Puberty 1, Mathematics 0

From The World of Simon Raven:  The Green Years:

At the end of the Easter Term the maths master had very properly followed the call of the bugle, and the school had been compelled to employ a middle-aged temporary called "Wally" Wallace.  Although Wally knew little mathematics and less science, he was quite a plausible bluffer and had the wit to discover straight away which boys had some reputation at his subjects and then, as it were, to pace himself by them.  If he were uncertain how to solve a problem, he would not flounder about trying to do it himself, he would set the whole class on to it and then announce that the school swot had come up with the correct answer.  The school swot ("Lotty" Loder he was called) would then be invited to come up to the blackboard and demonstrate his solution to the accompaniment of grateful and approving nods from Wally ... who, however, was calamitously found out on the day when Lotty had been introduced by his neighbor to the delights of self-abuse.

Wally by now had such trust in him that he summoned him to the blackboard without even bothering to look at his work; whereupon the wretched child came limping forward with a huge erection clearly visible under his grey shorts and no solution to propose to his audience.  After a few feeble attempts at improvisation he asked to be allowed "to go to the bog, sir, please", stayed there exploring the full possibilities of his new-found hobby, and left Wally to do his own job for once.  

And a sad mess Wally made of it.

I Don't Get It, Part 2

So I'm still mulling over this "strikes" business, and the more I think about it, the madder I get, which is not a good sign.  I checked with my daughter and she confirmed my suspicion that while it's possible for kids to get "strikes", there is no mechanism for a kid to get a "hit". 

In other words, here's a system where any mistake or slip-up a kid might make will be carefully tallied as a "strike", but if they perform well, there's no particular recognition of that.  How is this anything but de-motivating?

Why does anyone think this is a good idea?

Communication

The teachers say they want to communicate with the parents, so why don't they listen to a single word we say?

I have prepared the following lecture to deliver to my daughter's hapless math teacher, Mr. Q:

"You say you want to communicate with me, so we need to find a method of communication that works for both sides.

Your proposed method, where you send my daughter home with a quiz that I'm supposed to sign, and then she forgets all about it, and then you tell her she's got a strike because she forgot to get my signature, is not a method that works for me.  In fact, it offends me.  It makes me angry.  Therefore, that's not a useful method of communication between you and me."

If he's listened to that much, he's bound to object, as he already has, that some of the parents like signing the quiz and sending him a little note (which he leaves space for) on the quiz itself.  And here's my reply:

"If some parents like to communicate by signing the quiz, bully for them.  They are welcome to do so.  Make it optional and let every parent decide how they would like to communicate with you.

You, the teacher, also have veto power.  For instance, I might propose that I would like to communicate with you by calling you at home at 3:00 in the morning and screaming in your ear.  If that method doesn't work for you, just say so, and we'll look for a mutually agreeable solution."

Now that wasn't hard, was it?

I Don't Get It, Part 1

Part of my conversation with the math teacher Mr. Q went like this:

Me:  The point is, DD is a good kid, she tries her best, and I want school to be a positive experience for her.

Mr. Q:  Yes, she's a very good kid, school should be positive.

Me:  So it's discouraging for her that she's in there every day doing her best, and then she forgets one trivial little detail, and she gets a strike against her. 

Mr. Q:  Oh, I wouldn't want her to feel discouraged or dejected or anything like that.

I don't get it!   Of course it's discouraging.  What does he think?

I was talking to another Mom about this and she said that at curriculum night, Mr. Q said:  "all the kids will get a strike for something in the first trimester, so don't worry about it."

He's got a hand-picked group of smart, well-behaved kids, and he goes out of his way to ensure that every one of them will receive a rebuke?  What's the point?  Why would you do this?

I don't get it!

conversation with a math teacher

Ow!  My head exploded!

So I had a phone conversation with the math teacher, Mr. Q.  It started out like this:

Mr. Q:  I see you have questions about my "three strikes" policy.  Let me explain.  I tell the kids that each trimester is an "at bat" --

Me (interrupting):  DD doesn't know what "at bat" is!

Mr. Q:  Oh, well, I can talk to her about that.  I don't think the strikes thing is about boys -- I tell the kids it's like baseball or softball.  A couple of years ago I had 3 softball players in my class and they really liked it.

As many of these conversations do, it pretty much went downhill from there.  The teacher is a young guy and he just doesn't get it.  He honestly believes he's teaching "responsibility" and "study habits".  He did give me a couple of PsychMom's lines, including "none of the other parents have complained!"  I told him people don't usually complain, because it's unpleasant and frustrating.  (Don't I know it!)

We may have made a little progress at the very end.  He said he wouldn't give up "three strikes", and I said that he could at least change it so that he didn't count getting a quiz signed as part of the assignment, just like doing actual math problems.  I pointed out to him that DD has never forgotten to do the math problems, because she perceives them as important.  She forgot to get me to sign a quiz because she perceives that as trivial paperwork, and she's absolutely right.

I also told him that DD's opinion of him has gone down since she got a "strike", and he was genuinely surprised at this.  I told him, "she can either feel bad about you, or feel bad about herself, and I'd rather have her feel bad about you."

Race to Nowhere

We just got back from seeing Race to Nowhere.  Wow, what a powerful film.  I recommend it to everyone reading this blog.  Unlike almost everything else that you hear in the discussion about education, it asks the important questions, like "what are we doing to our kids?"

I had a thrill of recognition when the film-maker described talking to school administrators about her depressed daughter, only for them to say, "She's fine!  She's doing really well!"  Been there, done that.

There's a very sad discussion of a girl who committed suicide at 13, and it brings up a point I've wanted to discuss.  Some kids commit suicide because of bullying by other kids, and this is a very serious problem that must be addressed.  But there are also kids who commit suicide because of the pressure exerted by school, and this must be addressed too.

e-mail to a math teacher

Mr. Q -- DD mostly enjoys your class; she says it's the best math class she's had.  The homework so far has been reasonable, so on the whole we feel that the class is going well.

However, I was not pleased when DD came home recently and told me she had a "strike" against her because she had forgotten to ask me to sign her quiz, for two reasons:

1.)  When you use baseball metaphors in class, you send a subconscious message that math is for boys.  DD's a girl; she doesn't have any experience of baseball.  In fact, I asked her about it today, and she wasn't sure what a "strike" in baseball even means.

Suppose I was teaching a math class, and you were my student, and I was constantly using metaphors related to knitting.  ("Hey!  You dropped a stitch!")  You'd feel that the class wasn't really meant for you, right?

2.)  More importantly, I don't like to see DD scolded for completely trivial errors.  I want school to be a positive experience for her.  All she did was forget to ask me to sign her quiz.  How does that warrant anything more than a simple reminder?  The "strike" system is negative, punitive, and unnecessary.  Why do it at all?

Thank you for your consideration.  -- FedUpMom.