My wife and I watched the documentary
"Waiting For Superman" when it came to TV here in Australia a couple
of weeks ago and we were amazed by what we saw. However we thought that this
film is only showing us the negative aspects of the public school system in the
US. Surely the situation isn't as bad as what its being made out be. Is
it?
We
have both been teachers for the past 20+ years and although we get our share of
students who don't know their math, it is usually because they haven't been
taught properly in the first instance so they think its too hard or that they
are too dumb and they give up.
Their 'learning difficulties' are usually a result
of lack of ability to teach on the part of the primary school teacher and of
course the kids aren't going to go home and try to learn the work on their own
if it isn't explained properly, so they develop the attitude that the work is
too hard and they can't do it and eventually they stop trying and they fall so
far behind that it gets harder and harder to catch up.
Unfortunately knowing math is mistaken for being
able to teach math. All work can be taught if the explanation is simple enough.
That seems to be one way to get success, but explanations aren’t usually simple
and when they are given, they are forgotten, because of all the steps required
to solve a problem.
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