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I went to school during the 1970's. Back then, children did not have tutors in elementary school. Parents did not reteach at home. But I learned math and am proficient with everyday math.
Today, suburban schools depend on educated, affluent parents to pick up the pieces from failed curricula.
Robyn is right. Our district just took a "math survey" of K-5 parents. That's a good development, but the questions weren't what I would have wished, including this item:
"I am able comfortably to assist my son/daughter with math homework."
Ed and I told the new assistant super that this question on the survey shows that the district relies on parents to reteach math at home.
She said it didn't.
I said: "Assist" doesn't mean "give your child a quiet place to work." It means "know math well enough to reteach when necessary."
She didn't agree.
She herself had to hire a math tutor for her son in high school and pointed out that one-on-one teaching is far superior to group teaching.
That observation is a heads-up for all of us.
Is it the case that administrators now universally assume parents are hiring private teachers for math the same way they hire private coaches for soccer? (I'm certain the superintendent believes something of the sort.)
If so, I'm going to have to do a lot of spaced repetition to dispel this notion, which confuses tutorials with tutoring.
The distinction is simple.
tutorials: good
tutoring: bad
If Christopher had spent this year learning algebra 1 from Carol Gambill with zero "help" from me he'd know a lot more algebra.
Yeah, sure, he'd probably know more algebra if Carol Gambill gave him private lessons than if Carol Gambill taught him algebra in her class. But the choice between a good teacher working with a good curriculum and an ineffective teacher working with a bad curriculum remediated by mom is no choice at all.
We did manage to point out that for many, many years kids took math at school and succeeded with no help from parents. We said that Ed took calculus in his high school, then took calculus at Princeton.
He had a tough time of it at Princeton because he was placed in the engineering course which was over his head. Nevertheless, he passed the course.
He did well in his high school calculus course with no help with homework and no tutoring.
on the Today show:
This morning on the Today Show there was a special regarding parents hiring Internet tutors from overseas locations due to the fact local tutors were so expensive. One mother was interviewed saying, “I believe teachers should be paid well. I just can’t afford them.” I couldn’t believe my ears. There was no hint of why aren’t the schools teaching our children or why is there this huge need for tutors. Needing tutors was a given. The story was what people are doing to secure tutors. What a nightmare!
in California
The Today Show post showed up at almost the exact moment I had looked up the CA Mathematics Framework 2005 and found this:
Whether students are underachieving, average, gifted, or in need of individual attention, parents should recognize their own and their children’s role in learning mathematics and achieving optimal success. They should know the specific academic standards their children are to meet at each grade level, and they should be able to monitor their children’s performance and provide extra help when needed. Parents should be responsible for obtaining information regarding their children’s progress and know how to interpret that information appropriately. Above all, they should encourage a positive attitude toward mathematics.
Parents are their children’s first teachers. A child’s early experiences with mathematics at home can provide an important foundation for learning the content standards for kindergarten (Saxe, Guberman, and Gearhart 1987). Parents and other family members can nurture and stimulate mathematics development in their children and, for many children, will need to be involved in their children’s mathematics program at all grade levels (Stevenson et al. 1990).
However, schools must take greater responsibility to support the early mathematics development of children who are less fortunate and do not benefit from an educated, supportive family environment. Such support may require after-school homework, transportation services to bring children to school early for extra tutoring, extended tutoring support, and similar kinds of programs.
(Chapter 7: Responsibilities of Teachers, Parents, Administrators)
This is remarkable. Here we have the state of California officially telling parents they must:
- "know" the specific standards for each grade level
- "monitor" their children's math performance
- "provide extra help when needed"
- be "responsible" for getting info from the school about how their child is doing (hah!)
- "know how to interpret" that information
- be prepared to do this until he graduates from high school
This is bizarre.
What parent apart from a person working in a math-related field can do this?
And how many parents working in math-related fields can do this? Pedagogical content knowledge is different from domain knowledge.
Next question: are parents expected to be able to do this for every subject their child will be "learning" at school?
