Why is everything so mediocre around me?(Warning: long rambling post)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last year VA is giving out $1500 learning acceleration grant, and I applied and got it, so I sent my 2nd grader to Kumon. In Dec. the Kumon center had a graduation ceremony, kids doing one grade above gets silver, and kids doing two grade above gets gold.

Most kids are doing at least one grade above.

What are they doing for 2nd grade or 3rd grade math there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP I have a kid who underachieves and I am far from a tiger mom. But yes - what you are learning is that public school education is BAD no matter how fancy the school district. Based on conversations with relatives in coveted public districts, I do think you start to see more value in middle school. For example I visited Westland Ms and the orchestra sounded amazing.

You may also want to move to an area with more Asian families.

You are a racist and people like you will only be friendly with other Asians.

Yet white people never have a problem with only having white friends...

—signed an immigrant who hates where I can from and loves everything about America and Americans, which is why I’m here and not there.

But Asians Americans are an integral part of America, so they are actually from here and helped shaped America's past, present and future. Oh snap -- your rickety logic ladder falls down

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP I have a kid who underachieves and I am far from a tiger mom. But yes - what you are learning is that public school education is BAD no matter how fancy the school district. Based on conversations with relatives in coveted public districts, I do think you start to see more value in middle school. For example I visited Westland Ms and the orchestra sounded amazing.

You may also want to move to an area with more Asian families.

You are a racist and people like you will only be friendly with other Asians.

Yet white people never have a problem with only having white friends...

—signed an immigrant who hates where I can from and loves everything about America and Americans, which is why I’m here and not there.

But Asians Americans are an integral part of America, so they are actually from here and helped shaped America's past, present and future. Oh snap -- your rickety logic ladder falls down

Asians were instrumental to building the railroads, sure, but it’s very inaccurate to call them an integral part of America historically. Come on. They are new immigrants and very welcome, but not if they don’t want to integrate and assimilate with the rest of us, like the PP who said they only hang out with other Asians.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP I have a kid who underachieves and I am far from a tiger mom. But yes - what you are learning is that public school education is BAD no matter how fancy the school district. Based on conversations with relatives in coveted public districts, I do think you start to see more value in middle school. For example I visited Westland Ms and the orchestra sounded amazing.

You may also want to move to an area with more Asian families.

You are a racist and people like you will only be friendly with other Asians.

Yet white people never have a problem with only having white friends...

—signed an immigrant who hates where I can from and loves everything about America and Americans, which is why I’m here and not there.

But Asians Americans are an integral part of America, so they are actually from here and helped shaped America's past, present and future. Oh snap -- your rickety logic ladder falls down

Asians were instrumental to building the railroads, sure, but it’s very inaccurate to call them an integral part of America historically. Come on. They are new immigrants and very welcome, but not if they don’t want to integrate and assimilate with the rest of us, like the PP who said they only hang out with other Asians.

You’re a 🐷

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP I have a kid who underachieves and I am far from a tiger mom. But yes - what you are learning is that public school education is BAD no matter how fancy the school district. Based on conversations with relatives in coveted public districts, I do think you start to see more value in middle school. For example I visited Westland Ms and the orchestra sounded amazing.

You may also want to move to an area with more Asian families.

You are a racist and people like you will only be friendly with other Asians.

Yet white people never have a problem with only having white friends...

—signed an immigrant who hates where I can from and loves everything about America and Americans, which is why I’m here and not there.

But Asians Americans are an integral part of America, so they are actually from here and helped shaped America's past, present and future. Oh snap -- your rickety logic ladder falls down

Asians were instrumental to building the railroads, sure, but it’s very inaccurate to call them an integral part of America historically. Come on. They are new immigrants and very welcome, but not if they don’t want to integrate and assimilate with the rest of us, like the PP who said they only hang out with other Asians.

Same can be said about Italians and Jews. Stop the racist rant. By the second generation everyone is assimilated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP I have a kid who underachieves and I am far from a tiger mom. But yes - what you are learning is that public school education is BAD no matter how fancy the school district. Based on conversations with relatives in coveted public districts, I do think you start to see more value in middle school. For example I visited Westland Ms and the orchestra sounded amazing.

You may also want to move to an area with more Asian families.

You are a racist and people like you will only be friendly with other Asians.

Yet white people never have a problem with only having white friends...

—signed an immigrant who hates where I can from and loves everything about America and Americans, which is why I’m here and not there.

But Asians Americans are an integral part of America, so they are actually from here and helped shaped America's past, present and future. Oh snap -- your rickety logic ladder falls down

Asians were instrumental to building the railroads, sure, but it’s very inaccurate to call them an integral part of America historically. Come on. They are new immigrants and very welcome, but not if they don’t want to integrate and assimilate with the rest of us, like the PP who said they only hang out with other Asians.

