Why I’m Homeschooling My Kid in Science Next Year
It’s no surprise to me that Colorado’s public school system is not good. I mean, I’m a product of the Boulder Valley School District and I can tell you first hand that it’s not great at preparing one for college, or anything for that matter.
So, it shouldn’t come as a big shock to me that I need to pick up the slack for what my sons are NOT learning about science in school.
My first experience with just how bad things were occurred back in the early 1990’s. I was giving a presentation to some 5th graders when I asked the question: “When did the United States first land a man on the moon?”
No one raised their hand. In fact, most didn’t know we had ever been to the moon, and of those that did know, a substantial fraction doubted that we were there at all (parents were probably moon-landing-hoaxers).
And I have a TON of stories like that.
Fast forward to this last school year. My 7th grade son is a very good student, gets A’s in just about everything. He LOVES science, especially astronomy (imagine that) and he and I have great conversations about what the universe is like and what it’s like to be a scientist. He eats that stuff up so I know he does his best in his science class.
Yet, throughout all of last year, his grade in science was C-. In every report card.
Photo Credit: Lost In Scotland
Technorati Tags: astronomy education, becoming an astronomer, csap, homeschooling, no child left behind
He was devastated because he knew how important science is to me and he always thought he knew science better than all of his classmates (and I agree with him, I’ve met some of those kids. Let’s just say critical thinking doesn’t come naturally to them).
Getting that C- consistently really took a toll on him, he couldn’t understand what was going on. He really knows his stuff and always scored well on tests.
Naturally, I talked to the teacher to investigate.
It turns out my son IS a good student, DID understand the material and WAS way ahead of the other students in his comprehension of the material.
BUT, he couldn’t organize his science notebook.
“I’m sorry, he can’t organize what?”, I asked.
“His science notebook. He failed the notebook checks. They were worth 100 points each, almost 80 percent of his grade.”, the science teacher calmly explained with a huge smirk on her face.
“What does that have to do with science?”, I asked, but by then I knew what was going on and that I wasn’t about to get anywhere. I left the teacher conference furious.
I’m all too familiar with this kind of teacher. She was a stickler for organization. All materials had to be inserted in the notebooks EXACTLY and each item had to have the name in a certain place, with the information outlined EXACTLY as specified.
Now, I understand the need to teach kids organizational skills, I really do. But to make it 80% of a grade?
What this teacher really wanted was the students to do all of her work for her. She didn’t want to have to search through reams of paper to try and figure out what the student knew. She just wanted to open the notebook and start checking off the existence of items, each containing the proper words so she could get through the grading as fast as possible.
She wasn’t the slightest bit interested in whether or not the kids learned anything, only that the notebooks were in proper order.
This isn’t all though folks, not by a long shot. I mean, I could let that go if that were the only issue because he would get a different, and hopefully more competent teacher next year.
But in Colorado, all students are required to take the Colorado Student Aptitude Test (CSAP), as part of the Leave Every Child Behind Act. This means that all school year until March, but especially from January to March, my kids are getting immersed in that test. The teachers do NOTHING ELSE but teach that test.
Then, after March, when the pressure is off, the teachers pretty much coast through April, May and the first part of June. This is the only time when my kids have a real chance at getting a useful education, and it’s wasted because “Whew, we’re done with that test.”
The CSAP is the only thing that is actually measured, so everything else, like the actual education itself, is ignored.
I simply cannot allow my kids to come out of the education system in Colorado without learning basic science and developing their critical thinking skills. As a parent, I take full responsibility for my kids education, so I’ll do it myself.
So, every Tuesday and Thursday of the next school year, I’ll be pulling my then 8th grade son out of class for his last period (along with his friend and three other homeschooled students) and teaching them science.
How can I do this? Why would the school let me take the boys out like that every week? Because so long as the boys are in class for a certain percentage of the school day, the school gets the credit for them and they get paid. The principal told me that’s all they care about: getting paid. I could do whatever I wanted with them in science as long as they met certain minimum knowledge standards.
