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I am so disappointed — two of my kids both say most other kids in their math classes are totally lost and checking out.   I have a Junior in Algebra II — he thinks he is literally the only person in his class to get an A on the first test — the teacher hasn’t officially recorded any grades so she won’t keep students from playing sports over a poor grade — and is going to let them try to make up their grade in some way.   School has been going for about a month and it’s the point in the year where a poor grade can make it hard for students to be eligible for sports.

Then my daughter in 7th grade is in 7th grade math (aka on track for Algebra I in 9th).  She is not as good at math as my older son, I have been afterschooling with Saxon for over a year at this point.

She likes her teacher, but says she has somewhat lost control of the class (this year she says she thinks she has one other poor teacher — the rest she really likes).  Anyway — she likes this teacher, but says most classmates are lost and checked out.  Twice they have started a topic and then stopped and gone back to an earlier topic, I think because of students being lost.  My daughter says the teacher gives good explanations but that other students don’t ask for help (have already given up).

I really think this is because despite all the upheaval and missed school days — they are still going on with their normal math levels as if nothing happened!

I am very disappointed.

I hope it will improve!

I had talked to my husband over the summer and thought my daughter could quit afterschooling.  Well — now we think she will continue — because her class just does not seem like it is going to be sufficient.

They both do like the teacher and are doing their homework etc — but my son would benefit from some students to interact with in class, and my daughter’s class seems like it is going to fall behind.  She does benefit from feeling like she is good at her schoolwork — no drawback that way.  

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I definitely remember feeling this when I went to school. It got better in high school when I got past the "mandatory" math (I think at the time we were required to take up to Algebra, so pre-calc/calculus was better). I hope your kids find the other kids in class who are still trying to learn and not checked out. 

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You have to wonder how many of her classmates just don't have the foundation. 

I had a student in Algebra I last year who had a terrible year while in pre -algebra. His teacher went on medical leave in November, then maternity leave and then COVID. He admits not really doing math at all during that time.... needless to say, he struggled with Algebra I. 

Best of luck to you all this year. 

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I think it is a foundation issue 😞
 

It is just so disappointing it seems like it is not being addressed!
 

I have talked to some people in my family about it and they just have an attitude that kids are in full-time in-person school this year, so everything is back to normal, no need to be concerned!  
 

My daughter is not in the advanced math track, but I think about 30% of kids are in that track and 70% are not — I don’t think this is usual to be happening here.  

 

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On the bright side -- Saxon is going well with her right now.  She really benefits from the review!  

She is cooperative right now -- I am lucky she is being somewhat mature about "mommy math." 

My son would not have been when he was in 7th grade.    

 

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On 9/20/2021 at 12:52 PM, Lecka said:

I really think this is because despite all the upheaval and missed school days — they are still going on with their normal math levels as if nothing happened!

This is apparently happening at the local public high school as well.

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1 hour ago, Not_a_Number said:

They are just moving ahead as if nothing had happened. 

Apparently the math department was going to have a meeting about it here.  My 17yo informant thought it was to decide whether to curve the grades, but I'm hoping they're going to try to catch the kids up as well.  Thankfully my informant seems to be doing better than the majority of the pack, but not as well as he would like.

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My Junior in Alg II is in a class where they have a video to watch and then the teacher spends all the class time trying to help kids in the class.

 

He is doing okay with this is far as far as his grades.  
 

The first unit was review for him so I hope it will continue to go well when he has new material.  
 

Edit:  I mean I don’t know first-hand how he’s doing but I know he is doing the homework and got an A on the first test.  I have not seen anything of the actual class.  
 

The thing is — for his age, he was in Algebra I when Covid started.  Where we lived he just missed the end of Algebra I. (I mean — there was just not instruction — we hung around thinking they would end up going to school in July and August to make up for the missed time.). Then he told me his Geometry teacher last year added Algebra review.  But last year was also disrupted, and there are a lot of kids who were virtual last year who are back at school this year.  
 

The format is not great for my son.  But he is doing it.  
 

He does think the teacher is nice, too, which is a big thing for him.  

Edited by Lecka
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Roadrunner — good luck to your son!  My 16yo would probably not do anything outside of school.  I do feel fortunate my daughter cooperates! 
 

What is hard for us too — we are people who want our kids to respect teachers, we are not people who are really into “question authority.”  
 

So it’s just sad to feel like there is a bit of mixed messages and just the situation that the math situation is not good.

