Literally every single MCPS kid I know has a tutor. Do YOU?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope, two students in elementary school in MCPS and no tutors. So we don't ALL require tutors. And no, I don't wish we had tutors. On the other hand, if $80/hour is the going rate, maybe I'll start tutoring.

You're only marketable if you know the curriculum inside out... in other words, you're an MCPS employee.

Nah, I'll just advertise my bargain rate of $70/hour.

But OP, really? You pay a MCPS teacher $80/hour to teach your son handwriting, math facts, and spelling?

Yes, in addition to deciphering the curriculum-based HW assignments and helping him prepare for quizzes. Some of my friends pay $100/hr. I think I'm getting a pretty good deal.

*jaw drops*

OP, do you live in Bethesda/Potomac? Bethesda/Potomac is not representative of the rest of the county.

I just can't believe that someone would pay this amount of money for an elementary school tutor- I call troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids in HGC and Middle School
magnet, and nope- no tutor. Ridiculous!

Same - kid in HGC - no tutor - and very little parent involvement in homework (I am one of those parents who pretty much believes that homework at this age is relatively useless except for learning time management skills). And especially not at $80/hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Or aiming to get into Ivies!

Forget the Ivies, the competition for selective schools is through the roof and will only get worse. The prices are sky rocketing. Do you have 200K-400K to drop on your child's college education or will you be competing for scholarships?

Is that why kids need tutors, so that they will get into "selective schools"? Oh good, then I can cross that off my list. I'm planning for my kids to go to state schools.

+1

[Anonymous]

Where did you hire your tutor from?A tutoring service, word of mouth? $ 80.00 is a lot for an elementary school curriculum. I can see paying that for high school subjects, AP, etc., but not spelling and help with homework. Does the tutor communicate with the school for curriculum updates, etc.?

[Anonymous]

Most kids in tutoring in MCPS are taking a course more challenging than their abilities and/or motivation. Their parents are just one step from establishing South Korean style cram schools.

[Anonymous]

My grandparents tutored their kids. My parents tutored us at home. We tutor our kids. Definition of parenthood. I guess the run on divorces, single parents, or no parents may threaten the physiology and function of today's nuclear family.

[Anonymous]

Parenthood has become drive by fast food or take out... a la Mac Tutor!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My grandparents tutored their kids. My parents tutored us at home. We tutor our kids. Definition of parenthood. I guess the run on divorces, single parents, or no parents may threaten the physiology and function of today's nuclear family.

Really? My parents didn't tutor me. My husband's parents didn't tutor him. I guess they weren't actually parents.

[Anonymous]

No, not tutor, and don't plan to hire one. We don't help DS do his homework, either.

He is in HGC, however. And also got into JH CTY program, which I had him test for just in case he didn't get into HGC. But the CTY classes are too expensive, so we probably wouldn't have signed up for any.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Genuine, no-agenda question here. I'm a parent to a Kindergartener, so this is all new to me, but I've looked at the curriculum guide on the MCPS website and have a question. Some of the concepts listed are obvious (counting, I got that), but some are clearly in edu-speak. For instance, this is just a small one:
Number and Operations in Base Ten: Compose and decompose
numbers (11–19): ten ones and some further ones.

I'm not a dumb person (I can tell you my degrees if you need) but I don't honestly know how to help my kid learn that. "Compose numbers"? What does that mean? Write the numbers? Ok, I can do that. "Decompose numbers"? Huh? In normal person speak, "decompose" means to separate into pieces. So, does this mean the concept that you can make 9 out of 3 3's, or a 5 and a 4 -- that sort of thing?
I realize that may seem obvious, but it isn't. And clearly it only gets less obvious as they move up in grades. I was a person who had to read the textbook when I got home to reinforce the lesson.
My question is: is there any resource that will help me translate these "curriculum guides" into something that's actually instructive?
Other than asking the teacher? Because I don't really want to be the pain in the ass parent that's emailing the teacher every week.

I don't understand why they had to toss out perfectly fine, plain English words (add and subtract, multiply and divide) for words like compose and decompose. That last one especially always makes me cringe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most kids in tutoring in MCPS are taking a course more challenging than their abilities and/or motivation. Their parents are just one step from establishing South Korean style cram schools.

I find all the snark about how Asians make their kids cram very juvenile. The issue here is substandard education and method of delivery of content in MCPS. Do you have a suggestion to improve it? No? Then I think I would rather go the tried and tested way of parent involvement in education and enrichment outside of school.

Everyone makes the Asian importance to education seem like a bad thing. Do we have a better example to emulate? At least our kids are not fornicating in school corridors!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:


I don't understand why they had to toss out perfectly fine, plain English words (add and subtract, multiply and divide) for words like compose and decompose. That last one especially always makes me cringe.

Don't worry, they still use add, subtract, multiply, and divide. But none of those four words means what compose/decompose mean. If you know a fine, plain English word for this, please tell me; I don't know one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most kids in tutoring in MCPS are taking a course more challenging than their abilities and/or motivation. Their parents are just one step from establishing South Korean style cram schools.

I find all the snark about how Asians make their kids cram very juvenile. The issue here is substandard education and method of delivery of content in MCPS. Do you have a suggestion to improve it? No? Then I think I would rather go the tried and tested way of parent involvement in education and enrichment outside of school.

Everyone makes the Asian importance to education seem like a bad thing. Do we have a better example to emulate? At least our kids are not fornicating in school corridors!

PP didn't say anything about "Asians". PP referred specifically to South Korean cram schools, You, on the other hand, seem to be making several unwarranted cultural/geographic assumptions.

[Anonymous]

Let's leave the racial stuff out of a thread, for once.

We have two young kids at MCPS and we do not have a tutor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


I don't understand why they had to toss out perfectly fine, plain English words (add and subtract, multiply and divide) for words like compose and decompose. That last one especially always makes me cringe.

Don't worry, they still use add, subtract, multiply, and divide. But none of those four words means what compose/decompose mean. If you know a fine, plain English word for this, please tell me; I don't know one.

Well, from what I can tell when my kids are "decomposing" it looks like they are just breaking numbers apart (or how about "separating" them) into ones, tens, and hundreds. And as far as I can tell, when they're "composing" they're simply adding up the place values.

I'm sorry but decomposing reminds me of rotting bodies.