Well, tonight I finally quit dithering and (e-)mailed off a letter to Ben's math teacher and his case worker.

Things haven't been going so well in math class the last couple of weeks. Ben brought home a failing grade on a factoring quiz last Friday, because he hadn't been paying attention in class, and because (I think) he misunderstood the quiz instructions.

Today he reported that they were doing a Connected Math group project, and there was a worksheet to be done. Ben's group of kids was given one worksheet, and Ben never got access to it; he had to try to read it upside down, and as a result, he only did one question out of three (not only that; I very much fear that the assignment was part of the dreaded My Special Number project).

Well, everyone is very well-intentioned and kind; but things are just not going very well. If middle school is sink-or-swim, Ben is sinking.

So I wrote this email. Names are substituted to protect the well-intentioned.

Dear Math Teacher,

I also need to level with you and Caseworker on another issue (although Caseworker knows about most of this from B's transition meeting last year). I am a math Ph.D., a former math professor and current engineer/researcher, and I run a website about mathematics education. I am very familiar with Connected Mathematics, as well as most of the other mathematics curricula that are currently used.

Last school year, I went to great lengths to find and open enroll B at a school in BVSD that did not use Connected Math. I was able to find only two schools that did not use Connected Math in the district; one was yours (I found out that yours did not use CMP by calling the school and asking. I was switched to someone in the math department who told me that you were using Prentice Hall). I was told by many parents that your school had a traditional math program, and that it was the best program in the city. I was dumbfounded and not happy to find, when I came to introduce myself the first day of school, that 6th grade math is using Connected Math in addition to Prentice Hall.

This is the reason I went to such great lengths to avoid Connected Math for B: CMP is a constructivist, group-activity-oriented math curriculum, with much in common with Everyday Math, the curriculum B used in grade school in 4th and 5th grade. His ability to function in class sharply declined when Everyday Math was introduced; this is well-documented and his sped teacher from High Peaks will back me on that.

Here are a couple of reasons for that:

-- CMP adheres to the notion that exposition is important in math ed, so that kids spend a lot of effort explaining what they've done (rather than simply showing their work). B is verbally delayed, whereas mathematically he has been on or ahead of target. Math is his strong suit, and language is not.

-- As today's activity shows, B is at a real disadvantage in group work, and I would prefer not to have him work on his social skills in math class. Unlike many other topics (eg English and Social studies), math is a cumulative body of skills and understanding. If B spaces out or is edged out of a group activity while studying the Aztecs, all he'll lose out on is knowledge about the Aztecs; if he misses out on learning about fractions, he'll be at a huge disadvantage indefinitely.

I have no problem with prentice hall. I do wonder, though, why B never seems to have assignments from it.

I decided to give the new school year a chance before mentioning all of this, but enough is going wrong for B in his math class that I am growing quite concerned and feel I need to bring all of this up. Of course, attending in class is going to be difficult for him no matter what curriculum is used. I can tell from your email that you can see that now. :)

All of this is nothing personal at all, by the way. B likes you very much and thinks you are a kind teacher, and I appreciate that a lot.

We can discuss all of this next week when we meet. I'm open to suggestions for mitigating the problems, or for changes. I just don't want to let things go.

Sincerely,
Carolyn

I'm actually very tired of swimming upstream, and wish I could just turn over and float for a while; but when it's your kid, you just can't quit trying to make things as right as you can.

-- CarolynJohnston - 14 Sep 2005

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