You need to learn some history and get educated. It was the Chinese who built the railroads, not "Asians"

We're not monolithic. And we're not just East Asian. Your "integrate and assimilate" line is just too creepy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP I have a kid who underachieves and I am far from a tiger mom. But yes - what you are learning is that public school education is BAD no matter how fancy the school district. Based on conversations with relatives in coveted public districts, I do think you start to see more value in middle school. For example I visited Westland Ms and the orchestra sounded amazing.

You may also want to move to an area with more Asian families.

You are a racist and people like you will only be friendly with other Asians.

Yet white people never have a problem with only having white friends...

—signed an immigrant who hates where I can from and loves everything about America and Americans, which is why I’m here and not there.

But Asians Americans are an integral part of America, so they are actually from here and helped shaped America's past, present and future. Oh snap -- your rickety logic ladder falls down

Asians were instrumental to building the railroads, sure, but it’s very inaccurate to call them an integral part of America historically. Come on. They are new immigrants and very welcome, but not if they don’t want to integrate and assimilate with the rest of us, like the PP who said they only hang out with other Asians.

You need to learn some history and get educated. It was the Chinese who built the railroads, not "Asians"

We're not monolithic. And we're not just East Asian. Your "integrate and assimilate" line is just too creepy!

There are lots of ways to be American. But all of the ways are American, not something else.

Your kids/grandkids will assimilate. If you don't want that, then choose a different culture and go there, the same as other emigres.

[Anonymous]

School district ratings have such a low floor that it’s practically meaningless. Any upper middle class neighborhood would have test scores giving a high ranking. I’m in Seattle and we have the exact same problem. Schools look good on paper, housing is expensive (2M for SFH) yet the schools are actually mediocre. First grade is doing what your kids are doing. Many of the private schools are equally mediocre. There are a top caliber private schools that are better like Lakeside and Evergreen but majority are just coddled public schools.

Supplement at home. Teach a good work ethic at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Find where high achieving immigrants hang out. Seriously - RSM classes, private music teachers, etc. Your kid will at least know another peer group with higher expectations.

Yeah this. I find the standards of high income wasp types are sort of mediocre regarding academics and music.

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Raised by immigrants

I was raised by immigrants and I see things really differently. I think immigrants pound the creativity out of their children with rote memorization. I think Wasps recognize that not everyone is a genius and no amount of pressure or forced math practice is going to turn their mediocre child into one. I think Wasps realize the point of learning piano is to have a fun hobby and sometimes play a song for your friends at get togethers throughout the course of your life, not to impress your mom’s friends or foster her delusion that you have a chance to play professionally at Carnegie Hall.

I think Wasps actually have a much better handle on how to promote creativity and invention than recent immigrants do. That’s why we wanted to be here and not wherever we came from. And didn’t Anglos invent penicillin, the plane, the computer, the telephone, air conditioning, etc.? I’d say they know what they’re doing, no?

Nope, see who is winning all the innovation awards in USA right now:
https://science-fair.org/2023/11/03/thermo-fisher-scientific-jic-announces-2023-winners/#:~:text=Congratulations%20to%20Adyant%20Bhavsar%2C%2013,version%20of%20a%20triboelectric%20nanogenerator.

https://www.invent.org/collegiate-inventors/finalists

To be smart first you have to have facts pounded in your head at a young age so you understand the basic grammar of each kind of subject and have a solid foundation. Then your creativity will thrive based on what you already knew. In the western world we used to know that until the "education innovators" started ruining everything as early as the 19th century.

Everyone should read this! My kindergartener is praised over and over for "brave spelling" and never gets anything corrected. Some things really do need to be practiced and yes, memorized. Why can't we correct one or two words per assignment or per week for a 6 year old? It's not going to crush a kid's dreams or self worth. This sort of things drives me crazy.

What’s wrong with waiting? They will know how to spell my elementary and middle school and then grammar and sentence structure will be taught over and over again. There are so many more important things to learn at this age. Patience.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Wait. Were you serious?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To be smart first you have to have facts pounded in your head at a young age, so you understand the basic grammar of each kind of subject and have a solid foundation. Then your creativity will thrive based on what you already knew. In the western world we used to know that until the "education innovators" started ruining everything as early as the 19th century.

+1. In the early years, any DC needs to have a strong foundation of facts, ability to read well, and ability to do math well. All of those boil down to memorization.

