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[quote=magrathean][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I know it is hard for some people to believe but there are plenty of average kids who do not have learning disabilities. [/quote]
Exactly my thought and I have been teaching for almost 2 decades. 
Public schools have a guide to follow. Teachers make their own worksheets/ activities. Direct teaching is minimal, and emphasis is on Independent work which does not  work for every kid. There is also a lot of pressure on teachers to prepare students for the frequent tests which is not necessarily an exact measure of competency. 
 OP, find a school that uses good textbooks and transfer your kid there. This way you can know that things are being done in a certain logical way. [/quote]

With textbook-based instruction, your child may memorize more, but not necessarily be able to apply what they “learned” to new problems or scenarios. There’s also the issue of privates either using very outdated sources or switching to cheap (and sometimes low quality) online textbooks to keep down costs. We’ve done a mix of public and private. I see a clear difference in my daughter’s longtime friends regarding who can develop their own science fair research projects or analyze a never seen before primary source. [/quote]

Very much a double edged sword. Sure, they "may" memorize more but be unable to apply it. On the other hand, not having a text book can mean the child's only resource is whatever worksheet the teacher cobbled together the night before, rather than a textbook reviewed by dozens to hundreds of reviewers.  And it's a good day there is a worksheet to look back at, no matter how bad, to fall back on.

Indeed this is a large part of the criticism leveled against MCPS curriculum 2.0, and why the current replacements are rolling out; how unvetted C2.0 was. The small number of staff that put it together did a herculean job throwing together 12 years worth of curriculum in a short order with few resources. But doing it right required ten times the staff and 20 times the budget. MCPS did not provide.

Outdated sources? Maybe in a high school "politics of the 21st century class" one need the most current latest and greatest. But for many subjects, textbook updates mainly are for increasing textbook publisher profits, not more current knowledge or better pedagogy.  [/quote]

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