Education
With due respect to Penry, Witwer and interested and concerned parents, Merrifield, in addition to being a legislator, is a retired teacher. Thus, he probably has more expertise on such matters. Are nonprofessionals allowed to regulate bridge construction, emergency rooms, court procedures, etc.? Of course not. Yet, many politicians and parents feel qualified to regulate curriculum. Again, with due respect, unless they are also trained as educators, they are not.
Since Colorado still ranks in the bottom ten states in per pupil expenditures, I suggest these politicians and parents focus their attention on the persistent problem of under funding of public education in this state and leave the teaching to teachers.
This letter has not been edited.
The bottom ten would be nice!!! We're 49th in pupil spending. 'Nuff said.
Posted by shaupeen on May 31, 2007 03:23 PMI don't know of this is off topic or not, but I am so damn mad that I don't give a rat's tail. This is the letter I have just written to the Superintendent of the Adams Star School District and to the principal at Cotton Creed Elementary School where my granddaughter attends. I have deleted my name because there are too many crazy people who post here.
June 1, 2007
Dr. Michael F. Paskewicz
Superintendent
c/o Dawn Barnard
Executive Assistant
1500 E. 120th Ave.
Thornton CO 80241-2602
Mr. Bill Kempsell
Principal
Cotton Creek Elementary School
11100 Vrain St.
Westminster CO 80031-2042
Re: Are parents too dumb to help their children in math?
Greetings,
I have just visited by phone with Bill Kempsell about my earlier letter to you. Bill tells me that the lady at the center who I presume has charge over a matter such as this tells Bill that she discourages parents from having the math books their children use in school because, in plain language, they are too dumb to help, or, as she euphemistically puts it, they don't have the necessary training (the necessary training to understand, in my case, fifth grade math).
I am furious. Such an abysmally stupid attitude. I have tutored Faith in fourth grade math using the books she uses, which, as I said in my prior letter, I obtained through ebay in the case of the Student Reference Book, or though her teachers good graces in the case of the workbook. I greatly resent the claim of this lady that I am not capable of understanding the books or helping my granddaughter with them.
For God's sakes, what in the world is wrong with you people that you keep telling parents, on the one hand, to help their children, and, on the other, telling them that they are too stupid to help them?
Of course, instead of spending time this summer working on math, I could have Faith spend more time going swimming. Which do you think would better prepare her for fifth grade math?
I plan to visit the offices of as many newspapers as I can and ask them to look into this abominable situation. I have been a staunch supporter of the public schools whenever I have been able, and have been highly critical of the public's failure to sufficiently fund the education of our children. But now I feel just as critical of the school system and its very asinine attitude toward parents helping the kids.
Bill made some reference toward the possibility to using other materials. But wouldn't I also be too dumb to understand the other materials if the other materials deal with the same subject matter? And if it does not deal with the same subject matter, it obviously is not what I should be using. Why in the name of God should I have to use other material when the material best suited to the situation is the material she will be using?
I have never heard of such a bunch of B.S.
Disgustedly,
P.S. to Bill: I know you wanted me to keep quiet about this but in my opinion the rotten attitude of the school system needs to be aired out for the sake of the children who suffer because of it.
This is my original letter to them:
May 29, 2007
Dr. Michael F. Paskewicz
Superintendent
c/o Dawn Barnard
Executive Assistant
1500 E. 120th Ave.
Thornton CO 80241-2602
Mr. Bill Kempsell
Principal
Cotton Creek Elementary School
11100 Vrain St.
Westminster CO 80031-2042
Re: My granddaughter
Greetings,
Faith is in the fourth grade at Cotton Creek. She has been having trouble with her math course. I have been tutoring her although I don't have the opportunity to do as much tutoring as she needs.
I want to work with Faith this summer so that she will be in a better position to deal with fifth grade math. What I would like to do is to acquire the books which she will use in fifth grade math. However, I don't know how I might obtain such books and I am coming to see if you can help me acquire them.
It is quite incredible to me that parents don't have access in the normal course of matters to the math books their children use. The school system quite regularly urges the parents to be more involved, yet it deprives them of the primary tools they need to be more involved and to provide their children with optimum help. I went through school in the thirties, in the midst of the Great Depression, and always was able to bring my books home. I realize, or at least assume, that the problem is that it would cost more to allow the children to bring home their books since they often lose or mutilate them. Still, that seems like an insufficient excuse for such an important matter.
My impression, which may be too uninformed, is that school systems in general do not focus any or at least much attention to this problem. I have the impression that if school systems had more money, they would spend it in ways other than to remedy this problem. That rather amazes me. I do see schools complaining quite regularly about lack of parental involvement. That seems quite hypocritical to me if the schools do not also address their inability or failure to provide parents with the essential tools to be beneficially involved. I have to wonder, has the Adams Star Twelve district every addressed this problem in a serious manner?
In my opinion, schools pay too little attention to what parents need to be beneficially involved with their children’s education. I often get reports of how my granddaughter has missing assignments, showing only the title of the assignment, but with no way to know what the assignments are or how she might make them up. My own feeling is that the teachers would love to be more helpful but simply are too overburdened to do all they would like to. But what strikes me is that if the schools can get the parents to help their children learn various matters, that makes the burden on the teacher that much easier. Getting the parents more involved also has the probable benefit of making them more supportive of the school system when it comes to funding it.
Faith's math class uses two primary books, a workbook and a reference book. The workbook contains the problems and the reference book contains the solutions, the way to solve the problems. There is yet another book which the teacher has which has the answers to the specific problems in the workbook.
I was able to obtain a used copy of the reference book which Faith uses by searching online for it. This is an "iffy" proposition because there are a number of reference books with the same title and the online ads rarely provide more than the title, which is why I bought the wrong book once before getting the right one. The books do not show an edition. I also bought the wrong workbook for the same reason and was unable to get the right one. However, Faith's teacher did allow her to bring her workbook home after I consulted with her about my problem.
Any help or suggestions you might have would be very much appreciated. If you cannot help me acquire the books, perhaps you can let me know what the ISBN numbers are of the books to be used so that when I try to acquire them online I will not have the problem of buying the wrong book with the same title.
Thank you,
Posted by Truth on June 1, 2007 11:37 AMTwo words, Truth: School choice,
Posted by John II on June 2, 2007 07:58 PMTruth
I know we have had this discussion before.The reason they do not want you to see what they are teaching your granddaughter in Math is not because parents are not qualified to help their children. It is because The Everyday Math series they use is starting to be seen as another new and improved math program that is not working.
I have the answer book for the Everyday Math book.That is what they give the parents. They won't give the original book to parents or allow the students to bring them home to show how they came up with the answer to the problems.
My husband luckily is a mensa and a math genius.he has found many ,many wrong answers in the answer book.
I talked to a 2nd grade teacher I was interviewing for my youngest going into 2nd grade. I told her she is already passed 2nd grade math and working at a 4th grade level in math and a 5th grade level in reading,spelling and writing.The teacher told me if she needed harder math I could teach her extra work at home,she was only going to teach the book.
Parents are constantly accused of not caring about their children's education.The one's that do care and want to help bring a student up to grade level or want to challenge a student that is ahead of their peers are constantly fighting the road blocks the school has set up.
Our school system is not teaching students,they are wharehousing them.They teach the out of the box education and pass them on whether they are ready or not. Then the next teacher passes them on and in never stops,just like an assembly line.
Good luck on your run around to get help for your granddaughter.I hope you have enough stamina,because they will try to wear you down before actually helping you.
I know because I have been fighting for 3 years with the school system.
Good Luck.
Posted by Can I get an AMEN! on June 4, 2007 10:25 AM