where 4 of 5 teachers that win recognition for teaching science leave the profession within 4 years.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.