Kids homework

Discussion in 'New Roundtable' started by LaSalleAve, Sep 2, 2014.

  1. LSUMASTERMIND

    LSUMASTERMIND Founding Member

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    not at all, but he is pretty smart, if i may brag,received the highest scores on the evaluations in his class.
     
  2. CajunlostinCali

    CajunlostinCali Booger Eatin Moron

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    Great and congratulations. Did the same with my kid and the mistake we made was not keeping him in the same line of progressive education. Once he started 1st grade, he was bored and withdrawn because they were regurgitating the same stuff he learned when he was 4 and 5. We had to take an entire different approach to keep him engaged. He has not attended a public school since. Now he is killing it in Algebra and loves, LOVES the common core approach. Says it suits his methods better for problem solving. His teacher is a huge buy in, so that helps.
     
  3. LSUMASTERMIND

    LSUMASTERMIND Founding Member

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    same problem I have with mine, getting bored, teacher said that she has to really challenge him, but they are learning things he knew a year ago. I really dont know what to do, but to continue to advance him with the stuff im teaching him at home, site words, reading sentences, solving math word problems and logistical problems.
     
  4. red55

    red55 curmudgeon Staff Member

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    Do all of that. My mom was a teacher when I was born and started teaching me when I was still drooling Gerbers. By the time I got into 1st grade I was reading at the 4th grade level. It gave me an edge that I had all the way through school. I suffered the boredom thing but most of my teachers were good about giving me something more challenging to do and when the accelerated classes came along, I got into them.

    Teach him whatever he can absorb early. It will give him an edge in a very competitive world that begins the day he leaves home for school.
     
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  5. StaceyO

    StaceyO Football Turns Me On

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    Another way to educate your kids outside the home is to travel as much as possible and do interesting things while there and expose them to as many cultural experiences as you can.

    My younger daughter loves art and spent 5 or 6 hours roaming the halls of the Art Institute of Chicago with me the summer after her 1st grade year. She's dyslexic, so school is a challenge and a half for her, but the people who work with her at school always comment on how culturally literate she is--by virtue of experiences such as that.

    I also take my daughters to the theatre several times a year, which tends to broaden horizons, as well.

    There's more to homework than boring written work. :)
     
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  6. GregLSU

    GregLSU LSUFANS.com

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    My 10yr old loves the Sci-Port here in Shreveport. They have a ton of hands on science, mechanical, and nature type activities and experiments they can do.

    He just started 6th grade this year, so I'm sure he'll be on me about more trips there. Science & Math are his favorite subjects.

     
  7. HalloweenRun

    HalloweenRun Founding Member

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    Not so sure about that. Why don't you google some letters written by "ignorant" soldiers during the civil war and try to find some writing by the same age folks today. It is beyond embarrassing.

    Next point: I find that regardless of what has been taught, little has been learned in the early years.

    A lot has to do with the development of the frontal lobe of the brain. The frontal lobe still develops between 11 or so and 25 or so. Teaching abstract algebraic concepts to those without sufficient development is feckless exercise in "feel good" education. Additionally, the same brain part enables the ability to have some idea about follow on steps, once a process is initiated. Some might call it consequences of ones action. The same "mechanism" that is responsible for providing the tools to deal in the abstract, is the one, which, if undeveloped, enables teens to do stupid stuff without having a clue to the consequences.

    Contrary to all the "21st century learner" pumpers, we put men on the moon using the archaic teaching and learning methods of the 1940's and 1950s. We invaded Okinawa, communicating only by signal flags, using the archaic education methods of the 1920's and 1930's. And quantum physics, well those morons were educated during the turn of the 20th century. That's a fact, jack.

    No offense to anyone but there are several really really obvious reasons that so many adults are befuddled by today's education stuff.
     
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  8. red55

    red55 curmudgeon Staff Member

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    Perhaps your experience with 8th graders suggests that. I mostly have experience with college kids and they have learned quite a bit somewhere along the way. You know, there were a lot of illiterate people in the civil war, too. And a number of young people who write very well today. It's futile to generalize.

    My biggest issue from my school days and continuing to today is educating to the lowest common denominator. There are some very slow learners and there are some extremely bright kids and a whole lot in between. Some need to be spoon fed while others need to be given room to soar. I very much approve of the Honors courses that smart schools offer to high achievers. Because there are damn sure some very bright kids among the dunces that you bemoan.

    So no need to innovate any further? Forget that they have access to computers and give them a #2 pencil and a Big Chief pad? Here is another fact, Jack . . . penmanship and memorization ain't all that important anymore, but logical deduction IS.
     
  9. StaceyO

    StaceyO Football Turns Me On

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    My middle school, where I've taught since 1997, has seen a huge demographic shift since I started there. We went from 4% economically disadvantaged students to nearly 40%. For some time, we probably "dumbed down" our curriculum, but that didn't help anyone.


    Also note that we have much more rigorous honors classes (Tigermark's son is a 7th grader at my school currently and is in the honors track.) I believe those students receive a terrific education, as evidenced by former students who later attended or are attending Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, etc.

    But we struggled with how to handle our economically disadvantaged kids (yes, some of those are in honors, but sadly, not many of them). A few years ago, we basically said, "Screw it." We decided to pitch high and see how the kids would respond. Each year, they are doing better and better with a more rigorous course of study. From time to time, we have to backtrack and slow down and reteach grammar concepts and other things, but largely, the kids rise to the expectations.
     
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  10. HalloweenRun

    HalloweenRun Founding Member

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    Red: I don't think you can imagine the learning gulf between college kids you see and those in 8th grade. All I hear from high school teachers is how pitifully prepared they are. I KNOW the reason is that we are trying to teach them too much, to soon. High school is basically teaching what it always has, but now, they are having to reteach it since K-8, other than perhaps socialization, is ineffective. For all but the 25% or so that would excel, those that are intrinsically motivated, on their own.

    My college professor friends indicate that the first two years of college is basically teaching high school subjects, maybe it is very different in LA, I did not know your secondary schools were that good. Congratulations, but your message is so different from EVERY other one I have ever heard from any college prof in that last 15+ years. Pause to ponder.

    I agree on the lowest common denominator. A tragic flaw of the system. I believe there should be educational gates, if you miss a gate, off to the work farm, or civil engineering project you go. I know that is grossly politically incorrect, but IDC, I know it is the real, "right" answer. There is only so much energy in a system, any system, and right now, it is spread way too thin amongst the masses.

    Finally, your last point, could not be further from mine. Innovation comes from the brain, it does not come from teaching algebra to 4th graders, in fact, there are numerous studies that show that all too often, kids introduced to algebra too early, tend to do poorly relative to ones that are introduced to it later. To me that makes perfect sense. Innovation follows education, which follows the brains capacity to either accommodate or assimilate new information (knowledge).

    I certainly did not mean to say that all kids were dunces, but there is a reason we, the US, are falling so far behind in practically every educational metric. And I am talking the rate of change, too.
     

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