Curriculum 2.0, is it too easy?

[Anonymous]

I have heard that some people think it is too easy. What do they mean? I have nothing to compare.

[Anonymous]

Yes, is really a dumbing down of mature students. Unfortunately we are now considering a private school route.

[Anonymous]

The math is too easy for my child. Despite lip service, I see no evidence that there is any differentiation.

I have no problem with the rest of it. I like how they tie the various subjects together.

[Anonymous]

The math is 10 steps backward for my child. Has not been taught anything new thus far (2nd year with 2.0) so we are supplementing with Singapore math at home. My child was excited when I started the Singapore program because he was really bored with what he was doing at school. He wanted to move on and learn new things.

As far as reading, writing, social studies, and science, I don't have a clue what my child is doing at school. No communication with parents what so ever. My child enjoys reading so I just make sure he reads 20-30 minutes a day to keep his reading skills up. I also started having him keep a journal to practice writing 10 minutes a day.

[Anonymous]

The dumbing down of the MCPS students. Thanks 2.0.

[Anonymous]

The 2.0 goal chart says it all: All kids are aiming for proficient. Proficient = meeting state standards that align with 47 other states. MCPS before Starr used to aim higher for our kids. A good chunk of our kids aimed for and reached above state standards. These kids are now left to "independently" learn while the teacher focuses and catching up the rest of the class. They are no longer receiving above state standards instruction.

[Anonymous]

I completely agree with 9:43! I saw a poster in my child's class yesterday that was in the shape of a bullseye and it said "We aim for Proficient."

The poster (inadvertently!) highlighted the concerns that parents have with 2.0, in my opinion. It might as well have said "we aim for ok" or "we aim for mediocre." It made me really sad that these kids are forced to work within a framework/curriculum that is all about not excelling and not reaching for their best.

[Anonymous]

Heck, my child's observations confirm mine. Some of the teachers are slower at learning the math curriculum than the kids they are trying to teach! Oh, where o' where are the MCPS math pathways?

[Anonymous]

Ridiculous.

Just visited my son's 1st grade class yesterday.

A lot of children (like mine) know the stuff already and act out because they are bored.
Some children struggle to master content because they get distracted by the kids who are bored.
And the poor teacher (who is a good teacher and I like her) can't differentiate the curriculum adequately, with 27 kids in the class plus an aide in the morning.

I wanted to like the public school system so much! We are in Bethesda, a 3 minute walk from the ES.

But regretfully it is not working for my son. He is wasting his time 100%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ridiculous.

Just visited my son's 1st grade class yesterday.

A lot of children (like mine) know the stuff already and act out because they are bored.
Some children struggle to master content because they get distracted by the kids who are bored.
And the poor teacher (who is a good teacher and I like her) can't differentiate the curriculum adequately, with 27 kids in the class plus an aide in the morning.

I wanted to like the public school system so much! We are in Bethesda, a 3 minute walk from the ES.

But regretfully it is not working for my son. He is wasting his time 100%.

Just out of curiousity, what is your child doing in math?

[Anonymous]

It will be interesting to see how we perform on test. I'm from NJ and IMHO the coursework and tests are harder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ridiculous.

Just visited my son's 1st grade class yesterday.

A lot of children (like mine) know the stuff already and act out because they are bored.
Some children struggle to master content because they get distracted by the kids who are bored.
And the poor teacher (who is a good teacher and I like her) can't differentiate the curriculum adequately, with 27 kids in the class plus an aide in the morning.

I wanted to like the public school system so much! We are in Bethesda, a 3 minute walk from the ES.

But regretfully it is not working for my son. He is wasting his time 100%.

Just out of curiousity, what is your child doing in math?

Today he went home with pairs of numbers for which he had written the signs for "greater than" or "less than". As in 17<53... Homework was breaking down single digits like 7 into 2+5, or 3+4... Gaaah! He could have done this 2 years ago. It's insane.