No, spelling and phonic are about memorization, but if taught correctly, math is about inquire. The art of inquire is far more important than memorization. Sadly, Tiger parent’s can’t seem to grasp that, probably on account of their own stunted development.

Absolutely false, and that’s why public math education sucks. You cannot “inquire” your way into the math foundation needed to do Algebra. That’s leaving kids behind, except the ones who are naturally talented at math or get outside tutoring. Math “inquiry” is the same type of pernicious cr*p as “whole language”.

+10000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Find where high achieving immigrants hang out. Seriously - RSM classes, private music teachers, etc. Your kid will at least know another peer group with higher expectations.

Yeah this. I find the standards of high income wasp types are sort of mediocre regarding academics and music.

-
Raised by immigrants

I was raised by immigrants and I see things really differently. I think immigrants pound the creativity out of their children with rote memorization. I think Wasps recognize that not everyone is a genius and no amount of pressure or forced math practice is going to turn their mediocre child into one. I think Wasps realize the point of learning piano is to have a fun hobby and sometimes play a song for your friends at get togethers throughout the course of your life, not to impress your mom’s friends or foster her delusion that you have a chance to play professionally at Carnegie Hall.

I think Wasps actually have a much better handle on how to promote creativity and invention than recent immigrants do. That’s why we wanted to be here and not wherever we came from. And didn’t Anglos invent penicillin, the plane, the computer, the telephone, air conditioning, etc.? I’d say they know what they’re doing, no?

Nope, see who is winning all the innovation awards in USA right now:
https://science-fair.org/2023/11/03/thermo-fisher-scientific-jic-announces-2023-winners/#:~:text=Congratulations%20to%20Adyant%20Bhavsar%2C%2013,version%20of%20a%20triboelectric%20nanogenerator.

https://www.invent.org/collegiate-inventors/finalists

To be smart first you have to have facts pounded in your head at a young age so you understand the basic grammar of each kind of subject and have a solid foundation. Then your creativity will thrive based on what you already knew. In the western world we used to know that until the "education innovators" started ruining everything as early as the 19th century.

Everyone should read this! My kindergartener is praised over and over for "brave spelling" and never gets anything corrected. Some things really do need to be practiced and yes, memorized. Why can't we correct one or two words per assignment or per week for a 6 year old? It's not going to crush a kid's dreams or self worth. This sort of things drives me crazy.

What’s wrong with waiting? They will know how to spell my elementary and middle school and then grammar and sentence structure will be taught over and over again. There are so many more important things to learn at this age. Patience.

Why should kids get used to incorrect spelling?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a first grader. I’m curious with the math discussion above. Here’s what DS7 brought home in his most recent unit assessment. What do you think, DCUM? To me this seems more like a test of reading and following directions, not a math skills test. What 7 or 8 year old doesn’t know what a triangle or rectangle is?

Q1 (Given: page full of shapes)
1. Color the triangles purple
2. Color the hexagon green
3. Color the rhombuses red
4. Color the rectangles orange

Q2 Sara says this shape is a triangle. Is she right? Circle yes or no. How do you know?
(Given: picture of a circle)

Q3 draw a shape with 4 corners and 4 sides that are all the same length. What is the name of your shape?

Q4 (similar to Q1)
Put a circle around the cube.
Draw a red line under the cylinder.

Sounds like first grade in FCPS. In second grade they finally introduce a few 3D shapes.

This is an example of people who don't understand teaching pedagogy getting mad that the homework is "too simple" because you don't understand what it is trying to teach. Let's just take one of the questions here:

Q2: Sara says this shape is a triangle. Is she right? Circle yes or no. How do you know?
(Given: picture of a circle)

So you look at this and say omg what first grader doesn't know the difference between a triangle and a circle, and conclude it's remedial. But you miss that this question is not just asking a child to identify a circle and a triangle. It's presenting a falsehood (Sara says the circle is a triangle) and prompting the child to explain WHY it is false. The goal is for the child to identify the differences between a triangle and a circle in a way that a younger child would probably lack the vocabulary and reasoning skills to do. A weak answer to this question is "because it is a circle." A good answer is "because it is round with one side, and a triangle has three flat sides" or "because it doesn't have any corners." The goal is to get children to start thinking about the properties of different shapes and how they are different or similar, in preparation for more advanced geometry where they will learn the words for those properties as well as how to measure them.

Notice in Q3 that a child could draw a square but could also draw a rhombus without 90 degree angles, but a rectangle would be incorrect. That is nuance that many 1st graders have not mastered.

