DS is a performance major in college (organ). In high school, he played organ, piano, and violin (including youth orchestra); he sang in a choir and played in a handbell choir. He practiced 4+ hours per day. His last year of high school, he played two full-length recitals on his primary instrument (one in the fall and a second in the spring). He worked as an accompanist and as a church organist; he went to summer music camps. He attended a prestigious Saturday music program in NYC. On and on and on... None of that made it onto the academic transcript. As a performance major in college, he continues to do a ton of music-related things for which he receives no academic credit. Yes, his music lessons for his primary instrument now earn him a full academic credit (his school is on a 4-credit/semester system); however, it's quite normal that his transcript doesn't really give him "credit" for all the things he does. His non-transcript related activities take up FAR more time than his transcript-related ones (if we discount his primary practice from either side of the equation). Proving that you can handle BOTH well is part of the assurance you are offering the music-admissions committee. I would list the music theory on the transcript; I wouldn't list the music performance. Peace, Janice Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey

BTDT. Yes, it will pass. May I offer some advice? Focus your school work AND your school day on OUTPUT not input! When generating assignments each morning, ask yourself, "What proof of learning will make ME FEEL like this boy WORKED today?" If most of the day's assignments were input assignments (reading, watching lectures, half-hearted "discussions" where I generated most of the the ideas, etc), then I always felt like something was missing - EVEN IF THE BOY WORKED QUICKLY and EFFICIENTLY. However, if I could sit there at the end of the day and SEE output - two pages of a really rough draft (as in this is a complete mess but at least it's something), three pages of math problems, a ready-for-tomorrow's-lab-report data-sheet for a science lab, and a voice recording of the boy's thoughts/summary of the lecture he watched. IF I could SEE his output, then I felt better about the day. I suspect he did too. When I nagged the 14-year old about his attitude towards work, I got NO WHERE. When I told him exactly what I wanted to SEE at the end of the next hour, we got SOME WHERE. NEVER WHERE I WANTED TO BE, mind you. :glare: However, something happened. And sometimes, that's all I needed! Focus on something you both can see. I wish you well; I do. And I can offer encouragement that your persistence will pay off. My boys are both doing well. No regrets! Peace, Janice Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey

Good Morning, I understand that it's frustrating when all students don't have access to the same education; however, making rules that says they will doesn't mean that they will. Requiring schools to offer a class seems like a good legislative decision until you take a minute to think about why the class isn't already being offered. For example, in his 2014 state of the state speech, the NJ governor explained that only three students in the Camden district graduated college-ready (combined SAT score of 1550+/2400) in 2013. THREE. There are about 15,000 kids in the Camden system. Insisting that the district offer AP classes makes no sense. However, if the governor wants to make it LOOK like we are doing more to make kids college-ready, then you can pass a law that says you have to offer the class. You can't PULL water uphill. You can pump it. Or you can build a pipe that allows it to flow downhill. But you can't just GRAB it and try to pull it uphill. It WILL slip through your fingers. If you pass a law, everyone involved will be sighing and rolling their eyes, but they will do what they are paid to do. They will offer the class. And will it help these kids? Maybe or maybe not. From a college admissions standpoint, what chance do those three kids have of getting a 4/5 on an AP physics exam? After all, they were offered the class, right? Equal opportunity. EVEN THOUGH IT ISN'T REALLY. However, now you have just given colleges an excuse to pass over these kids. They clearly aren't as well prepared as other kids. Now you have numerical proof! And no one can argue that they haven't been given the same opportunity. EVEN THOUGH IT ISN'T!! Maybe that's what this is about in the end. Sigh...

I must admit that I haven't read through every post. I scanned. In our neck of the woods districts have a really tough time finding a certified physics teacher. Sometimes it's nearly impossible. That's the reason they don't offer the course. It would be MUCH easier to find a qualified teacher. But they need a certified one. Not the same thing. For example, I would suspect that our very qualified Regentrude hasn't bothered to get her high school teaching certification. (Why would she?) No one - not even the local principal - would doubt that she would be an amazing high school physics teacher. After all, she KNOWS what kids need to succeed in college! However, the principal CAN NOT hire her to teach the course without the high school certification. And if the principal can't find someone with the certification, the school doesn't offer the course. Peace, Janice