 

My daughter can see a bit that the math situation is not good, too, and that is a lot of why she is cooperative.  
 

We had really planned on being done at the end of summer.  She is doing well with the things I was concerned about from 5th/6th grade (she missed a portion of 5th grade math and 6th grade was disrupted).  
 

She is already on track to take Algebra I in 9th grade and take Pre-Calculus or College Algebra as a Senior (they have DE on the high school campus for College Algebra).  
 

It’s just not acceptable for her to be falling behind that in 7th grade because the teacher needs to review fractions!

 

But what are they supposed to do if kids had so much disruption and didn’t have private tutoring?  
 

My older son is a stronger math student than my daughter so it’s different with him.  He would be more advanced if he hadn’t had “maturity issues” in middle school, but at this point I think it’s just as well, sigh.  But I think he is probably going to be fine, if without the level of class I really wish he were in, and that I think he would be in if not for Covid.  

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Roadrunner — also — I don’t even thing the video lesson format is great for my son, but at least I am not having to look for video lessons myself!!!!!!!  And he would definitely have a problem with that, too.  I am sorry this is the situation you have — I think it is unconscionable.  

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4 hours ago, Not_a_Number said:

@Roadrunner -- how's he feeling about school? 

I told my uncooperative child that it's her job to figure out how to be homeschooled if she wants to continue to be homeschooled 😛 . I wash my hands of it. It's no longer my problem. 

He hates the school part of it, but loves seeing kids daily. Also loves the praise from teachers. And he wants to play sports. Hates long hours and homework and how brainless most work seems to be.

Edited by Roadrunner
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It is too bad!  I think it is just wishful thinking I guess that math instruction can be so haphazard and it doesn’t really matter long-term?

But your son’s teacher sounds bad even behind that, ugh.  It’s really not fair.  
 

To be positive — it does sound like some things are going well for your son, at least there is that.  It can go a long way I think.  Even if — other things should be better.  

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6 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

He hates the school part of it, but loves seeing kids daily. Also loves the praise from teachers. And he wants to play sports. Hates long hours and homework and how brainless most work seems to be.

I have decided he is incapable of acting in his interest. It’s almost as if there is something installed inside him that makes him want to do exactly opposite of what I say. Is there a name of this disorder? If I say fly, he jumps. If I say jump, he swims…. He can’t help himself. 
And therefore I can’t help him. 😞 

Oh, yes. That's the same thing for us. But it's definitely just something that's about OUR dynamic and not about DD9 in isolation. Like, she listens to other people. 

That's why I said it was up to her 😛 . If she can figure out how to work with me, that's great. If not, she can go to school next year. Either way! 

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3 minutes ago, Lecka said:

It is too bad!  I think it is just wishful thinking I guess that math instruction can be so haphazard and it doesn’t really matter long-term?

But your son’s teacher sounds bad even behind that, ugh.  It’s really not fair.  
 

To be positive — it does sound like some things are going well for your son, at least there is that.  It can go a long way I think.  Even if — other things should be better.  

Yes, I am trying to persuade him to work with me on math.

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10 minutes ago, Not_a_Number said:

Oh, yes. That's the same thing for us. But it's definitely just something that's about OUR dynamic and not about DD9 in isolation. Like, she listens to other people. 

That's why I said it was up to her 😛 . If she can figure out how to work with me, that's great. If not, she can go to school next year. Either way! 

Of course it’s your dynamic. Same here. It’s dynamic between us. It’s been like this forever and gradually got worse. 
I hope you figure things out. We have tried a thousand different things, and I have just concluded that he is who he is. 
Isolation wasn’t  an issue until school work got real. When kids were young, we were social butterflies.

and yes, he works for others more, but again, he works mostly for himself. 
 

 

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10 minutes ago, Lecka said:

It is too bad!  I think it is just wishful thinking I guess that math instruction can be so haphazard and it doesn’t really matter long-term?

But your son’s teacher sounds bad even behind that, ugh.  It’s really not fair.  
 

To be positive — it does sound like some things are going well for your son, at least there is that.  It can go a long way I think.  Even if — other things should be better.  

Yes, and if you have a syllabus that you can follow that it’s even better! 
We never know what DS’s class does in a given day. 
And all the work is group work. Sometimes it takes several days for them to even know if they solved problems correctly. No daily feedback. 

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For my son — he is at a point I can tell him, look, there is going to be a math placement test when you go to college.  Or they are going to just go off your ACT math score.  
 

