teacher's manual

from the math chair --

Catherine

I have forwarded your request to the District’s central office.

XXXX

This is a good development.

The new assistant superintendent has been consistently following the principle that academic decisions should be made on the basis of academics, not scheduling, not copyright law, not AYP status, and on and on. I would be surprised if she doesn't figure out a way to get the answers to students and their parents.

The history of this request, which I haven't mentioned, is that a friend of mine, last winter, requested that answers be sent home or posted on edline so she could assign her child extra problems from the textbook. At the time her son really needed this help; he had hit a rough patch in the class. (He's in a different class, not the class C. is in).

The answer was a simple 'no,' which is the standard answer to parent requests at the middle school. The only justification offered was that the math chair didn't feel 'comfortable' providing a copy of the answer key. No one expressed interest in what was going on with my friend's son, or why his grades were sliding. When his grades picked back up again, no one expressed satisfaction to my knowledge.

That is the middle school in a nutshell.

So it fell to me to track down a copy of the teacher's manual, which I did. It wasn't easy. The Amsco books aren't sold in many states; it's not like tracking down the Teacher's Edition to Prentice Hall. It's difficult even getting the proper ISBN numbers for the books. That required a couple of phone calls to "Math Dad," who uses the books in his school and had to remember to look up the number inside the Teacher's Manual at his school, write it down, report them back to me, etc. Then I had to Google around for a used book source. Then I had to place an order, receive the wrong book, be told Alibris wouldn't refund.....

So I'm out $35 bucks on the deal, but my friend has the Teacher's Manual.

In short: it was a time consuming project and I lost thirty-five dollars.

I'm paying the highest property taxes in the country so my school district can outsource the task of providing answer keys to (temporarily) struggling students to me.

None of this works; none of it even remotely makes sense.

The school should be focused like a laser on the academic achievement of its students.

Instead we hear about character and scheduling. But mostly character. FOCUS, honesty, DIVERSITY!!! (the word "diversity" on the L.E.D. display sign^* at the front of the high school lights up and flashes), S.A.D.D., drinkin,' druggin' celebrity parents, and on and on and on.

The fact is, I can get a copy of the manual on my own. I can Xerox my friend's copy.

I refuse to do that.

The school needs to teach algebra in 8th grade to as many students as possible, and that means rounding up the answer key so students can correct their work at night.

We've reached the point of diminishing returns with our afterschooling project. As long as I run around like a crazy person tracking down Teacher's Manuals, teaching myself algebra, preteaching and reteaching math to my kid, the school has no incentive to improve.


^* Inforad: Your Window to a Wireless World


all the answers are belong to us
email to the math chair
second request
teacher's manual
it would be unusual
more stuff only teachers can buy
inflammatory
2 weeks off
the return of Ms. K