Anonymous
Post 01/06/2015 12:06     Subject: Re:Compacted math
Anonymous wrote:
If the end result gets "on track" kids to Algebra in 8th grade, Calc in 12, I don't see why you would need to push k-3 kids any harder. I know, some parents will claim their kids are bored, blah blah blah.


Getting to Calc in grade 12 isn't the point. The problem is that math is so watered down and easy in K-3 that the kids don't learn anything. They are bored, incredibly bored. What is worse is that school is teaching them that math in school is a stupid subject.

There are so many things that they could do to offer acceleration. They could offer an accelerated class with more challenging problems, more challenging math games or projects that use math. They could offer many of the skills like probability and ratios that they dumped out of 2.0 in the accelerated class. If you look on something like IXL you will notice that MCPS only covers a portion of the skills offered for a grade level. These aren't math skills that should be ignored for kids who are interested in math just because the basic or below average kid doesn't need to score high on PARRC with them.

Enrichment is the biggest scam out there. Giving kids a few occasional worksheets is not enrichment.

If you're child was great at reading and loved it then you would be pissed if he was forced to read Biscuit books for 4 years too.



In both my DCs' classes (K-3), the teachers offered math acceleration via math groups. For DC2, the math acceleration is challenging enough. For DC1, it was still a bit easy. DC1 coasted through math in those grades (now in compacted math), but DC1 never felt math was stupid.

I find that most kids mimic their parents' attitudes regarding school or, in this case, math. Ask yourself if you have a bad attitude about math in MCPS, and whether you subconsciously influence your kid's attitude.

There are *very* few kids that are so good in math at K-3 grades that they need so much acceleration. Just because a 1st grader can memorize the multiplication table doesn't make that kid good at math. It may just mean the kid has a good memory and was drilled long enough to memorize it.
Anonymous
Post 01/06/2015 11:45     Subject: Compacted math
That's great but very unusual for a child to learn skills up to the 3rd grade level in preschool. When your child is very gifted in an area, it can be difficult is a regular classroom but that doesn't mean the math program is bad.