Either way there is a score, and to do well on a test he has to do well on the test — and it doesn’t matter if he had a stupid class or a poor teacher.  And he can try to overcome that!  Or he can just — be somebody who doesn’t do well on the placement test or math ACT.  
 

And then here are those consequences.  
 

He is old enough that he does connect with that.  
 

But I don’t know about day-to-day or if he had to go through me.  He is not someone who could design self-study on his own.  
 

It’s more — motivation for his current math class.  Which is acceptable but not ideal.  
 

Yours really does sound unacceptable, unfortunately.

 

Its hard to be realistic about this kind of thing, though.  It’s probably only this year my son is really thinking he will go to college soon and be impacted by these things.  
 

He does also have some pride with being a good math student and wanting people to think he is a good math student.

 

And this is a bit impacted by him not being advanced, but it seems like it has turned out not that many kids are really advanced — there are more kids who were advanced in middle school who are not doing as well now. But how much of that has to do with Covid, sigh.  
 

Anyway — he is seen by his own friends as someone who can help them with math homework.  But I don’t think any of his main friends are advanced in math, either.


Just this year he is starting to make friends with someone in AP Calculus as a Junior, in his history class.  But he is better in history than that boy.  
 

None of it is — the kind of thing that would make sense to an adult!  I mean, it makes sense, but it’s so based on things that don’t necessarily make a lot of sense.  

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11 minutes ago, Lecka said:

That is just SUCH poor instruction!!!!!!!

 

It honestly makes me angry.  

And only in math, at least for us. The rest of the classes are very organized. Even English. I might not be all that happy that they are writing about toxic masculinity  and how rich people have no empathy as opposed to reading some real literature, but they are at least organized. 
Math is chaos. 

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We've had a rough transition back as well.  Our district isn't just assuming kids are where they are supposed to be, but we are really seeing a mismatch of skills + coursework in some classes and we're also seeing a lot of students who are wholly unengaged.  

High school, IMO, is where things really fall apart in terms of lacking foundational knowledge. Kids are coming out of elementary schools with weak skills, the catchup efforts in jr high never get them to where they should be, and it all falls apart in high school. 

OTOH, my 12 yo was crying this morning, lamenting that she had asked to go back to public school.  I asked what was wrong and she was showing me her homework. Her teacher, who is teaching a new course but is a teacher with 25 years experience, had lifted a community college personal finance assignment and assigned it without a lot of explanation to dd.  Dd has never even used Excel before for math calculations, and the assignment was asking her to not only classify transactions, but to build an ideal budget and compare the two, acting as a personal adviser. *headsmashagainstwall*  

So, pretty much everyone lost their minds in the last 18 months.  Here's hoping we find a happier groove soon.  

I'm continuing to tutor math and science at home. I don't expect it to happen well at school.

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Here any concerns about education have been taken over by mask drama.

School board meetings are taken up with mask drama and there’s no energy for anything else.

That’s what it seems like, at least.  
 

It’s so disappointing.

 

There is a Catholic school here that is K-8 and it’s the only school in this near area that is strictly enforcing mask use.  They are 100% masks for everyone.  
 

Because there is a state ban on mask mandates — that’s it — at least within a 20-min drive.  
 

The public schools are focused on mask drama.  Lots of people are mad on both sides.  
 

It’s such a disservice and such a distraction.

 

My high schooler has a lot of good teachers this year, too.  He says two of his classes have unengaged students but the rest do have engaged students.  He does like all his teachers.

 

My daughter had a wonderful Language Arts teacher last year, and this year has one who seems awful.  But her science, geography, and band teachers seem really good.  Her other elective right now is taught by the science teacher — it’s all fun hands-on science projects.  She likes that one, too. So there is a lot that is So Much Better this year.  
 

I feel like math is the subject where foundational knowledge matters the most, sigh.  
 

Both of these two kids are doing much better socially this year, too, compared to last year.  

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@Leckasorry you are dealing with mask drama.

We are very fortunate. About 80% of eligible population is vaccinated locally and masks are mandated. While we are still seeing cases in school, it is most definitely manageable here. 
 

I want to say coming from a homeschooler perspective that it takes a real grit to survive PS, a very different grit than what one needs to be successful as a homeschooler. Mine is on the bus at 7AM and not home until 4 PM. He is just exhausted most of the time. It has been physically grueling, so much that it is hard to focus on anything. 