To clarify, I don't have much of a problem with the curriculum, although it could definitely be way more challenging (I went to school in France and the UK, and experienced much more rigorous content).
I do have a problem with the seemingly purposeful brakes to acceleration and differentiation put in place with 2.0. I talked to the teacher at the beginning of term, knowing this would be problem, but there are limits to what she can do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ridiculous.

Just visited my son's 1st grade class yesterday.

A lot of children (like mine) know the stuff already and act out because they are bored.
Some children struggle to master content because they get distracted by the kids who are bored.
And the poor teacher (who is a good teacher and I like her) can't differentiate the curriculum adequately, with 27 kids in the class plus an aide in the morning.

I wanted to like the public school system so much! We are in Bethesda, a 3 minute walk from the ES.

But regretfully it is not working for my son. He is wasting his time 100%.

Just out of curiousity, what is your child doing in math?

Today he went home with pairs of numbers for which he had written the signs for "greater than" or "less than". As in 17<53... Homework was breaking down single digits like 7 into 2+5, or 3+4... Gaaah! He could have done this 2 years ago. It's insane.

To clarify, I don't have much of a problem with the curriculum, although it could definitely be way more challenging (I went to school in France and the UK, and experienced much more rigorous content).
I do have a problem with the seemingly purposeful brakes to acceleration and differentiation put in place with 2.0. I talked to the teacher at the beginning of term, knowing this would be problem, but there are limits to what she can do.

14:08 here. Interesting. But I'm not convinced that it is the fault of Curriculum 2.0 versus the school. My daughter is also in first grade and her math homework tonight was to chose a 2 digit number. She had to come up with different numbers to put together to come up with 42. Same concept as your son's except my DD was doing it with 2 digit numbers and your son was doing it with 1 digit numbers.

So what is the difference? Why is one 1st grade class doing 1 digit numbers and another 1st grade class doing 2 digit numbers? Again...I don't see how it's Curriculum 2.0's fault.

Tomorrow's math homework are 4 word problems that seem to be algebraic in nature.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Today he went home with pairs of numbers for which he had written the signs for "greater than" or "less than". As in 17<53... Homework was breaking down single digits like 7 into 2+5, or 3+4... Gaaah! He could have done this 2 years ago. It's insane.

To clarify, I don't have much of a problem with the curriculum, although it could definitely be way more challenging (I went to school in France and the UK, and experienced much more rigorous content).
I do have a problem with the seemingly purposeful brakes to acceleration and differentiation put in place with 2.0. I talked to the teacher at the beginning of term, knowing this would be problem, but there are limits to what she can do.

This is very interesting to me. So are you saying that it's insane that 1st graders are doing addition, because your child learned addition in preschool? My child is in 1st grade also and it seems age-appropriate to me to be doing addition, subtraction, and word problems. I'm not trying to antagonize, just to assess what others think is age-appropriate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Today he went home with pairs of numbers for which he had written the signs for "greater than" or "less than". As in 17<53... Homework was breaking down single digits like 7 into 2+5, or 3+4... Gaaah! He could have done this 2 years ago. It's insane.

To clarify, I don't have much of a problem with the curriculum, although it could definitely be way more challenging (I went to school in France and the UK, and experienced much more rigorous content).
I do have a problem with the seemingly purposeful brakes to acceleration and differentiation put in place with 2.0. I talked to the teacher at the beginning of term, knowing this would be problem, but there are limits to what she can do.

This is very interesting to me. So are you saying that it's insane that 1st graders are doing addition, because your child learned addition in preschool? My child is in 1st grade also and it seems age-appropriate to me to be doing addition, subtraction, and word problems. I'm not trying to antagonize, just to assess what others think is age-appropriate.

My child is in Pre-K and doesn't even recognize all her numbers. There is no way she could do the work described above. The work seems appropriate for 1st grade to me. But I guess we'll see as we get there.