Tutoring rant, part II

[cahn]

1. I have lunch with a coworker once or twice a month, and this time his wife came along. His wife was a member of the school board for many years, so I grilled talked to her about the science sequence I mentioned here. She tells me that this whole terrible physics-in-ninth-grade thing is a statewide thing, possibly galvanized by federal testing requirements. ARRRRRRGH. Her guess was that it was instituted because someone somewhere believed that kids were intimidated by physics and not taking it and not learning it… so… their solution was to have everyone take it earlier in the curriculum. WELL, GUESS WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THIS SYSTEM.

(For the record, she was also very much against this science sequence. I haven't talked to anyone who is FOR it.)

2. Our local high school has a block schedule; they take three or four classes each semester for an hour and a half each instead of six-seven classes for 45 minutes each. I have been told by coworker's wife that most people really like this system, and I believe it. I think in particular that for strong students who can easily handle that kind of information density, it's probably a great thing.

For C. it is a disaster, especially for physics, because we are barely keeping up with the flow of information. I'm struggling to keep us up with the stuff they do in class, so that I have been completely unable, except in small bits around the side which she then promptly forgets, to teach C. the things she actually needs to know to do physics (that is, math: fractions, decimals, the concept of a base ten system in general, manipulation of abstract variables *throws up hands in despair*).

2a. What can you do when you ask what two divided by four is and the pupil wildly guesses 1.3? I JUST. I think had I known what an uphill job this was going to be, I would not have taken it on. Except that this is apparently the kind of thing I can't help but want to try to help with.

3. Things I would really prefer not ever to have to do again: attempt to explain the concept of the universal gravitational law being directly proportional to mass and inversely square proportional to distance to someone who does not understand/remember fractions or the concept of abstract variables or that multiplication is the opposite of division. aaaaaarrrrgh.

Comments

[luzula]

My sympathies! That sounds very frustrating. : (

[cahn]

(argh, somehow hit a button wrong) Thanks! I also wrote that after a pretty terrible session; the one we had yesterday was much better :) (It doesn't mitigate the utter stupidity of the school system, but there's not much I can do about that...)

[thistleingrey]

Arrgh. :(

Would it be too much (or too late) for C. to read popularized layperson science stuff that explains some of this stuff by analogy? (I imagine that C. is rather busy at this point.) I learned a bunch of physics-related concepts by reading Asimov's non-fiction essays during middle school, completely randomly. Surely someone has written something similar that's more recent--Gleick?

[cahn]

Hmm! This is an idea to think about after midterms -- part of the problem is that she has no conception of how to "speak physics," if that makes sense anywhere other than my head, when she's asked to explain something in words, so that she can sometimes come off as not understanding something even when she does in fact understand it.

(From K)

[(Anonymous)]

Um, what happens to C if she drops physics? I know high school students don't have the kind of latitude that college students do -- and I'm speaking from my resident tutor perspective here -- but ideally she'd drop the physics, take some kind of biology class next semester, and just do intensive math tutoring, either with you, a school program, or a service like Kumon. (Seriously, I don't know much about Kumon workbooks for things like fractions and decimals, but if they're decent, I'd make C go home and work through a workbook every couple nights. That kind of thing would be a much better use of her physics class time than "physics.") For algebraic manipulations, the dragonbox app might be a good supplement. (D likes it, the math folks at the elementary school attached to her preschool like it; I'm not exactly sure what it's good for, but it is cute.)

Also, did Madame School Board say what the options are for reversing this policy? Can local school districts flout the state policy?

Re: (From K)

[cahn]

I asked her mom about this yesterday, and apparently this is not really an option. This was not explicitly said, but I suspect that she would like to apply to the UC system, in which case she'd better follow the CA curriculum.

Part of the problem is that I don't think she or her mom really realizes how bad her math problem actually is, because she does really well at things with a visual component, and since they're graphing in her math class right now, she is actually doing fine in math class. And in general there is the attitude of, "Okay, let's get through this semester and then we don't have to worry about it." The other thing is that this kid is way overscheduled. She is not taking either math or science next semester (block schedule), but I'm estimating the odds at near zero that she would do any math on her own time, or that her mother would pick that particular battle. Although yes, if this were my kid or yours, we would be doing exactly that, and that would absolutely be a battle we'd pick :) (But if it were one of our kids we would have seen the problem developing much earlier.)

I don't think there is much hope for reversing or flouting the policy until someone higher-up notices that it's a disaster. Local school districts, as far as I know (I am not an expert), are pretty tied to state curriculum, especially if it's itself tied to testing results. (You probably have more of a rant than I do on educational testing; this is the first really terrible result of it that I've seen in person.) And of course kids with a strong math background will do fine, so the very people who are most likely to protest are those who don't have much of a clue. (Except physics teachers, but who listens to physics teachers?)

[ase]

Block scheduling postdates my high school experience, lucky for me.

Things I would really prefer not ever to have to do again: attempt to explain the concept of the universal gravitational law being directly proportional to mass and inversely square proportional to distance to someone who does not understand/remember fractions or the concept of abstract variables or that multiplication is the opposite of division. aaaaaarrrrgh.

My sympathies. Any chance you can give her a little "play with the TI-83 graph function" homework, see if something visual can outflank the math weaknesses?

[antisoppist]

How old is ninth grade? (sorry am ignorant British person)

someone somewhere believed that kids were intimidated by physics and not taking it and not learning it… so… their solution was to have everyone take it earlier in the curriculum.
Ouch. That sounds like our lot who went "help we have 14 year-olds who can't read. I know what we'll do. We'll force everyone to start learning to read at age 3 whether they are ready for it or not. Because that will work".

[genarti]

Ninth grade is the first of four years of high school, when students are generally 14-15.

[antisoppist]

Thanks! My eldest's in "year 9" but it's 13-14 here.

[cahn]

ahahahaha. YES. It makes you wonder whether any of these people who make educational policy have ever been in a classroom with kids, because you'd think that five minutes in the classroom in question would demonstrate to you you why these are terrible ideas!

[antisoppist]

I suspect that the makers of education policy have not set foot in a classroom since they were 18 (and in the case of our current government, in an all-male private school). The latest new curriculum requires all 7 year-olds to know Roman numerals up to 100.

[cahn]

Roman numerals?! Because... umm... the Romans might come back and resume their empire at any minute? But yeah, I think that the less time you actually spend in a classroom, the more it apparently qualifies you to make education policy. That explains a lot.

[cahn]

Visual works really really well for her -- that's a really good point.

For many kids, apparently the block schedule works great! My attention span is short enough that I'm probably not one of them, but...

[ase]

Let me know if you try it, and if it seems to help.

Block schedule doesn't sound like a great fit for my attention span, either, but it would be nice for science labs. Hopefully teachers are finding ways to keep students focused through the longer teaching periods.

[cahn]

Okay, this might have been a little complex for her. I am getting her to draw more pictures, though, which stupid me, I had forgotten was another thing my physics teacher made us do, and it does seem to help. (He was really pedagogically extremely good.)

[genarti]

Auuuuugh. The poor, poor kid. What a complete disaster to have to learn the basics while also spending all your time trying to keep on top of the advanced stuff you can't understand without those basics. And, you know, two or three other classes at the same time.

I can't imagine why anyone WOULD be in favor of that science sequence. For pity's sake.

[cahn]

yeeeees, exactly. Our session yesterday was better (she seems to finally be getting at least some concepts, perhaps through osmosis and repetition), but it just... seems much harder than it should be.

I know, right? What were they thinking when they came up with that??