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@Lecka the kids in my daughter's class don't seem to be checking out, but their skills don't hold a candle to hers. However, I really wanted her to go in at the top of her class since she lacks math confidence, and that seems to be working. The class driving me crazy is biology. As my son says, the class is fine, it just isn't biology. Two of the topics are global warming (4 week unit) and consent (6 week unit). WTH???

@Roadrunner it is hard to have a student in brick and mortar school! My two are high schoolers, and I need to not be hypercritical or I just alienate them, but after having thought so much about education and philosophy of education, it is hard to stomach what someone else is doing. OTOH, they are learning good life lessons and dealing with things that I want them to deal with before they move out of my house.

Emily

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My 10th grade BK is one of the totally lost kids in math class. Part of that is her- I think she is absolutely convinced that nothing she does in school matters since she can just come home and homeschool again anyway-but part of it is that the teachers don't seem to be adapting the pace or where they start at all without recognizing that the kids all missed a quarter of everything in 2020, started out behind in 2020/2021, and didn't get through a full year then because they were theoretically hybrid last year (in school 2 days a week, supposedly at home the other two)-and most of the teachers found that in practice, there was no way they could teach in 2 days what they usually taught in 5-but are now acting like they did-so Algebra 1 students are missing about half of pre-algebra, Algebra 2 students missing about half of Algebra 1, etc. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I have someone close to me who just became a high school math teacher.  I am hoping that she'll end up with more clarity after her first year - mostly because I think she and I come from very different perspectives.

I tutor the kids who are absolutely lost in math class.  She teaches to the middle of the pack.  I tend to be heavy on visualization and processing, she tends to focus on the abstract/procedural.  I have classroom sets of things that she could absolutely use to reach those who are struggling, but she doesn't think they're needed. 

It's been a hard two years for most kids in public school.  I can only hope they're getting what they need to go to higher math later and fill in the gaps created from before.

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8 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

I have someone close to me who just became a high school math teacher.  I am hoping that she'll end up with more clarity after her first year - mostly because I think she and I come from very different perspectives.

I've found most people don't get that much more clarity, unfortunately. I've seen people confuse kids over and over again and have no idea they are doing it. I'm not sure how it works, but I keep seeing it -- people assume kids are quiet because they understand everything already and people assume bad test scores just mean the kids aren't working hard... 

I hope that's not what happens in this case. But I do keep seeing it. 

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On 9/27/2021 at 11:29 AM, Lecka said:

My Junior in Alg II is in a class where they have a video to watch and then the teacher spends all the class time trying to help kids in the class.

 

He is doing okay with this is far as far as his grades.  
 

The first unit was review for him so I hope it will continue to go well when he has new material.  
 

Edit:  I mean I don’t know first-hand how he’s doing but I know he is doing the homework and got an A on the first test.  I have not seen anything of the actual class.  
 

The thing is — for his age, he was in Algebra I when Covid started.  Where we lived he just missed the end of Algebra I. (I mean — there was just not instruction — we hung around thinking they would end up going to school in July and August to make up for the missed time.). Then he told me his Geometry teacher last year added Algebra review.  But last year was also disrupted, and there are a lot of kids who were virtual last year who are back at school this year.  
 

The format is not great for my son.  But he is doing it.  
 

He does think the teacher is nice, too, which is a big thing for him.  

My son is taking ALgebra II this year as well. I was also concerned because they just dind't learn the end of ALgebra I and as far as I could tell his Geometry teacher did nothing with it :(

Then this year he's already had a change of math teachers.

His grades are good but I'm concerned if he's actually learning or not!

 

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When my older child was in public school, I had to reteach the entire subject. The textbook was a mess. They did not even hand them out so I requested a copy. What they had online was a mess. And the teacher was so clueless. The one teacher, when I spoke to her, she was frustrated over how she was being forced to teach. I suspect she would have been a good teacher if the school had not forced her to teach it how she was required to teach it. I hear from parents of kids that I know to be wonderful and well disciplined that despite having taken math through pre-calculus, they cannot even get a 600 on the SAT math. 

I think the only solution is to just re-teach everything yourself, on your own, with your own materials, not the school's materials. 

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I am going to call the counselor on Monday (it's Fall Break), supposedly they are letting kids test into another math class.  I do not know the details and I think it is new.  I do not know much about it.  My daughter's class really seems like it is moving slow.  Now she is bored and I think she has an impression too that they are moving slow.  