Standards they do NOT hold themselves to, by the way.
No problem though, I can meet those just by spending one hour in front a telescope with them.
The two days I’ll have them at home will be spent teaching, discussing and working on science topics with assignments to do on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I picked those two days to meet because of the seemingly infinite number of three day weekends the kids get in school for ‘planning days’ and other holidays. This would minimize any missed days due to that bullsh*t.
So now, I get to spend the rest of my summer planning a science curriculum for my son and his friends. You can bet it’ll be heavy on astronomy, but I can guarantee you that, based on what I’ve seen so far, they’ll be WAY ahead of their classmates by the time I’m done with them.
And I couldn’t care less about the state of their goddam notebooks.
“It would seem to me that people who care more about money will be attracted to teaching rather than those who actually care.”
Of course. Since the job by definition requires a person deal with a bunch of little monsters all day long, there’s little worry that ANYONE who didn’t love it would do it for any period of time.
But loving teaching is only ONE sine qua non. The other is being smart and knowledgeable. While it is perfectly possible to get I-love-teaching people without money as an incentive, it is apparently NOT possible to get SMART-I-love-teaching people without money. To get BOTH qualities in a person, money would seem to be required.
“If you do something you like, you shouldn’t care about how much you make.”
That’s just plain asinine. Even hippies didn’t believe that. Not even when they were high.
CrAz has a point. That was one of the hardest things I ever learned. The great scientist are able to maintain their creativity and while being able to put in a linear and concise form. I was lucky to have an advisor in grad school that said it was great to think in spider-webs or from all angles but you need to be able to pick the most concise and logical single path to publish. However, this can lead to trouble when the publish approach is used verbatim on another problem.
“Normally I am against homeschooling. (I know someone who has psychological problems that were caused by being homeschooled by parents who were nutcases.)”
But Bob, why does this make you against homeschooling as opposed to being against parents who are nutcases?
RE: wallflower67
Oct 6, 2007 at 4:04 pm
http://www.apologia.com/
aja,
“The great scientist are able to maintain their creativity and while being able to put in a linear and concise form.”
Yes – the order of *discovery* is different from the order of *pedagogy*. This has been understood for hundreds of years. For beautiful examples of this, you can refer to Lakatos’ “Proofs and Refutations”.
Actually there are a couple of good lessons for the kid in that. Don’t take grades so seriously and there are people in authority that are complete ___holes.
And there are alternatives for learning science. Teachers aren’t always necessary.
http://booksliterature.com/showthread.php?t=1527
psik
In part the problem begins with the Teacher Unions. Math and the sciences need to be taught by someone that truly understands them. It is hard to expect someone who has never had a class in differential equations to teach high school math, but too often this is the case. Pick up the phone and call your local school district and ask them what positions their looking to fill; the answer will be math and science teachers. Why? Because the union negotiated pay scale does not take into account what the talent will make in the real world.
Most people teaching these days have degrees in topics like art, education, language, literature, history or social sciences. In the real world they’d make between 40-60K working 12 months a year. Someone with a math or science degree will make that right out of college with the potential of making two to three times that amount in a few years. So how can we expect them to give up that kind of money for a career in teaching? You can’t, like Tony they have to think about their family and their children’s future.
It’s time to break the one union one pay scale philosophy that is destroying our children’s future. Teachers need to make a salary more on par with what they would make in the real world. If you want a quality science program you need to find quality scientists to teach it and pay them a quality wage.
cdj,
I strongly disagree with everything you have said. Not only have you put what I have said out of context, but also what you say is just completely wrong. I will no longer argue with you, for there is no hope in persuading you of what I think.
