When we enrolled #3 in school, we hoped that they would help him actually learn math.\u00a0 I\u2019ve worked at it for years and he wasn\u2019t on grade level.\u00a0 I thought they would have new programs to try, expertise to tap into, and lots of work for him to do.\u00a0 That\u2019s right, I expected homework.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 Until now. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Two days ago we were finally sent sheets of work to do with him.\u00a0 The problem is it\u2019s not anything academic.\u00a0 There is nothing in the booklet of worksheets to help educate him in anything he needs to know in order to graduate out of the third grade.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0 For the next six weeks, my son has homework designed to teach him how to take a test.\u00a0 The booklet we were given is full of sample problems and questions that mimic the style of questions found in standardized testing.<\/p>\n I had heard the term \u201cteaching to the test\u201d and I assumed that that meant the teachers were instructing students in the exact areas of knowledge that would be on the test.\u00a0 Before I had a child in the school system, I thought that it wouldn\u2019t really be that bad because at least they would be learning something that kids their age should know.\u00a0 How dumb was I?\u00a0 Teaching to the test actually means teaching children how to take a multiple choice test.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0 How exactly does this prepare them for life?\u00a0 The only multiple choice questions I face usually sound something like \u201cPress one for English, Press two\u2026\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t think kids require special training for that.<\/p>\n For the next six weeks, this is what my son\u2019s school will be teaching their students.\u00a0 At a meeting this week, the staff informed the parents that we were expected to practice with our children every night and that they would be reviewing this information every day between now and the test date in April.<\/p>\n I know I\u2019m not a professional educator.\u00a0 I have no degree in education, heck I don\u2019t have any degree at all\u2026and yet\u2026..It just seems to me that if we had had this level of intensive educational focus on his actual reading and math, #3 and his classmates would know how to figure out the answers on their own, and they wouldn\u2019t need six weeks of training to know how to bubble in the letter \u2018C\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When we enrolled #3 in school, we hoped that they would help him actually learn math.\u00a0 I\u2019ve worked at it for years and he wasn\u2019t on grade level.\u00a0 I thought they would have new programs to try, expertise to tap into, and lots of work for him to do.\u00a0 That\u2019s right, I expected homework. \u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1979,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
I wanted homework for my son.\u00a0 It was the one way I felt I could still be a part of his education.\u00a0 I know other parents complain about the piles of schoolwork, but I would welcome it.\u00a0 He hasn\u2019t had homework in months, and before that it was only spelling words\u2026..what happened to the spelling words?\u00a0 I\u2019ve met with the teacher and asked her to send work home. I sat in the IEP meeting with the school\u2019s hierarchy and begged for them to allow me to help in his education.\u00a0 He\u2019s not getting an education from what they\u2019re doing at school..I know because he\u2019s still failing all the stupid assessment tests.\u00a0 Could they send something home for him to work on?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 They can not.\u00a0 Apparently.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n