-> SK>First of all, the fact that special interest groups can affect
-> school >curriculum is deplorable and scary. Even without a National
-> Curriculum, >this occurs on a local level. I wonder what can be done
-> to stop that >phenomenon?
-> Remove the political side of the educational equation ?  Probably not
-> possible, but it would be a start.
  I'm sure you're right. That's why I didn't even begin to try
making suggestions how to accomplish it, but only wondered aloud.
-> To set a National goal as we did in the race to the moon would be
-> beneficial IMO.
Now I think you're beginning to get the idea. This is a pretty good
analogy, I think.
-> The key to a successful National standard would be a well advertised
-> program where parents could understand that their students are either
-> receiving an adequate education or are not.
This is the type of thing Dave Mainwaring was usually bringing up. How
best to accomplish such a thing, I'm not sure. I know that NCTM offers
several publications for parents about math education, but the idea is
that the teachers or school would give these to the parents. A school
with a poor program probably wouldn't make such materials available,
since it would probably lead to criticism of their program. In that
case, it comes down to the parents looking for the info themselves and
being interested enough to find out about these things. That's quite a
lot of work if you have to do it for every subject area that your child
studies. However, it is pretty easy to get on the Web and use Yahoo and
search through the Education category and come up with a number of sites
that offer pertinent information in a matter of minutes. Maybe as this
type of information becomes more available it will be easier for parents
to learn about these things on their own?
-> I have seen many bright students fall by the wayside only due to the
-> simple fact their parents had no clue of how to work the system.
Yeah, I guess. As an educator, I don't even like to acknowledge that
there is a "system". But I suppose that in a way that is true. Sometimes
I wonder, though, if the parents and students don't have their head
in the sand.
For example, I generally control the enrollment for the Honors Geometry
course. In order to avoid problems with students entering the program
who are not capable of the material, I have a mandatory information
meeting about the course, an information sheet that must go home and be
signed by the parents, and a test to get into the class. (This is in
addition to certain grade requirements in their Algebra I course and
their Algebra I teachers recommendation.)
This process begins in early Feb. and the test is administered in
mid-May.
About a week ago, a parent called and wanted to know if it was too late
to get her kid in the Honors Geometry course for next year. She thought
that since her kid had transfered into our school in November, that he
might've missed announcements about the info meeting and stuff. She said
she had talked to the counselor and he had said it would be announced.
About the only thing wrong I can think of that she did, is talking
to the counselor instead of her child's MATH teacher. At our school, the
math teachers control math placement, not the counseling office. This
seems to throw a lot of parents for a loop, as they assume the reverse
is true.
Anyhow, I went and talked to this kid's Algebra I teacher, and she is
certain he was aware of the announcements for the meetings. She
announced in her class that she would sign everyone up for Geometry
(regular), and if anyone wanted ANYTHING different from that, they
needed to come speak to her privately. Apparently this kid is painfully
shy and never approached the teacher about it.
The reason I relate this story, is that someone might think that somehow
"knowing the system" was a factor in this kid's missing out on the
honor's program for next year. But really, the school (math staff) went
out of it's way to announce meetings, etc..(I even ran announcements in
the daily school bulletin on the meeting days), and this kid just had
his head in the sand.
Sheila
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