Credit question for Logic by book or time?

[Kendall]

My son is working through Socratic Logic by Kreeft this year. He rarely spends an hour a day. Most days he spends closer to 30 minutes Because of the time spent I was going to give him a 1/2 credit(semester credit-even though he has done this all year). I was looking at syllabi for college Logic courses, and I've discovered that the college courses do as much or less than my son has done in a one semester course using the same book. It seems to be that 1 year high school credit=1 semester college credit.

 

If it were you, would you award a full 1 year high school credit?

 

Thanks in advance for your opinion.

[TechWife]

What do you mean when you say your son is "working through" the book? That would make a big difference in how credit is awarded.

 

I'm not familiar with the classroom model of the study of logic, but it seems to me that applying what is learned through the study of logic should be required in addition to book work. Are you talking with him about what he is studying? Is he applying it to real life situations? Has he written any papers that demonstrate an understanding of the material and how it should be applied?

 

Just trying to help you figure out what a credit would look like for this subject.

[Kendall]

Every syllabus I have looked at (with the exception of a critical thinking and composition course) has required the students to read the book and do odd exercises and take 2 or 3 tests (and sometimes quizzes). One course also had a small portion of the grade from finding fallacies and writing a brief explanation of them. I was surprised to find no writing assignments. That is what I went looking for when I started looking at syllabi. The composition course that used this book also had 3 shorter writing assignments and one longer one, but did not cover as much of the book. I thought I would try to incorporate 2 of those writing assignments before our year ends and maybe have him find some fallacies-though he has done this informally especially when listening to his sisters. LOL!

 

He talks about it and seems to really get it. He has made comments about this or that thing he has read being very well done logically (or not). He said to me about a PSAT math problem we are going over, "I know the efficient cause for missing this problem." He thought for a moment before he named the cause (And I'm not positive it was efficient that he said, because I haven't read the whole book). So he is definitely thinking about what he is learning. I wanted him to write, which is why I went looking. So do you think if I add a few writing assignments that would boost it to a full credit?

 

Thanks for replying and asking questions.

[Candid]

If you have found college syllabuses (syllabii?) using this book and you are following the same pattern, then you are justified in awarding high school credit. If he finishes the book in a year and you see that in college that would be two semesters, let me suggest one word of caution: what will college admissions officers think about two years of logic awarded with this one text. Most won't be familiar with logic and texts. If this is the case will they think he spent too much time in one book? If so, it might be wise to award one year's worth of credit instead of two (especially as this will be an elective).

[Kendall]

Thank you for the input and the caution;I do want to think about all angles of this.

 

I was debating between 1/2 year credit and a full year credit. Definitely not 2 years credit.