[Edu-sig] Switching gears...

[Morris, Steve]

Funny you should say so. I have a similar reaction when trying to help my
5th grader with math. Unfortunately I don't have the option of giving up on
the teachers. I have to work around them. I'm beginning to hate the "Chicago
curriculum" even though the only thing I know about it is the math problem
sheets that get sent home. The biggest problem is the stone wall that
appears whenever I try to get more information about the curriculum so I can
try to anticipate. The teachers treat me like an adversary that they need to
handle with kid gloves but for sure don't give any real information to. They
are polite but unhelpful. I'm afraid to push because of potential adverse
reaction towards my student child.

Sorry for the off topic rant but I am at wits end. I watch my 5th graders
motivation trickle away daily. I think I understand how to make math clear
and interesting but all my energy is wasted trying to compensate for the
weakness of his classroom work. I was hoping to give him an edge but instead
am trying not to lose him altogether.

Oh well, maybe next years teacher will be better.

 > -----Original Message-----
 > From: Kirby Urner [mailto:pdx4d@teleport.com]
 > Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 2:40 PM
 > To: edu-sig@python.org
 > Subject: [Edu-sig] Switching gears...
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > I think I'll give up pursuing the "math through programming"
 > thread with the math teachers.  I'll stay in contact with
 > the few with an interest who got in touch, but most of the 
 > time it's like talking to a brick wall.
 > 
 > Fortunately, the computer science track covers a lot of the
 > same material ('Concrete Mathematics', 'Art of Computer 
 > Programming'), so in some respects we can make up for 
 > deficiencies in the math curriculum by bolstering the 
 > computer programming curriculum.
 > 
 > I see a large homeschooler market developing here, as many
 > kids have computers at home but no competent teachers in 
 > school (Yorktown kids etc. are lucky).  I hope those 
 > computer science/programming teachers who share this stuff
 > with kids will continue putting a lot of it on the web in
 > an accessible form, as for every kid in the classroom, 
 > there will be 100 at home with fewer options to learn in
 > a group setting with a live teacher.
 > 
 > I feel sorry for kids who just get the regular K-12 
 > math curriculum these days.  It's not relevant to their 
 > needs.  But it's what the teachers are programmed to 
 > teach, and there's no sense arguing with essentially 
 > mindless automatons.  I can think of better and more 
 > effective ways to rescue kids from a dead end curriculum
 > and will be heading down those avenues instead.
 > 
 > Kirby
 > 
 > More in a similar vein:
 > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/synergeo/message/1876
 > 
 > 
 > 
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