Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly I did not have such strict education as a first grader back in the 80s in private school. My current first grader and 6th grader are learning more than what was covered back then. My first grader does get spelling quizzes and correction in FCPS. However breaks are appropriate and playtime is needed for early elementary school. I remember my 1st and 2nd grades as still having a decent amount of play type experiences in the 80s.

I am not advocating for anything crazy. Just some basics. I think we need more free play AND more fundamentals learning. I think we can do that if we stop this "Well let's think and tell me how you got to 2+2 = 5! Let's think about our thinking!" and just said, "No, 2+2=4. Let's look at this picture showing groupings" and then have all the kids memorize. The kids would have a lot more time to learn and more time to have recess, or science lab, or...?

Same with multiplications tables. You can introduce concepts and word problems and different ways of thinking, sure. But then have the kids drill and memorize. Have them take multiplication quizzes until they get it. Give them a sheet of math problems to complete each week, heck even twice a week. They need to do this so that they can tackle later math.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let me start by saying I am politically liberal to moderate. Truth be told I’m a kind of crunchy woo woo mom who bakes her own bran muffins and who doesn’t allow screen time at home except to watch movies like Sound of Music. No video games. No toy guns.

But public school is too liberal and lenient for me. My son is at an UMC public elementary and I think it’s absolute BS. They do whatever they want and FEEL. You disrupted class? Go take a walk and grab a snack with the resource person! Now that you kids have all clicked through this BS TPT worksheet on the iPad, you get FREE CHOICE and can either read a book OR play games on the iPad (Hmmm which one will a 6 year old pick?). Oh we did some HARD WORK. Let’s take a brain break and watch Mario and Luigi dance on the projector for 5 minutes.
Ok, now choose which book you want to read. We are goi mg to write! Wrote about anything that you think of while you read? What questions do you have? Let’s think about thinking and fill up this book with post its of random BS questions! Next let’s do some writing workshop - trade notebooks and see what you think! Don’t worry about spelling. We just want to encourage writing and be kind! (Note - this would be considered a highly productive day. I don’t even think they do this all one a day.)

I think there should be consequences and kids need to know it’s not ok to disrupt 20 other students. You don’t get a snack as a reward!You might have questions about a book, great, but why don’t we first talk about setting, plot, characters? Why doesn’t the teacher TELL the kids what to look for and read for and notice? And any written work should be read and marked up the teacher. The teacher should mark spelling without worrying about hurt feelings.

Am I alone here? Is home school all that is open to me? I can’t afford 60k for private school, and based on some posts I read here they may not even be any better. Please tell me it magically gets better later. 5th grade? 8th grade?

Yeah. Since you obviously know it all and you don’t want your kid to be negatively affected by the behavior of others, I am thinking you should do the rest of us a favor a home school your precious.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Education is run by progressive liberals who don't understand the consequences of their soft teaching.

We need to be focused on educating our kids with math and reading. And discipline, consequences. For all kids. We are too focused on feelings, making kids feel good.

As the saying goes, the worst preparation of adulthood is a stress free childhood.

How can we get back to actually educating our children as a society? I don’t mean a return to rapping kids with rulers, just telling kids they are WRONG when they say 2+2 =5 or spell “said” as “sed.” Right now they are complimented on their thinking and creativity and asked how they got there and to please show everyone else how they did it. No! Don’t teach 20 kids the wrong way! Tell the 1 kid that he is wrong and here is the correct answer.

If you volunteered in an actual classroom, you would see that teachers do that. But you want to invent a world in which schools somehow don't teach kids, when in reality, they very much do.

It's clear you have an agenda and are not basing your rants in reality.

My rants on based on volunteering a lot more over and actually seeing what’s happening at school. I was oblivious and assumed school was great in kindergarten.

You seem to have a catastrophizing mindset. Are you one of these people who think in black and white? If it's not great, it's terrible? Because that's how you're coming across. No, schools are never great. They cannot be great, since they're a collective effort. But it doesn't mean they're terrible either.

