If you’re reading this article, chances are you’re actively growing and managing your own retirement savings and you probably think it’s absurd that other post baby boomers believe social security will take care of them when the time comes.
Yet believing that private tuition you pay will take care of your children’s college choices down the road is just equally absurd. Private schools are entities, and just like our government, they too have their own agenda which hopefully is somewhat centered on your child’s education and his/her future career choices. But let’s face it, when push comes to shove, the survival of the entity itself takes precedent.
Case and point: a parent whom I met at a networking meeting brought her 8th grader in for an interactive assessment. “My daughter has been complaining about not being able to follow her math lectures,” said the mother. “But her grades look fine – all A’s and B’s.” Upon closer examination, the text book they use is what we educators refer as “watered down” pre-algebra and the students get to correct their exams for credit after the teacher had gone over the material with them in class. You get the picture, the grades are grossly inflated. From the school’s point of view, it’s hard to ask parents to write the check, volunteer their time in fundraising and flunk their kids at the same time.
“I’m a stay at home mom by choice, but attending this school has totally made me a full time volunteer!”
“Full time volunteer,” I said,”at the expense of your daughter’s education? Her math is 1 1/2 grades below where she needs to be.”
“That explains why she did so poorly on her University High entrance exam…” The mother said sadly. “But her two older brothers had done just fine and did get into University High.”
The Chinese say that you never step in the same river twice. Times have changed. Priorities have changed. Teaching methods have changed. The grading system has changed. Competition levels have changed. What remains unchanged is this: we are responsible for our kids’ education. Not our government. Not the entity where we pay our kids’ tuition. Not the homeroom teachers we volunteer for.
Categorised in Managing K-12 Math
“It’d be so nice to be a bird,” my 8 year old son remarked from the backseat of the car on our way to school this morning.
“So you can fly around all day long?” I asked, keeping my eyes on the traffic light that was about to turn green.
“That and I’d have such a pretty view from the roof where they stand.”
“Not if birds don’t know what views are,” my 12 year old daughter pointed out to her brother.
“What? Birds don’t appreciate the view they got?”
“Kinda like how you guys don’t appreciate a full frig of food if hadn’t gone through famine like your grandparents.”
“Yeah, that’s why we prefer beef jerky from the store rather than boiling our leather belt!”
My kids do have a point. Who’d rather eat a leather belt when beef jerky comes in flavors like original, smoked, hot and spicy how could birds appreciate their awesome view when they stand up high on the roofs all day long? They’ve got no other view to compare with even if they are capable of doing such comparison. So what makes us parents think our kids are capable of appreciating the sacrifices we make for them? Just like those birds with the awesome view, our kids do not have the marks of growing pains we have, so how could they appreciate? We can either wait til they have their own marks of growing pains or we could teach them to appreciate by appreciating who they are to us.
Categorised in Zen of Math Success
“MATHDOC” is my license plate, a birthday gift from my kids actually. I like it because it captures what I do at work: diagnose and treat students plagued with math anxiety.
For the 3 years I’ve driven my Toyota Camry with the license plate, only my mechanic who changes my oil every 3000 miles asked me if I’m indeed a “Mathdoc”. “You bet”, I remember answering him proudly.
You can imagine my amusement when my husband told me, for the third time, in a week, that someone asked him if he teaches math. Each time he asked why and each time, they pointed at the “MATHDOC” license plate. A motorcyclist even pulled besides him at the stop light and asked him where he teaches math at.
My own amusement aside, you must admit that our society is pretty biased when it comes to women and science. We tell our girls “be all you can be” but when push comes to shove, we comfort girls struggling in math with “oh, who needs math anyway. That’s what accountants are for.” So, hold on tight moms. Hold on to your girls, keep them in chess, in math, in physics, in biology, in chemistry. Keep your daughter in those challenging fields, not to groom another madame Curie, but to give our daughters an equal footing on the playing field. Give them a chance to be “MATHDOC” not “MATHDUCK”?
“Well,” I told the young man who was toweling my car after a car wash “15% of my bill is what I usually tip. How much would that be for you?”
“I’m no good with percentages. Guess you’re a “mathdoc” after all.” Who said math is not cool!
Categorised in Zen of Math Success