My son is happy with his right now.  He likes the video instruction.  So far, so good, as far as I know.  I just doubt he is getting the depth he could be getting.  But -- he is happy with it, and doing what he is supposed to do.  It is one of his easiest classes this year, and he is more interested in some of his other classes.  

 

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@Lecka I feel like so much more is messed up now than normal at PS. My daughter has a great math teacher, but her Spanish teacher is on leave for pregnancy and they haven't been able to find a Spanish-speaking sub. We just got a letter saying that the kids won't get a first-quarter progress report because none of their work has been graded. DD has been talking about using our homeschool curriculum for Spanish again, and I'll probably push her on that starting this weekend. 

Emily

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We have a mix of things that are back to normal, or even better, because teachers want to do the things they like and be done with zoom school.  Some teachers loathed zoom school and are making up for it now with fun things and enjoying being around kids again.

Then there are the things that seem like they have gotten a lot worse!!!!!!!!!!!

Some things just seem like once they stopped they are hard to get going again.  
 

Then it seems like there are a lot of things where students were on a path to be aware of certain things and then be interested and think about doing those things in the future.  

 

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On 9/28/2021 at 6:37 AM, Roadrunner said:

Yes, and if you have a syllabus that you can follow that it’s even better! 
We never know what DS’s class does in a given day. 
And all the work is group work. Sometimes it takes several days for them to even know if they solved problems correctly. No daily feedback. 

Ah the perfect way of evening out the level of achievement and the amount of confusion.

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My kids' standardized test results came back from spring 2021.

I knew my kid was kind of borderline in Algebra - she has always had to work very hard just to keep up in math class.  And she didn't do any extra practice to shore up whatever did or didn't happen during March 2020-April 2021.  I just didn't have it in me to force her.  Also, she was quarantined just before the test review and had to make up the test when she came back.  Nobody was expecting good results.

So when my kid got "basic" level (the level below "proficient"), I was just glad it was barely enough to meet the minimum graduation standard (meaning she didn't have to re-take the test until she passed).

What surprised me, though, was that her score was right at the average for the (suburban) school district.

This year she took honors chemistry on the recommendation of last year's science teacher.  She was completely lost with all the math, and tried to transfer to general chemistry.  Last week I spoke to the honors chemistry teacher, who said she has seen significant gaps with all of her students in math, different from past years.  She blamed Covid and just taught the relevant concepts as needed.

I don't really think Covid is the main reason for my kid's problems, but it surely hasn't helped.

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I'm glad she met the graduation standard, SKL.

Our district has decided to do fall proficiency testing--MAP testing--because they are trying to figure out where everyone is at academically. 

Ds took the PSAT yesterday. I'm super interested to see his scores.

On the general public school front, the tents for outdoors eating have come in.  The bus driver shortage has gotten so bad that they aren't able to keep all routes running. They've done one round of consolidation and they are still having issues.  The substitute shortage is so bad that the state just waived the requirement that substitutes have college education. But, they seem to still be feeding people everyday, and they haven't had school wide covid shutdowns yet (just classrooms).

All of that said, my son loves his engineering class, my daughter is loving choir, and they are both in classes I couldn't easily replicate here at home. Being in school is a good thing for them.

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On 9/27/2021 at 1:57 PM, Roadrunner said:

And only in math, at least for us. The rest of the classes are very organized. Even English. I might not be all that happy that they are writing about toxic masculinity  and how rich people have no empathy as opposed to reading some real literature, but they are at least organized. 
Math is chaos. 

I just read through this thread. Wow...we are considering sending our younger kids to public school next year, but this thread is very disturbing indeed. I expect that this is going to have effects for years down the road, into college courses and beyond. If the foundation is lacking, everything else build on it will suffer.  Also, roadrunner, is there no pushback from parents against essay topics that denigrate a large part of the student body (speaking as the mother of 3 boys from a financially comfortable family)?

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5 minutes ago, Mom_to3 said:

I just read through this thread. Wow...we are considering sending our younger kids to public school next year, but this thread is very disturbing indeed. I expect that this is going to have effects for years down the road, into college courses and beyond. If the foundation is lacking, everything else build on it will suffer.  Also, roadrunner, is there no pushback from parents against essay topics that denigrate a large part of the student body (speaking as the mother of 3 boys from a financially comfortable family)?

Honestly? I don’t think anybody is paying attention. And we also had a chuckle because our school spans a large geography including some of the richest neighborhoods around here. 

