Reply to Pre-calc is exposing holes in my step-son's education. Wtd?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I would look for a general math tutor to relearn him the alg 1 & 2 areas he may be weak and who can support him with pre-cal.

My DD's pre-cal teacher told us that [b]pre-cal was the course to "make 'em or break 'em" meaning if they did well, then they should do well in future higher math classes needed at the college level, but if they did poorly, they'd need to seek extra help or pick majors that just need a basic math requirement.[/b]

[/quote]

I agree with the bolded.  My son is a fantastic humanities student and pretty good at science.  But math is definitely a weak subject for him.  He started to take pre-cal as a junior, and just couldn't do it, no matter how hard he studied and how many different tutors we hired.  It just wasn't going to click and his life was becoming miserable.  Finally, a light-bulb went off and we told him he could drop it - just flat out drop it.  He was SO relieved to remove that major stressor from his life.  He knew he wouldn't be pursuing a STEM degree, so it wasn't as if he needed Calculus.  His senior year, he took Stats and really enjoyed it (comparatively speaking!).  No problem with college acceptances either.

I honestly don't know why students are pushed into taking pre-calc and calculus if they have no interest in pursuing a math/STEM degree or career.  It's an insane amount of work and stress, and for what, exactly?[/quote]

I'm not sure about in Va, buy in MD students are required to take math every year in HS to receive a diploma, so although you might be able to drop a class, you need to replace it with another, or take a math course over the summer.

This is definitely something parents need to consider when they think about advancing kids above their regular grade level in math.  Often when you  skip a year, or "compact" a year some gaps are  created.  For many kids these gaps don't show up until higher level math courses.  They can get by with memorizing standard algorithms in 5th and 6th grade w/o a strong grasp of the mathematical concepts, but then when it comes to building on those concepts and generalizing them to more abstract mathematical concepts the students struggle.

I know my comments are not helpful to OP and I apologize, but wanted to give a heads up to parents reading this and considering decisions earlier in their students schooling.

OP- there are definitely tutors who can help identify the gaps and "back map" the current content to the gaps, so they will work on both simultaneously.  So, fill in the gaps needed for the current material.  All topics may not work this way, but many will.  That way your DD will get the benefit immediately with current content.  I'd talk with the school, often they have good recommendations.  Retired teachers often make great tutors in situations like this.  I'd look for someone who understands teaching, not just math.

Best of luck[/quote]

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