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[quote=Anonymous][quote]However I agree that with your statement that it doesn't work for my kid - but it's not just my kid - it doesn't work for many kids. How many kids probably varies a lot by ES. At my school - I am sure there are more than enough kids that it doesn't work for to fill a class (28+) plus some.

The items beyond addition and subtraction in 1st and 2nd are minimal stretch for the kids who "get math". And, yes, the county should be able to meet the needs of these children. They were doing it before - maybe with too much acceleration - but there is no reason they can't reach these kids with the added depth and breadth with "some" acceleration. [/quote]

This X100.

Let's use swimming as the example. Let's say that MCPS teaches swimming as a core subject the way that they teach math. For K, kids are only allowed to sit on the edge and dangle their feet in the water. In 1st grade, they can stand in the water, with lots of edge sitting for practice in case they didn't get it in K. In 2nd grade, they are allowed to float on a device and put their face in the water at the end. In 3rd grade, they do everything they did in K-2 and are allowed to practice arm strokes..but not while swimming..just the arm motions. They are then forced to get out of the water and write an essay about how the arm strokes will help them swim. They are assessed on the quality of what they wrote not whether they swim or sink. 10% of the kids are allowed to take a quasi-accelerated course in 4th/5th grade where they will learn to doggie paddle and do 2 additional strokes. They will be allowed to take their feet off the pool floor. Everyone else repeats 3rd grade for 4th grade and then gets to doggie paddle in 5th grade.

The swimming curriculum is designed this way because the school is only assessed on whether all kids can meet the goals. It doesn't matter that no one can swim. It doesn't matter that kids think swimming is boring and not fun. Parents with kids who are afraid of the water will be fine. Parents that don't care whether their kid learns to swim will be fine.

Other parents will say forget this and put their kids in outside swimming classes. Their kids will be bored dangling their toes in the water but this is viewed as not an MCPS problem. If you didn't want your kid to bored you should not have let him learn anything!!
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