Rock and a Hard Place
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Rock and a Hard Place
| Thu, 11-20-2003 - 10:45am |
There's something on this board that has been bothering me, and I hope I can articulate it.
| Thu, 11-20-2003 - 10:45am |
There's something on this board that has been bothering me, and I hope I can articulate it.
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But we are not talking
PumpkinAngel
Comparing children against classmates at the age of 5 is inaccurate.
PumpkinAngel
But what does that matter overall
PumpkinAngel
PumpkinAngel
We're homeschooling, but dd is enrolled in a program (for homeschoolers) at a local school. So, she attends one day a week and she gets a report card. Our contact teacher called yesterday to ask me about the report card. She asked, 'Does your dd know her number facts to 10?' She didn't want to hear that dd can do long division with decimals. 'Can she tell time to the hour?' Didn't want to hear that she has been telling time to the minute for years. 'Can she name simple shapes?' Didn't want to hear that she can calculate the area of a room simply by knowing the dimensions of an area rug and the width of the margin between the rug and the wall. 'Can she recognize the different coins?' Didn't want to know that dd mentally calculates the tax on her purchases.
I'm sure that dd is not unique and there are lots of kids out there for whom the age appropriate list of skills is absolutely irrelevant. What exactly is this report card going to tell me? Zip. It's a waste of time and a waste of paper. Comparing dd based on her age is the stupidest thing in the world and will benefit no one.
Now, if we adopted the test, 'Is she being educated according to her age, aptitude, and ability?' We'd probably get somewhere and the report card would actually mean something. The one that's being sent out today will be absolutely meaningless.
What exactly is the point of arbitrary benchmarks? Shouldn't the benchmark be according to what each individual child can achieve...instead of resting on what someone feels the 'average' grade 2 student can do? Or are you so 'touchy-feely'-LESS that the child's individuality doesn't matter and arbitrary lists of skills based soley on the age of the child matter more?
Knowing if a class is above average or average as a whole is a lot different than knowing how many kids understand their letters or not.
When the K teacher told me my son was gifted in public school, that didn't mean anything since the class was below average....I certainly didn't need to know the individual scores of the children and where my ranked.
PumpkinAngel
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