Acceleration vs. Remediation for underperforming student

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread is nonsense:

Pre-teaching doesn't exist, it's just a made up term.

Schools don't really teach. Teachers mostly just give procedural steps and have students mimic. This is regrettably even more true at the high school level, mainly because the math gets more complicated and students who have not learned anything in earlier years cannot possibly be expected to think on their own.

If a teacher can't teach, they'll throw technology at the students. Unfortunately the tech doesn't do any better than above (still mostly procedural focused on memorization and regurgitation vs critical thinking).

Tutoring is a terrible idea if it babysitting kids through their school homework. It just makes the problem much worse. At the high school level tutoring is pretty toxic, as kids at that age who have to be walked through basic homework just results in stunting their development even more.

Teaching your kids how to think and logically reason is the only way to make significant progress. Start by spending enough time with them; ask them questions, challenge them to ask their own questions, and make sure they stay curious and motivated. They likely won't if you're not.

How is it possible if parent doesn't know math? Most students in remedial have parents who dont remember or didn't do high school math, or didn't attend college. Even with college educated parents how many remember their math?

It's not about math, though the kids who are working through remedial material are often lacking a basic understanding of fractions, number sense, expressions, equations, not necessarily algebra and above. Most parents surely can help there, certainly with a college degree, the majority in the area.

The bigger issue is kids are lacking critical thinking skills in not just math but in all areas. It's just much more apparent in math during tests because one cannot easily hide it. So even if parents don't know math, they can certainly teach their kids how to reason via other topics that they are more familiar with. Even something so divided as politics can be interesting to kids; one could have a political discussion that goes deep into reasoning and critical thinking. Now do this regularly with your child and they will likely develop an appreciation for understanding and learning. When they see nonsense in school and it doesn't make sense to them, they will be motivated to understand, leading them to pick up and read a book and try to teach themselves. If on the other hand, they just see learning as a process of spoon feeding via a tutor or some similar entity, they will never develop the ability to learn.

Significant number of parents in NoVa do not have college degree, and even more number do not recall their high school math to help their student.