Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments "Honors students can teach themselves."

It's all still "go to the library and don't bother anyone" on some level, isn't it?

That's what makes me SO angry about this. Dressing it up as some kind of exaltation of the cult of autodidactism is just plain INSULTING.

This is the same kind of thinking among educators that leads them to shoving gifted children in the corner to get NOTHING educationally, while less able classmates get to interact with an enthusiastic educator and LEARN new things each day.


Shouldn't ALL children have the right to instruction at an appropriate level?

Burns. my. biscuits. Big time.

Every child is gifted, which is why they're all autodicacts capable of taking algebra in 8th grade.

Your kid isn't gifted because if he was, he would have taught himself the stuff about matrices.

Round and round we go.

Val, I fear that taking this issue up with the principal may be akin to tilting at windmills, because how many substitute teachers are adequately qualified to teach Honors Pre-Calculus? And if they had any, why would they be working as subs?

Anyone with a math degree SHOULD be capable of doing it-- given a decent curriculum, I mean. It's not that hard.

Dude, I agree. I'll go through the motions, expect the worst, and hope for the best.

Though I suspect they should be able to find someone in Silicon Valley, but whatever.

DS has just decided that he'd prefer to go over this stuff with me here and there until the first week of June, when we'll use Brown's Advanced Math and will meet for an hour 3-4 times per week.

My DS had a sub in Chinese for an extended period of time that didn't know Chinese. I suspect these things happen more often than we realize. A math class is much worst to me. I can see how it is hard to find a Chinese sub, but Math?

Val, I've been dealing with a similar situation for MONTHS!! Ds12's science teacher quit very soon after school started and ds has had a sub in that class for months. She doesn't teach anything. The kids are expected to read the textbook which ds has described as being "nothing more than lumps of paper on the desk" because they're in such bad shape. This is not an honors class though, so there's not much of anything going on. The sub, who's been somewhat of a regular, gave them a study guide on the digestive system to take home, a study guide that they were supposed to complete but much of the material didn't make sense because her sentences were incomplete, poorly constructed, intentionally or accidentally misleading and otherwise lacking. The test they took following that, however, was on the respiratory system which they had read about, or were supposed to read about, weeks earlier. DS didn't do so well on it (72 raised up to an 82 after able to correct 10 answers). He said the questions didn't make sense, and I concur, some of them didn't, but I also noticed he didn't really know the material in the way he might have if he'd studied. (Study? I have to study?) Good lesson. Anyway, I've been after schooling when there's time.

All that aside, that anyone would think that gifted kids are not entitled to LEARN is beyond the pale. I've had enough of this kind of negligence.

I would definitely send a strongly worded email followed by a visit, particularly if you are paying private tuition on top of property taxes. My kids attend public schools and there is basically no teaching by the substitute if it's just a few days. The regular teacher, if she is responsible, generally leaves packets and very detailed instructions on what is to occur during class. In our experience, the only times that a substitute has actually taught has been long-term substitutes. I am assuming that by "a while" your DS means a week or longer so you are definitely justified in being annoyed.

So if honors kids can teach themselves the honors classes, it stands to reason that the regular kids could teach themselves the regular classes. There, the school should have no more budget issues, because teachers aren't actually necessary.

Right. And because everyone will be "autodidactic" then, learning HAS to improve.

Right?