I once saw this on TV. I suggest you watch it and tell me what you think. I won’t be replying to anything you say anymore, though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfRUMmTs0ZA
thanks, JP
I go to school in the boulder vally school district and i have to say this is total bulshit. just because your son had a crappy scince teacher doesn’t mean anything, there are pleanty of crappy teachers out there. But you making generalizations about the whole school district is stupid. I’ll admit my middle school education was less than perfect but most middle schools suck. Now i go to Boulder High and i’am getting a great education. Besides your article is porely writing. In the begining you say the whole system sucks than you say its just Science. So don’t make generalizations and learn how to write.
Alex,
“But you making generalizations about the whole school district is stupid. I’ll admit my middle school education was less than perfect but most middle schools suck.”
The gay republicans called. They want their irony back.
You ought to read John Taylor Gatto – especially The Underground History of American Education.
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/
You can read the whole thing online, for free, there. You can also buy the print edition of his work.
Warning: After reading his case about where public/compulsory education came from and where it is going, you may want to homeschool for the rest of his courses, as we do.
There’s also Charlotte Iserbyt’s works: http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/
This reminds me of a discussion I had recently with my mother who is a very dedicated school teacher. She was telling me about a training that was organized to introduce teachers to new ‘American Style’ textbooks and teaching methodologies being introduced in India.
The level of education is so dumbed down, students are kept ‘happy’ with stories and ‘busy’ with activities. The system caters to the lowest common denominator. If any student is left behind teachers would held accountable.
Some teachers were very agitated and they put many questions to the ‘education specialists’ who had designed the teaching material and they had no answer.
Some teachers said cynically if we are going to be penalized for kids who won’t/can’t learn just keep giving everyone good grades and let them go to next level. The kids will come to their senses when they reach high school/college.
Btw. Indian courseware for science and math is used in a whole lot of developing countries so this nonsense is going to spread far and wide.
I’m happy I put my kids in a different school board with high standards, but I worry about kids who are going to be passing out from govt schools in future.
It is good that you are taking personal interest in rounding off your kids education.
Alex
Oct 7, 2007 at 7:46 pm
I go to school in the B(b)oulder vallEy school district and I(i) have to say this is total bulLshit. just because your son had a crappy sciEnce teacher doesn’t mean anything, there are ple(a)nty of crappy teachers out there. But you ARE making generalizations about the whole school district BEING (is) stupid. I’ll admit my middle school education was less than perfect but most middle schools suck. Now I(i) go to Boulder High and i’am getting a great education. Besides your article is (porely) poorly (writing) written. In the beginNing you say the whole system sucks (than) THEN you say (its) it’s just Science. So don’t make generalizations and learn how to write.
I’m sorry I just had to correct. Maybe it is you who should learn how to write you oaf.
Thanks for the post btw, loved it. Homeschooling is the best way
Gee, I’m so sorry that your special little snowflake had to deal with the realities of the educational system. Perhaps you could teach him to actually do the notebook organization work that EVERY other student in his class has to do to pass — and then teach him science on your own time? Part of life is dealing with unfair situations. Your kid is not different or special enough to warrant the school going out of their way to pass him when he is not working as hard as everyone else. The only difference between him and Joe Hillbilly is that his daddy is a scientist. After I failed my first term of grade 7 science due to poor notebook organization, I sat down and ordered my notebook — and have gotten straight As ever since. And hell, I’ve actually learned something — because as usual, it’s only the kids who actually have an interest in the subject who will take anything away from it, regardless of what the class teaches.
I jumped into this conversaation earlier because I home school my youngest. I wanted to add that I had a great science classes in school, and other classes as well. My senior year I took all AP courses.
But this was 20 years ago. My first two years of college were a breeze compared to high school, even though I tested out of many entry-level courses.
I don’t see the same expectations at my step-kids’ high school. (I don’t home school them.) It definitely seems like the courses are dumbed down.
I do have one step-son who is taking an AP Chem class, but it’s more like my first year chem class was. I took AP chem when I was in school too, but it was much more rigorous.
My god!!! I had been told the schooling in america was a bit nuts but that just takes the bicky!!!!
