Do you really know how well your kids are doing in school?
Seriously ! All the talk about percentiles and standings versus national scores but nothing in plain english as to what that means. The parents in Germantown hills thought, 'Hey our kids are doing great!!' until they looked around. Last Friday the Journal Star covered this: The New New Math. Just because your kid's grades are top notch doesn't mean junior is measuring up for the long haul. This has been a deep concern of ours too.
We send our kid to a private school. It was a tough decision because there is a top notch District 150 public school in the same area. But we have to weigh in the long haul, the middle school and the high school are much less stable and certain. Stability, drugs, crime all outweighed the religious affiliation of the school that we don't share. Peoria Academy would be a better fit, but they have an 'exclusivist' mentality to their admissions. I can't say we are 100% happy with our decision but for now it is the best we can get short of moving to Dunlap. Still the uncertainty is there. Our child took the Terra Nova standard assessments and scored below average in math and science. This surprised us because math and science are his strongest subjects. We were told by the teacher in conference that the entire class scored below average in math and science. What!!? For the most part, the material tested simply was never covered the previous year.
Forget the numbers. What you really need to focus on is what your kid will be taking from 7th grade on. The farther behind your child is by high school graduation, the fewer doors of opportunity they will have afterward. Not everyone wants to be an engineer or a doctor but if you want to ensure your child has the opportunity to be one then you really need to pay attention. The parents at Germantown Hills are doing just that.
This leads to Mahkno's curriculum. This is what I would like to see and what I think should be taught as a minimum. If kids can go faster and farther, absolutely allow it !!
Mathematics
7th grade: Pre-Algebra
8th grade: Algebra
9th grade: Geometry
10th grade: Trigonometry
11th grade: Advanced Algebra
12th grade: Calculus (Every kid should take this, it is easier than algebra. Really!)
Science
7th grade: Biology
8th grade: Chemistry and Intro to Physics
9th grade: Biology II
10th grade: Chemistry II
11th grade: Advanced Biology or chemistry
12th grade: Physics I (Reinforces calculus)
Foreign Language
Choose 2: Spanish, Chinese, French
Foreign language 1, proficiency by 8th grade
Foreign language 1, mastery by senior year, could pass the equivalent of TOEFL exam.
Foreign language 2, proficiency by senior year.
Foreign language 3, option should be available for introductory skill.
English
I believe in the philosphy that every class is an english class.
By senior year,
1 year grammer
2 years composition, other classes constitute additional composition
2 years literature
Social Sciences (papers and written examinations standard!)
7th grade: World History
8th grade: U.S. History to civil war, Constitution exams
9th grade: World History again
10th grade: U.S. History, reconstruction to present minus 10 years.
11th grade: Civics, geography
12th grade: Advanced topic.... economics?
Miscellaneous
1 semester Consumer Economics... how to manage your personal finances.
1 semester Home Economics... how to manage a home.
1 year Computer Science, focus on scripting and program structure.
Physical Education every semester the kid is in school until graduation
1 year Business Economics... teach kids how to start and run a basic business.
What does one do with kids who can't keep up? Thats a tough call. Tracking is illegal last I recalled. But if a kid isn't destined for college then there needs to be an alternative track toward trade skills. Kids should be allowed to follow whatever goal they want to pursue but they should go forward with their eyes open.
I don't know how best to approach this, but 8th graders need to be getting some sort of career advice. I remember back in school, no one really took school too seriously until the SAT/ACT exams came along. By then, for many, it was too late. GPAs were squandered, class progression was insufficiently advanced. No one ever talked to me about what I wanted to do and how best to get there. It was the blind leading the blind.
We send our kid to a private school. It was a tough decision because there is a top notch District 150 public school in the same area. But we have to weigh in the long haul, the middle school and the high school are much less stable and certain. Stability, drugs, crime all outweighed the religious affiliation of the school that we don't share. Peoria Academy would be a better fit, but they have an 'exclusivist' mentality to their admissions. I can't say we are 100% happy with our decision but for now it is the best we can get short of moving to Dunlap. Still the uncertainty is there. Our child took the Terra Nova standard assessments and scored below average in math and science. This surprised us because math and science are his strongest subjects. We were told by the teacher in conference that the entire class scored below average in math and science. What!!? For the most part, the material tested simply was never covered the previous year.
Forget the numbers. What you really need to focus on is what your kid will be taking from 7th grade on. The farther behind your child is by high school graduation, the fewer doors of opportunity they will have afterward. Not everyone wants to be an engineer or a doctor but if you want to ensure your child has the opportunity to be one then you really need to pay attention. The parents at Germantown Hills are doing just that.
This leads to Mahkno's curriculum. This is what I would like to see and what I think should be taught as a minimum. If kids can go faster and farther, absolutely allow it !!
Mathematics
7th grade: Pre-Algebra
8th grade: Algebra
9th grade: Geometry
10th grade: Trigonometry
11th grade: Advanced Algebra
12th grade: Calculus (Every kid should take this, it is easier than algebra. Really!)
Science
7th grade: Biology
8th grade: Chemistry and Intro to Physics
9th grade: Biology II
10th grade: Chemistry II
11th grade: Advanced Biology or chemistry
12th grade: Physics I (Reinforces calculus)
Foreign Language
Choose 2: Spanish, Chinese, French
Foreign language 1, proficiency by 8th grade
Foreign language 1, mastery by senior year, could pass the equivalent of TOEFL exam.
Foreign language 2, proficiency by senior year.
Foreign language 3, option should be available for introductory skill.
English
I believe in the philosphy that every class is an english class.
By senior year,
1 year grammer
2 years composition, other classes constitute additional composition
2 years literature
Social Sciences (papers and written examinations standard!)
7th grade: World History
8th grade: U.S. History to civil war, Constitution exams
9th grade: World History again
10th grade: U.S. History, reconstruction to present minus 10 years.
11th grade: Civics, geography
12th grade: Advanced topic.... economics?
Miscellaneous
1 semester Consumer Economics... how to manage your personal finances.
1 semester Home Economics... how to manage a home.
1 year Computer Science, focus on scripting and program structure.
Physical Education every semester the kid is in school until graduation
1 year Business Economics... teach kids how to start and run a basic business.
What does one do with kids who can't keep up? Thats a tough call. Tracking is illegal last I recalled. But if a kid isn't destined for college then there needs to be an alternative track toward trade skills. Kids should be allowed to follow whatever goal they want to pursue but they should go forward with their eyes open.
I don't know how best to approach this, but 8th graders need to be getting some sort of career advice. I remember back in school, no one really took school too seriously until the SAT/ACT exams came along. By then, for many, it was too late. GPAs were squandered, class progression was insufficiently advanced. No one ever talked to me about what I wanted to do and how best to get there. It was the blind leading the blind.
posted by Mahkno at 10:36 AM
1 Comments:
How do you feel about the saying that everyone can't be teached? There are a number of kids that probably isn't going to get anything past 7th or 8th grade and is doing nothing except bringing other kids down. Everyone agrees that all the bad kids do is bring the good kids down. So what do we do with those bad kids? Put them in a vocational school in 7th or 8th grade. Put them in a class with other bad kids and pay that teacher more for the stress? What's you thought?
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