Preschools in Finland and much of Europe are all play based. They do not teach letters or numbers until age 7, when children are developmentally ready to learn to read, and they learn quickly at that point. What distinguished Finland most is the social aspects of learning. Social development is a huge priority there, whereas here it is completely ignored. I just heard about a study showing that classrooms that emphasized social and emotional learning had fewer behavior problems and better academic learning. As far as math, I have heard that some high school teachers in MCPS and univ. profs say that MCPS pushes kids to be accelerated at the expense of developing a proper foundation in math. They get kids who think they are advanced, they've been pushed to get past calculus, bla bla bla, and in fact are unprepared and have major gaps. So acceleration may not be as great as some think it is.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am ok with 2.0. I don't remember learning fractions in 2nd grade, so I'll consider that my 7 year old is learning fractions to be a bonus.

China and Europe must be laughing their arses off at how behind our curriculum now is. Unless they too recently revamped to massively slow down, cover less topics, and teach to the bottom.

Anonymous wrote:Preschools in Finland and much of Europe are all play based. They do not teach letters or numbers until age 7, when children are developmentally ready to learn to read, and they learn quickly at that point. What distinguished Finland most is the social aspects of learning. Social development is a huge priority there, whereas here it is completely ignored. I just heard about a study showing that classrooms that emphasized social and emotional learning had fewer behavior problems and better academic learning. As far as math, I have heard that some high school teachers in MCPS and univ. profs say that MCPS pushes kids to be accelerated at the expense of developing a proper foundation in math. They get kids who think they are advanced, they've been pushed to get past calculus, bla bla bla, and in fact are unprepared and have major gaps. So acceleration may not be as great as some think it is.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:14"45 I am laughing because we feel our kids spend too much of the day reading for fun. I guess when they are finished with something they are allowed to read. Sometimes they read a whole book over the course of a day. It is nice that they love to read but I would rather they did that at home and were taught at school.

That's just it. This is not just 2.0 though 2.0 made it worse. Teachers have stopped teaching. Much of the class time has been replaced by God knows what. Talking about which number is the favorite number perhaps. With in class differentiation, the direct instruction time is going to go down even more. Research, however, shows that direct instruction is still the best way to impart knowledge. While I appreciate all the other goals they may have, the primary objective of education should still be impart knowledge.

Anonymous wrote:To the disgruntled, you'll spend less energy being angry and stressed if you teach your kids the things you want them to learn at home. Take 10 minutes a day and teach your favorite concepts, make it fun, and stop worrying. Before 2.0 my child was being taught a bunch of pointless crap that I didn't want him to be learning. There will always be frustrations with a school. DIY can take the edge off.

Anonymous wrote:I am ok with 2.0. I don't remember learning fractions in 2nd grade, so I'll consider that my 7 year old is learning fractions to be a bonus.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am ok with 2.0. I don't remember learning fractions in 2nd grade, so I'll consider that my 7 year old is learning fractions to be a bonus.

China and Europe must be laughing their arses off at how behind our curriculum now is. Unless they too recently revamped to massively slow down, cover less topics, and teach to the bottom.

Anonymous wrote:I am ok with 2.0. I don't remember learning fractions in 2nd grade, so I'll consider that my 7 year old is learning fractions to be a bonus.

Anonymous wrote:14"45 I am laughing because we feel our kids spend too much of the day reading for fun. I guess when they are finished with something they are allowed to read. Sometimes they read a whole book over the course of a day. It is nice that they love to read but I would rather they did that at home and were taught at school.