Not all schools are bad. Lawrence, KS public schools implemented a plan where college engineering students from the University of Kansas come out to assist teaching science. I was one of those engineering students and it was an amazing experience.
But you are definitely correct that many schools have lowered standards.
The state of most schools in the United States is abominable. I’m a fourth year college student but this article sent me rushing back to my days in a public school. My school as highly underfunded and taught out of out-dated text books. My science education especially in chemistry was ruined by this. Science was not the only thing that suffered, our English program was horrible. I was taught absolutely no grammar until my Junior year and by then it was too late. I’ve had to struggle more than some non-native speakers to force myself into good writing habits.
A word on standardized testing, get rid of it. Regardless of what people say or think, those tests are taught to students. Curriculum is based around what is on those tests. A complete overhaul would also work. They should look and see that maybe the reason students aren’t doing well on those tests is the lack of funding for that school, the outdated texts and equipment. Older teachers whose certificates say they can teach anything even though they are not necessarily qualified to teach it. Young students’ educations are becoming the victims of politics and money. This could also be said for college education (go into debt to get a good job to get out of debt, vicious cycle). I will end my thoughts there, though I could go on for days about our current education system.
My lack of grammar skills is shown in this post, it makes me sad that I made some of those mistakes.
you guys try to be a teacher. its hard!
I go to Central High School of Philadelphia and our district is like this but my school gets the benchmark which my school pretty much pases with 100%. The district leaves us alone because of this and the teachers actually care what we learn. The text books are out dated but thats where these teachers come in, they don’t use the books they teach us from their own notes or a text book they find suitable for that class. Science interests me and thats how i stumbled on this, some teachers like the paycheck others actually care about the future of the next generation. i am proud to say my school has amazing teachers who do care and will stay after school and help the students or sacrifice their lunch for them. I am the class of 268, I’m a junior and the teachers in our school do care so i am a lucky one.
I think Jessica meant to say:
“You guys: Try to be teachers. Its hard!”
Yes, it is. But, it is not so hard to tutor one child.
Penny
University Professor for thirty five years.
I think Jessica meant to say:
“You guys: Try to be teachers. It’s hard!”
Yes, it is. But, it is not so hard to tutor one child.
Penny
University Professor for thirty five years.
Writing correctly is HARD!
Penny
( product of degenerate American education)
p.s. At least, I don’t teach English.
I had to fix my post, as I left out an ” ‘ ”
in my first post–a typo.
Dear “The Cat”.
The best book on grammar, and writing in general is:
” The Oxford Book of Writing”
I got a lot out of that book–to fix up my American education.
Shorter but not better: “The Elements of Style”,
by Strunk and White.
Penny
p.s. For learning math:
One should look at the inexpensive series:
“The Schaums Outlines”
range: algebra to grad school.
Also try the series: “Mathematics for the Practical Worker”–which Feynman used as a kid.
p.s. For learning physics:
The Feynman Lectures on Physics
( so good that it hurts!)
p.s. To learn to read French:
French for Reading, by Karl Sandburg
( in programmed instruction format)
p.s. To learn history ( slightly dated, but wonderful):
The multivolume history of the world by
Will and Ariel Durant
p.s. History for young kids:
” The Story of Mankind”–by Heinrich W. Van Loon
( Hooked me as a child)
History of math and motivation for middle school kids: “Mathematics for the Million” by L. Hogbin
To Learn to draw:
“Thinking with a Pencil
by H. Nelms
( a classic, amazing book)
To learn Electronics:
” The Art of Electronics”
( a classic)
by Horowitz
For kids:
“The Chemical History of a Candle Flame”
by Michael Faraday
For Calculus:
“Quick Calculus, a programmed guide”
( I used this at age 12 to learn calculus–three terms covered here, with clear proofs in the back–as programmed instruction”)
Also:
Calculus made Easy
( a classic)
For microscopy ( for kids):
Hunting with a Microscope
Shorter than Durant by still great:
” The Outline of History” by H.G. Wells
For Music:
” How to Play the Piano–Despite Years of Lessons”
” How to Play Popular Piano, in Ten Hours.”