I do not particularly love the way public elementaries run their classrooms in my area... but my kids attend or attended these public schools, and I, as the parent, make sure they know what I think they should know. It works out. My oldest's first grade class had 31 kids and the teacher was completely overwhelmed. Kids were yelling and throwing paper planes. I thought no learning was actually happening. Fast forward to now, he's in college and is doing well. He was always a bookworm, like all of us in the family, and he's well-read, polite and took 12 APs in high school, including Latin. My second kid will take 14 APs and has won writing awards. I have volunteered extensively at all my children's schools: I don't think I've seen anything as bad as that first grade class

Plenty of kids do well in public schools, because their families figure it out. If you want, you can teach your children yourself, find a private that will fit your idea of what a classroom should like (newsflash - a lot of them behave like public schools!), or hire tutors for your children. So instead of whining, find solutions that work for you.

If your kid is in college now and you don't work in public schools, you have no idea what we are talking about in this thread.

PP you replied to. The principal and staff of my kids' elementary is still the same and there has been little turnover. I have several kids and volunteered extensively for all of them, so no, I disagree that I don't know what's going on. But it's a no-win situation: if you don't have older kids who have experienced all the system, you are told that you need perspective and that it actually does work out in the end, provided you stay vigilant and hire tutors if necessary. If you have older kids, with proof that they turned out well, you are told that schools have changed so much that your lived experience cannot possibly be valuable to the present circumstances. This is of course, wrong.

Please do not discount the experience of others who have gone before you.

It’s just basic math. EdTech was widely rolled out in 2015-2016. Your current college student was not handed an iPad when he was in kindergarten.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Education is run by progressive liberals who don't understand the consequences of their soft teaching.

We need to be focused on educating our kids with math and reading. And discipline, consequences. For all kids. We are too focused on feelings, making kids feel good.

As the saying goes, the worst preparation of adulthood is a stress free childhood.

How can we get back to actually educating our children as a society? I don’t mean a return to rapping kids with rulers, just telling kids they are WRONG when they say 2+2 =5 or spell “said” as “sed.” Right now they are complimented on their thinking and creativity and asked how they got there and to please show everyone else how they did it. No! Don’t teach 20 kids the wrong way! Tell the 1 kid that he is wrong and here is the correct answer.

If you volunteered in an actual classroom, you would see that teachers do that. But you want to invent a world in which schools somehow don't teach kids, when in reality, they very much do.

It's clear you have an agenda and are not basing your rants in reality.

My rants on based on volunteering a lot more over and actually seeing what’s happening at school. I was oblivious and assumed school was great in kindergarten.

You seem to have a catastrophizing mindset. Are you one of these people who think in black and white? If it's not great, it's terrible? Because that's how you're coming across. No, schools are never great. They cannot be great, since they're a collective effort. But it doesn't mean they're terrible either.

I do not particularly love the way public elementaries run their classrooms in my area... but my kids attend or attended these public schools, and I, as the parent, make sure they know what I think they should know. It works out. My oldest's first grade class had 31 kids and the teacher was completely overwhelmed. Kids were yelling and throwing paper planes. I thought no learning was actually happening. Fast forward to now, he's in college and is doing well. He was always a bookworm, like all of us in the family, and he's well-read, polite and took 12 APs in high school, including Latin. My second kid will take 14 APs and has won writing awards. I have volunteered extensively at all my children's schools: I don't think I've seen anything as bad as that first grade class

Plenty of kids do well in public schools, because their families figure it out. If you want, you can teach your children yourself, find a private that will fit your idea of what a classroom should like (newsflash - a lot of them behave like public schools!), or hire tutors for your children. So instead of whining, find solutions that work for you.

If your kid is in college now and you don't work in public schools, you have no idea what we are talking about in this thread.

