Teaching to the Test

[Devils Horse]

Good post Jim.
I'll start off by saying that noone ever accused me of being smart so when I say that I cannot help my daughter with some of her Math Homework you don't have to laugh too hard. She is in the 6th grade and I cringe when I see some of her work load.

She is working on a paper right now about the "New Deal" and the Depression....how appropriate huh? It's scary to read those books because it seems like we are following the text as a game plan to fail right now.

Yeah we spend some serious coin to send her to a local Christian Academy but it's worth it.

I feel your pain brother. My wife spends an afternoon a week assisting in the classroom, and I go in and read to her class every now and then, but they already do work that challenges my pea sized brain.

Her teacher tried to teach me how to "code" words at an evening status check. After I looked like a dog staring at fan for a while, she gave me a sheet to take home and study. Her mouth said things like, "well it's not hard as it looks", but her eyes said I'd be wearing a tall pointy hat if I were in her class.

I have huge amount of respect for good teachers, and so far my daughter's had the best.

[kygorski]

I have met some great teachers, and some who are just working at a job, they didn't start out that way, they got worn down. So whats the big deal with teachers lounges. they dont deserve a break. A few folks here still subscribe to the old way, a spinster, who lives on cookies and an apple and sometimes a chicken for the service.Who in their right mind is going to go to school for sometimes 16 yrs to work for substance pay?maybe they are ones who need to have their heads candled. We were fortunate to live in a community that had some great schools, and then the demographics changed, the schools went down the tubes. NO kid in america shouild have to share a book, bring toilet paper and copy paper to school.But some of these conservatives skin flints think thats just great.Many of us gave up things to pay for a better education in a private school, and still paid taxes for the public system. When an atletic coach can make more money than a college dean, things just dont seem to make much sense.PTOs, and PTAs are just things that are some help at times, if you're really concerned, go to the board meetings and vopice your opinions, and see just how much elected board members listen to you.