Do you think your child's school teaches all they should in class?

[vaw]

Do you think your child's school teaches all they need to know academically?

If so, why/how?
class size, teacher, specific program, etc



If not, why/how?
attention, limits of school, etc


Can a school teach all a child needs to know academically?

Does a schools curriculum cover all areas it should?
Can a teacher teach all of an assigned curriculum?

**** Question clarified in post 7 below

[alegna]

I think academics could be taught in much LESS time than schools use.

-Angela

[eepster]

In this day and age, there is no such thing as a completely complete education. No single humanbeing can know everything.

No school can teach a child every single academic fact/subject/skill/whatnot that exists, and IMO the should not try to. What they should strive to provide is a good educational foundation and instill a love of learning. For the younger students the foundation should be fairly broad, but it still isn't going to be all encompassing.

For instant, if a unit on ancient civilization is schedualed, a teacher could attempt to cover every single one of them, or she could let each student pick one and let the student study it in depth and write a report. While this means one kid ends up knowing a lot about Ancient China and another ends up knowing a lot about Ancient Greece, they all learn how to do research and enjoy learning about their own personal favorite ancient civilization.

[SunshineJ]

Well, I admit upfront that I have exceptionally high standards and expectations regarding education, so take this with a grain of salt.

Is it possible to teach everything a child "needs" to know academically in school? Yes and no. I think it would absolutely possible provided there were no students who needed more than the basic extra help. However, there will always be children who just don't "get" a concept, or have a problem with understanding something (and that's not a slam or anything - I was certainly that child in algebra!!). If teachers were able to just go straight through the material, then it may be possible, but that's neither effective or realistic. I DO think there are a lot more things that could be taught in the schools that should be taught and that aren't. And I do think that there could be time for it (gee, eliminate 30 min assemblies to try to pimp my kid into selling fundraiser crap and use that for something academic- found time!).

Is my child's school teaching what he needs to know? Nope. They're too hung up on meeting the state's grade requirements, and once a child has reached that they're basically on their own for the rest of the year. The one thing they've done to accomodate my son is to let him start reading the 1st grade Scholastic books. He's been exposed to some new ideas, but he's not learning a whole lot, and it's not there for him to learn. This school district is considered excellent, so I shudder to think of what other schools do to kids!

Can a teacher teach all of the assigned curriculum? Well, I suppose that would depend on what's been assigned wouldn't it?

K.

[Ruthla]

Ita with eepster- it's not POSSIBLE for any single human being to know everything there is to know, much less for one school to teach it to all students!

Schools should teach the basics, give kids a love of learning and a foundation so they know enough to keep on learning independently. Many schools accomplish this. Other schools try too hard to make kids memorize dry facts, and squelch their love of learning in the process.

Of course we supplment at home. How could I NOT continue learning with DS when he's not at school, when he randomly asks me "What's seven plus four?" or "How do you spell penguin?" when I'm in the middle of making dinner, or wants to watch Sci Q or Magic School Bus, etc.?

[Evan&Anna's_Mom]

Originally Posted by Ruthla

Ita with eepster- it's not POSSIBLE for any single human being to know everything there is to know, much less for one school to teach it to all students!

But that wasn't the question. Or at least not the way I read it. Does a, say K student, NEED to know everything there is to know? I don't think so. A K student needs to know some pretty key basics, IMHO: basic writing, reading, beginning math... A 6th grade student needs to know different things. But no student needs to know the sum of human knowledge at any time, even a graduate student couldn't cope with that!

I think our school does a great job of covering the academic needs of the K-6th grade student. Students leave after 6th grade well prepared to move on to harder work in middle and high school, which is all I think any elementary school can do. They provide a fair amount of individual help to students who, for whatever reason, don't understand a concept. They cover reading, math, science, social studies/history, art, music, and values. They teach research and study skills. I don't feel any need to supplement the academics of the school, though the kids do explore specific interests outside of school hours for their own amusement/satisfaction.

This is a private school driven by very high expectations and some basic core values. Each class has 16-18 students (about 120 total students in the school, 35 total staff). The K class has 2 primary teachers plus 2 assistants during academic subject time, with specialty teachers for music and art. The 1-6 classes break into smaller classes of 6-10 students for core academics (reading, math, science) -- generally the homeroom teacher and the asst. teacher take the 1/2 of the class each. Science, history, Spanish, sports, music and art are handled by specialty teachers with the relevant background.

