Reply to New grading system in MCPS --why???

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Look, fine.  You and I clearly don't see eye to eye.  I don't think that larding summaries of a curriculum for parental consumption with terms of art and jargon is a good way to communicate with us educational laypersons (if I were explaining my job to you, I wouldn't use every industry-specific term I use with my coworkers).  Frankly, I still think that your language is deplorable and cruel, and I would have a lot more respect for your input if you showed more compassion.[/quote]

So b/c I'm tough I have no compassion?  You're blaming me for trying to teach 18 year olds how to read after being passed along for years?

All I'm saying is that the system is broken, and they're trying to fix it.  Curriculum 2.0, while not perfect b/c nothing is, is the best attempt at helping kids develop critical thinking skills.  Understand it first and realize that it has good aspects.  And THEN attempt to question components that are weak.

I feel sorry for these kids, but sadly, they don't even know how low they are.  [b]I'm excluding the "W" schools, who tend to attract kids who don't need help. [/b]But there are so many out there - the "masses" who are graduating with NO skills.  [/quote]

If you are a teacher in Montgomery County, I think your attitude speaks volumes of what is wrong with the system.

Even with 2.0, elementary schools (including schools that feed into the "W" schools) will keep passing kids that have not mastered basic skills.  That isn't preventable until teachers quit giving out grades that kids don't earn.  That's not a curriculum problem.  That's a teacher problem.

My children can reflect how easy it is to skate by.  The only reason they learned to read is that I had them privately tested and found out that I had been lied to for years by their teachers.  My kids were actually several years below grade level in reading and they had learning disabilities.  My oldest was in 5th grade with A's and B's on her report card.  The report card had always reflected she was on grade level for reading.  My youngest is in 3rd grade and began 2.0 last year.  And yes, our school is in the Winston Churchill cluster.

To say that there are kids in certain neighborhoods that "don't need help" is ignorant and disrespectful but unfortunately a common  attitude from MCPS teachers and administrators.  The difference in this part of town, parents can sometimes afford to go outside the system to get their children the help that they need.  Sometimes though, even families on this side of the county have trouble paying for private educational support when their child needs it.  Some families have been hit hard by the economy and some families at our school live in Section 8 housing in the Scotland Community.  Just because you have a 20854 zip code doesn't necessarily mean you are a millionaire.

Change because the system is broken is only good if the new system was better than the one it was replacing.  You teach high school students.  No offense, but how in the hell do you know this year's crop of 3rd graders will be better off by the time you have them in your class?  Parents are on the front lines everyday.  Those of us who have older kids are in a position to see what the impact of 2.0 means to our kids and it is crap.  What school system in their right mind would go with a curriculum that hasn't been fully tested, revised, and tested again before implementing it county wide? [/quote]

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