Then ( for classical music):
The Well Tempered Clavier by J.S. Bach
Seek out the excellent chemistry articles and experiments series in the 1930’s Popular Science Magazine. But, make sure that an adult is present–these are dangerous!!
For kids:
“The Intelligent Man’s Guide to Physics”
By I. Asimov
“The Intelligent Man’s Guide to Science”
by I. Asimov
“I. Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare”
For Critical Reading:
“How to Read a Book”
by M. Adler
Penny,
Aaahh… the eternal quest for a Royal Road to edjumacatedness. Which is, naturally, a fool’s errand.
You wanna know how to write? Read a lot. And write a lot.
You wanna be able to do math? Get a textbook. Classics (Calculus: Courant, Apostol, and some others) are nice, but not mandatory. Do every exercise. Slowly. Again: slowly.
History? Read primary sources. Some translated versions are ok – find someone knowledgeable to tell you which (e.g., Kemp Smith: yes. Meiklejohn: no.)
I dunno how the Feynman Lectures made it into the Idiot’s Guide To Education – especially since they’ll NEVER be understood by someone reading all of those Idiots’ Guides you suggest. Yah – Hamiltonians Made Easy – christ – we’re a stupid, stupid country.
There is nothing remotely resembling a shortcut to being educated. It takes time; there’s just no way around it. That’s why we need smart teachers – to get kids on useful intellectual paths early (anything else is a battle already lost). Idiots’ Guides’ only effect is to further convince idiots that they’re NOT idiots – which is quite the opposite of what is desirable.
Good job Tony,
Your article here was linked from a forum in my home town newspaper in Louisiana. Apparently, people are listening to you.
More parents should take time to learn the reason behind their children’s grades. Some will learn that their children are lazy, and some will learn that the teacher is lazy.
Congratulations on offering to teach your child’s friends too. Very few parents would do that.
Hrishikesh Muruk,
People with an MS are very expensive in the US. Government schools do not have enough money to hire them. Teachers with an MS or PhD are usually hired by colleges and universities.
I am grateful that my high school was different. I went to a private school (not run by the government).
It’s stories like this that make me glad I live in Britain. The English school system isn’t perfect by a long shot but we always learnt something, whether that knowledge would be useful for the working world is another matter and I always got the feeling we were learning to pass exams more than learning for the love of it but the system has certainly worked with me, I’m currently in university studying a subject that is a mix of academic and practical subjects and (apparently) exude an intelligent ‘aura’. Things could be better here but they could also be a whole lot worse and your story proves that, I think you’re doing the best thing you could do by home schooling your kid (and even better several others), so nice one!
cdj–the books on my list are mostly NOT idiot’s
guides. Quick Calculus was Written and used at MIT for students entering physics who needed calculus in a hurry. The history books are excellent. So are the books by Asimov–for a child who wants a clear nonmathematical introduction to the topics.
In particular, I found “The Oxford Book of Writing”–which is a writing TEXTBOOK used at
Oxford University quite useful.
The Book I listed for learning to read French is also a textbook–designed to get Phd students in the liberal arts quickly through french–in order to pass Phd language requirements.
Feynman’s Lectures are wonderful and like ALL of the books I listed requires serious study! Except, for the book on Microscopy, which I used as a child for a summer–doing all the projects.
As you point out, learning is hard work and it takes time and effort.
p.s. Courant and Fritz John’s two volume Calculus
book— a junior level analysis book for freshman–is what I used in university for honors Calculus.
I already knew Calculus from Quick Calculus. The
book above is better than Courant’s sole authored book.
Apostle’s book is ok, but his junior level book on
analysis is superb! So is his intro book on Analytic Number theory. These are beyond the scope of the task on this thread.
p.s. Along the lines of “Hamiltonians Made Easy”, there actually are books like that—and some are not too bad. Feynman is better–even if he has serious circular reasoning issues in his Vol III.