Our youngest is headed into his third year studying music as an undergrad. He went to college a year ahead of schedule, so I only have info for three years of high school. He played violin, piano, and organ. Freshman year he was in a youth orchestra/string quartet that met on Saturday mornings. He stopped with the violin after freshman year to focus on keyboards. Junior year he attended a pre-college program at the Manhattan School of Music - also a Saturday program; he studied piano and took music theory and history courses. Honestly though? He has learned theory and history as an undergrad. I would focus on the performance and not worry too much about theory/history. He also sang in a well-respected choir. Summer music camp after freshman and sophomore years. Practice time for junior year was 2 hrs/day for piano and 2 hrs/day for organ with 1 hour lessons for each per week. He played a full solo piano recital at the end of his sophomore year. He played a full organ recital in November of his junior year with another full recital in June of his junior year. So yes, FULL schedule especially when you consider that he had to commute to the church to play the organ. Junior year he also completed 6 courses as a duel-enrolled college student (19 credits) and completed 3 courses at home in addition to the college app routine along with auditions. It was a LOT for him to juggle. Obviously the college courses were scheduled, so the times were inflexible. But apart from that, practice was first on the schedule - organ in the morning. First things first. He made it a priority. Then it was off to college. He is finding that college is very similar. Tons of things going on as a musician on campus; he is in a choir that sings for on-campus events and also tours (he also takes voice lessons in addition to organ lessons). He does a lot of accompanying, handles a part-time job as a church organist/choir director (off campus), plays on campus for chapel services, handles his coursework, and practices 4 hours/day. You have to love it in order to do it. It was tough for me to release him to spend so much time on music as a high-schooler. However, it was clearly a passion, so at that point, it made sense to let him experience it while he was still in high school rather than risk a false start at college. Four hrs/day spent in complete isolation (just you and the instrument) is a HUGE commitment. And it is not something everyone would enjoy. And life as a music student is unlike other majors. There are so many bits. So many tiny little things that you do that you don't seem to get any "credit" for even though they are terribly important. Learning to stay organized and juggle all of it? A learning curve in itself. For example, his primary instrument is like a 4-credit course; however, he spends at least 26-27 hours a week for THAT COURSE. A huge time commitment by any standards. And that's not just for junior/senior year; that's all four years - during the school year and during breaks. And he is required to participate in an ensemble for no credit; the group he is in practices for 7.5 hours per week with concerts (plus a 2-week tour) piled on top. Senior year students need an ensemble for their advanced conducting class; so underclassman are happy to help. However, for several months in the fall, that means late night rehearsals - they usually start after 10 PM because that's when everyone is available. And once again, bits - no credit, just something everyone does. He takes a voice lesson which is like a 1-credit course. A weekly lesson + daily practice + studio classes + a jury. A ton of work for 1 credit! And he does it every single semester. Certainly something kids should know they love before they try to pursue it as a vocation. :001_smile: For this child, hsing provided a distinct advantage. He had long days, but his instrument received his best hours. By his junior year, he had already stepped into his adult world of priorities. He earned great grades in his coursework, and he has continued with that pattern, but the bench was and still is first. Always! He had no long, drawn-out, 10-12 hours per week AP classes where you spend that kind of time for 30 weeks studying for a test in AP Lit when you really couldn't give two flips about literature. Instead? He took an honors-by-contract class with a terrific older prof at the college who studied at Oxford. He went to the college class and completed the regular coursework, and then he met with the prof once a week to discuss his research on one of the more obscure Shakespeare plays. They had fabulous and interesting discussions; it was great fun for the boy. The prof tried to convince DS to enter his final project in a competition, so the lad did well. In addition to receiving transfer credit, he submitted his paper for evaluation and received an OK for the course to count to fulfill one of his school's writing requirements. Engaging. Interesting. Great Education. And the course was completed in 15 weeks with no high-pressure exam at the end RIGHT when the boy was prepping for a recital. This was just one example of how we (without giving up on a rigorous and challenging education) took advantage of hsing to craft a schedule that fit the boy, not the other way around. Have fun! Be creative! :-) Peace, Janice in NJ Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey

