Perhaps one of the reasons why parents keep tutoring lessons secret from the school, that are of the advance kind. Parents are discouraged from providing advance lessons especially in math. Likewise, I was actually nagged for doing so, even though I would not considered them advance lessons. My crime, I was teaching the whole concept, and not the bits and pieces of the concept being studied in class.

I sure wish Khan Academy was around, when my child was in the primary grades. My child would have benefited, but instead I had to listen to the lectures of the evils of drill sheets.

The article in Article, said it best - “Khan?s critics are mostly ?constructionists.? This school of thought holds that kids lose interest in math because it?s so often taught as a bunch of mechanical routines you follow to solve problems disconnected from everyday life. Constructionists argue that it?s better to give kids activities that let them discover the principles of math and physics on their own?for instance, having them play around with kid-friendly programming languages like Logo. ?Students ?fumbling around? is actually where the learning happens?and there?s no shortcut for this process,? Martinez wrote in a blog post savaging Khan?s system. Gates and Khan claim they?re trying to shake up the classroom, but Khan?s critics say he?s not being radical enough.”

And Khan’s response - ” He takes a dim view of the constructionist idea that students won?t really understand math unless they discover each principle on their own. ?Isaac Newton would not have invented calculus had he not had textbooks on algebra.? Bill Gates is even more scathing: ?It?s bullshit,? he says. ?If you can?t do multiplication, then tell me, what is your contribution to society going to be??”

Gates was quoted as well and it is so true. “?Math is the killer,? Gates told me recently. His foundation had researched unemployment and found math to be a significant stumbling block. ?If you ask people, ?Hey, there are these open nursing jobs, why don?t you go and get one?? math is often the reason they give for not applying,? Gates says. ??Why didn?t you pass the police exam?? Math.?

And in the recent years, the powers to be in the public education system, have removed what I would call grade school advance arithmetic to the high school years. My 16 year old response, “She feels so sorry for them struggling in the grade 12 math class.”  My response, ‘If things do not change, remedial math will become a required course at the post-secondary level.”

Shame on those who want to stopped students from doing advance work that is beyond their grade level. Constructionist approaches = dumbed-down

Lest readers think that we are cherry-picking studies, blogging about only those studies that favour teacher-directed, sequential learning and an early focus on basic skills, I want you to know that we don’t know of any studies that disagree with this finding. To the best of our knowledge, all current research is finding the same thing - that strong teaching of fundamental skills dramatically increases student learning.

We would be most interested to learn of any current studies that suggest otherwise.

Off-topic - Could anyone here please tell me why parents and school councils are being asked to raise funds for “Nelson Literacy Kits”?

Any one here had experience with these?

Chuck,

I would imagine that it would be a particular ‘cost saving’ (read: downloading) method of your board.  The Bluewater board is not doing this.

To bring it back to topic - if these Nelson Literacy Kits are anything like the Nelson Prime Math Kits - I would be afraid ... very afraid.  These math kits are absolutely horrible.  They screen and test math skills based upon 10 question tests.  Each question is worth 2 marks.  Students have to get 15 out of 20 to move on.  Getting all 10 questions correct only gives the students 10 out of 20.  To get the other 10 marks, students must be able to EXPLAIN (in words or pictures) how they arrived at the correct answer - in other words, we are assessing math skills based on language or art skills.

Thanks Wayne. I remembered the mess Nelson made of the math texts.

Every year the school council gets a “wish list” of items to fundraise for.  Here’s the list for next year that went home in a newsletter to the school community:

Remember that school councils, through the Parents Reaching Out Grant and the grant for school councils.  receive money, tax money, from the province to apply to this stuff - recycling tax money from is what Ontario’s all about these days I guess. Fundraising is on top of grant money.

So here are the items for this K-8’s school council’s “wish list”(with approx. dollar amounts), which is compiled with the help of principal, teachers and parents of course:

  This is the list from the last school year:

* Magazine subscriptions for all classrooms and library
($1300)
* $200/teacher, SERT & TRA for classroom resources
($2000)
* Refrigerator for staff room ($800)
* Audio library supplies for SERT program($200)
* Babysitting for school council meetings ($100)
* Nelson Literacy Kits for primary ($3300)
* parade float ($40)

Next school year list include same items and

* Grade 7 Nelson Literacy Kit.

Money for a staff room refrigerator?  WTH? (rhymes with deck).

I’m also a bit dubious of the refrigerator…?

our tax dollars hard at work. Have to wonder what other school councils are buying with their bribe money?

I can’t say what our school is doing with the money.  However, in my time at the school, we have had to buy not only refrigerators, but microwaves and other small appliances - we always raised the money from the staff - we would never consider asking parents or the board to buy it for us.  This is incredible.

Nelson Literacy-a joke and a condition of the times.Very sad.
I presume their math program is the same .

Malkin and Doretta have frequently shared the research studies with their readers,government and numerous organizations.
In the land of the large publishers,anything goes.
Trillium List,basically a joke.
No one cares if the pedagogy is based on research.