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.
Befuddled 