One can learn a lot of physics from the Feynman Lectures–ONE WILL WORK HARD!!
cdj–The music books that I listed are excellent, and surely you wouldn’t call Bach’s “Well Tempered Clavier” an idiot’s guide.
I learned to play piano from them.
The art book is a classic–it is rather amazing. I learned to draw from it. It was suggested to me by …..Dick Feynman.
p.s. Convincing Idiot’s that they are not idiots is –as you pointed out–a bad thing. But, giving people good sources–tested by personal experience–is not!
Nikhil:
In the USA, it is usually a State requirement that all middle school and above teachers have a Masters degree–certainly, true for High School Teachers.
Few University teachers do not have a Phd.
The problem is that the middle school teachers often have a masters in something like “math education”, rather than in math.
We have a strange educational system, but at the Phd level is is still the best in the world.
Few American students have the background to succeed in American science phd programs. But, we have no shortage of foreign students.
We could fix our lower level educational system.
We would need to require actual masters in SUBJECTS other than education, and to require our students to follow the curriculum in high school of the International Bach–which we created for children of our foreign service.
We could follow China or India in our most elementary educational curriculum.
We do NOT need to increase salaries of teachers. Our teachers get long vacations, early retirement options, tenure, and great health care benefits–and in some states: quite high salaries.
We need fewer and less powerful administrators.
They get in the way.
And we MUST DUMP NCLB–created for idiots, on the demand of an idiot.
“Teaching” like that which you tell of damages the trust and respect that students feel for adults.
The bright kids who know more than she does.
The regular kids who can tell she is not there to help them.
The needy kids who could really use some – you know – what’s the word?
Teaching.
some chair warmer three cubicles over can tell me my project isn’t completed because I didn’t fill out a form that isn’t even relevant to my project?
___________________
They enjoy doing it, too. Destroying gifted and motivated workers is a great pleasure of petty nobodys. They have power! Bwahahahaha! And nobody is going to bring the workplace team upwards if they can stop it.
this is really lazy as a teacher,as a student of a middle school i know what it’s like to have notes and homework.my notebook grade isint even worth 50% of my grade.this is silly,teachers a- students need to trust a teacher on they’er future,teachers who sit around talking about things that do not make sence to the kids…it’s just not right.I’m glad i have a nice school and nice teachers who really care.school is very important,without it no one could get jobs,and this lies on the teachers,and they’er wasteing the peoples time away being lazy and not careing,all that maters to them is geting payed,kids are the future.so make them smart,it will be worth it,but…they fail to see that.
Re: tiffany 10-18-2007
This has GOT to be a troll! Even a middle-school bimbo would know how to use a spellchecker.
Tony, if you’re still reading…Please feel free to blog about and share your curriculum ideas. Secular homeschoolers are generally happy to get there hands on any good science material for kids that doesn’t mention creationism.
Oh geez…And yes, I’m aware that my “there” should have been “their.”
I think you’re absolutely doing the right thing – good for you for having the courage to do something different!! I’m just wondering if you’ve considered homeschooling full time, it sounds like you’d be great at it!
Congratulations, have fun next year!
I’m sympathetically frustrated by your account of dealing with the school system, and heartened that there are others out there whose outlook on education is at least comparable to my own.
My wife and I have just started homeschool kindergarten for our daughter, and our son will be joining her in a couple of years.
At this point her favourite subjects are science and math, and I think it’s sad that her system-schooled peers, even at just kindergarten age!, have come home with the opinion that science and math are “boy subjects.”
Keep it up, and thanks for writing!