For some folks: Group Project: (noun) Time to relax while you watch someone who cares do all the work. Or in our case: My kids knew that they were just going to have to take charge from the beginning. You can quickly determine who is who is the group and then adjust accordingly. IOW: teach your kids to start out as the leader (one who is secretly planning to do everything if necessary) and then only cautiously move away from that position as they progress through the project. The DAY the project is assigned my kid, group leader, includes everyone in a group email reminding everyone about how the group decided to divide up the project and what dates the group has agreed on. Unfortunately, in most cases, it's easier and WAY less time consuming to take on the responsibility yourself than it is to push others along. Trying to argue with a disinterested prof about who did what is a pain. In most cases, profs assign group projects so they have less work to do, not more. So the trick is to plan/organize the project so that everyone is done with their part well in advance of the due date. AND do it all via email/Google documents. That way there is a clear documented record of everyone's participation. The leader gets credit for being the leader, the workers get credit for working, and the slackers are obvious! Setting fake due dates for the group also makes it very obvious who is going to participate and who isn't WELL before things are due. The kids who have stepped up can then divide the remaining load among themselves. No drama. Project gets done well by the best students. And if there are members of the group who have done nothing, it is well documented too. Dragging is easier than pushing when something/someone has no form. Peace, Janice Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey

Not all of them are for minimum wage. As always, this depends on the school and the job. If you child has a special skill, they get paid more. Just saying that having the WS grant on file makes it easier to get hired. Peace, Janice

Just a quick follow up to Lori's great post. The first year no more than $3,500 many be via a subsidized loan. The second year it's $4,500, and then in the third year the cap slides up to $5,500 for the subsidized part. As I said, it doesn't mean you will be offered that. That is just the maximum you might be offered in a subsidized loan. Peace, Janice

Just a note - Don't have the fed formulas in front of me regarding loans. Just offering this to help folks understand something about merit aid that came as a surprise to me. I was wrong when I thought a scholarship would reduce our EFC. (According to your post, you aren't making the mistake I made. :001_smile: ) I'm sure you have read this. Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans | Federal Student Aid https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/loans/subsidized-unsubsidized#eligibility So, I thought the student would be offered the $3,500 in subsidized and $2,000 in unsubsidized. NOPE. The wording says, "No more than $3,500 of this amount may be in subsidized loans." Some of my kids were offered the $3,500/$2,000 combo platter, some were offered just $5,500 in unsubsidized, and some were offered a different cocktail. Depending on the kid and the college and the year. All over the place. So all three are paying different amounts of interest for the same amount of loan $$. Sorry - I don't know what the magic formula is! ================== A separate rant: One of the biggest surprises is that Merit Aid doesn't often reduce the EFC. Yes, some kids earn Merit Scholarships that make college tuition-free or free entirely. But that is often not the norm. For most kids: COA - EFC = Financial Need. And Financial Need can be made up of gift assistance (merit aid/scholarships and grants), loans (to the student and/or the parent), and student work-study. So, even at a 100% need-met school, scholarships don't often reduce the EFC. That remains the same; the student just gets a scholarship instead of grant money. The benefit, of course, is that if the student loses the scholarship for some reason, the cost of attendance doesn't change; the school will make up the difference with a grant. Weird, I know. Folks often think a scholarship will reduce their EFC. Nope; not always. Often the scholarship isn't big enough to make a dent in it. Scholarship dollars replace grant dollars; they are not often in addition to grant dollars. Here's a scenario: COA = $ 50,000 EFC = $ 25,000 Scholarship = $10,000 The parents pay $ 25,000 Scholarship is $10,000 Student is offered a Federal Loan for $ 5,500 Student is offered a campus work-student job for $ 2,500 College offers an additional grant for $ 7,000 ($50,000 - 25K - 10K - 5,500 - 2,500 - 7,000 = $0; Viola! 100% need met!) And that is considered generous. Often colleges don't meet financial need - which means that wouldn't offer that additional $ 7,000 grant. They would suggest that you and/or the student take out a loan. Check out this page for my state's flagship: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/rutgers-the-state-university-of-new-jersey-new-brunswick-piscataway-campus Click on "Paying" on the Left. The scroll to the tabs and click on "Financial Aid By the Numbers." Only 9% of students had full need met. That means that 91% of kids had some part of that $7,000 that they were left to figure out on their own! If you compare that to the college up the road - Princeton - the story is a bit different. They are a 100% need-met school. That just means that they were happy to cover that gap of $7,000. And in their case, Princeton runs it differently anyway. They use their own formulas because they have an enormous endowment and can afford to be more generous. My point is that most schools let you figure out that $ 7,000 on your own; they don't cover it.) The student loan: some kids are offered a subsidized loan, some an unsubsidized, and some a combo of the two. For a subsidized loan, interest on the loan doesn't kick in until 6 months after the kid leaves college. If you borrow $20,000, you only owe $20,000 the day you leave school. With a unsubsidized loan, the interest starts to accumulate the DAY you borrow the money. The day you graduate, you owe more than the $20,000. Now, the last thing you need to understand is that NONE of this is standard practice. It's all over the place depending on the school. That's one of the reasons the gov. voted that next year's package is going to be based on last year's taxes. I was surprised to find that out! Anyway - the hope is that parents will have better data as they decide which school is the right school. Here's more info about the EFC. https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/sites/default/files/2016-17-efc-formula.pdf And here's a scenario where the student gets a huge scholarship: COA = $50,000 EFC = $25,000 Scholarship = $30,000 The parents pay $ 14,500 Scholarship is $30,000 Student is offered a Federal Loan for $ 5,500 That's better than you shelling out $25K, but the extra $20K in scholarship didn't help your family save $20K. Sorry! And as far as your kid finding an on-campus job - good luck! Almost all of them are reserved for work-student students. As I said, there are variations. Hopefully folks will chime in. Peace, Janice Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey

