I have finally thrown down the gauntlet on my ds10's math situation.
Since 2nd grade I have been trying to get the school and teachers to:
1. present math at an appropriate level for him, and
2. de-stress 'speed of processing' in math facts, as this is a documented area of weakness for him and only ends up making him feel like he 'sucks at math', which he does not.
Despite warning and cajoling him most of June and July about keeping up with this multiplication math facts, he has returned to being 'not the speediest', although accurate in what he does complete. I had hoped they would be past the 'mad minute' of math sheets this years, but alas these seem more than ever to be a staple in this teacher's arsenal of mind numbing worksheets.
After getting 1 bad quiz grade, he is lamenting his lack of math ability, and I guess I am getting tired of having to remind him and let the new teacher know that math facts are just a small part of math and that when presented in a good light and at the right level, ds' enjoyment of math is a completely different story.
So I emailed the teacher and she agreed to de-emphasize these sheets (week 2).
Week 3 I saw her at back to school night and (stupidly) tried to have a quick conversation about harder spelling words and harder math; it did not go well. The spelling thing she can see for herself; he is beyond needing to practice spelling words, at any level. So she said a word study can be done. Great.
As to math, she said 'he's struggling with the 2's times tables', which I thought 'ok, she's insane' and I just said we should probably talk later and let it drop then.
Ds confirms he is having a lag in the area of multiplying 2 digit numbers, but not his 2's times tables, which is actually better than I would have expected from him. I figured maybe he was having issues with the 8s and 9s or something. After reviewing a bit with him, I think he is actually in an ok place with his math facts and just getting bored and distracted by lack of interesting stuff to do.
He doesn't have any problem doing double digit multiplication in his head, but stops me after a while because it is boring.
So, after mulling for a bit, I realized this remark from the teacher that he basically wouldn't be getting serious anything in math because he doesn't have every math fact fully memorized made me sick to my stomach. 3rd grade teacher was fantastic, and I knew the first conversation we had. 4th grade teacher was 'adequate', and although I knew that from the first conversation we'd had, I gave it some time to make sure. Yup, just barely adequate. This teacher is going to be poison, and it is already started. (Despite the fact that she is supposed to be 'very nice' I think she doesn't know anything about this subject - dealing with gt kids)
I sent an email to this main teacher, the gt teacher and the vice principal explaining ds one more time, and stating that he is going to be both bored and discouraged with his own abilities despite getting A's in math every year and pass advanced on these 'sols' they give; I am not sure of the validity of a chart I found, but the scores he's getting place him in 94-96th percentile in math according to this chart, and this is without studying for the state tests. (I never make him study for these things any more ~ it should be more of a test for the teacher anyway, but as he reviews, it seems pretty obvious he knows it all very solidly. )
The only real thing I see to do is to apply for ds to be assessed for identification in math for the gt program, so that they are 'forced' to give him differentiated material. I know that for folks around here with pg kids and problems specific to that, this might sound like a minor problem, but imo this might to make the difference between ds hating math forever and loving math forever.
I probably sound like I am being too aggressive with the process but I am just tired of waiting for the 'experts' to figure out what to do for ds. I think I would be doing him a real disservice by backing down from the strong feeling that he is getting exactly the OPPOSITE of what he needs in the subject of math: overemphasis on speed and almost no new material in the last 3 years.
Vent, vent, vent.
