Something interesting...

A parent and licensed math teacher who started week-end homeschooling her children in math... because of poor quality of math teaching in the kids' school. She chose Singapore Math as the home replacement curriculum.

Teens and Tweens: Singapore Math

Comments

Stephen said…
Even with high quality teachers, and even with two teachers to a classroom, the teachers often can not devote the time to individual instruction for students who need it. As a parent, i was able to spend a half hour for a weekly lesson and twenty minutes daily for exercises and help, for the ten weeks or so that it took to bring my son up to scratch. This brought him from behind to slightly ahead.

This has several effects. Of course, the student who is helped gets it. Also, it reduces pressure in the classroom for all students, not just the one who is helped. That allows the whole class to proceed faster. Given that the school year is fixed, that means that more can be covered, and there is more chance of review.

The parent may also be able to use time that is otherwise unavailable. For example, i can quiz my son on math problems while in the car. Two or three examples can keep up his skills. Now, i do have to be able to do this safely while driving...
11:40 AM, June 27, 2006
Anonymous said…
I am a teacher and I take no offense to homeschool teachers, or the ideas of public schools being better or worse for education.

I do agree that homeschooling can have huge benefits especially in the area of one-on-one consult. Believe me, if I had time for each student 1-on-1, our classes would be far shorter.

I do disagree a bit in terms of home school kids doing better. I'm sure it is true in some cases, but I think test scores vary so much within the classroom that it's hard to say who does better: homeschool vs. public.
2:59 PM, June 27, 2006
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