Hi V!

I thought that was you!

-- CatherineJohnson - 27 Aug 2005

You know, I think Chris's solution is the way to go.

Ed's cousin--I think I can put this in here--pulled her high schooler out of school (for reasons unrelated to this blog) and has hired an excellent math teacher to teach him, along with, I believe, a few other students. When I last talked to her, about a year ago, she was looking into high school calculus texts.

My sense is that the homeschooling movement has advanced so far that there are now good itinerant teachers out there, just as there have long been good piano & guitar teachers.

-- CatherineJohnson - 27 Aug 2005

Boy.

It's so depressing.

-- CatherineJohnson - 27 Aug 2005

Do you want to add the problem with the super-accelerated class?

This is a pattern that may be occurring, because the situation in Ben's new school looks like it's the same as in Christopher's new school.

One of the reasons I was so obsessed with getting Christopher into Phase 4 math was that it's the only math class that uses a traditional curriculum (Prentice Hall Pre-algebra).

The kids in the middle track use Math Thematics, a constructivist curriculum.

Interestingly, the kids in the lowest track use a decent, direct instruction curriculum whose name escapes me at the moment. So it's only the kids in the middle who are getting shafted.

BUT

The accelerated class is extremely unpleasant, to the point of being wounding and perhaps even abusive.

I know I've mentioned that kids typically lose one month's worth of math knowledge during summer break.

Our kids aren't given 'math packets' to do over the summer, so they come to 6th grade with the characteristic one month loss of skills--and then there is no review at all during that first month that I know of. (Maybe I'll find out otherwise; this is my impression from my neighbor's son's experience last year.)

Instead, the kids spend ONE FULL MONTH on 'problem-solving,' which means ONE FULL MONTH doing Math Olympiad problems they can't do.

(Last fall it was actually kind of hilarious, because at soccer games the parents of Phase 4 kids would be frantically accosting each other, trying to find out if anyone knew how to do the homework.)

That set the kids up nicely for a year of tests containing material far more difficult than any they'd studied in class, with median grades of 65.

In short, 'accelerated' math is taught like a classic college gatekeeper course for pre-meds: the point is to wash out as many kids as possible.

This is not the official, stated point, of course.

The official stated point is, 'I want your kids to go out in the world and solve problems. I want them to use their math to understand the world.' etc.

Apparently, spending a month NOT solving Math Olympiad problems followed by 8 months getting 60s on tests is just the thing when it comes to Going Out In The World And Solving Problems.

I keep meaning to get to a post about this: constructivist math doesn't mean only giving 6th graders problems a 3rd grader should be able to do.

It also means giving 6th graders problems a 9th grader should do.

There is a complete rupture of any kind of sense of developmental logic or sequence. Anything goes.

(When I get back I'll definitely do a post on this...)

Anyway, that's what Ben's up against.

In theory, Carolyn could move him to the most advanced track.

But if she does, he's going to spend his year not doing Math Olympiad problems.

-- CatherineJohnson - 27 Aug 2005

I would like to know when Math Olympiads became a curriculum.

-- CatherineJohnson - 27 Aug 2005

I never, ever, ever want to hear again that Parents don't like it because it's different from the rote way they were taught.

In fact, I'm banning that phrase now.

-- CatherineJohnson - 27 Aug 2005

(You guys can say it. Just no administrators.)

-- CatherineJohnson - 27 Aug 2005

I am a 2nd career math teacher in my third year in the classroom. I finished the work for my Masters of Education in the spring. During the discussion with my advisor about my final portfolio he told me he expected multiple samples of evaluations which were "non-threatening and non-judgmental"! This is what is being taught to our new teachers today. I am 51-years-old and know better than to believe this nonsense. However, my resistance nearly kept me out of the classroom. My student teaching "mentor" told me more than once that I better shape up or that I would never teach a day. We ended the term with me repeating verbatim his 1st period Algebra 2 "lecture" to the other 4 classes. Unbelievably, he limited the amount of time he spoke to 5 minutes per period. The balance of the hour was spent on "collaborative" projects. I could go on, but my point has been made. As parents we can not give up the good fight. It is our duty to our children and to our communities.

-- KtmGuest - 27 Aug 2005

As a school psychologist, I fully agree with everything you two are saying. I have never heard a student or a parent say one positive thing about "Everyday Math", or "Chicago Math", as it's called in this region. It's a nightmare for children who have any sort of learning challenge at all, regardless of how mild.

I can't fault principals for trying it, given the manipulative way curricula are marketed. However, continueing to use it when it's so obviously inappropriate is inexcuseable.

-- KtmGuest - 28 Aug 2005

I can't fault principals for trying it, given the manipulative way curricula are marketed. However, continueing to use it when it's so obviously inappropriate is inexcuseable.

I think the problem is that the incentives or interests of the principals/school systems has become completely decoupled from actually getting the job done.

I blame the Sixties. During the Sixties a new belief system arose, a belief system whose central tenet is that life is about the renascence of society through political action. This has been applied all over the place, but in the case of schools there seems to be a huge attempt to upset the apple cart for the sake of upsetting the apple cart. The New World being built with constructivist math will be wonderful because ..., well because we say so.

-- BernieJohnston - 28 Aug 2005

/*I think the problem is that the incentives or interests of the principals/school systems has become completely decoupled from actually getting the job done. */

very well put.
blame the sixties?
okay -- but with this important proviso:
as KTM observes on a nearby thread,
these apple-cart upsetters *are*
the very establishment that they proport
to be "rebelling against"
(cf. "we are the radicals" in KTM).

see also: tom frank's _conquest_of_cool_
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/259919.html
(and frank's work generally
http://members.aol.com/vlorbik/tenpage/baffler.html )
for elucidation of the business-culture
co-optation of "sixties" ideology.

it's the same with "diversity" :
MLK wasn't talking about just another
elaborate way of pushing people around!
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/Ihaveadream.htm

sixties radicals = honest-to-g*d culture heroes.
math-ed "reformers" = time-serving bureaucrats.
not that subtle, actually ...

-- KtmGuest - 28 Aug 2005

So how can we position ourselves to edge math-ed "reformers" out of the culture-hero position?

And they have government funding on their side...

-- CarolynJohnston - 28 Aug 2005

it'salwaysworsethanyouthink

-- CatherineJohnson - 18 May 2006