Reply to Should I send my kids to mathnasium?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The “US is terrible at teaching math” is just an excuse, one of a few I’ve heard, to spend money and make your 6yo sit and do extra math two nights a week.

I’ve lived in other countries. My kids have gone to their schools. It’s all the same. FWIW people in those other countries send their kids to kumon too. [/quote]

I have a friend from Singapore. She talks about malls that are devoted to tutoring and music lessons that are open to 11 PM and full. The reality is that there is massive pressure to excel in school and be advanced. From elementary school, to make sure you are in the right track, to tests for the elite schools at each level. They stop planes from flying in South Korea during testing for college admissions. Suicide rates spike at test time in Japan.

My kid can take differential equations in college, he’ll be fine. Heck, he’ll probably be fine if he never takes calculus. I never took it and I am pretty happy with where I am. Only three years of high school math but I earned my PhD.

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While I agree with you on the problem in this area of people trying to unreasonably accelerate their kids, I don't think your lackadaisical generalization of "they'll be fine because I was" is useful at all. The reality is that many kids are not fine and don't understand what's going on in math class. Others are bored because of the lack of challenge or critical thinking. There's also kids like the OP's kids who may be fine, but are not feeling ok at all because they perceive they are dumb, or behind the curve. Your personal anecdote worked great for you but predicts nothing about others situations. Clearly there is a significant problem in the classroom or we wouldn't have a multitude of parents concerned on these threads. For some kids, doing math outside the class is the right thing to do and fixes the problem. For others it doesn't (they get more bored, or they feel pressured to stay ahead, etc.)

It's amazing to me how hit and miss classroom experience is in this area, given that the math standards are very static. If the teacher is good and class is relatively well behaved, students are likely to happy and learn a lot. If they're not or kids are disruptive, or worse, both, the learning experience greatly suffers. In elementary school it's particularly important to have an overall good learning environment. When it doesn't work out, kids are generally already behind in middle school and start checking out by high school. Parents, if you want your kids to be prepared for the modern world, engage with them in critical thinking, creative reasoning, and logic. And do it in elementary school when they're still young. I can promise you that countless kids are done with math by middle school (i.e unable to creatively reason beyond basic procedural steps).[/quote]

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