Little mathies like Emperor would HATE public school. He's the kind who instinctively get the answer correct, but couldn't tell you how he did it. Or worse, he can tell you how, but you don't understand the explanation because it makes no sense. (Would YOU multiply 55 x 13 by multiplying 13 by 50 and then adding it to 5 x 13? In your head? Or do long division like that and not show your work? Me neither. But I guess he likes doing it that way, which is fine until we get to 52834 x 234, in which case he will learn that he should have listened to Mom and done it her way. But I think by then he'll have figured out some other strange method. Love him.) Lefty gives us the rundown on how teachers "ration" grades so that everyone feels warm n fuzzy about themselves and get a nice, average B. Level the playing field. A little snippet:
1. Don't collect homework; leave it up to kids to hand things in. Many smart but disorganized children will lose points to this.
2. Grade via inflexible rubrics that contain at least one "visual" dimension (color, creativity, neatness) that disfavors the artistically impaired. That way, no matter how well a smart, non-artistic kid does on the more academic components, he'll still fall short of a top grade. All the better if you design the entire assignment to strike both smart kids and their parents as inane. That way many of these parents won't bother to make sure their unmotivated children fulfill all the requirements.
Like it? Pop by and read the rest. She's also the mother of an autistic child, so I "hear" her in other academics as the young man's teacher, unfortunately, does not.
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Look Out, Dad!!
My father is the purple dot above the blue weather station. He's juuust outside Milton's evacuation zone. Well! My brother and I jus...
I giggled the whole time I was reading this. My son sounds just like Mathies. He once told me how he solved a math problem and I just sat there staring at him for five minutes trying to figure out what he just told me. lol
ReplyDeleteLOL, where do you find your blog posts, Mrs. C?!
ReplyDeleteThat really is odd, maybe I felt you were thinking of me, idk. Because I had no intention of doing a post until I just did it! And yeah, it's a brutal world out there, but by gracious we are getting through it. And I'm fully aware we're getting through it because I have amazing friends such as you praying alongside me all the time. It truly does make a difference. Thank.You. xoxoxo
Yep, that's Ditz. She's been accused of cheating...which was totally impossible as I'd lost the test answers & neither of us knew where they were & I had no idea if she was right or not. Obviously she was right but we weren't believed anyway. *sigh* Why would we bother cheating? Ditz is just strange that way. She simply doesn't care enough.
ReplyDeleteMrs. C., your seven year old multipies large numbers like that and long division?!
ReplyDeleteYour children are brilliant!
LOL no, just Emperor, Daja. Elfie still counts on his fingers sometimes. He can do the math, but it takes him a lot longer and he shows all his work. So even though Elf would be two years ahead of Emperor in PS, I just educate them together and make some allowances for Emperor's reading and writing.
ReplyDeleteWell, I wouldn't have done 50x13 (too hard) but I would have done 55x10 and then 55x3... and, honestly, that's really how we're taught to do it on paper, it just looks a little different...
ReplyDelete~Luke
*sigh of relief*
ReplyDeleteI was thinking that my seven year old was way behind!!
But I still think you're children are brilliant!