Struggling students receive individual tutoring.

The school is quite selective about who it accepts, which makes this much easier to accomplish, of course. Students generally start K closer to 6 than 5 and all have preschool experience. Families are affluent -- we are definitely the "poor folks" even though we are solidly comfortable by any other standard.

School schedule is basically 8:30 - 3:30 M-Th, 8:30 - 12:30 on Friday. The school is definitely on the traditional side. I am grateful that we get a significant break on the tuition because I could never afford to actually pay for all of this!

[vaw]

I think I didn't word my question the best it could have been - apologies, it was late.

I was mulling over the state standards vs what the class is teaching vs what my child knows and doesn't know, and what 'I think' should be taught in the classroom.

I do agree that everything a person should know or even could know can't be taught in school- or even shouldn't be taught in school - that isn't what I was trying to get at.


Does your child's school teach what you feel it should, whether that is to meet state standards, in spite of state standards, etc



I ask this as I am considering the same question - I feel that my son's school hasn't taught some things so far that are on the standards (some that I agree with, some that I do not). There are some things I am wondering if they will teach, as they are not in the standards, and feeling like I need to be supplementing at home, since I don't feel like the curriculum is covering what I feel he should be learning.

[sunnmama]

I voted after the op's clarification.

yes, I think my dc's school teaches all she needs to learn in class as a second grader. But, I probably have some low standards of what a second grader needs to learn in school, lol. They do an excellent job of teaching kids at their level in math and reading, and then they have lots of nice extras worked into the curriculum to round out the experience. Really, what more does a second grader need, yk?

I'd say that our school does a great job in spite of the standards. They have this wonderful strategy of practicing "test" stuff every single day for 5 minutes only. They have a little book with 5 pages, and they do one page each day (4-5 questions, 5 minutes to work on it). In it, they edit sentences, work with analogies, and things like that. That little bit of daily practice is *perfect*, imo, to "prepare" them for the standards tests without actually focusing on the test. And then, the rest of the day, they actually teach!

[mata]

Who knows? I don't pay attention to standards, etc. It's not the content I would be teaching my children if we were homeschooling. My third grader is learning principles of geometry, physics, algebra-frankly-it's a bit much. I think it's too early to introduce these concepts, and it's done in a very abbreviated way that I doubt enables her to retain anything. My kindergartener seems to be working on what my oldest daughter did in first grade-like it's a race to get them through the material.

[Linda on the move]

I think my my child's school is doing a good job. They have a diverse population to start with, but most classes have 20 or fewer students, the school is very well funded, and they have special teachers and zillions of pullout programs so that kids get extra help, more challanging work, etc. as needed. The classroom teacher does a great job, and she is well supported by specialists.

We lived all over and the range in state standards from place to place just boggles my mind. The more I've looked at it all, the less I really care about "standards." They seem pretty random. But my child is learning and she enjoys learning. Her day has a nice mix of things like grammar and music class. They hit the core subjects in a solid way, but they do a lot of fun enriching things, too.

We don't supplement school in a formal way, but we read together, talk about things, play games, etc. It's more important to me that my DD has time for her friends and activities than that I try to fill in any "gaps."

[lilyka]

I believe that as human beings we are learners all the time. i learn things in my sleep. the world is too big and too vast to be crammed in to a neat little curriculum. at home or at school I feel curriculum is just a jumping point. it is each families obligation to continue on and learn beyond the curriculum, introduce things beyond the school. I wouldn't say we suppliment at home because we have no real plan but what they are learning in school brings up all kinds of stuff at home. They also have their religous education and church bridges us into cultural things they won't learn in school etc etc.

[Kristine233]

I think the school teaches everything they can teach, everything else is my responsibility to teach. I don't think its only the school's responsibility to teach my children, therefor I may have lower expectations on what I expect them to actually cover.

I'm not really one for academics though, I see no need to "push" and hate standardized testing. School, for us, is to cover the basics and for social/peer reasons. We can individualize anything else based on our children's needs and interests, although we don't do it formally. This would be why the special ed teachers at our school like me and the regular ed teachers loathe me, lmao.

[journeymom]

Originally Posted by alegna

I think academics could be taught in much LESS time than schools use.

-Angela

I totally agree.