PhilinYuma
Well-known member
In less than a few weeks, I shall have been living in the US, as an adult, for 50 years.
I had heard "shocking" stories in England about "coed" American high schools -- I think that many Brits thought that Blackboard jungle was a documentary -- but had no meaningful way of comparing the two systems.
Since coming here,I have put four kids through high school and coached at least a dozen at HS level in biology, chemistry, English and history in recent years. Even then, I never really got the message. The US's TIMMS international testing scores in math and science are appalling: http://en.wikipedia....cs_and_Science_
But why? The kids' answer and hat of some of the parents, was that "the teachers are so dumb and lazy", but I find it hard to believe that was entirely the case or that it is the only reason for our bad showing. For this academic year, though, I have been teaching my granddaughter, who is bright but seriously handicapped by ADD which she inherited from me (I owe her one!) for 11/2 hours per night in biology, English and history and learning how the HS system really works.
Biology: The teacher has told the class that she has never read The Origin of Species. I am beginning to suspect that there are a number of other basic texts that she hasn't read, but why make a point mentioning of this one? The class will do the chapter on evolution from their excellent text and I shall be able to see how closely she sticks to it. Some HS teachers, for their own religious reasons or fear of parental reaction, just skip it altogether, I understand. But because the teacher mostly follows the text, I am able to drill the child and give examples that make it more interesting, so she is getting As
One week of class was missed altogether, because the teacher presented material by a drug company that makes anti rejection drugs for organ recipients. I helped her come up with some nonsense that treated the organs rather than the recipient. She passed, but the "winning team" went to the pharmaceutical plant and presented their results together with teams from other schools. The next day the teacher spent the entire class describing how great the event was and how much the scientists learned from the kids. I'm not joking!
In her last test, Amanda got 76 out of 78 multiple choice questions right. I asked her about the ones that she got wrong so we could go over them. No can do. The answer sheet is graded by a machine. nice for the teacher, but the students can't learn from their mistakes. Amanda says that most of the teachers use this method. Part of the school budget, folks, goes to a company that charges to make life easier for teachers and willy nilly, dictates the curriculum and ensures that the kids can't learn from their mistakes.
English: Well, this is my subject, so I try and make allowances. The children were divided into groups of 4-5 and about seven groups read one of about five modern "adolescents'" books, like The Meaning of Pi, The Secret lives of Bees and Amanda's, The Messenger. We read the book together, discussed its strengths and weaknesses (too many of the latter, really, for a school text) and once a week, the group "discussed" it together. So that was one day wasted out of five. When they had all read their book, they were given a week or more to create a piece of "conceptual art" and then for nearly another two weeks --some groups were allowed to spend a whole period, presenting -- presenting a PowerPoint talk to the class. So for two weeks, the kids either heard a presentation of a book that they had read, or more often, one that they hadn't and were unlikely to ever read. Their teacher or his superiors chose the books because they want to get away from reading books by "dead, white, European males" Oh dear!
History: She started off with a lousy "history of the world in one gulp" book, and a good teacher who is now on maternity leave. We shall see how good her new teacher is when he hands back her major paper, which, with a little guidance from me, discusses the Greek Civil War of 1946-1949 (her new teacher has called it the "Greek Revolution", oh dear, again!) in a way that is not in any of the text books (and for those of you who remember that obscure war, she argues that it was not the first "proxy war" of the Cold War). Although Good Friday is not a federal holiday, the kids are off today, and she is spending some of her time preparing for a --wait for it -- PowerPoint presentation, with a partner, consisting of b&w photos of the war. She has been working on this with a school computer and her partner for one day a week for the past month. The presentations, I imagine, will take at least a week and bore the class to death.
So there you have it. Mostly good texts, though some pointlessly bad ones, mostly diligent teachers with wasteful methodology, and kids who are like school kids anywhere. The major problem seems to be that the kids spend a great deal of time doing meaningless presentations and other activities that take up time but don't involve, gulp, learning.
Many of you are in or have recently been in high school or have kids in 9th through 12th grade. What do you think? Am I being too tough? If so, why, given this county's wealth, do we do so badly on the TIMMS? What would you recommend to rectify the situation?