PP you replied to. The principal and staff of my kids' elementary is still the same and there has been little turnover. I have several kids and volunteered extensively for all of them, so no, I disagree that I don't know what's going on. But it's a no-win situation: if you don't have older kids who have experienced all the system, you are told that you need perspective and that it actually does work out in the end, provided you stay vigilant and hire tutors if necessary. If you have older kids, with proof that they turned out well, you are told that schools have changed so much that your lived experience cannot possibly be valuable to the present circumstances. This is of course, wrong.

Please do not discount the experience of others who have gone before you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Education is run by progressive liberals who don't understand the consequences of their soft teaching.

We need to be focused on educating our kids with math and reading. And discipline, consequences. For all kids. We are too focused on feelings, making kids feel good.

As the saying goes, the worst preparation of adulthood is a stress free childhood.

How can we get back to actually educating our children as a society? I don’t mean a return to rapping kids with rulers, just telling kids they are WRONG when they say 2+2 =5 or spell “said” as “sed.” Right now they are complimented on their thinking and creativity and asked how they got there and to please show everyone else how they did it. No! Don’t teach 20 kids the wrong way! Tell the 1 kid that he is wrong and here is the correct answer.

If you volunteered in an actual classroom, you would see that teachers do that. But you want to invent a world in which schools somehow don't teach kids, when in reality, they very much do.

It's clear you have an agenda and are not basing your rants in reality.

My rants on based on volunteering a lot more over and actually seeing what’s happening at school. I was oblivious and assumed school was great in kindergarten.

You seem to have a catastrophizing mindset. Are you one of these people who think in black and white? If it's not great, it's terrible? Because that's how you're coming across. No, schools are never great. They cannot be great, since they're a collective effort. But it doesn't mean they're terrible either.

I do not particularly love the way public elementaries run their classrooms in my area... but my kids attend or attended these public schools, and I, as the parent, make sure they know what I think they should know. It works out. My oldest's first grade class had 31 kids and the teacher was completely overwhelmed. Kids were yelling and throwing paper planes. I thought no learning was actually happening. Fast forward to now, he's in college and is doing well. He was always a bookworm, like all of us in the family, and he's well-read, polite and took 12 APs in high school, including Latin. My second kid will take 14 APs and has won writing awards. I have volunteered extensively at all my children's schools: I don't think I've seen anything as bad as that first grade class

Plenty of kids do well in public schools, because their families figure it out. If you want, you can teach your children yourself, find a private that will fit your idea of what a classroom should like (newsflash - a lot of them behave like public schools!), or hire tutors for your children. So instead of whining, find solutions that work for you.

If your kid is in college now and you don't work in public schools, you have no idea what we are talking about in this thread.

Anonymous wrote:Honestly I did not have such strict education as a first grader back in the 80s in private school. My current first grader and 6th grader are learning more than what was covered back then. My first grader does get spelling quizzes and correction in FCPS. However breaks are appropriate and playtime is needed for early elementary school. I remember my 1st and 2nd grades as still having a decent amount of play type experiences in the 80s.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Education is run by progressive liberals who don't understand the consequences of their soft teaching.

We need to be focused on educating our kids with math and reading. And discipline, consequences. For all kids. We are too focused on feelings, making kids feel good.

As the saying goes, the worst preparation of adulthood is a stress free childhood.

How can we get back to actually educating our children as a society? I don’t mean a return to rapping kids with rulers, just telling kids they are WRONG when they say 2+2 =5 or spell “said” as “sed.” Right now they are complimented on their thinking and creativity and asked how they got there and to please show everyone else how they did it. No! Don’t teach 20 kids the wrong way! Tell the 1 kid that he is wrong and here is the correct answer.

If you volunteered in an actual classroom, you would see that teachers do that. But you want to invent a world in which schools somehow don't teach kids, when in reality, they very much do.

It's clear you have an agenda and are not basing your rants in reality.

My rants on based on volunteering a lot more over and actually seeing what’s happening at school. I was oblivious and assumed school was great in kindergarten.

