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My view of education (by Mr. Rydberg, retired math teacher; adopted by Mr. Pearson.)
Since only about 3% of a child’s first 18 years of life is spent in school, I believe a child’s education is the primary responsibility of the parent(s); my role is to support and assist in that endeavor. Although I am committed to work hard, your student cannot do well without your help. You are crucial and indispensable. With these commitments in place, the success of your child will be a delight to us all. But, you are the key, without you, (checking homework and helping prepare for tests; providing a quiet place and time to study; being accountable for results; making time to discuss school work; and helping with organization), their success will be limited.
I left a comment about parents (re)teaching math on Curriculum Matters.
The math tutor I know told me: "I get the call in 5th grade."
5th grade.
That's when the highly educated parents whose children he tutors max out their reteaching skills.
If parents are crucial and indispensable to their children's math education, the only children learning math are going to be the ones whose parents can afford to hire tutors.
parents are responsible for results
CA Math Frameworks: parents must be "involved" in math education at all grade levels
CA math framework: Responsibilities of Teachers, Students, Parents, Administrators
parents are the problem
outsourcing to parents
CT Coalition for World Class Math
NJ Coalition for World Class Math
PA coalition for World Class Math
United States Coalition for World Class Math
Parents' Group Wants to Shape Math Standards
Common Core Standards: Who Made the List?
7 comments:
Plus, when it comes to "complex" math, this letter contains a big blooper!
In 18 years, at 365.25 days per year (with leap years) and 24 hours a day, there are 157,788 hours. If we only care about waking hours, and assume students sleep 8 hours per day (which is probably an overestimate for teens but an underestimate for little kids), then it is 105,192 waking hours.
In a 180 day school year, assuming 6 hours per day (which is on the low side), and 13 years of school, there are 14,040 hours. That is 8.9% of total hours or 13.3% of waking hours.
Of course, this is also skewed because there are five years where students are too young for school. In a year once they start school, assuming that six hour school day, students are spending 12.3% of their time or 18.5% of waking hours in school.
It still is less time than you might think -- vacations and weekends add up to a lot of time -- but I don't know where he got that 3% figure!
Since these are the kind of "real world" estimation problems that educators love to focus, it is interesting that he's off by so much.
ChemProf said exactly what I was going to say; it's 13% of waking hours. It's the waking hours that count. Unless, of course, we're assuming that they're sleeping through school hours! Maybe the guy who got the 3% figure needs some kind of a different math education.
The way I ask parents to be "accountable" (not a word I use) is to check their child's agenda, ask questions about their day based on their agenda, e-mail me with any questions they may have.
I also don't think that parents necessarily need to check the accuracy of math problems, rather for me it would be check the agenda against what the child was supposed to do.
I want parental involvement that is positive, but is not overwhelming to the parent. I have found that those that are involved, usually have kids who usually do better than parents who I never hear a peep from.
It still is less time than you might think -- vacations and weekends add up to a lot of time -- but I don't know where he got that 3% figure!
I'm so glad you did the math!
I looked at that 3% figure and thought, Huh?
This reminds me of the former head of JPL, who I sat by on an airplane. He got onto a rant about the public schools he'd sent his daughter to. He said he once went to a school board meeting and told the board, "You have these kids sequestered here for 6 hours a day and you don't teach them anything in all that time."
Sequestered.
That was the word he used.
I loved that.
I want parental involvement that is positive, but is not overwhelming to the parent. I have found that those that are involved, usually have kids who usually do better than parents who I never hear a peep from.
Absolutely, and I think this is one of those common sense observations that has been turned into something over the top and crazy.
There's no question it's generally going to be better to have some kind of friendly back-and-forth with parents (though Ed and I have almost no contact with the teachers at Hogwarts & that's been fine -- )
So when a teacher like you gives parents some suggestions for ways to be involved, it works. (Actually, the Hogwarts administrators & mentors **did** tell us exactly what we should be doing in terms of keeping track of our kids' daily planner & grades. We just ended up not doing it because we didn't have to -- though I think I might be a bit more tuned in next year. Coming off of our middle school experience, it was good for all of us to have school-be-school and home-be-home this year.)
In any case, the kinds of things you're doing are warm, friendly, effective, and MAKE SENSE.
"...being accountable for results..."
That pretty much covers it, and we parents are supposed to do it when tests and homework are hidden away in portfolios. We just get quarterly rubric grades that are meaningless.
And they wonder why there's an academic gap. How difficult is it to ask parents of the best students for exact details? They don't want to know the answer. They want to continue the dream that it's just about "checking" homework and providing a nice place to study. Therefore, if your child is not doing well, it's because you are not doing these simple things.
If parents are crucial and indispensable to their children's math education, the only children learning math are going to be the ones whose parents can afford to hire tutors.
Now you're getting it, I completely agree with that notion.
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