I've been asking our PS friends what their same aged kids are doing at school, I want to know if my kid and their kid are doing the same things or completely different. The answer I get almost everytime is, "I don't know, a whole lot of nothing." That is shocking to me! DH and his friend have been working on a project so they've been talking and his friend asked why we homeschool. DH sat there for a minute and finally said, "where do you want me to start?" Then the friend said, "well it's nice to get them out of the house." He also said, "they don't learn anything until atleast 2nd grade, are you actually expecting them to learn things?" WHAT??? DH said, "then why even send them to school until then?" The friend said, "well, they're more learning to listen to the teacher." After DH said that to me I interrupted him and said, "Uh...shouldn't they already know how to listen when they start school in K? What does he mean they don't learn anything until 2nd grade? Look at how much Lance has learned already, heck, our 3 year old is picking up on things! And for him to say they don't learn until 2nd grade, look at how much a baby learns in the first year of life, kids are obviously capable of learning!" WOW! It just makes me that much more thankful I homeschool and that we're able to! I can't believe that some think it's a great way to get kids out of the house.
I think it depends on the parent, teacher and school. When my kids were in a Dept of Defense school, I almost always knew what they were working on...maybe not daily....but between talking to the kids, reviewing homework or other work they brought home, volunteering in the classroom, etc.....I could tell you the main topics (like plants in science, division in math, etc). Now, I'll add....they attended a great school with LOTS of parent involvement....so maybe that was part of it. I do know from having conversations with relatives, that your experience asking your friends is not unusual. I've had similar as well. Rhonda
Because..sorry to put it this way...standards are quite low and being in the dark about what the kids are learning and not learning, makes it sooo much easier to send the kids off to the free babysitting/entertainment service. Of course, ALL of us have to pay for these babysitters, even those of us who are raising our own children.
And I do have a child in public school and I really have no clue what he is learning. Parents are kept outside and we are never really told what they are doing. I have asked many times to at least get to see the math books, but still have not. I know what the name is though, but only know that because my sister works there, but in an older grade, and told me the name.
Kids never tell unless asked specific questions, even homeschooled kids. Ds k teacher warned all the parents about that and gave us specific questions to ask our child. Every day we ask what was the focus work, what center were you at and what was the green star activity. This way we know what she has been doing.
The next time you are scheduled for a conference, tell the teacher you want to see your child's books while you're there. At any time, you can go to the central office and see the curriculum the school is using, too.
I am a member of a local message board with an area for vents about the public schools. Just a week ago one of the parents complained that her daughter is not given a textbook to take home in a subject with which she is currently struggling. Another one of the teachers responded that she does not like to bother with textbooks because: The ones they have do not align with state standards. (Now that was taxpayer's money well spent). It takes away classroom time when the children forget to bring them or have to go back to their lockers. Many teachers use other resources, like daily handouts, other than textbooks, although there may be "class textbooks." Now, I am not one in favor of textbooks personally as a homeschooler, but if my daughter was in the public school system, I would still want to be involved in her education. So, I asked the teacher the question of how I could I really assist my child or have any idea of what material the teacher would be covering in the next month or the next week without some point of reference like a textbook. As a student, I used to read ahead in my textbooks, so I was somewhat prepared before we covered the material in class, and I would probably do that same as a parent, but how would that be possible without textbooks? The teacher did not provide any answers. In fact, she went on to say that textbooks are outmoded and that parents need to get into the 21st century or be left behind. It is almost like they purposely exclude parents so they can blame the parents for not being involved.
I have gotten similiar answers from friends whose kids go to public school. When mine were in a medium-sized private school, I was usually quite familiar with what they were learning. Unfortunately, they had TONS of homework (well, from K5 up)...and the teachers sent home weekly newsletters outlining what they were doing. And there was a sense of "peer pressure" among the parents to be hyper-involved in the classroom. It was almost like you couldn't be ignorant of what your child was doing, even if you wanted to...not that I wanted to.
