Uncommon Core Standards

 
   As the school year rolls to and end, many parents, myself included, are taking a breath of fresh air and letting out a sigh of relief. A nice deep breath of fresh air, since the weather has finally gotten warm enough to breathe without freezing our lungs. A sigh of relief that we have nearly completed the homework hurdle for the year.  We have survived, for the most part, projects that involve savvy marketing skills, extensive computer research that doesn't include Wikipedia, a great deal of tape, printer ink, a lot of cardboard, and the roll out of the common core standards for math and reading.

   I did say for the most part. Some of us are still struggling with the Common Core Standards being adopted by schools everywhere. As good parents we are supposed to follow the Parent's Guide to Student's Success which can be found on the National PTA website (www.pta.org). The four page guide for 5th grade students includes developing a good working relationship with our children's teachers by talking to the teachers regularly - beyond parent teacher conferences. Set high expectations for our children and give them the support they need to meet those expectations, as well as provide them with a quiet place to study and do homework that is free of distractions. In addition to sitting down with the kids at least once a week while they are doing their homework so that we keep abreast of what they are studying, we should be initiating activities with our child such as telling family stories and discussing our history, brainstorming on different ways to tell family tales, doing arithmetic with decimals, such as when we balance our check books, and perhaps even utilizing the important calculations of length, width and depth to determine how much garden soil we will need to purchase to start our garden. Our teachers have also asked us to look over our children's homework for errors and to ensure projects meet expected guidelines.

   Golly, is that all?

   What if we really could do all this and more? (Yep there is more information - full standards are available at www.corestandards.org.) What exactly would this new and wonderful learning environment look like.

   Lets start with parent/teacher dialogue. This year my daughter's class is fairly small, but next year there should be about 22 or 23 students. There are two parent teacher conferences a year, but  the Parent Guide to Student Success notes that we should talk to the teacher regularly, outside of these conferences. Does that mean an email a week? Maybe call and set up a coffee date to talk about my little angel and how she is progressing this month? Does the teacher really want 22 or 23 parents knocking on his door and setting up after school meetings (which would probably need to occur in the evening for most folks as they are at work during the day) to discuss tutoring options and study strategies? I personally like it when the school sets up open house events so that we can spend time in our kid's classrooms to get an overview of what they are learning. Not very one on one I admit, but we do get a pretty good feel for the classroom. Then a little voice in my head asked me, what if our kids are not doing so hot? Won't the teacher, school or district let us know in a timely basis? Won't the kids bring home corrected homework or tests or notes or something?

   Well, lets skip that one for now and offer our kids a nice quiet time and place to study, one that is free of distractions. Seriously, have you been to our house? Kids do homework in kitchen or dining room. Generally speaking, the study is my work space, but I do share. We try to keep distractions to a minimum, but things like preparing dinner, getting a glass of water and foraging for snacks are going to occur. I could provide a cubicle in the crawl space, but then how do I then periodically check to make sure that they stay on task rather than daydream, play with the bottom of their chair and other activities that stretch out the allotted homework time? But maybe they mean free of distractions the way classrooms are free of distractions? Then I got that covered, I just need to add some household renovation projects, about 20 other kids and perhaps a marching band. And certainly I can sit down with my darling daughter while she is doing homework -NOT. One of us would probably have to be bailed out of jail. I think we will stick to our routine of her doing homework and me occasionally nagging her to stay on task. When she is all done (or I have decided that enough hours have passed and we have other things to do as a family), I check over homework for glaring errors and missed problems. That is, for what homework I am able to check. Some of the math poses a problem for me. I neither understand what they are asking nor they way they are teaching it in class. I try to show her the way I learned it, but am usually met with "Mom, that is not they way they want us to do it!" When I ask my daughter where is her math book, she tells me that they don't want her to bring it home....

   WHY? Didn't the school use my tax dollars to pay for the book? Do they think we are going to steal it? Or does it contain things we won' like? You know, boxes with dots and hash marks, stem and leaf graphs and other things that take a lot of time to put together and accomplish very little? We usually resort to searches on the world wide web so Mommy and Daddy can learn how the teacher wants the problems done according to the new Common Core Standards. It can be time consuming to find the right explanation that can be understood by both children and parents alike, but who needs to eat dinner? Well at least the science book is on line.

   As for family stories, we have our relatives to tell all about that time that Mommy had a run in with the neighbors in their apartment complex or how about that time Daddy set his bed on fire. Maybe this isn't the age to discuss their great grandma's occupation as a bookie, or that our family is not descended from royalty, but rather the other faction. No need to brainstorm on this one, the various tales have taken on a life of their own that often have to be circumvented at family gatherings for more age appropriate material.

    I really gave serious thought to that check book idea, but the numbers are awfully small and would provide little challenge to my math scholar. From the single digit additions and subtractions of the numbers that make up the household finances, she would quickly realize that there would be no point in calculating the length, width and depth of our garden as we will not be buying any soil any time soon. So much for that helpful tidbit.

    So what is a struggling parent to do if they want their child to succeed? Some schools have instituted workshops for parents to learn new math standards alongside their children. Yeah, like they don't already have jobs and responsibilities. You want them to go to school too? Wouldn't that qualify them to then teach the materials at hand? And then what would we need teachers for? I am surprised that the teacher's union doesn't take some issue with this. Furthermore, if I spend time in class learning all this "new" material, then spend time working with my child at home to ensure successfully passing the grade, when is there time to teach the kids the other lessons we as parents are supposed to be teaching them? Lessons in  responsibility, by giving them chores around the house and consequences of not doing them. Lessons about environment and economy through planting that garden to make our families more self sustainable. Lessons about nutrition by involving them in making the family dinner (using those home grown veggies as well as fractions I might add). And when is there time to just play, decompress and develop their imaginations and natural curiosity? All of these life lessons are important to grow our children into healthy, independent individuals.

    I say that we need to explore an more Uncommon Core Set of Standards for learning. One that still involves the basics of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing without complicating it with a lot of dots and boxes. It is a great starter tool for concepts, but pretty sure that it is a waste of time 5th graders to keep making the hash marks. Continue to teach sentence structure so that our children can learn to manipulate our language and articulate their ideas in new shapes and forms. Build upon understanding of literary concepts and digesting information in our multimedia world where the written word is still strong and being able to write a comprehensive memo is still valued. Work with our students to learn, but refrain from "remaking the wheel" so that the average parent could not recognize basic mathematical equations. Don't feel the need to send home a mountain of homework to do this. If it really cannot be done in our current educational structure, perhaps it is time to consider adding a few years to the learning experience. Hey, it is not like the vast majority of kids are leaving home before they hit 25 anyway! This might allow families the chance to teach the other things that kids need to learn to achieve success.

   I think this summer we will focus on handwriting as our "school" summer activity. This is something they don't teach in school and fundamental if she needs to sign anything, like legal documents or a work check. Heaven forbid that she might want to be able to read the Declaration of Independence or any other historical document for herself.