I would also recommend these. Patterns for College Writing - Kirszner/Mandell http://ebooks.bfwpub.com/patterns12e.php?page=2 Try clicking on Part 2, Chapter 7, Description. (Chap 6-14 cover the patterns most used.) When you open the subheadings of the chapter, you can get a feel for the layout and you can explore samples of the book. They also have a book completely devoted to argument. (We used Patterns first.) The Table of Contents is available at the bottom of this page. Macmillan Learning: Practical Argument Second Edition by Laurie G. Kirszner; Stephen R. Mandell http://www.macmillanlearning.com/Catalog/product/practicalargument-secondedition-kirszner/tableofcontents#tab I like these texts because they offer more than "tell me"; they go on to "show me." PLEASE keep in mind that these are college-level texts. You should pre-read the selections to make sure everything is acceptable content for your children. Peace Janice Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey

Apparently this one is out of print. We found it helpful. At the very least, you can check out the Table of Contents via the link: Amazon.com: Webster's New World Student Writing Handbook, Fifth Edition (9780470435397): Sharon Sorenson: Books http://www.amazon.com/Websters-World-Student-Writing-Handbook/dp/0470435399/ref=la_B001IR3E8Y_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460549579&sr=1-2 Peace, Janice Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey

Hi! (Waving from the wonderful island where we write in books quite intentionally! :001_smile: Shoot, they're my books. I could pickle 'em in vinegar if I wanted to. ) How much is you education worth? Is it worth the $30? Do you respect the printer's work more than the author's work? WRITE. IN. THE. BOOKS. Grab a pen. Right now. Just turn to page 37, and write, "This book is mine. I own it. I can do what I want in order to REALLY own it. I am worth the 10 bucks!" Then read the book and write in it. OWN Cervantes' work, not Houghton Mifflin's work! (The printers come and go; it's Cervantes who has stood the test of time. Don't you want to know why?) When we read books that don't belong to us (school/library), they will never really belong to us. That's not the case now. IT IS YOURS! You wouldn't buy a coffee pot and set it in the corner. Your car? Your toilet? Do you eat your carrots? I would hope; they don't keep. Neither do books. (Not really! Have you ever been to a used library sale or a yard sale? NO ONE wants the old books. NO ONE!) They were printed in order to be consumed. Drink 'em in. Chew. Savor. And SWALLOW! Peace, Janice Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey P.S. Just do it once. Try it. After you are done, if you feel you have ruined the book, throw it out, buy a fresh one, and call it a $10 failed experiment. However, you may discover that you have had it all wrong. Tricking kids into keeping their books pristine is an economic thing for schools and libraries. If we consider all of the money spent to run a school, I think it's one of the dumber trade offs. Kids should be taught to read their books. A massively inexpensive thing to try IMO if you consider the potential payout in a world where everyone types in order to be heard. Around here, school budgets are well over $10K per kid. For 100 bucks a kid per year, we might grow some readers. ;)

