Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion How bad if math teacher lower ability than student

Okay, I am probably an idiot because I really didn't see this coming at this point in time. In the back of my mind, I had a rosy picture of DS in a classroom setting again. Even during a recent Davidson seminar when Richard Rusczyk (AOPS)commented that DS was going to get bored in that geometry class and to be concerned with that class holding him back, I thought he was probably overly pessimistic since DS is a 6th grader and these are 8th grade GT kids. It wasn't that I didn't understand that DS would probably be ahead of most if not all the other students, but I never considered the teacher issue.

DS was quite excited to be in a math classroom after the last two years of working alone four days a week and a one-on-one teacher one day a week at school. However, his last two teachers had decades of experience teaching calculus and beyond and at least appeared to more than keep up with him IYKWIM so the issue of possible lower ability didn't concern me.

Unlike in elementary school, the middle school math teachers are supposed to be "highly qualified" with masters in the subject area. It is also possible that his teacher will turn out to be quite adequate at teaching the GT Geometry course. She is very nice and appears to handle the students well. However, I am somewhat disturbed at this point by several factors. First, I am tempted to ask the teacher (but don't want to be obnoxious) if she has ever taught Geometry because prior to this year the middle schools offered GT Algebra II rather than GT Geometry. Second, I am disappointed that DS not just outscored but outleveled her on the geometry reasoning assessment (Van Hiele) and I am disturbed that she told DS jokingly (he thinks)that she doesn't think she had anything to teach him. Third and I am being picky here, but I don't like the fact that DS sees that he always solves the problems faster than the teacher. On the one hand, it's great that she works some of the problems simultaneously with the students and maybe I am being unfair since DS is very fast and the only one who finishes ahead of her.

Needless to say, the course is moving very slowly for DS but it is early days yet and it wasn't like I expected the course to be exactly at his speed. I am really more disturbed by the factors I listed above. Other than keeping an eye on things, I am not sure that there is anything I can do or should do.

YES, this. We've only seldom had this be an issue once into secondary, but when it is... WHOAHHHHH, is this a doozy. It's particularly bad in STEM.

DD has found ways to work around it using perspective-taking in the social sciences and humanities, and we chalk it up to "she's learning something, even if it's different from what the course intends," but in STEM, it's bad, bad, BAD news.

Haven't had it in math in recent years (not since algebra I), but in biology, it was brutal. I bit my tongue a LOT that year re: the teacher's simply wrong statements and grading practices based upon them.

How do you know this?

Asking the teacher if she taught Geometry before can't possibly be a benefit to you child. Can I ask how do you know he solves the geometry problems faster than the teacher?

I don't think it matters if ds is faster and smarter as long as she is able to cope with that emotionally and still knows more than him. The mistakes think is personality I think - some people are impelled to correct and some aren't. I wouldn't ask if she had taught geometry before as it is not her fauult it hasn't been an option up to now and it would be reasonable to expect she hasn't.

Have to admit this drives me bonkers at work--when I walk into a biology or chemistry classroom and the teacher is providing incorrect information. And it's kind of frowned on for me to say anything, since I'm not certified as a content-area specialist. Even though I have degrees in both areas.

I think, though I am not quite sure, that I may have contributed to the departure of one of my children's teachers from the profession by pointing out errors in STEM areas.

I don't really blame the teachers, though, in most cases, because the demand for secondary STEM teachers so far outstrips the supply that they often force-fit other faculty into them (literally, the gym teacher, because, at one time, you could slide a teacher with an anatomy & physiology, or exercise physiology, or sports physiology degree into a biology certification).

From what I've read, licensed teachers are about as smart as the average 4-year college graduate. It is therefore inevitable that many gifted students will have math teachers with lower ability than them. The worst case would be a teacher who is weak in math and determined to show that she knows better than all of her students. The OP's teacher does not sound like this.

By the original post I can't ascertain if the teachers has a master's or not. Also it appears that the information she has received is from her son. I'm not sure if she has been in the actual classroom. Also at least in my area school has only been going on for three weeks.

You may find interesting the 2012 thread SAT scores of teachers by subject taught .

DD's pre-K teacher declared, "I don't have anything to teach DD" to DW within the first week of school. One day, near the end of the year, she saw DW at the car line and exclaimed, "I GOT TO TEACH HER SOMETHING TODAY!"

That teacher was pretty awesome.