My son is frustrated with chemistry and I understand his main point of complaint. He says just as he is really getting something, the book moves on to something else difficult. He is right. That is why we are moving slowly. I think in general he makes a great point. Schools and textbooks seem to think the more information learned- the better. I think it is not true in most cases. I learned a lot in school that I have no grasp on right now (or at least until I review it to help my son). Why isn't there more emphasis on really getting something down- to the point of knowing it backwards and forwards? I know this isn't the best for everyone- it would bore some students, but there are a lot of students who would do better with this approach.
Because they have to teach to the masses. Did you know it is normal and natural for some children, especially boys, not to learn to read until they are 10 or 12 years old. But public schools say all kids must learn to read in kindergarten and expect fluency to progress rapidly so that they can have them read their own books and instructions on worksheet by second grade. So these boys, the ones who do not read on the public school schedule, are put in slow classes. Then, around third-fifth grade, it clicks, and they catch up to their peers in reading skills at a miraculous rate! But what has 3 - 5 years of being in the 'slow' class done to their self-esteem? When we work one-on-one at home, or even six-on-one, we can do many things a public school teacher who teaches 30-to-one, can't do. Mastery is one of those things. I also think it is a side effect of our 'more is better' culture. We think knowing a little bit about a lot of topics makes us smart, but in all honest, it makes us much dumber. In the past, a blacksmith might know little to nothing about fishing, and a fisherman might know little to nothing about making a tent. But, the fisherman knew all there was to know about fishing, because he was most likely the son of a fisherman and probably quite a master of his trade by the time he reached adulthood. Nowadays we have people in their 40s who switch careers every year because they don't know what they want to do with their life, and no one knows all the ins and outs of their field of work because they would much rather know a little about running a cafe, a little about working in a tire shop, a little about this and a little about that. And, television has killed our attention span. :shock:
I agree with you fully, Josephine. An innate difficulty with teaching more than one student is that the students will learn at different rates with different things. When there is a class of 20 or 30 children, this effect becomes greater. If the textbook or curriculum always went at the pace of the slowest child so that every student understood what was learnt, very little would get done (and many other kids would get bored). It is a sad fact that a certain proportion of students are going to be left behind with every topic taught. I am a teacher and one of the worst parts of my job is knowing that no matter what, I have to leave some students behind. The curriculum and textbooks, therefore, are designed for the 'average' student (although many do not actually find out what the average is, and just make a guess). Every child has his or her strong and weak points, so there will always be a few things which move too quickly. The very fact that it is considered normal to forget most of what you learn at school shows just how little is 'mastered' and how much is actually learnt only at a superficial level. All that history, geography, science... time wasted. The great thing about one-on-one schooling is that you don't have to worry about this. You can go faster and further with things which are easily grasped, and slow down and properly learn the more challenging topics. This is why, when the teacher is willing to put in the effort, one-on-one teaching is much more efficient. Education should be (and in many places used to be) about mastery. If you learn a skill, learn it properly rather than spending a little time on it before moving on and quickly forgetting it. If you are going to forget it, then there is no point wasting your time with it in the first place. Your son has an excellent attitude in this regard. Perhaps if you can find a complementary text which he can use concurrently to help hammer things home? This is a very frustrating fact of life when it comes to education designed for the masses.
I agree with you both. I would like to see a solid, complete mastery of the REAL basics in life in public/private schools and homeschools with allowance to go deeper in some subjects that interest the individual. It boggles my mind that you have students that graduate high school (with algebra, and algebra 2 credits and more) who can't balance a checkbook or count back change the correct way. All those years of cramming more and more information for nothing.
This is one of the many reasons that I love homeschooling. I teach my daughter so that she masters the subject ( I did this before I knew it had a name, I just did it because it made sense ) When we are working on worksheets, if she finishes the pages, but is struggling through each page, I will hand write out the problems and I will have her do them until it makes sense.
Yes I agree with whats been said too. My boy is definitely a mastery type kid. I've thought a lot about this as it is our first year of hs, and it's been so great for him. I have learned so much about him as a learner and finally discover a method that works for him! My girl on the other hand is one who thrives on the typical school programs, which is fine, it's how she is wired- like me. But I just know for my boy and probably many other kids out there, the problem is with the methods placed in the classroom. Every year teaching I learn something, I love it, so if I ever go back to teaching in the classroom I know I will be teaching much more carefully than before!
I have a theory that homeschoolers MAY do so well when they take standardized tests compared to "the norm" of public schoolers is that homeschoolers tend to learn more thoroughly, even if they happen to learn a little less broadly than public schoolers who do the "inch deep and a mile wide" thing.
It is frustrating to me for this reason: My son is having difficulty in chemistry. On the one hand, I feel we should be moving forward, but on the other hand, I know he doesn't grasp some of the basics well enough to really "get" anything new. Unfortunately, some of the chemistry concepts build on previous understanding and you can't skip around too much. I also think he could understand more if he believed he could understand more and put a lot more effort into learning the material.
Chemistry is like that Hi. This my first post on this site. As a chemist with homeschooling experience, the first thing I would say is chemistry is often about grasping the subject. Mastery can be so time consuming it may appear your student is not moving at all. My suggestion is to find a book on experiments that reinforce the concepts in your curriculum, and use those to develop mastery. Chemistry has tons of theory, but it really comes alive for a student in the laboratory. The good thing about this is there are plenty of experiments that can be safely done at home, but be careful. Hope this helpful.
