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<DIV>Good for your mom! ?Calculators were big, rare and expensive when I was in
school, but my current philosophy is, nobody should use a calculator until they
can do basic arithmetic in their head, know multiplication tables, etc. THEN
they can start using calculators when the simple arithmetic is NOT the point of
the exercise, just something that incidentally has to be done to get to the
solution.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Siarlys</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>On Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:38:42 -0800 "Discussion of the Good, Clean Funnies
List" <<A href="mailto:gcfl-discuss@gcfl.net">gcfl-discuss@gcfl.net</A>>
writes:</DIV>
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<DIV>My mom started teaching again about 8 years ago ("retired" 3 years
ago and then they brought her back for math advisory board for 2 years). (High
School) She had the Algebra 1a & 1b students and Advanced Algebra. In her
time at the High School she became renouned for her refusal to allow students
to use calculators unless they were on the graphing section of the class, or
more dificult parts that require calculators. To the point students would do
everything in their power to transfer out to the other teacher that allowed
them to use a calculator for EVERYTHING.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>My brother's sophomore year he walked onto his dorm floor and one of the
freshmen was bad talking his High School teacher. My brother joined the
conversation and asked the kid where he was from... Our High School where mom
was now teaching... Oh ok... he keeps going... his words become ever more
colorful as he describes his Algebra teacher.... then stops, "Why do you ask?"
- "Because you're talking about my mom." The kid was petrified!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>So yes, I completely feel for you on education these days.</DIV>
<DIV>~Lance<BR></DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 11:51 AM, Discussion of the
Good, Clean Funnies List <SPAN dir=ltr><<A
href="mailto:gcfl-discuss@gcfl.net">gcfl-discuss@gcfl.net</A>></SPAN>
wrote:<BR>
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<DIV>Siarlys, </DIV>
<DIV><BR>Re your comment: "Friends of mine in South Carolina
have a grandson the schools wanted to put on Ritalin a few years ago.
He was squirming a lot in class too. Why?<BR>He finished his work
quickly and got everything right, then had nothing to do. This leads
me to the conclusion that ADD stands for Administrative Deficiency
Disorder. If the kid exhausted what you assigned, give him more work,
or something more challenging. When I was in elementary school, my
teachers would tell me 'Go to the library and get a book, come back
here by <TIME>.' No hall passes either -- I ran into that in
junior high school." </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>When my son was in kindergarten, I was called in for a
parent-teacher conference. The complaint by the teacher was the my son
was disrupting the class. When I asked how, the reply was that he
would sit and make jokes, or ask the other students what they were
doing, or squirm around in his chair. I asked, "Does he get his work
done?" The reply came, "Yes, he finishes it quickly." I then asked,
"And what do you have him do while the other students are finishing
their work?" The reply, "I tell him to sit quietly and wait for the
next activity." I was stunned! This was an educator of kindergarten
students?! Asking a 5-year-old boy to sit still for up to 10 minutes
while his classmates finished their work?! Very tactfully (that was
then; I would not be as gentle now!), I suggested that she send him to
the back of the room with some books, or let him play at the sand
table, or play with puzzles. Her reply, "Why, I couldn't do that! The
other students would want to leave their work undone and go do what he
is doing!" Again, I was stunned! "Okay, give him some extra work to
do. He loves to write stories and draw pictures." Again, the reply,
"But the other children will want to do that, too!" Knowing I was
getting nowhere with her, I went to see the principal. She explained
that this was a first-year teacher, and she (the principal) would work
with her to solve the problem. Gues what the solution was? When he was
finished with his assignment, my son got to go to the back of the
room to read, draw, write stories, etc., and any other student
who also finished her/his work early also got to go to the back of the
room for the same activities. Duuuhhh! </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>A week before his first grade year ended, he came home in tears,
crying because he wasn't going to be promoted to second grade because
he hadn't finished his workbook. When I talked with the teacher the
next day, she called my son over, apologized to him,
and explained that he was working on the third-grade
workbook and that he would be promoted. Smart teacher. Kid finishes
his work early, challenge him with more difficult work! </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Our education system is in a very sad state. My husband is a math
instructor at a community/technical college. In order to graduate with
an AA degree, students must pass college algebra. All students must
pass the pre-algebra math course before taking college algebra. Even
so, he gets students who can't multiply or divide simple numbers and
have no idea what to do with fractions. It's frustrating for
everybody. Especially the parents who have to pay the tuition for the
student to repeat the course. My husband is on the advisory committee,
and he is trying to get the bar raised for the pre-algebra class to
make sure students can do basic math. Unfortunately, the "old guard"
at the school sees nothing wrong with the current system in which 30%
of the algebra students fail the course and repeat it one to two times
in order to pass it. My husband suggested to the advisory committee
that if a student passes the course with an A or a B, her/his tuition
be refunded. A student on the committee topped his suggestion with,
"Don't refund the tuition, apply it to any other course the student
wants to take the next semester." Gee, there are some students who
really can think! Let's reward them for it. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>kateinmo</DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
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