Unfortunately, while he does get to do advanced math, she is also required to make him do the regular assignments with the rest of the class. Okay, no big deal. So he does a mindless subtraction worksheet, then can move on to the cool stuff that he really enjoys, right?
Well,
maybe...but clearly this seems ridiculous to your child. Have you asked point-blank what the PURPOSE is of this strategy-- educationally, I mean-- for your son?
Here's the problem: only the regular assignments that everyone does count toward his grade.
So... let me get this straight; he's doing TWICE AS MUCH WORK as his classmates, doing more DIFFICULT work than they are... and not earning credit for all that he's doing. Is that about it?
Sorry-- there's something wrong with that picture. If he
needs more challenging work, then he ought to be doing it. While I understand that they've hit upon a way of offering enrichment which feels meaningful, they've made a fundamental error in the way they're going about it. No child should have to "earn"
appropriate educational opportunity by tolerating inappropriate instruction. But that IS what they've arranged.
But he is getting mediochre grades on those, while excelling at his advanced math...which doesn't count. So I'm kind of in a multi-faceted quandry. First, I've always taught him that learning is more important than grades, and that is exactly what he tells me when I try to get him to put some effort into his basic math. If he's learning in the advanced math, but not in the basic, then that means he SHOULD put more effort into it. But I also want him to understand that his grades do matter....especially if it takes so little to keep them up! My other issue is whether or not I should be upset that his advanced math is not being counted. If it was, he would have fantastic grades. But the school system sees it as unfair for the curriculum to be different for different kids. In other words, if someone looks at his grades, it won't show whether he is in advanced classes, and it will look like he is not doing as well as he is. I understand that. But at the same time, shouldn't he be graded on what he is learning?
I feel like I'm talking in circles on this post. But hopefully someone will be able to give some advice on how to get him to put at least a LITTLE effort into his basic math, and how to handle the grade issue!
Okay, well... WOW. Really? So the kids who are struggling and working on basic concepts aren't getting anything "different" either? What about kids who have disabilities and have differentiated instruction on the basis of an IEP? Is that not viewed as "unfair" to the other kids, then?
(Just to be clear, I'm pointing out how ridiculous this POLICY and way of thinking is... not that I think that this is true.)
Isn't the curriculum intended to
serve students? It seems to me that your school is reframing that so that the students are serving IT, not the other way around.
It should be more than possible for a teacher to assess more advanced mathematics for the topics currently being taught in class. This is because up to geometry, mathematics instruction is more or less constructive, and therefore there IS no way that he'd be producing excellence with advanced material if he
didn't have mastery of the concepts that form the foundation for that work. KWIM?
It shouldn't be up to the student to do inappropriate work just to make it "easier" for the teacher to deal with it. No, I wouldn't put it quite that way, of course.
But perhaps he needs to be placed out of level for math, if that's the only way to manage this. Alternatively, how do you and your son feel about pretesting out of the regular course material? He could take the summative assessments and, providing that he demonstrates clear mastery, be excused from doing all of the supporting assignments.
That option is a hard one for them to argue from a pedagogical standpoint. There seems NOTHING to be gained for the student in repeating all of the work intended to
gain mastery of a concept that the student already HAS mastery of.
My daughter was a child that definitely rebelled against this, too-- her attitude was that she wasn't going to play "trained seal" for anyone, because she didn't care about getting tossed a fish. She wanted to learn NEW things-- not 'show' what she already knew perfectly well. I'll also add, here, that forcing such students to perform as well as they CAN on below-level assessments is the road to hell. Paved with good intentions or not, it can foster perfectionism and kill a love of
learning... since they associate schoolwork with "demonstration of my mastery" and "proving what I already know well" rather than
learning.That's probably your most potent argument, particularly if you have a child who is at all stubborn/oppositional or demonstrates any tendency toward perfectionism already.
