Jump to content

Menu

Funny and sad.....


Recommended Posts

I was looking at a 3rd gr. public school reading textbook tonight while we were at my dd's dance class. I noticed that at the end of each story, it had one page with a grammar concept. One week it introduced adjectives, the next week verbs, and so on. Not very much attention was given to each concept from week to week, so I asked another mother there if she knew if the children were taught grammar with a different resource than the reading textbook, and she said she didn't know. So she asked her child if they had an English textbook, and the girl didn't know what her mother was talking about. So I asked her if they had learned anything about sentences, nouns, verbs, etc. and she said, 'yea, I guess so'. On the way home my dd told me that the girl came up to her and said, 'your mom must be a teacher from a long time ago because she was asking me some crazy stuff'. Also, the girl's 15 year old sister who is a sophomore in ps didn't know what a predicate was. She said they don't do stuff like that, they only read novels.

Anyway, I just thought it was hilarous that the girl said I must be a teacher from a long time ago!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

my mil was here for Thanksgiving.

 

She saw my youngest Abeka grammar book. She looked through it. She said my neice and nephew didn't learn that stuff in school.

 

my neice is in college and majoring in English to be an English teacher. She said the prof said Grammar isn't important. She does not know much grammar. She is trying to learn it on her own. And has asked Grandma to help her.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That is scary. What are they teaching kids in PS these days?

 

I'm thinking the focus has switched to literary analysis. When my niece was in 2nd grade, she was coming home with worksheets with literary analysis terms on them.

 

And I wonder if this means I'm going to be in big trouble with the standardized tests this year because my son spends at least half an hour on grammar, but very little time on lit analysis at this point.

 

Lisa

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yay, another thread that makes me feel extra confident about my choice to homeschool and that I'm definitely not ruining my kids' lives by doing so :D I feel more and more lately like they will finish homeschooling better off than they would have been by going through public school.

 

BTW I have no idea what grades they introduce things in over at the public school these days but the other day my daughter (age 10, 5th grade) had a friend over to hang out. She's known this girl since preschool, they live in the same town, go to Girl Scouts together, etc. We were watching "Liberty's Kids" together, like the earliest episodes, and my daughter's friend hadn't learned about any of those things in school yet. I asked her what they were learning about in social studies and she said "the states" but she didn't know about The Boston Tea Party for example or any of that stuff yet. (She did ask me if the British "were like terrorists" lol).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was looking at a 3rd gr. public school reading textbook tonight while we were at my dd's dance class. I noticed that at the end of each story, it had one page with a grammar concept. One week it introduced adjectives, the next week verbs, and so on. Not very much attention was given to each concept from week to week, so I asked another mother there if she knew if the children were taught grammar with a different resource than the reading textbook, and she said she didn't know. So she asked her child if they had an English textbook, and the girl didn't know what her mother was talking about. So I asked her if they had learned anything about sentences, nouns, verbs, etc. and she said, 'yea, I guess so'. On the way home my dd told me that the girl came up to her and said, 'your mom must be a teacher from a long time ago because she was asking me some crazy stuff'. Also, the girl's 15 year old sister who is a sophomore in ps didn't know what a predicate was. She said they don't do stuff like that, they only read novels.

Anyway, I just thought it was hilarous that the girl said I must be a teacher from a long time ago!

 

Yes, from long long ago when they taught grammar. :lol:

 

I remember hearing the author of Analytical Grammar recount her story about trying to get grammar books into the middle school classroom where she taught. If I recall correctly, their refusal was the genesis of her program.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm thinking the focus has switched to literary analysis. When my niece was in 2nd grade, she was coming home with worksheets with literary analysis terms on them.

 

And I wonder if this means I'm going to be in big trouble with the standardized tests this year because my son spends at least half an hour on grammar, but very little time on lit analysis at this point.

 

Lisa

You're right. I remember seeing literary analysis terms in the textbook. I was kind of shocked, actually. It talked about onomatopoeia. I did think it was kind of weird when I saw that and I asked the sophomore if she knew what it was, and she said yes, but she didn't know what a predicate was.

 

I don't understand why they can't teach grammar and literary analysis.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...