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help...Public school blues.

LogGrad98 said:
Again, and unfortunately, there is not a lot that will be done about that within the system. It will be largely up to you to provide some of that at home.


I am a firm believer that my kids should learn as much, if not more, at home as they do at school. We have always tried to create an atmosphere of learning at home for our kids, from regularly reading with them, to finding interesting articles in the paper or online and discussing them as a family, to semi-organized political and social discussions and debate, to volunteering to help broaden horizons, you name it. The kids that get the least out of the educational process, imo, are the one's whose parents just did not take an active role in their eduction.
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I have always made an effort to educate my daughter from home. She completes her homework everyday, reads every night and plays math and geography games online. I will spend hours talking with her about whatever she wants to know. We talk about everything from the orbits of the planets to the atoms that make up everything we are made of. I don't think it would be fair for me to make her do the hour or two of math that she should be doing in school with dad every night. There are too few hours in a day for her not to spend some of them being a kid.

Her mother volunteered last year and I have made up my mind to do so very soon so that I can observe her class first hand.

I appreciate all of your comments, although they do make it seem like there is hope for only minor improvement in her education(school hours).
 
heyhey said:
I have always made an effort to educate my daughter from home. She completes her homework everyday, reads every night and plays math and geography games online. I will spend hours talking with her about whatever she wants to know. We talk about everything from the orbits of the planets to the atoms that make up everything we are made of. I don't think it would be fair for me to make her do the hour or two of math that she should be doing in school with dad every night. There are too few hours in a day for her not to spend some of them being a kid.

Her mother volunteered last year and I have made up my mind to do so very soon so that I can observe her class first hand.

I appreciate all of your comments, although they do make it seem like there is hope for only minor improvement in her education(school hours).
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I think the part about being a kid is critical. They need time to exercise their imagination and create their own entertainment, and bond with other kids, and explore the world a bit, and other such things. This is where I feel strongly that homework is nowhere near as beneficial as just giving them the same time to be kids. If you think about it, most kids work the equivalent of a nearly full-time day at school, followed by hours of "overtime" in the form of homework. We wouldn't tolerate in our work life, why do we tolerate our kids being subjected to it? Especially when any connection between homework of any amount and academic performance or learning is very tenuous at best, damaging at worst.
 
LogGrad98 said:
I think the part about being a kid is critical. They need time to exercise their imagination and create their own entertainment, and bond with other kids, and explore the world a bit, and other such things. This is where I feel strongly that homework is nowhere near as beneficial as just giving them the same time to be kids. If you think about it, most kids work the equivalent of a nearly full-time day at school, followed by hours of "overtime" in the form of homework. We wouldn't tolerate in our work life, why do we tolerate our kids being subjected to it? Especially when any connection between homework of any amount and academic performance or learning is very tenuous at best, damaging at worst.
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The amount of homework she has been given is fine. It's just enough to showcase to me the parent how she is handling the curriculum. The curriculum is structured in principle so that she can move ahead but the class is structured in a way that is holding her back. We had this problem last year and we brushed it off as a first grade thing. I don't think I want her to continue in her current school if she is never going to be given the opportunity to meet her potential. We walk to school every morning in a group and I asked the older children whether their classes did this centers thing and they do. I see the value in learning to work in a group but this is over board.
 
I also wonder if the kid that my kid is helping is getting a decent education or if he is simply copying her.
 
listened to this podcast the other day - while it's focused more on education at the high school level, some very interesting points were raised.

https://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/in/in130911the_smartest_kids_in

...One thing missing from the debate has been an accessible narrative that can bring to life the striking ways our schools have fallen behind those in the world’s best performing systems, which are now in places like Finland, South Korea and Singapore [note: it was actually Poland, not Singapore]. Amanda Ripley, a talented investigative journalist for Time, The Atlantic and other magazines, has just filled this void wonderfully with her new book, “The Smartest Kids in the World--and How They Got That Way.”

Ripley followed three American kids as they studied abroad in these systems, a shrewd narrative device that lets her compare and contrast through the eyes of our kids. Her chronicle of life inside the world’s “education superpowers” holds important lessons for America in a global age. As you’ll see, Ripley’s bottom line is grim: compared to the world’s best, she says, America is simply not serious about rigorous schooling and our kids will pay the price.
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a couple of points of comparison I found interesting in the podcast:

1 - Parent participation in school fundraising, school parties, etc. is practically non-existent in these 3 countries
2 - Student participation in school sports teams is non-existent, in fact the schools don't even have sports teams. Those tend not to be school based in other countries, but more community based.
 
UGLI baby said:
I was in ALPS all through elementary school.

Look at me now!
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Boy, there's a solid endorsement if I've ever seen one.

LogGrad98 said:
Again, and unfortunately, there is not a lot that will be done about that within the system. It will be largely up to you to provide some of that at home.

I am a firm believer that my kids should learn as much, if not more, at home as they do at school. We have always tried to create an atmosphere of learning at home for our kids, from regularly reading with them, to finding interesting articles in the paper or online and discussing them as a family, to semi-organized political and social discussions and debate, to volunteering to help broaden horizons, you name it. The kids that get the least out of the educational process, imo, are the one's whose parents just did not take an active role in their eduction.
Click to expand...

Mind if I give you my two pennies on this? I've read plenty of studies and have first hand experience with the concept of "You learn more quickly and efficiently when you're teaching/coaching as well as learning". My grappling team has this mentality and it is clearly obvious that it works. We have new guys that have only been with us for a month teaching new guys the beginner moves. Not only is it a great way for the older guys to hone their technique, but it also gives them a major confidence boost. I know, because that's what happened to me. I hear what you're saying about your kid teaching the other kid, and maybe it is a train wreck, but there are positives to it as well.

To Logs point, I agree with him that a lot, if not most of the education, needs to start at home. I'm like HH, I spend more time talking about "stuff" with my daughters than anything. My 6 year old loves science, dinosaurs, Bill Nye, Morgan Freeman, The Military Channel (she's on a WW2 binge right now), etc. I doubt she'll ever be in any advanced or gifted classes, and that's fine with me -- she gets plenty of challenge from home, and we have a lot of fun doing it.
 
Yeah I see that tutoring can be helpful, but her class seems to be structured in such a way that she is doing it too often. She should also be given the time and instruction to advance her own proficiency and it doesn't seem to be happening. I think I will just have to do what I can do from home and if the situation doesn't improve by the end of the year I will either be moving to a better school or shelling out for a private one. Those school grades that came out did not impress me. Although her school wasn't at the bottom a closer look reveals that it was the bell curve not the students proficiency that was their saving grace.
 
heyhey said:
Yeah I see that tutoring can be helpful, but her class seems to be structured in such a way that she is doing it too often. She should also be given the time and instruction to advance her own proficiency and it doesn't seem to be happening. I think I will just have to do what I can do from home and if the situation doesn't improve by the end of the year I will either be moving to a better school or shelling out for a private one. Those school grades that came out did not impress me. Although her school wasn't at the bottom a closer look reveals that it was the bell curve not the students proficiency that was their saving grace.
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A lot of this depends on what they are tutoring. If a kid is ready for division, but spends their math period tutoring other kids in addition and subtraction, that kid is only going to learn so much. Once they have addition mastered, continually helping other kids with it won't do squat to help them learn division.
 
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