I’m doing something that is best not to do: I’m blogging in anger. An hour ago I was working in my home office, happily dealing with the mind-numbing tedium that most non-lottery winners encounter every day, when my daughter knocked on my door and asked for help with her algebra. Well, math is a struggle for me but I figured I could handle whatever basic algebra she’s encountering at this point in her school year. Oh, how wrong I was!
It seems that my daughter had a substitute teacher today and according to her he spent 1/2 hour regaling the class with fond memories of his youth and telling them how lucky they are to have computers. He also managed to hand out their worksheets, tell them to leave their textbooks at school and do their best for homework. Nary a bit of instruction to be found.
That’s how I ended up in my office madly Googling problems like "the lesser of two consecutive even integers is 10 more than one half the greater" and visiting cheesy websites that offered solutions to the problem, but without much explanation. Compounding my ire was the disappointment I felt in myself for not remembering how to do this stuff. Yes, 25 years is a long time to remember something but I’m still able to remember how to spell "Pythagorean Theorem" without breaking a sweat. I don’t remember what the hell it is but I can spell it!
Anyway, when I couldn’t figure out how to help I resorted to cursing out (under my breath) the substitute, the person that hired him, the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools and the U.S. Department of Education for putting me in this position. I understand that there’s a lot of pressure to accurately fill out the state mandated bubble tests to a minimum degree of proficiency, but for God’s sake help us out here!
Yesterday I read a piece titled "How Homework is Hurting Our Family" in the Wall Street Journal section of the Winston-Salem Journal’s Sunday business section. The author, Jeff Opdyke, writes the following:
I’m not sure when it happened, but at some point U.S.
schools decided that if you can’t teach ’em, test ’em…or pile on more
homework.The result is that my son’s life — and by extension
our family life — is a constant, stress-laden stream of homework and
tests and projects. It overshadows everything we do, always hanging
over our head. It affects our weekends, our meals, our vacations, our
work time, our playtime, our pocketbooks.And to what end? Maybe I’m missing something, but when
did schools determine that the best place for kids to learn math,
science and English is at their own kitchen table?
Hallelujah brother! Now I’m not going to lay the blame entirely on the teachers. They often have over 30 students per class to deal with and they have to make sure that their students pass the No Child Left With an Imagination Behind – mandated inspection. That’s a situation they don’t have much control over. On the other hand there have been more occasions than I can count where the kids have come home with work and absolutely no classroom preparation. Sometimes it’s because the kids weren’t paying attention, but other times it was because the teacher didn’t get to it in class and sent them home with the worksheets and the expectation that Mom, Dad or Uncle Google would bail them out.
All of this was annoying enough when the kids were younger, but now that they’re getting past the point where the remnants of Celeste’s and my educations end we’re running into dangerous territory. I don’t mind getting the kids help via a tutor when it’s obvious that the work is too difficult for them despite the extensive preparation provided by the teacher, but it burns my toast when there isn’t any classroom prep at all.
Again, I don’t want to paint all teachers with this brush. The vast majority that we’ve dealt with over the years have been hard working, talented and obviously cared for the kids. As I said they are dealing with some tough situations every day and I have a great deal of respect for them. But I also believe that even the best teachers are being forced to heap more and more work on the shoulders of the kids, and by extension their parents. And speaking for this household I can tell you that if the future of my children’s advanced math education relies even somewhat on my weary brain then they’re in a world of hurt. I imagine it’s much the same in many other households.
Okay, I’m done ranting and am officially in a lessened state of pissedoffment. I do, however, have a final note for our friends at the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School System: If you’re going to put someone in a classroom as a substitute teacher and that person’s not qualified to teach then at least tell the nimrod to send the textbooks home with the kids. If not I’m going to hunt every one of you down and force you to figure out how to find "the lesser of two consecutive even integers is 10 more than one half the greater" without any help and see how you like it.
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Befuddled 
Did you figure that one out, or would you like me to show you?
(My mom had her Masters in Mathemathics Education, so we basically grew up playing with stuff like this.)
For all situations like this, I turn to Math.com
Esbee, Thank you kindly…my lovely wife Celeste figured it out when she got home so crisis averted for now. I’m still hot about the core problem of sending kids home with homework without notes, no class preparation and often no textbook. Happens WAY more often than it should. As Celeste pointed out to me later we hear the line “we didn’t have time for it in class so we’re supposed to do it for homework” on an almost daily basis. Something’s wrong with that.
Emily, thanks for the tip. It’s now bookmarked!
I still feel like a moron:)
Two consecutive even integers, 2x and 2x+2, smaller (2x) = 10 more than half the greater (10 + x+1), 2x=11+x, x=11, so the two are 22, and 24.
The problem with subs gets worse in high school. It’s hard enough to find competent full-time teachers for Calculus, Physics, Chem, etc. When we had a sub in Calculus my teacher gave them a note that said, “let Jim explain this”. There should always be one kid in class who really gets the material and can help out the rest of class.
Instruction is overrated. To learn math or science you have to work problems, you can’t just listen to someone. Teachers can have students do this on class time and then go over the answers, but students need to do at least as much individual time into assignments as listening time. English class doesn’t accomplish much if you never read the book.
To help the problem, you could have students work together (I know the risk of that – all talk) or have study-hall type setups at school.
What also gets lost is that high achieving students are accomplishing more and more before entering college. I think my parents took 0 college classes in HS, I took 10, which is now not even that high a number. If kids are learning more, it has to get done sometime.
I really don’t like that “Love & Money” section in the WallSJ. It gets reprinted in our WSJ and makes me laugh.
Thanks for the answer and the comment. I absolutely agree that the kids need to be doing the problem solving and working outside the class, BUT they need to be given the guidance first. Literally the kids come home with work that was assigned and not covered at all in class, which means they are trying to figure it out from scratch. This was just one case, the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back, but it’s indicative of what happens on a regular basis.
I also agree with you re. the college courses in HS. In my day that was a rare occurence, and I’m not sure it was even available. I’ve talked to a lot of parents here who have kids taking college level courses and I think it’s a great idea.
Another thing that happened yesterday that I’ll write about in the interest of fairness is that my oldest came home worried about his grade in geometry (he’s a freshman in the honors course). I emailed his teacher to ask about tutors and she immediately emailed me back saying that my son probably doesn’t need a full time tutor because he hasn’t maximized his effort yet, AND she offers drop-in tutoring before school and special sessions before tests and quizzes. I immediately replied saying she’d be seeing a lot of our son at those sessions and thanking her for the quick response. I love the fact that she’s really pushing the kids and that she’s working so hard to help them.