I try not to be “that mom” that insists my child’s a genius. Actually, I don’t even think that. I do, however, think she is a smart child and know that she is capable of excelling academically. This summer, EP gave her math work to do every day and made it very challenging. She worked through 6th grade math review, learning decimal functions, percentages, etc. Now, we are well aware that this is above her current grade level (she just started 5th grade), but we had no idea how pathetic the curriculum was in our system (and it seems like the whole state!). She is in her 3rd (I think) week of school and her math homework is not encouraging. Today’s homework, for example, reads as follows:
672 - The __ is in the hundreds place; the __ is in the ones place; the __ is in the tens place.
I poop (yeah, I’m trying to keep it clean) you not!!! It got challenging *serious eye rolling* when they gave her numbers in the thousands to work on. Come on!!! What is this crap? In the meantime, EP is still giving her daily math problems to work on. Today, she had six problems. An example:
Find a number so that 17.8% of it is 115.
What is 4.4% of 25?
She needed the first type of problem explained to her, but was able to do the second type with no problem.
Her spelling/reading is no better. Her spelling words for the week?
Oak, Tow, and the like
What. The. Hell? I know that the beginning of the year is usually review for a while, but who are they reviewing? This is like 2nd grade stuff!
Seriously, I’m so disappointed in our schools! We have had her tested for the gifted program, but that won’t solve anything because, at her grade level, it does not give her advanced work in her regular academics. So what are we to do? For us, homeschooling and/or private schools are not an option– at least not at this point. I’m just so frustrated I can’t even put my thoughts together to make sense!
Stumble it!
I'm a 30-something mother and fiancee (soon to be wife). I live in Florida with my family where I am an Actuarial Analyst and Girl Scout Leader. My involvement in the Breast Cancer 3-Day is by far the best time I have ever had!
September 5th, 2008 at 1:03 am
I agree with you. No child left behind means that your child gets to sit there and hope and wait that the others will catch up. After 3 weeks of “review” we have enrolled our daughter in private school.
November 5th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Wow. I didn’t know it had gotten that bad.
You know, in high school, we had multiple levels of the same course in one grade. I’ve long wondered why we don’t do that for younger grades. I know I felt stifled and bored in 2nd grade, and that was 25 years ago. I’d lose my mind studying what she’s studying right now.
I used to get yelled at for not finishing my math work fast enough (’since you’re supposed to be so damn smart’, the teacher would say), but we were not allowed to begin working on other work when we were done - we were expected to sit there until EVERYONE had finished their classwork. I was expected to sit and do nothing. Then, I’d get yelled at for daydreaming. Nice. The school administration actually told my mother to stop reading to me at night because I was too far ahead.
We have to admit that not all kids are at the same level or move at the same pace. Letting some kids run ahead does NOT mean we’re leaving other kids behind. It means we’re doing the best for both. Some kids need extra help or more time, some understand the current lesson immediately and need to move on.
I hope I get to do a mixture of homeschooling and private school with my kid(s) when/if I have them. But in today’s world, that’s a long shot.