Minor update: DS is essentially receiving no math instruction at all for the first half of the year. :| A follow-up meeting is scheduled for December 1st. In the meantime the school is getting input from the middle school math department head (I don't know why, because I don't think he's ready for middle school math, i.e. sixth grade here) and school district math consultant, and I'm to investigate several online math programs with DS6 to hopefully pick one.

The new assistant principal's original plan at the last meeting was to have DS learn the same concepts as the rest of his second-grade class, but in more depth-- yes, (re)learning about adding single- and double-digit numbers but in more depth, perhaps either doing the equivalent of a book report on the subject, or creating problems for the rest of the class. The assistant principal said that DS6 needs to stay at the same level as his grade peers (too late by at least a couple of years) because otherwise, there'd be a problem when he needs more than fifth grade math, but the school can't provide it. I shot the idea down repeatedly in the meeting; I finally asked whether with that investigatory approach and no other instruction DS6 would be expected to show increased math understanding at the end of the year via higher scores on the MAP test (the local assessment tool of choice), stay where he was, or perhaps backslide a bit.

I'm not happy. Doing in-class work alone on the computer isn't the same as being taught by a good math teacher, and will serve to alienate him at least as much as another skip or a math pull-out would. I have half a mind to just tell my son to do what he wants during math time at school, and teach him after school. This year was supposed to cure the need for that, though. I really can't believe that the solution so far has been to continue to plan to make plans, while he spends a half year learning no math at school.

Striving to increase my rate of flow, and fight forum gloopiness. sick