Glen Canyon's Blog: Off The Hypotenuse.
Glen's recent post on algebra readiness in middle school was a great list of the various positions adopted by people involved in middle school maths education.
I left a comment on his blog. I thought that the topic was big enough to move that comment across to this blog and turn it into a post.
What to do about algebra readiness in middle school students is the subject of a constant ongoing debate that (IMHO) will never go away.
At my school we refuse to stream kids until Year 9 and then we take the whole year to sort it out: moving kids around over the year as they display their potential or lack there of.
We even keep the door open for late developers into Year 10. In fact the choice is always open, though students have pretty much settled down by the end of Year 10. There are very few surprises after that.
We are a pastoral care focused school and refuse to compromise this for the sake of looking good in the eyes of the academic hawks.
I agree about being crystal clear with parents about who we are and what our goals are. Parents can get very demanding about he "needs" of their child: particularly the parents of "gifted" children.
The task is difficult enough - holding all the various views and expectations of the teaching staff in tension - without caving into the demands of "helicopter" parents.
Each child's learning needs do need to be met but only in the context of meeting the learning needs of everyone in the school community.
Plato was wrong.
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