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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]When you were a kid, college wasn’t an assumption.  Now, more kids are going to college, so there is a push to make things more academic.  
You see it as not academic, yet in FCPS and MCPS and Arlington there is a push to get all 8th graders to take algebra and have 6th graders take it as well. 
More kids are taking AP classes than when you were a kid.

So basically, you perspective is skewed and things are more academic so parents want their kids to get even further ahead and they use tutoring to help. [/quote]

Parents use tutors because school districts chase the latest fad curriculum and because society does not value education, most teachers today are the bottom of the heap.

Today’s K-12 administrators are almost singularly focused on social justice issues. [/quote]

This is a cynical take but I agree with it.

Elementary teachers have been forced to teach a bunch of reading and math curriculums that aren't very successful in terms of actual results.  You can quibble about whether the theories are sound.  Bright, affluent kids do well in a variety of settings so lots of things work well enough for them.  Fad curriculums hurt disadvantaged students more.

Teachers these days are much maligned and given a lot more administrative paperwork.  The ones that remain are more "people people" than "book nerds/brainiacs" if that makes sense.  When I was in school, teaching was one of the best careers available to women.  Now it's a lower-paid mommytrack job for certain.  I am also mommytracked.  But my corporate mommytrack job pays as much as an elementary school principal's job.  That's kind of sad to me.  Her job is much harder and more impactful on lives than mine.

Regarding social justice, I support some of it (anti-discrimination, inclusion) but I have seen some sloppy educational results grow out of detracking, mainstreaming, and restorative justice.  I think kids need to be ability grouped.  I don't think it works in reality to have a 5th grade math teacher working with kids that range from 2 grades behind to 2 grades above in ability in the same classroom.  I had to send my kids to expensive tutoring to address learning gaps  from being the kids who were higher ability and not challenged (pre-Covid).and Covid learning loss.  That has become normal because more is expected of kids at the top end and it's better to fix the gaps before they take college courses.[/quote]

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