Very well put. Sad, but true too. When our country decided to change their way our children learn math, they forgot to test the teachers as to their understanding. Meaning, I'd taught my son addition, subtraction and multiplication, along with the school. I had place mats at out table as a game for math so he could enjoy learning. It was pure hell in our home when the new math appeared. It was Division. My son wasn't grasping it, so I explained it was the opposite of multiplication, simply, undoing the numbers by figuring out how many times a number goes into a number, using his multiplication tables. No! That was not it, he said. He tried explaining to me, it was all out in left field, making a division problem way more complex than it ever needed to be. So I attempted to show him my easy way. No! I had to do it with boxes, etc. my college aged daughter with the genius is, had no clue what it was, nor her equally genius bf.
I visited the teacher, asking her to show me how to do this new math, she was flippant, telling me to have my son show me! I returned home defeated. I called the principle, she didn't know and unfortunately only the teacher was my only go to person so I could help my child show me. She again told me she would not show me, I could have my child show me how. When I asked 3 more times. My daughter stopped to ask the teacher, thinking she could help, fail! I then called the superintendents office. No luck. No one knew how to show me so I could help my child.
Why did we change the way things are learned, without showing parents how it's now taught, ensuring parents who cared to help their child were actually able to help their children?
This was back when there were no homework helplines. Internet was still a luxury and not considered something you wanted in your home around your kids.
Because of this one teacher, and the fact my father got cancer that same year, my son ended up a high school dropout. Not due to me not pushing him every step of the way. He simply gave up and got left behind. I knew he struggled, all his teachers knew he was smart but had difficulty on tests, he was polite, never giving him problems, very respectful, all positive except that he was struggling when conferences took place.
Each year he passed to the next grade and I thought, well, I guess he's okay even though he struggles on the tests and he got a D. , he's still passing. Nope! Senior year, he turned 18. I got a call from the counselors office, first one during his 12 yrs in public school. He was in her office wanting to quit now that he was legal age. I told her no way!! Then she explained he'd not be graduating with his class. Why? Because in spite of them passing him every year, his credits only made him a freshman!!!! They wait until senior year to tell a parent this?!?!?! I was furious! The only way for him to graduate on time now was to put him in an alternative high school where he could double up on everything, due to their credit system being lower than his old HS. So we transferred him.
The alternative school wasn't a place for him, even though it was one of the best I've ever seen. It was so cool I wished I could have gone there! He missed his friends, began to think he was dumb, it only brought him down to a lower level. He skipped, he wasn't doing the work, I pushed to make him stay, though he'd been 18 since August. Telling him if I allowed him to quit I'd be the worst mother in the world.
I am, because at the end on what would have been his senior year, he dropped out anyway. Unable to graduate with his friends, he no longer cared. Thinking getting a job would put him ahead of his class, while his friends went off to college, I told him he'd not by passed anything. Instead he had made life extremely difficult for himself for the rest of his life.
He's now 25, I think it might be finally sinking in. He's in a dead end job that he's worked at since 18. It's seasonal and because he doesn't have a college degree, they will never hire him as a FT employee or give him benefits. He just got a raise to 12.50 an hour, and he can't do division to this day. 12.50 an hour is not enough for an apartment, utilities or even to live with a roommate in the area we live in.
I blame his teacher in grade school for ALLOWING him to fall behind on something everyone needs for the rest of their lives, for refusing to help me, my daughter, his dad, so we could help him, for the school system allowing her to do it just because of tenure.
I blame the school district for not having a program in place to assist parents in helping their child at how with something they were never taught.
I blame the school district for not forcing that teacher to work with my child until he got it, for not forcing her to teach me so I could help him, and for passing children who were failing because it's not mentally good to have a child not move on with their friends.
I blame the school district for not telling me even though he was going to the next grade, he wasn't truly in that grade level and risked not having the credits necessary to graduate until his senior year.
I blame myself for taking care of my dying parents instead of hanging out with my son's friends parents to learn more about what things had changed in 11 yrs from my other child's school days.
I blame myself for not fighting harder that year and stopping at the superintendent level.
He is a bright young man and deserved much more than what he's ended up with because of one teacher, a principal, a superintendent and me.
A teacher must be willing to teach not only the student, but the parents and anyone else willing to help out at home to help her student. Refusing to show us how to do the new math, his learning stopped in grade school.
I found his middle school amplitude tests the other day, he was a B average in all other areas.
Someone decided loading kids up with college level homework in middle school and high school was better than the old way we came through school. Back when it was reading, writing and math. When if you didn't do your homework, you still got an A or B. When you actually applied yourself, it was easy as pie to get straight A's. College was a luxury, and not many went because of it. So a college degree was your ace in to any job.
Now, even a grounds keeper at a golf course, digging ditches for broken lines, breaking his back doing it can't get hired full time without a college degree.
Not many places will take a drop out as an employee. Not even a gas station.
He promised he'd get a GED when he quit. But it's like taking a course and passing an entire semester of physics these days. The old GED's where a lot of servicemen took to be able to enlist, were easy. Not anymore.
A year ago, he stopped in to the community college asking about getting enrolled in a GED program. The woman was so mean, condescending and nasty, and said they were closing in 15 minutes so she didn't have time for him, come back another day.
He told her it took a lot for him to muster up the courage to simply walk in their office to ask about the program and because of her attitude and treatment, he'll more than likely not return. She smiled and said that was his decision. True to himself in not allowing others to degrade him, he has only hurt himself by not returning.
So yes, the teachers ability to teach is as good as their Understanding. Tenure should never allow a teacher to defy a parent, principle or superintendent.
Parents are teachers too. Without understanding their child's curriculum, think of how many children will not get the full benefits of a free education, paid through our taxes in our community.
If I could have afforded a tutor or a private school, he would have had both.
Curriculum's need to be one all levels of parents educational abilities are able to help their children at home. Period.
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