You seem to have a catastrophizing mindset. Are you one of these people who think in black and white? If it's not great, it's terrible? Because that's how you're coming across. No, schools are never great. They cannot be great, since they're a collective effort. But it doesn't mean they're terrible either.

I do not particularly love the way public elementaries run their classrooms in my area... but my kids attend or attended these public schools, and I, as the parent, make sure they know what I think they should know. It works out. My oldest's first grade class had 31 kids and the teacher was completely overwhelmed. Kids were yelling and throwing paper planes. I thought no learning was actually happening. Fast forward to now, he's in college and is doing well. He was always a bookworm, like all of us in the family, and he's well-read, polite and took 12 APs in high school, including Latin. My second kid will take 14 APs and has won writing awards. I have volunteered extensively at all my children's schools: I don't think I've seen anything as bad as that first grade class

Plenty of kids do well in public schools, because their families figure it out. If you want, you can teach your children yourself, find a private that will fit your idea of what a classroom should like (newsflash - a lot of them behave like public schools!), or hire tutors for your children. So instead of whining, find solutions that work for you.

Anonymous wrote:For what it’s worth I’m extremely liberal. Like way out in left field liberal/leftist.

And I agree with you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I taught my kids to read, write and do math at home, OP. Mostly over the summer, every year, and a little bit during the school year. I assigned classic children's lit for them to read.

Private school wasn't for us because one of my kids has special needs and really benefited from the accommodations public school could provide, and my other was able to get gifted services. This is why I will never hate MCPS. They do something for the kids at the extremes. I just filled in whatever school did not teach that I wanted my kids to know. I do not expect any school to parent my child. A parent is a child's main teacher.

I do all that and feel we are just barely treading water, alone. I would love to go back to the days of doing 15 minutes of homework per night and then having them spend the rest of the time just playing. Having to supplement cuts into that time. Not to mention having to learn half a year’s worth of material over what should be true summer vacation just swimming, looking at bugs, and playing in trees

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Education is run by progressive liberals who don't understand the consequences of their soft teaching.

We need to be focused on educating our kids with math and reading. And discipline, consequences. For all kids. We are too focused on feelings, making kids feel good.

As the saying goes, the worst preparation of adulthood is a stress free childhood.

How can we get back to actually educating our children as a society? I don’t mean a return to rapping kids with rulers, just telling kids they are WRONG when they say 2+2 =5 or spell “said” as “sed.” Right now they are complimented on their thinking and creativity and asked how they got there and to please show everyone else how they did it. No! Don’t teach 20 kids the wrong way! Tell the 1 kid that he is wrong and here is the correct answer.

If you volunteered in an actual classroom, you would see that teachers do that. But you want to invent a world in which schools somehow don't teach kids, when in reality, they very much do.

It's clear you have an agenda and are not basing your rants in reality.

My rants on based on volunteering a lot more over and actually seeing what’s happening at school. I was oblivious and assumed school was great in kindergarten.

You seem to have a catastrophizing mindset. Are you one of these people who think in black and white? If it's not great, it's terrible? Because that's how you're coming across. No, schools are never great. They cannot be great, since they're a collective effort. But it doesn't mean they're terrible either.

I do not particularly love the way public elementaries run their classrooms in my area... but my kids attend or attended these public schools, and I, as the parent, make sure they know what I think they should know. It works out. My oldest's first grade class had 31 kids and the teacher was completely overwhelmed. Kids were yelling and throwing paper planes. I thought no learning was actually happening. Fast forward to now, he's in college and is doing well. He was always a bookworm, like all of us in the family, and he's well-read, polite and took 12 APs in high school, including Latin. My second kid will take 14 APs and has won writing awards. I have volunteered extensively at all my children's schools: I don't think I've seen anything as bad as that first grade class

Plenty of kids do well in public schools, because their families figure it out. If you want, you can teach your children yourself, find a private that will fit your idea of what a classroom should like (newsflash - a lot of them behave like public schools!), or hire tutors for your children. So instead of whining, find solutions that work for you.