One of the things I would highly recommend: find a couple of schools with rolling admissions and apply early - pick schools that will mostly likely send an acceptance letter. Those letters roll in, often accompanied by some merit money, just in time. The kid is gearing up for the BIG round of applications - complete with a couple of reaches. It's easier to motivate kids to reach for the stars when they know they've already hit something; or at the very least, they know that somebody, somewhere wants them - hopefully with merit aid. It does a LOT to help both the student and the guidance counselor momma face the Balrog, Tolkien's "cloaked in shadow" villain. Sometimes kids just need to feel the power of their own engine; college application time is one of those times. They need to feel it when they get a thumbs up, and they really need to feel it when they get that thumbs down. Peace, Janice Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey

Just dropping in to add a data sheet in case you don't have it. As you can see, it depends on the test. For example, a 720 on the Literature test puts you at the 80th percentile while an 800 on the Math II test puts you at the 80th percentile. Peace, Janice https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/sat/sat-percentile-ranks-subject-tests-2015.pdf This might also help - scroll to the bottom and download "Test Characteristics of the SAT Subject Tests" http://research.collegeboard.org/content/sat-data-tables

The History of the World: p. 6: "The prosimians were little creatures. Tree-shrews still exist which give us some idea of what there were like; they were far from being monkeys, let alone men. Yet for millions of years, they carried the traits which made humanity possible." p. 201: "The history of Greece took many curious turns after the fifth century, but the most sensational of them is how Greek civilization infused and gave direction to the imperial dreams of a kingdom which some said was not Greek at all: Macedon." p. 384: "Byzantium was not the only temptation to the predators prowling about the Middle East; indeed, it survived their attentions longer than its old enemy the Abbasid caliphate. The Arab empire slipped into decline and disintegration and from the tenth century we enter an age of confusion, which makes any brief summary of what happened a despairing exercise." p. 633: "There was a striking change in world history after 1500 and it was quite without precedent. Never before had one culture spread over the whole globe. Even in prehistory, the cultural tide had seemed set towards differentiation. Now it began to turn. Even by the end of the eighteenth century, the essentials of what was going on were evident." =========== I understand your desire to use a lot of primary source documents when studying history, but as you can see from the above, this text (and many others written by single authors as opposed to committees) provide plenty to discuss. The man has studied the subject, and now he has something to say. A historian can never just "stick to the facts." They influence. Helping our students to learn to identify when/why/how they are being influenced is very important. I spent no time trying to find books I agreed with to use with my kids. I look for evidence of scholarship, great prose, and the ability to influence/anger/appease the reader. Then we read and discussed. 1. What do you think about the word "carried" in the first quote? Tree-shrews, monkeys, and carrying. Tree-shrews/monkeys immediately conjures up the image of animals jumping from limb to limb with offspring clinging to their back. Then, bam, "carrying" traits? Nice word choice. Whether or not you believe what he's saying (and that's a discussion to have with your kids - even if you don't think the lines are problematic. Some people do; kids deserve to know that there are people in the world who don't believe the things they believe) - anyway, it's some nice writing either way. 2. Imperial dreams. Stop. What do you know about Macedon? Who are we talking about? What do you know about him? Didn't he carry the Greek culture to the known world? But isn't Roberts saying they aren't Greek at all? Did you ever think about that? What were they if not Greek? Does it matter? What about you? What culture are you? What does that mean? Is it significant? 3. Prowling predators. Not very flattering. Who is he talking about - because he just reduced them to wild animals. 4. Changes without precedent? Oh my. Much to discuss with teens here. I looked for texts that gave us something to talk about. Teaching my teens to learn to read/write (And remember, we are talking about kids who think they already know how to do this!) was very important to me. I hope this helps. Peace, Janice Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey P.S. I found Roberts because of TWEM. SWB recommended the book years ago. :001_smile:

Not a textbook, but a great read: The History of the World by Roberts. It's now in a 6th edition by Roberts/Westad. Amazon.com: The History of the World (9780199936762): J. M. Roberts, O. A. Westad: Books http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199936765/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687502&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1846144434&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1AHCAGYEG0AAE28H2CVF Peace, Janice Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey

