2 Boys – 7 Girls, all respectful in adult presence, decent to each other, some are exceptionally bright, some in the middle, some on the low end. Two born with fetal alcohol syndrome – adopted by a single mom, various races, religions, family dynamics.

None are hamsters.

Some are more scheduled than others, but none so scheduled that they do not have a minimum of 3 hours per day for free play in addition to homework (4 are attending some type of summer school), chores and dinner with their respective families -

All are housebroken.

Some have varying degrees of stress, some parent induced, some self induced, some societal induced.

None are criminals.

All are great kids – I love having them in our yard – love listening to them work out their differences – love when they work together for a lemonade stand (average of $65 profit after paying for supplies) – love when they spend the night at each other’s homes (houses, apartments, duplexes) – would love to see them treated more respectfully on this blog.

1> If you work children like hamsters on a wheel they have less energy for getting in trouble.

They’ll have less energy – period. Energy that could be used in positive ways, as well as “getting in trouble.” When my kids are over-worked, they tend to get sick. I do too when I’m over-tired. The body needs its resources and energy to resist illness and heal injuries, so it’s possible to take this idea to extremes that harm instead of help. Gotta balance those work loads and recovery time.

2> The world is getting more dangerous than in the 1970s-1990s…

There’s no evidence that the world is more dangerous now than in the past. None. Higher crime statistics are the result of better reporting, not more crime.

3> We/I like them better if they are pre-stressed and we don’t have to do so much housebreaking of a bunch of 19-25 year olds.

I suspect liking a new employee is a whole lot less important in the grand scheme of things than “housebreaking”. Respecting competence, follow-through, and completing assignments independently on time would all count much higher where I work. Likability is a nice-to-have, but not really critical to adult success. The most successful people are rarely the most well-liked.

4> Kids appreciate what adults go through to keep the lights on and gas in the tank when they have been worked harder. A lazy kid is a mouthy, insolent kid. A kid from a school that seriously challenges him/her whether academically or vocationally is better able to understand and fit in my world instead the playground lots of them live in now.

YMMV – this doesn’t come close to describing most of the kids I know. They mostly aren’t over-worked, over-scheduled and over-stressed. And they’re mostly polite, pleasant and respectful of others. The most difficult kid I know is also the most challenged and stressed, and most of his difficult behavior is reacting to the challenges and stress that he can’t escape. When he gets some down time to just play and be a kid, that’s when he’s most pleasant to be around.

Like I said under the first point, it’s important to balance the work and relaxation time. Too much of either is not going to be helpful, and might be harmful.

I agree with you that teachers should cover the whole book, as much as is possible. However, the current structure of state wide testing encourages the opposite.

Teachers are pressured by district administrators, principals, and even other teachers, to drill for the test (in time for the test) instead of total coverage and mastery.

That’s why I’m generally against lockstep rules, and especially against adding more without broad input.

Every, every, every student should take Algebra… But not necessarily by 8th grade. It’s not what’s best for all students, and it has little do to with taking it easy on them.

Debora, there are some assessment tools out there to measure abstract thinking. For several years, OUSD has been involved in the MARS tool, for one.

Nextset, I find many of your comments to be condescending, dismissive, and occasionally repulsive. Why should I share personal information with you? If you would like to post under your real first name, and say more about yourself, I would consider it.

Do our schools have the mechanism in place to assess students coming into sixth grade for readiness for abstract thought?

What I see is that if parents want to assess for anything other than standardized testing they must push for it early and often.

Those teachers who blog here – Do you know how and when assessments are done for intellectual and abstract ability? Are these assessments routine, or would they need to be requested?

Also, I know the teachers (three that have answered the question) at my daughter’s school do not read the report cards from past years of the students entering their class, unless the student is on an IEP, do the teachers in middle school review the report cards or other assessments of the children entering into their math classes?

1> If you work children like hamsters on a wheel they have less energy for getting in trouble.

2> The world is getting more dangerous than in the 1970s-1990s. Kids need to be ready to shoulder adult responsibilities and decisions at age 19. Working them harder at 12-16 increases the chance they will survive the responsibility and the choice. Especially if they’re black, because the odds aren’t as good and they’ll need the edge.

3> We/I like them better if they are pre-stressed and we don’t have to do so much housebreaking of a bunch of 19-25 year olds.

4> Kids appreciate what adults go through to keep the lights on and gas in the tank when they have been worked harder. A lazy kid is a mouthy, insolent kid. A kid from a school that seriously challenges him/her whether academically or vocationally is better able to understand and fit in my world instead the playground lots of them live in now.

I understand your response – just not how it relates to my original post. We must expect the most of all of our students at all times.

Hopefully you read the link I posted – if not – I still suggest it. However – if you believe that every single student in California will be ready for Algebra by age 13 – then we will never have room to debate.

It is great to have the student voice as a part of this conversation.

Read all of these bloggers language, and that is the reason why minortities do not blog or participate in such scenes. We simply aint ready or adept to understand the jargon or some of the BS of the “educated.”

All this talk of Algebra, have you guys taken a look at reading and math scores for the minority students residng in OUSD<
Atrocious!!

The fact of the matter is, many teachers cannot wait to water down texts. It happened to me and all of my buddies within OUSD.

Truth is Algebra may be in fact be too abstract for some students; but if you tell that to an ultra liberal who cannot wait to toss a math book away, their students will lose knowldege but gain idealisms.

That is the core of the Algebra I stance in my opinion. It is making sure the teachers will teach and not stray from course matter like most inner city middle and high school classrooms do.

I studied Algebra in the 4th grade in Mexico; and did well. But have you all seen the education situation there? Algebra should be seen as a gatekeeper for assuring teachers teach, more than if students will go to college. We sure as heck cannot rely on the unions to assure teachers teach.

Mario Ramirez
Former OUSD student

I am glad you were not one of my teachers in school. Based on your theories I would still be working on a taco truck. I had teachers who made me spend more time “working” on my math and that made a world of differences.

The public schools spend less than an hour preparing students for math each day.

Could it be they should spend more time (90 minutes per day) in the lower grade levels preparing students in math and higher percentage will be prepared to take and pass Algebra in the 8th grade?

This has proven to be a very effective method in China.