Quote Originally Posted by Veronica View Post
That assumes they are doing the students' job of paying attention and writing down the examples covered in class. That they are asking for clarification when they don't understand. Teachers are not mind readers.

Do you have any idea how many students come to me not knowing basic math facts? I'm talking simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The sort of stuff that you're suppose to drill until you know it. Trouble is, there are some kids who need more drill then can be provided in class time. They don't get drilled at home, so by the time they get to me at 5th grade, they're still counting on their fingers. They are so caught up in acquiring the basics, that they can't get the more abstract concepts that we're starting in 5th grade.

I have kids who don't understand why we call a quarter, a quarter. I am constantly astounded by the lack of background knowledge my students possess. They no longer know how to read a regular clock, so talking about a quarter of an hour, is a totally foreign concept. Students who have never realized that .o1 is like a penny and .10 is like a dime, so of course they are not the same thing.

I've spent this week in class myself, taking a class on teaching problem solving to students - yeah 37 hours on how to teach problem solving to kids, when I should still be on vacation. The hardest thing about problem solving, is that students just want the answer - they don't care about the process. And they want the answer now. They don't want to persevere. "Let's just look up the answer on the Internet."

Don't tell me that the job we do is pathetic. Most of us are pretty passionate and concerned about what is going on in our classrooms. We are after all paid such an exorbitant amount of money for what we do. And if you think it's an easy, cushy job, go do it yourself. I've spent on average two hours of every day of my vacation working on stuff for the upcoming academic year. I spend about 3,000 dollars of my own money on things for my classroom every year. And no, I don't get reimbursed and I don't claim it as charitable donation on my taxes.

It's so easy to say that education is failing our children. But it's not education - it's all the other stuff that's happening in their lives, or not happening when it should be.

Veronica
+1 more. I have had bad teachers (my pre-calc teacher in high school was far more interested in coaching soccer than explaining trig ) but they are certainly not representative. I wish it had occurred to me to ask my teachers how to solve something more complicated than the textbook examples, which I could figure out on my own. Anything much beyond that, I was totally lost.
I love the process of math when it works for me. It just takes me a lot of time and repetition to actually get the process and be able to apply it!

And V--"Just give me the answer" doesn't disappear. If I had a nickel for every time one of my pre-med acquaintances would cheat on o-chem homework (or tests!), or would whine when the answers for GENERAL chemistry homework/tests weren't immediately obvious and solvable with rote formula use, I'd have no trouble paying for grad school. I don't know that it was laziness. More likely that "I want the answer so I can get a good grade in this class so I can get into med school." Of course, it means they get out of the habit of looking for answers themselves. Do they expect their patients to come in with a diagnosis in hand?