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[quote=Anonymous][quote]College prep at 9th grade does not mean college work. 
It's one thing to get exposed and learning a subject, it's another thing having to decipher everything to figure out what's going on. 
I showed my BASIS 9th grader's AP government work to a UMD professor and to a neighbor who is a Harvard Law and London school of economics grad, currently pursuing his PHD. 
The former said he would probably give the same content but in a much simplified format. 
The UMD professor simply said this kind of teaching would not accessible for most 1st year undergrads, let alone 13-14 year olds. 
For those of us who were in high school before the internet era, it was not common for a teacher to say, here's the work, go to the library, research and study on your own. 
Now many teachers just pass out the work, tell the students to go online and find the answers. 
If you agree that this is good teaching, then I have nothing else to say.[/quote]

A few things to say: I think the model for BASIS is really not meant for the "average" kid, whereas your UMD professor friend is teaching the "average first year undergrad".  If a large number of schools accept APs as college credit, then it should be college level.  I just don't see the point in pushing 8th graders and freshman into AP government (which are designed for juniors and seniors), but that is the model for BASIS, so take it or leave it.  AP is not supposed to be "college prep" it was designed to be "college level," although introducing it to freshman and sophomores appears to have watered down people's expectations of what it is for.  Perhaps it is overwhelmingly challenging and taught at too high of a level, but it still seems like that's what you signed up for.

I went to high school and college in the internet era.  There is certainly bad teaching that happens, but I fail to see how going online and finding information or reading an ebook is significantly different from using the library, other than it is more convenient and can be done from home.  One movement in education right now is to make it more exploratory, and learning how to learn is something that many people are deficient in.[/quote]

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