We were talking about this at work today. There is a great book that talks about why it is that kids coming from families with more money tend to do better. No surprises. They are read to, there are a lot of reading materials in the home, and access to more enrichment activities. There were other things, they were all fairly obvious.
Mike is very adamant that he wants the girls to be in AP classes in high school, even if they don't technically qualify. I actually agree with him here, the difference between regular classrooms and gifted/AP classes is huge. Even if they aren't the brightest kids, they will be better served to be surrounded by high end thinkers and stimulating conversations produced in that environment.
So girls, I hope you can hang, cause that's where you're headed.
And if you have to fib or exaggerate to do it, I suggest that you get your kids going in that direction to. Start them young in IGNITE programs and get them on that track.
The worst writers I taught were from AP classes. And if I had to hear "But I got an 'A' in AP English! All my papers were perfect! Why did you give me a 'D'?" one more time, I was gonna smack somebody. And it was probably gonna be the AP English teacher who was never taught how to teach writing. Not that AP classes are bad, but they tend to churn out overly confident students who think that butter won't melt in their braced-up mouths.
ReplyDeleteProbably because I'm coming from a different direction, but my best students were those from the average, regular ol' classes who were avid readers. The pressure in gifted classes in grade school can be tremedous, at least here in Chicago. I'd rather my kids excel in average classes than feel overwhelmed in gifted ones.
And I don't want to have to help them with any of that homework. Have you seen the new math? Dude. It gives me nightmares.
I can't even talk with parents about the new math with a straight face. When we had the first wave of "new math", pretty much anything that wasn't counting on your fingers, I would laugh and say times change and at least be able to sell it to parents.
ReplyDeleteThe math that is being done now, especially the book that we're using is horrible. The book gives no outright examples for you. It's like they want you to sneak up on the math until BAM! you realize that you understand the concept so now you can do the problem.
It's like scratching your ass hoping that it will eventually help your tummy ache.
And I'm going to go ahead and ignore all the blah, blah, blah, I'm disagreeing with April, none sense.
I haven't been able to help Elle with math since she was in 5th grade. On yer own, kid.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that those kids get a better education. But I'll take everything else back if the boobs are on the line. Cuz I need me some April boobs.
what's IGNITE? our math series we used for 2 years and they literally told us to throw it away. our scores plummeted. hmmmm. probably because we didn't 'teach' them anything.
ReplyDeleteIGNITE is our Elementary school age "gifted" program. If they start in this track early (I'm not sure what placement criteria is) they go immediately into gifted in middle school. I'm too lazy to google to see if it's not just something our district made up.
ReplyDelete