Student debt is a big news story in March. It always is. There is a huge crop of kids who just received their financial aid packages and are trying to decide how much debt they are going to shoulder. Few will take on the $100K. Few. Most will just take on the $5500 the Federal Government is offering them for freshman year. Then $6500 the next year, then $7500, $7500. That's how they end up with the $27K in debt. I do find it odd that little is said about the amounts the parents are shouldering. I had no idea parents could just fill out a simple form, borrow up to their cost from the Fed, and kick the can down the road till after graduation. I honestly think these stories hit the news cycle every March because they get so many clicks. They make the folks who are taking on smaller amounts of debt (most of the population) feel better about what they are doing. Which of course reduces the amount of chatter/upset regarding the cost of the whole thing in general. News outlets produce stories that generate clicks; this one is a sure-win in March. (They pop up again in August when folks are signing forms.) Peace, Janice Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey

Hi, I also forgot to add this option for self-study (Although I'm guessing its referenced in the mega-math thread). Reputable and free. Single Variable Calculus | Mathematics | MIT OpenCourseWare http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-01sc-single-variable-calculus-fall-2010/ Janice Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey

As far as the KY Governor is concerned, I would tell him to focus on generating jobs for engineers. High paying jobs. He will have no shortage of engineers. In fact, I can't see that there presently is a shortage of engineers in Kentucky. Can you? Employment outlook for KY here. https://kylmi.ky.gov/admin/gsipub/htmlarea/uploads/Outlook.pdf According to TABLE 1 on Page 6 of the previous document, Kentucky is going to need 909 new engineers and architects to enter the KY workforce every year from 2012-2022. It took a while to find it, but here are the enrollment/graduation numbers for ONE college in Kentucky, the University of Kentucky College of Engineering (Note there is no mention of architects; I have no idea how many of those are graduating every year.). Assuming this isn't the only school in KY producing engineers, it looks like (# graduates) > (# new jobs) NOT the other way around! Fall 2015 By the Numbers | Kentucky Engineering Journal http://www.engr.uky.edu/kej/by-the-numbers-f2015/ So if we convince all those kids who want to study French that they should study civil engineering instead, are they going to find jobs? Where is the projected shortage of engineers in KY going to come from? Peace, Janice Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey

Hi Rose, I "liked" your post because I empathize. There's no "I understand but don't like what you're going through and wish I could help" button. Janice

On pg 131, he mentions the Discipline approach and the Discovery approach. The first asks this question: I have a quarter, a dime, and a nickel in my pocket. How much money do I have? The second asks this: I have three coins in my pocket. How much money could I have? ----------------------- That's fine. The first requires the student to find the right answer. I really don't think there is anything wrong with that. Kids have to do some of that. The second allows for different answers. That's fine, but in the end, they're still either right or wrong, and kids know that. They don't really feel anything different; the adults just feel like they have stimulated something creative. IMO, I think they are both kind of boring. It's fine if they're leading questions. IMO, the problem is that they stop. However, if the next question is this, then I'm on board: I have 1, 2, or 3 pennies; 1, 2, or 3 nickels; 1, 2, or 3 dimes; and 1, 2, or 3 quarters in my pocket. I must have at least one of each and can't have more than 3 of each. For example, I could have 2 pennies, 1 nickel, 2 dimes, and 3 quarters. How much money COULDN'T I have? Why? Is there a pattern? Peace, Janice Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey

I would NOT start with a 5-week Calc I class!! That class is designed for kids who took calc I, didn't like their grade (or flunked), and want to make a second attempt to get up the ramp before their course sequence gets too messed up. Everything is going to FLY by! IMO, it's a bad idea for a student who wants to gain acceptance to an engineering program. Please don't do it. If you speak to the tenured profs in the department, I suspect they will agree. I would suggest that you start with this. Just have him read it. It's a nice warm-up to the subject. The Hitchhiker's Guide to Calculus: Michael Spivak: 9780883858127: Amazon.com: Books http://www.amazon.com/Hitchhikers-Guide-Calculus-Michael-Spivak/dp/0883858126 Then check out Thinkwell's Calc (Burger) or the Great Courses Calc I series (Bruce Edwards). They are both great instructors who understand the college math sequence well. Have him work through either of them this summer on his own when his grade/GPA isn't on the line! Either will solidify his foundation and make it more likely he will experience success with Calc I and beyond. No guarantees. But having a sense of where you're going helps you pay more attention to the details the second time around. Peace, Janice Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey P.S. I am also guessing that your ds took PreCalc last fall, so there would be 9 months between his PreCalc course and the uni calc class. That's a decent chunk of time. Also keep in mind that most kids who are following the engineering track have had an introduction to calculus (AP?) before they hit that Calc I class at the university. So if your son want to be a distinctive student (and I'm guessing he does; the grade in the class will influence his admission decision), I would recommend that he not start the class in the fall cold. Fiddling around with the subject ahead of time isn't a bad idea, and it's one of those foundations that benefits from being rock-solid.