I am a homeschooler at heart, so I can’t help but to check on every little thing they write and read. Working on letting go of control here and it’s not working out so far. 🤣 Most parents don’t care I find or don’t bother to know what is happening because they trust the school or simply aren’t into education. 
Common Core requires certain amount of nonfiction in English classrooms, I think. Hence the topics/articles I mentioned. Again, I wouldn’t have a problem with it if they used it for critical thinking, but they are teaching it as a fact in a way. Read, respond. My kid said if he even raised an objection to any of it, he wouldn’t get a good grade. So we shrug shoulders and wonder why great literature can’t be used to illustrate and teach about violence, greed, or any other human conditions. 

I am thinking whatever unit they are on will end, and hopefully they are going to move on to some better content. 🤞

As far as math is concerned, most parents aren’t knowledgeable enough to even identify poor instruction. If I hadn’t been exposed to AoPS, I might have also bought into school math. 

 

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My Junior has learned about Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and The Crucible this year, so far, in English.  He has liked both.   

Honestly this year is going so well for him, compared to last year.  

Same for my other kids, too.  

I ended up deciding not to have my daughter try to test into a higher math class.  I honestly think she would just skip some topics!  And right now -- I honestly can't say I am sure I would get them covered with her between after-schooling and summer.  I also am not sure she is going to be ready for Algebra I in 8th grade.  It's still an option at the end of the summer -- we can see where she is then.  

I think she wanted to do it because her friend did it, and because of how her current class is right now.  But I don't think it's a solution if she would miss some math topics, and I'm also not sure there wouldn't be similar issues in that class -- because there are similar issues in my son's Algebra II.  

He does like the video instruction kind of thing.  He likes the model of video instruction and then homework time during class.  I have a feeling like "well why does he go to school to just have video instruction," I am not crazy about it.  But he has teacher instruction in his other classes, at least. 

He does like being back at school.  For this class specifically -- he feels like he would rather do it from the comfort of home.  But overall he likes being back at school.  

He does like the math teacher, too, he thinks she is nice and friendly and personable.  This goes a really long way for him.  I have a hard time giving credit for that, but really I know it makes a big difference for my son, and I know he is motivated to have a teacher think he is doing a good job.  He also does help classmates here and there, and he doesn't "have" to do it, but he likes it when he does do it and it goes well.  I think it is good for his confidence.  He's not somebody who is always getting put in that "help the other kids" role which I think makes a big difference.   

 

Edited by Lecka
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To say something positive about public school -- I have a 7th grader who has autism and hates reading, he hates, hates, hates, hates reading.  I have worked with him a massive amount on reading, I do everything I can to provide him enjoyable reading material.  He hates it.  He does anything he can to get out of it, or stare into space instead of reading.  He is in special education classes at school, also.  

He is an an elective this year called Bookmania, and the purpose of the class is to build reading stamina by having kids read for 30 minutes.  Then they get 15-20 minutes of free time.  

My son is reading for 30 minutes a day, and likes the teacher, and likes the librarian who helps him pick out books.  

I have tried to do this and not succeeded -- so I am *amazed.* 

I told the teacher at the beginning of the year my son might need to do audiobooks, and the teacher said that would be an option but he would try reading first.  Within two weeks he was reading for 30 minutes!  

I could not get him to read 5 minutes at home.  

Now a handful of times I have gotten him to sit and read at home, and he settles down and reads in a way where -- I believe he is actually reading at school.  The first time I have seen him settle down to read like this.  

Anyway -- I am really pleased 🙂 

It makes up for a lot.  

 

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My older son is also taking an Anatomy class this year he really likes, and my daughter really likes Geography.  There are some other highlights.  

Math and my daughter's Language Arts teacher are the big fails this year.  

And of those -- definitely math is the most worrisome!  

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We love the access to science labs at PS. I am hoping that can spark an interest in science for my child. He seems to really enjoy that rather than mommy run kitchen lab disasters. 
He also has a very good human geography teacher who is knowledgeable and caring. And being accountable to somebody other than a parent seems to be a very good thing here. 
It seems that we are happy with everything but the core - math and English. In my ideal world the school would run Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday would be a day at home doing all the homework and then back to school on Thursday and Friday. My big concern is how little time there is in the evening for either extracurriculars or just downtime. And if he had that extra time, he would read, which would make me feel less worried about his English class. 
 

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