Yes, I did have a parent teacher conference just Friday (yesterday). I asked, yet again. They said "wasn't it online?" Well..no. It may be somewhere, but I would not know where and I did google it. I also needed to go to the lost and found to look for something my child needed. I was told I needed a background check first. Lucky for me, I already had it from when I volunteered in the district previously!! Luckily, while they do require background checks of parents and parent volunteers (but not the employees) my background check was done 6+ years ago so I passed. It was done right after 9/11. So...I need a background check to check the lost and found or help with a holiday party where lots of other adults are present, but when I taught in the district, I was not required any sort of background check.
You need a background check to find something you may have lost in the lost and found, but not to teach>?? And they call us backwards rednecks! Holy cow I hate gov'ment!
Man I think my child would be out of that school so fast they wouldn't even know he/she ever went there. If they don't let you see what they are teaching, I would wonder what they are hiding. Don't think so? Not here anyway.
We had the same experience. I pretty much knew exactly what my kids were learning, as I helped out in their classrooms often, and was kept informed via school and classroom letters along with regular informal catch ups with their teachers ( who were always thrilled to answer any questions/concerns we had). I think a lot comes down to the communication between students, parents and their teachers.
So now you call the central office- the main office of the school system. You tell them you'd lke to come in and see the curriculum for your child's grade. See, the school personnel might be playing with you. Central office might not know about it. That happened to me once. Tell the central office the school is giving you the runaround, you don't understand why you can't even see a textbook, and I bet you'll find it's just a bunch of baloney on the school's end of it.
Does the school have a website? Somewhere on there should be a link to curriculum, benchmarks, or even just activities to help your child. If you want, pm me the school's name, where you are, and I'll try to dig it up for you.
Our older two graduated from public school. They had a couple great teachers who sent home quarterly packets that showed more or less what the students would be covering. Then the students had to bring it home weekly with their graded assignments in them so the parent can see how the students were doing. With the other teachers, it was like pulling teeth to get some kind of information. Still, we managed to get it one way or another.
I asked for a cirriculum overview and the reply I got was it's online. Well NO it wasen't online, the student handbook was. The teacher my son had refused to even talk with me for a few minutes after school EVER. Most schools I think WANT parents to be un involved and not care. It makes it easier for them not to care.
There has to be at least something on the state level online. They have nothing to gain by hiding curriculum from parents. As I've searched for lesson plans, I've seen curriculum listed as - curriculum and instruction instruction and procedures intranet overview and instruction elementary instruction( also middle and high school) outcomes benchmarks Sometimes the link is hard to figure out, because they don't have a specific, outstanding 'here's the curriculum' link. I wish they would, and save everyone precious time.
There are no textbooks for my husband's computer class. He has bought the books WITH HIS OWN MONEY, and the kids use them IN CLASS. Even the math classes he taught for the last two years didn't have enough books for the number of students, so the kids weren't able to take them home. He had to allow them to do the homework in class, and he also had a "math lab" after school for the few kids that wanted to come in and finish their work. Most kids didn't finish their work, because they were too busy talking with friends and playing around.
You are so right on. I have learned to Reverse Engineer many links that I stumble upon. Which has led to some great "Unlisted" discoveries of school system or state resources. What I mean by Reverse Engineer is this.. The address or URL of something I stumble upon may look something like this: http://www.tx.books.us.school/3902/intranet/agenda/2008/pdfs/21903.pdf (Not a real link....Just for example) Well.... If I click in the address bar and use the back space key to erase some parts of the address, then click ENTER... I get" http://www.tx.books.us.school/3902/intranet/agenda/2008/pdfs This will perhaps open an unlisted cache of all the pdfs they have. Or perjaps I back up even further on the address bar to erase till I have this... http://www.tx.books.us.school/3902/intranet/agenda/2008 And maybe I stumble upon a "Forbidden Directory". SO I back up even further... http://www.tx.books.us.school/3902/intranet/agenda And maybe I get a page that shows the agendas for that school district, something that leads to other internal links.... etc... You can use this technique to dig through "Unlisted" URLs on ANY internet address... Not all will turn up anything, but it is fun to go "Treasure Hunting" :wink: Good luck
Actually most sites have to minimal protection needed to avoid that(sites powered by vBulletin for example). All it takes is a blank file named index.html or .php. Also done by edits to the .htaccess file to give error 403. Fortunately for curious computer amateurs a lot of small custom sites are not very secure. Please note, you are in a gray zone when it comes to legal matters.