Love,
Cheeseburger Brown
http://cheeseburgerbrown.com
I stumbled upon your blog, and specifically this post, while googling sentences from my students’ English essays because two are exactly alike, so now I’m spending an extra hour trying to find their source (or not) and have some extra evidence to prove their plagiarism. Teachers are not to blame for your issue. The system is. The politicians, at every level (local, state, national), are. Give teachers a break – we do what our administrators tell us to, or we get poor evaluations. Too bad you won’t team with this teacher to enrich all the students’ science educations – but then again I’m not surprised that you would handpick the ones you will teach. How I wish I could do that! Until you welcome every child, regardless of potential, socio-economic background, mental health, or ambition, into your homeschooling enterprise, you cannot compare it to public education. Period. You’ll have success, because success will come easily. And then you’ll be sure that teaching is a simple thing. And you will be wrong.
Tony, I’ve not read through the (to date) 258 comments you’ve received on this article, but I cannot tell you how much I heartily support your decision. Teachers such as the one you’ve described, in being all about the letter of the law, completely miss the spirit of it.
For what it’s worth, I’m a teacher — and it drives me insane when other teachers nit-pick students to death without focusing on what’s actually important: the actual content and the love of learning it. Bravo to you.
This really gets my blood boiling. As a Colorado student, I coudn’t agree more. Teachers really miss the point, and the school’s administration does a horrible job of hiring teachers. Very few teachers of mine actually cared I learned something, but they sure do care about their pay.
exactly what my science teacher is like. Im in eighth grade and i go to catholic school in New York and all my science teachers care about is a neat notebook she said all good scientists were neat so i brought up einstein and got kicked out of class got sent to the principals office and my parents were called to the school. Then when i took the trimester test and got a 100% and half of the 8th grade fail she noticed how smart i was and now im paired up with the two smartest kids in the grade and she treats me like roylety
I just stumbled on this article and though it parallels the way I was taught in South Carolina. I’m a college student now, but I had to make the awful transition from private school to public school early on. The bad effects of the South Carolina school system resonate throughout my college career right now. I lack in grammar skills and some vital calculus knowledge that I feel I could have been taught in any other school system, and because of that I’m not making the grades I feel capable of. I wish my parents took the initiative you did and started filling in the gaps made by one of the statistically worst Education systems in the nation…
Heh, this reminds me of my science teacher in the 7th grade. For the first marking period, I received a 75 (Which is terrible), the second a 95 (Which is good, and the last an 85 (Not too good) In the 8th grade, I managed to hold a perfect 100 average throughout the whole year in science. Now, this year, I started off with another perfect average in biology. By the way, this is New York City. The middle and elementary school education in my area seems pretty… bad.
Awesome!! Good for you! I was a science teacher in Georgia last year and in Florida the previous year and I will tell you it was hell. I do not have a degree in education, but rather in Biology and Psychology. The pressure for teaching to the state standardized tests is immense. In fact, our curriculum is generated around satisfying those tests. No projects, no labs, nothing fun or realistically educational, just grinding away at these test standards. Its horrible. Also, if you want to test students’ knowledge, you can’t count tests for very much according to administration; THE BEST WAY TO GRADE A CHILD’S PROGRESS IS WITH A NOTEBOOK CHECK! I kid you not, notebook checks are all the rage for teachers. I will say this for notebooks though, as a teacher, having the kids keep an organized notebook for a grade will certainly cover your ass when the administration looks over your shoulder. But in so far as LEARNING anything, pah, most of the kids copy each others notes and frequently exchange notebooks between classes. I’ve seen a teacher grade the same notebook 4 times for 4 different kids. Apparently taking a test is not good enough for checking whether a child understands the information. Also we are coached as new teachers not to make tests that are particularly hard, especially in science. The questions should be true or false or multiple guess, and should not require too much mental processing to answer. A lot of folks blame the teachers, and I won’t say that they aren’t somewhat responsible, but when I was teaching, my hands were tied frequently by the administration and the state curriculum. there is no bonus for the teachers if the students LEARN the material and there is no bonus if the kids pass or fail these standardized tests for teachers. However, if the scores on the state tests are high enough, the admin gets a hefty bonus. So really, where are their motivations? I taught for 2 years- I will never ever do it again.