cricket1178 Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 I know there is always a big controversy over Saxon, but, it has been the only way I've gotten my children through higher level math. I'm not a math person. However, my sil is a highschool math teacher and is always saying how hser's use Saxon math and it is destroying their math abilities. She gets them in the ps and they can't do the ps text math. I have never gotten into a debate with her because I'm not math savvy enough to discuss it with her. My question is, does anyone know why she may hold this belief. Our local ps uses Saxon in the elementary grades, but changes at the junior high level. Both my sons used Saxon throughout highschool, my 2 dd's are doing Saxon Algebra I now, and doing well with it. My sons had good SAT scores which were high enough cumulatively to get them both scholarships. However, although their math scores were good, they weren't as high as I think they should have been. My sil's comment concerning their math scores was, "They probably would have been better if you'd used a different program." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinRTX Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 Well I don't know about your sil's comments, but my son did Saxon thru Calculus and his SAT math score was perfect. He also went on to major in EE and graduated college with a 3.9 GPA. Saxon did not cause problems here. Linda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StartingOver Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 I have three older children who did Saxon K - Calculus. They all scored very well on the SAT's. I have a second chance with little ones now, I will be adding in some other stuff with them. I will not however get rid of my Saxon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiver0f10 Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 Some of my kids didn't do well with Saxon but my two boys heading into engineering have done very well with it. My 19 yo is in his second year of college and has earned A's in all his math courses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 I would say that one problem with Saxon is that it is extremely easy for a student to learn how to do the problems by rote without internalizing the concepts because all of the the review makes this possible. Then the same student appears to be doing "well" in math, scoring well on the assessments because they are essentially identical to the problem sets. However, when this student moves to another curriculum or is placed in a situation that is outside of the controlled Saxon environment, he or she is unable to apply math knowledge to the new situation. I'm not saying that this happens to all kids who use Saxon, just that it is something to always be alert for, because the structure of the Saxon program makes it a very possible outcome. I know this can happen because it happened to my son. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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