I had heard "shocking" stories in England about "coed" American high schools -- I think that many Brits thought that Blackboard jungle was a documentary -- but had no meaningful way of comparing the two systems.
Since coming here,I have put four kids through high school and coached at least a dozen at HS level in biology, chemistry, English and history in recent years. Even then, I never really got the message. The US's TIMMS international testing scores in math and science are appalling: http://en.wikipedia....cs_and_Science_
But why? The kids' answer and hat of some of the parents, was that "the teachers are so dumb and lazy", but I find it hard to believe that was entirely the case or that it is the only reason for our bad showing. For this academic year, though, I have been teaching my granddaughter, who is bright but seriously handicapped by ADD which she inherited from me (I owe her one!) for 11/2 hours per night in biology, English and history and learning how the HS system really works.
Biology: The teacher has told the class that she has never read The Origin of Species. I am beginning to suspect that there are a number of other basic texts that she hasn't read, but why make a point mentioning of this one? The class will do the chapter on evolution from their excellent text and I shall be able to see how closely she sticks to it. Some HS teachers, for their own religious reasons or fear of parental reaction, just skip it altogether, I understand. But because the teacher mostly follows the text, I am able to drill the child and give examples that make it more interesting, so she is getting As
One week of class was missed altogether, because the teacher presented material by a drug company that makes anti rejection drugs for organ recipients. I helped her come up with some nonsense that treated the organs rather than the recipient. She passed, but the "winning team" went to the pharmaceutical plant and presented their results together with teams from other schools. The next day the teacher spent the entire class describing how great the event was and how much the scientists learned from the kids. I'm not joking!
In her last test, Amanda got 76 out of 78 multiple choice questions right. I asked her about the ones that she got wrong so we could go over them. No can do. The answer sheet is graded by a machine. nice for the teacher, but the students can't learn from their mistakes. Amanda says that most of the teachers use this method. Part of the school budget, folks, goes to a company that charges to make life easier for teachers and willy nilly, dictates the curriculum and ensures that the kids can't learn from their mistakes.
English: Well, this is my subject, so I try and make allowances. The children were divided into groups of 4-5 and about seven groups read one of about five modern "adolescents'" books, like The Meaning of Pi, The Secret lives of Bees and Amanda's, The Messenger. We read the book together, discussed its strengths and weaknesses (too many of the latter, really, for a school text) and once a week, the group "discussed" it together. So that was one day wasted out of five. When they had all read their book, they were given a week or more to create a piece of "conceptual art" and then for nearly another two weeks --some groups were allowed to spend a whole period, presenting -- presenting a PowerPoint talk to the class. So for two weeks, the kids either heard a presentation of a book that they had read, or more often, one that they hadn't and were unlikely to ever read. Their teacher or his superiors chose the books because they want to get away from reading books by "dead, white, European males" Oh dear!
History: She started off with a lousy "history of the world in one gulp" book, and a good teacher who is now on maternity leave. We shall see how good her new teacher is when he hands back her major paper, which, with a little guidance from me, discusses the Greek Civil War of 1946-1949 (her new teacher has called it the "Greek Revolution", oh dear, again!) in a way that is not in any of the text books (and for those of you who remember that obscure war, she argues that it was not the first "proxy war" of the Cold War). Although Good Friday is not a federal holiday, the kids are off today, and she is spending some of her time preparing for a --wait for it -- PowerPoint presentation, with a partner, consisting of b&w photos of the war. She has been working on this with a school computer and her partner for one day a week for the past month. The presentations, I imagine, will take at least a week and bore the class to death.
So there you have it. Mostly good texts, though some pointlessly bad ones, mostly diligent teachers with wasteful methodology, and kids who are like school kids anywhere. The major problem seems to be that the kids spend a great deal of time doing meaningless presentations and other activities that take up time but don't involve, gulp, learning.
Many of you are in or have recently been in high school or have kids in 9th through 12th grade. What do you think? Am I being too tough? If so, why, given this county's wealth, do we do so badly on the TIMMS? What would you recommend to rectify the situation?
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(I love the little buggers, though...and my kids, too!) 
