Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Is This A Red-Flag?

Yes, that sounds familiar. Good for him on the works independently plus. He might be more attentive if the class was more interesting, but then again, he's a first grader. I think self-discipline is tough at that age for many children. They are really just learning that control.

What did they say?

It really caught them off guard. Something along the lines of, "Oh.....well.....I guess we'll just have to find other work for him." To which I replied, "I'd very much appreciate that, something more in line with his abilities"

The way I looked at it, what did I have to lose? What were they going to do? Not let him advance to the next grade after already demonstrating mastery the previous year? If he got a poor grade / review in math in the 3rd grade (shrug) big deal. It's not like it's going to be looked at by colleges. He had already mastered the material and had proven he's done so. If I made him do it again what would that be saying about how I value my son's time and efforts? All too often as adults we think our time is valuable but the time of a young person is not, I don't subscribe to that.

I really agree with this Old Dad - thanks for sharing it. I have had the same feeling about my son's math homework - it is so very beneath his level... As of now, howeever, it is not much and takes him seconds so I haven't resorted to this yet but wondering if/when I should. We do so much in the afternoons, it's nice not having homework. I did do something along these lines in the beginning of the year - the teacher gives two pages of math hw, one "enrichment" and one "practice"... Ds would skip practice and go right for "enrichment" .. teacher told him he has to do practice first then he can do enrichment if he wants. I said "uh no" the "practice" is years below him (and the enrichment is not much better!) - no way he is wasting his time doing that crap just to get to the enrichment!

I'm really heartened to hear about parents like OldDad refusing to comply with schools' requirements that their children to do busywork. That, to me, speaks volumes to children about how valuable childhood is. You only have one opportunity to be free to learn about the world unencumbered by survival concerns; why not be allowed to be a child and learn unfettered by arbitrary rules? Just wonderful. That's inspiring parenting.

Well, I took a page out of your book on that one.

DS11's math teacher was forcing the kids to do something called "additive subtraction." Why sixth graders in a pre-algebra class need to learn how to do basic subtraction is a topic for another day. Anyway, the school's method involves writing sentences to the right of the problem, along the lines of:

234       9+5=14 Carry the 1.
-149       4+8=12 Carry the 1.
 85       1+0=1

(Something like that, anyway.)

Teacher claims that this method is "faster" than the standard algorithm. DS wouldn't do it in class, and using the standard algorithm, he got the correct answer first.

So she started sending it home as homework. DH and I signed a note saying (essentially) that DS would not be doing additive subtraction, and that, as they say, was that. Happily, she just sent an email giving him "permission" to use regrouping.

You're right that middle school (U.S.) math is absurdly remedial. But don't be too dismissive of other methods. Converting a-b=? to b+?=a is quite sensible (as long as the stuff you wrote on the side can be done as mental math without writing it).

I almost feel that I should be putting this in the brag thread but (God willing long may this last) one of the good things about the current standardized testing mania is that DD's 4th grade teacher saw DD8 score 95% on the 'end of year' test in the first week of school and that the 5% she missed were just careless mistakes or bad questions.

For homework the teacher sets a 'study island' module every week which is electronically monitored; each pupil is expected to do this for 50 mins a week and there is a 'qualifying' test to show mastery. DD's teacher just wants her to do the test (which takes her <5 mins) and then DD spends the rest of the 50 mins doing stuff like the challenging word problems or Lure of the Labyrinth.

This teacher has gifted kids herself and totally gets it!

It must be written down. In a certain way that involves drawing boxes.

Huzzah! I have uncrossed my fingers to cheer for what sounds like a very supportive teacher. You must be relieved.