This is where parents often struggle with "new math." There is an emphasis on deeper understanding at an earlier age, and it comes off as remedial because most adults are used to early grade math where you are memorizing math facts and the goal is to produce the correct math fact when prompted. But this worksheet is asking the child to demonstrate understanding of math facts and use reasoning to language to do so. It's more advanced than the work I did in 1st grade math. If mastered, it will set a kid up to do more complex math by late elementary and middle school, because a child who performs this worksheet perfectly will have demonstrated a deeper mastery of geometric concepts than simply identifying a shape by sight.

If the kid does not have math facts memorized then they are not being set ip for any kind of mastery. And the late elementary/middle school math instruction also fails to provide the repetition and recall needed to actually learn. So it’s a rotten building on a rotten foundation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP I have a kid who underachieves and I am far from a tiger mom. But yes - what you are learning is that public school education is BAD no matter how fancy the school district. Based on conversations with relatives in coveted public districts, I do think you start to see more value in middle school. For example I visited Westland Ms and the orchestra sounded amazing.

You may also want to move to an area with more Asian families.

You are a racist and people like you will only be friendly with other Asians.

Yet white people never have a problem with only having white friends...

—signed an immigrant who hates where I can from and loves everything about America and Americans, which is why I’m here and not there.

But Asians Americans are an integral part of America, so they are actually from here and helped shaped America's past, present and future. Oh snap -- your rickety logic ladder falls down

Asians were instrumental to building the railroads, sure, but it’s very inaccurate to call them an integral part of America historically. Come on. They are new immigrants and very welcome, but not if they don’t want to integrate and assimilate with the rest of us, like the PP who said they only hang out with other Asians.

ffs. I am that PP and I am white with a multiracial family. I just appreciate the academic aspects of some Asian US families. Nobody on here said they exclusively hang out with Asians. However there is one racist PP constantly bashing “tiger moms.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP I have a kid who underachieves and I am far from a tiger mom. But yes - what you are learning is that public school education is BAD no matter how fancy the school district. Based on conversations with relatives in coveted public districts, I do think you start to see more value in middle school. For example I visited Westland Ms and the orchestra sounded amazing.

You may also want to move to an area with more Asian families.

You are a racist and people like you will only be friendly with other Asians.

Yet white people never have a problem with only having white friends...

—signed an immigrant who hates where I can from and loves everything about America and Americans, which is why I’m here and not there.

But Asians Americans are an integral part of America, so they are actually from here and helped shaped America's past, present and future. Oh snap -- your rickety logic ladder falls down

Asians were instrumental to building the railroads, sure, but it’s very inaccurate to call them an integral part of America historically. Come on. They are new immigrants and very welcome, but not if they don’t want to integrate and assimilate with the rest of us, like the PP who said they only hang out with other Asians.

Same can be said about Italians and Jews. Stop the racist rant. By the second generation everyone is assimilated.

Jews have been here since the very beginning, actually. They were in the thirteen colonies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP I have a kid who underachieves and I am far from a tiger mom. But yes - what you are learning is that public school education is BAD no matter how fancy the school district. Based on conversations with relatives in coveted public districts, I do think you start to see more value in middle school. For example I visited Westland Ms and the orchestra sounded amazing.

You may also want to move to an area with more Asian families.

You are a racist and people like you will only be friendly with other Asians.

Yet white people never have a problem with only having white friends...

—signed an immigrant who hates where I can from and loves everything about America and Americans, which is why I’m here and not there.

But Asians Americans are an integral part of America, so they are actually from here and helped shaped America's past, present and future. Oh snap -- your rickety logic ladder falls down

Asians were instrumental to building the railroads, sure, but it’s very inaccurate to call them an integral part of America historically. Come on. They are new immigrants and very welcome, but not if they don’t want to integrate and assimilate with the rest of us, like the PP who said they only hang out with other Asians.

Same can be said about Italians and Jews. Stop the racist rant. By the second generation everyone is assimilated.

Jews have been here since the very beginning, actually. They were in the thirteen colonies.

I love that!
Ignorant people to just think there were only WASPs in early America. Of course the native population and there were others too.



Various records reveal the contributions of Chinese-Americans to the Civil War cause. John Tomney joined the New York Infantry in 1861, and perished defending the Union army at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. Corporal Joseph Pierce, who as a child was brought to the United States from China by his adoptive father, fought in several major campaigns of the war including Antietam and Gettysburg. He was honored by having his picture displayed at the Gettysburg Museum.

Pierce achieved the highest rank of any Chinese-American in the Union Army when he was promoted to corporal in the Army of the Potomac. Pierce fought in various Antietam campaigns and at Appomattox Court House— the site of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender to the Union. William Ah Hang enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1863, making him one of the first Asian Americans to enlist in the Navy.