I don't post here often, but I had to put this out there to see what others thoughts on this topic are...
A Math HW worksheet on "Number Sentences" was returned ungraded by DS8's teacher recently. At the top of the page, he was directed to write True, False or ? for problems such as:
20 - 12 = 8 *3
7 = 14 * 2
497 < 500
And so on.
His teacher circled this entire section and wrote "Show your work." I am seriously annoyed. Maybe more annoyed than I should be, but not one of the problems requires any work to be shown, in my not-so-humble opinion! I don't get it - this is mental math. Why would he need to show his work?
When I asked DS about it, he said yes, the teacher asked them to show their work on the HW, but he didn't understand what work there was to be shown!
I wrote the teacher a nice e-mail just now, asking if he doesn't show work will he A) not get a grade for the work, or B) be marked down in grade at some point?
And because I am always concerned about blow back on my son -- who has previously been disenchanted with school (prompting me to pull him out AFTER a grade skip, and homeschool him for a year) -- I tried to frame my email as motherly concern about wanting DS to be aware of consequences if he doesn't show work when appropriate.
This is a new school - we just moved - and so far he is very happy. Not challenged by any means, but right now he is happy with specials, daily recess (which he didn't have before), and a good group of kids.
I don't want to mess that up for him, but I do want to step in where appropriate and make sure he isn't soured on school again because of little things like this. He's had a tough time with school, and though I preserved the grade skip after putting him back in school last year (he's in 4th grade now), I still do a fair amount of after schooling when we can fit it in to keep him challenged and happy.
Did I just completely overreact???
