Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion The Ultimate Bad Homework Question Thread!

These are priceless.



DS's fourth grade math class is studying what I'd normally consider to be third or even second-grade material. Problem after problem stresses single-digit multiplication, with the children sometimes forced to draw a picture to "help" them arrive at the right answer. It seems to actually be demeaning for DS7. We asked for DS to take the end of fourth grade test, and the school agreed but is taking a while to grade the test now, likely because DS did well.

Anyway, for the end of section math test last week, I was careful to tell DS not to let his mind wander and to check every answer. He reported that he got all the answers right. Lo and behold, the test came home, and he'd been docked two points for giving a "wrong" answer. The word problem (one of the real toughies on the test) stated that a person could bike a mile in 4 minutes, and asked how many minutes it would take the person to bike 5 miles. DS answered "20", and got marked wrong.

Fool that I am, I decided to politely mention it to the teacher. I wanted to forestall a situation where DS is happily reported by someone at a meeting still to have some math to learn in that down-level class. I explained by email that there's a difference between calling for the unit in the answer and calling for just a number; that here he would have technically been wrong to include the unit in the answer, since "20 minutes minutes" is not a valid duration; and that a problem calling for units in the answer should leave it out in the question, instead asking "how long" or something similar.

The teacher replied that he had been marked wrong because he got the problem wrong, and that they were teaching children to include units in their answer all the time so they wouldn't ever forget them.

I responded that that was a faulty approach that would confuse at least some of the children someday, especially when they began dealing with combined units such as meters per second squared and the like in science classes. I told her it would be better to teach the students to recognize when it was correct to include the units in the answer, and when not, so that they'd actually understand why units are necessary and would learn to think about what unit was appropriate, instead of having it fed to them all the time. I ended by saying that I'd be happy enough if DS were given credit for all his right answers on his end of year test, and that we could follow up then. :|

I felt so much like "that parent", but I'd had enough. I told DS to always be careful to get the right answer, and not to ever change his answer when a teacher at his school told him differently. I finally told him that the way they approach math learning at his school and in the district is deeply flawed, though he's not to repeat that to anyone there, and that I'm doing my best to solve that problem for him. I also told him to refuse to do addition/subtraction math drills if his third grade teacher gives him any more (which also happened recently), and tell her to contact me. Had it!