I'm obsessed with my child's math education, and I can't do these things. I don't know what C. knows and doesn't know; I don't know how to assess his knowledge or when to assess his knowledge or how frequently to assess his knowledge; I don't understand the wording of the state standards; my ability to reteach math at home may not extend to helping with proofs in geometry (unless I can get there first & teach them to myself well enough to "assist"); barring a miracle I'm not going to be able to reteach calculus at home.
If I can't do these things, there aren't many parents out there who can.
where does this come from?
Why would these paragraphs appear in any state DOE document?
I have to assume we're seeing the effects of the past 25 years of ed school constructivism. This list isn't constructivism; it's the absence of instructivism. When educators spend all of their time in graduate school and professional development learning false theories of human learning..... and it comes time to write a Mathematics Framework..... maybe this is what you get.
Send in the parents.
CA Math Framework: responsibilities of parents
why do we have so many tutors?
parents are the problem
10 comments:
"Next question: are parents expected to be able to do this for every subject their child will be 'learning' at school?"
It's the Murray-Gellman effect for curricula. I can deal with math, but I can't even begin to understand what the problem is for learning to write.
"One mother was interviewed saying, “I believe teachers should be paid well. I just can’t afford them.” I couldn’t believe my ears. There was no hint of why aren’t the schools teaching our children or why is there this huge need for tutors. Needing tutors was a given. The story was what people are doing to secure tutors. What a nightmare!"
Sheep!
This is depressing. I will be sure to incorporate this as a key part of my ongoing rant against my school.
When I’ve recently chatted with parents about this, many seem to start to “get it”, to be shaken out of their stupor. I say I think the teacher should be teaching these things, not me. And they start to nod, “Yeah that makes sense”. I say that when we were kids our parents didn’t have to hover over us while we completed projects and did our homework. And they say, “Yeah, those were the good old days”.
But, they don’t want their kids to do poorly in school. There’s a lot of pressure to keep up the parent reteaching and the tutors. Yes, needing tutors is a given. Also, many parents think it’s their kid that’s the problem. If they only paid attention in class, they wouldn’t need a tutor.
I need to get to a window. “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
And yet the bonds keep passing.
It's the Murray-Gellman effect for curricula. I can deal with math, but I can't even begin to understand what the problem is for learning to write.
We're now teaching writing; I have 3 books on earth science because I expect to be teaching earth science come fall.
Actually, I don't expect to be teaching earth science; it's possible I won't have to.
But if I **do** have to, I need to know something about the subject going in.
So I'm reading about earth science this summer as insurance.
Reteaching insurance.
I will be sure to incorporate this as a key part of my ongoing rant against my school.
lol!
Our assistant super - who look to be very good - went blank when I suggested that huge amounts of tutoring in a school is a problem.
Massive tutoring has become normalized.
When I brought up KIPP she said that you absolutely can't expect ANY help with homework in "turnaround" schools.
That's the term: turnaround schools.
I'm going to urge folks here to think of IUFSD as a turnaround school.
We also stressed that she MUST collect data on parent reteaching.
She believes in data; she's given parents a math survey.
But the questions on outside help are these:
I've hired a math tutor
I am able comfortably to assist my child in matn.
The clear assumption is that parent reteaching is normal and would only be abnormal if the math curriculum were so incomprehensible parents couldn't understand it.
Which becomes true for most parents in grade 5 even with a traditional curriculum. ("Math Dad" told me that. He said, "I get the call in 5th grade.")
Also, many parents think it’s their kid that’s the problem. If they only paid attention in class, they wouldn’t need a tutor.
That is everywhere and always the issue.
It's the kid's problem, not the school's.
When you live in a highly educated community, you have kids who really can handle very badly designed and taught courses without help - which is taken as "proof" that your kid shouldn't be learning algebra in the 8th grade.
It's a closed circle.
Vicky just brought up something she'd mentioned way back when, but that I hadn't understood.
We can use the SparkCharts as our list of math standards.
State standards are simply incomprehensible for most parents, including me, no matter how good they are.
The SparkCharts are written for students and parents.
Vicky took the "Math Basics" chart to her school and said, "This is what my child needs to know before algebra."
You can buy them at Barnes & Noble (as Vicky says, "They're laminated!") or you can download a pdf file here: http://www.sparknotes.com/sparkcharts/
I'm going for the downloads since I already have no idea where I put my laminated poetry SparkChart.
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