I am quite familiar with the STEM-crisis-as-a-myth argument Hacker put forth in the 1st half of the book (the problem). He is not the first. And he says so; he comments that he had been gathering the material for the book for over ten years. Among others, the following title supports Hacker, and he refers to it in one of his first footnotes. Falling Behind?: Boom, Bust, and the Global Race for Scientific Talent: Michael S. Teitelbaum: 9780691154664: Amazon.com: Books http://www.amazon.com/Falling-Behind-Global-Scientific-Talent/dp/069115466X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1458137170&sr=8-2&keywords=Falling+behind According to Hacker, the algebra - calculus sequence is not important for most careers. For instance, he spends some time claiming that engineers only use arithmetic. (pg. 52-54; BYW, I found this argument incredibly weak. A gal who trains high school math teachers was observing some engineers who were supervising the construction of an apartment complex. "... she peered over their shoulders, as they were confirming that some trusses would bear a building's weight... 'Algebra usually offers a heavy dose of complicated algebraic manipulation. In contrast, the manipulation I observed in structural engineering work was always simple, involving only one or a few basic operations' she reported." OMG, and Shakespeare wrote, "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none." He obviously has never heard of a dependent clause, and he did fine. Obviously it's a waste of time to teach advanced sentence structure. sigh. Engineers use the tool they need for the job. But you can't choose the right tool with confidence if you don't know how the other tools work. Top chefs use spoons to stir, but they have worked a whisk and immediately know when to reach for one. ) Back to Hacker - students should have the option of choosing other courses that demonstrate that they can acquire high-level problem solving skills. Hacker believes that math is an barrier to higher education for many and should be removed. It should be an optional path to higher education, but kids should have a path that allows them to earn a college diploma without mastering algebra II. He believes the problem is exacerbated when college students are forced to complete a math requirement in order to obtain a degree. He claims that often the course is tacked on as a requirement even though it offers few skills the student is going to need in their major or their career. According to Hacker, it feels like a right of passage, a way to weed out students. He goes on to object that the requirement is insisted on and developed by the senior faculty in the mathematics department although few (or none) of them have ever actually taught the entry-level course. At this level, courses are taught by TAs or adjuncts. In the second half of the book, he offers insight into a solution he has tried. A math for non-majors college course. He developed and taught such a course. This is where I agree with Devlin; Hacker's course falls short. Within the first couple of chapters of examples, I realized that Hacker probably hasn't spent enough time in a mathematics classroom with a real mathematics teacher. Not the kind of teacher who just shows you what to do in order to get the right answer. I'm talking about the kind of teacher who shows you why you are doing what you are doing. It's much harder to teach this way. But it is also much more beautiful. I have oodles of cookbooks. Some of them tell me what to do. And some of them have taught me how to cook. I like the latter. When I'm standing at the supermarket and see a gorgeous pile of fresh rosemary (the one that you can't help but press to your face while you inhale deeply even though you realize you are in public). When this happens, I want to be in the place where my imagination starts popping. "OK. What month is it? What else is in season? What do I have at home in the fridge?" Learning how to ask the right questions is very different from learning how to answer them. But it's a terribly fun way to cook! Devlin's frustration is justified. As is Hacker's - I do wonder how many sections of College Algebra Devlin teaches every semester. Perhaps he and Hacker could learn something from each other. Janice Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey

Is the CC Calc I summer course crammed into 8 weeks? What does your son want to do? What are his reasons? Please understand that some summer CC math courses are populated by students who normally attend other universities but don't want their required math-course score to affect their GPA. IOW, the class can be populated by the disinterested. (Not ALWAYS but sometimes.) Peace, Janice

Has anyone read the book? I have, and I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss what Hacker said. And I would like to hear what math lovers/appreciators and non-math appreciators think about Devlin's response after reading the book. Thanks, Janice Enjoy your little people Enjoy your journey