I’m confused - why are people developing their own curriculum if the school is assigning work?

[Anonymous]

Where is the family finding time to compete other curriculum work?

I’ve seen some people adding languages and other assignments but is that being turned in somewhere to the school or just to the parents? Etc...

[Anonymous]

We're ES in FCPS and remember spring. Now that we've seen the giant blocks of nothing in the fall schedule, we're figuring out things for ourselves. If DD or DS gets a bad grade because they missed some busy work, we couldn't care less

[Anonymous]

The curriculum is going to be watered down this year. I'm not sure they've done it yet, but they've been talking about getting waivers for SOLs. Basically they've already given up on providing a standard education per grade level. So I do understand why parents are developing their own curriculum.

[Anonymous]

After last spring's mess (and DS started DL in March) I have minimal faith that the education provided will be adequate. They haven't given us any info other than "it will be better". We supplemented a lot last year. Now I can actually plan it out instead of going week by week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The curriculum is going to be watered down this year. I'm not sure they've done it yet, but they've been talking about getting waivers for SOLs. Basically they've already given up on providing a standard education per grade level. So I do understand why parents are developing their own curriculum.

+1 This. I’m expecting a lackluster watered down 2nd grade. DD will be bored to tears. So we’re gonna supplement what she does. We did this in 1st grade and this year we’re just doing more of it cause we have more time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After last spring's mess (and DS started DL in March) I have minimal faith that the education provided will be adequate. They haven't given us any info other than "it will be better". We supplemented a lot last year. Now I can actually plan it out instead of going week by week.

I'm a teacher just finishing training for today. Let me assure you, it isn't because teachers don't want to teach this year. The higher ups are issuing ridiculous proclamations that simply cannot be met without greatly affecting quality of instruction.

[Anonymous]

So they have something to act self righteous about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After last spring's mess (and DS started DL in March) I have minimal faith that the education provided will be adequate. They haven't given us any info other than "it will be better". We supplemented a lot last year. Now I can actually plan it out instead of going week by week.

I'm a teacher just finishing training for today. Let me assure you, it isn't because teachers don't want to teach this year. The higher ups are issuing ridiculous proclamations that simply cannot be met without greatly affecting quality of instruction.

Which school system and what proclamations?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After last spring's mess (and DS started DL in March) I have minimal faith that the education provided will be adequate. They haven't given us any info other than "it will be better". We supplemented a lot last year. Now I can actually plan it out instead of going week by week.

I'm a teacher just finishing training for today. Let me assure you, it isn't because teachers don't want to teach this year. The higher ups are issuing ridiculous proclamations that simply cannot be met without greatly affecting quality of instruction.

I'm pp. I have several friends who are teachers so I definitely am not blaming you guys. I have a lot of sympathy for many teachers because of the mess of last year and this. I have several friends who are teaching in districts where the kids are in class 2 days a week. Except the kids (1st and 2nd grade) only get 30 min of outside time a day and everything else (including lunch) is in the classroom where kids can't touch each other or be close. I can only imagine how difficult the behavior will become with such restrictions!

[Anonymous]

School is not about learning it's about beating the next guy. Parents have turned schooling into a competitive sport.

If they "add" stuff to the curriculum, their kids are "better", "smarter", "will get ahead".

It's the fallacy that working hard will get you ahead ... so when somebody is not doing well they can just look down on them and say.. well you didn't work hard enough. When their kids fail they can say, "I did everything right" so it's somebody else's fault.

We are taking this "lack of teaching" and sport time to be more in tune with music, nature, hiking, growing, watching series together, just chiling... all the things missing from school life normally.

[Anonymous]

Helicoptering

Irrational Upper Middle Class fear that their kids won't get into a good enough college

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Helicoptering

Irrational Upper Middle Class fear that their kids won't get into a good enough college

I don’t think that is fair. We taught our kids cursive, reinforced math basics and read books they don’t usually read in class because they had so much free time in the spring. There is only so many hours in the day they can play on their iPads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School is not about learning it's about beating the next guy. Parents have turned schooling into a competitive sport.

If they "add" stuff to the curriculum, their kids are "better", "smarter", "will get ahead".

It's the fallacy that working hard will get you ahead ... so when somebody is not doing well they can just look down on them and say.. well you didn't work hard enough. When their kids fail they can say, "I did everything right" so it's somebody else's fault.

We are taking this "lack of teaching" and sport time to be more in tune with music, nature, hiking, growing, watching series together, just chiling... all the things missing from school life normally.

Your comments really missed the mark. Elementary educators have dramatically changed classroom instruction. Where prior generations studied grammar, spelling, geography, social studies, science and so on, schools now teach skills and strategies. They rely on videos, instead of teacher instruction, to teach these skills and strategies.

Many parents are concerned, as they should be. Many of us still think spelling and grammar and geography are useful.

So, no. Elementary school is not a competitive sport. We are not concerned about our kids being “better” than the next student. We just wants our kids to be educated. It’s a seemingly simple ask.

[Anonymous]

DL back in spring made me realize how wrong I was about the quality of public education in this country. I was bamboozled by all the bell and whistles of coding, art, music, extra curricular, clubs etc. I still think all that is great, but I was under the impression that a normal/classical curriculum was still being taught, only maybe in a different manner or schedule.

When DL came about and I was left to figure things for myself for one month (FCPS) and did some research, I realized the curriculum is subpar. I want my children to be well educated independently if they decided to go to college - although that is an expectation.

I want them to learn rules of grammar, spelling and how to write/read critically. I also want them to learn geography. I have no comments about public math or science education - it seems fine to me. But since we are in a pandemic and I am not sure what to expect, she is also enrolled on a math class.

[Anonymous]

Its just the cool thing to say. Supplementing makes sense. Full homeschooling or pretending to does not.