Who’s Minding The Gap In Your Child’s Education?

To answer the question posed in a previous article, How Should We Educate 21st Century Students?, I have to share some personal history.

Our Local Public School

Visiting my son’s old school, the local public school that he attended K-1 and that his sister attended all the way through graduation at the end of 5th Grade, is always an interesting experience.

Inevitably, we run into a teacher in the Main Office who scrutinizes my homeschooled son, asking him seemingly innocuous questions that basically boil down to, “Do you have any friends?”  Since we’re usually there to pick up a friend for a play date, I just laugh this off.

Last week, we were there to attend an Author Visit with David Schwartz.  This time, we ran into Alex’s 1st Grade teacher, one of the loveliest, smartest, caring teachers I have ever known.  She knows Alex well, and has seen him many times in the two years that we’ve been homeschooling, so I doubt that she’s worried about the socialization issue.

Still, I cringed, and my face turned pale, as she stopped what she was doing to observe Alex writing his name on a name tag.  On this day, of all days, my son forgot to capitalize his last name, and he wrote with the sloppy handwriting that he’d had drilled out of him in Kindergarten!  Oh, the embarrassment!

I turned to the teacher and assured her that we were working on his handwriting, that it still lagged behind other skills, but that he often wrote better than THAT!  I also reassured her that Alex does know how to capitalize, even if he doesn’t always remember to do so.

She smiled warmly, and didn’t say another word.  I don’t know if she bought what I was saying, but she had Alex in her class for a full year and his big sister as well.  This was the teacher who first recommended Kayla for Gifted Testing, and who identified her problems with organization.  I’m fairly confident that this teacher is well aware of the issues posed by asynchronous development in gifted students.

Homeschool On Trial

At this point, I’ve gotten used to the idea that our homeschooling experiment is always on trial.  Questions and helpful suggestions are par for the course.  It doesn’t bother me, and sometimes I even learn something useful.

Last month, a close friend who is a 2nd generation teacher in her first year as a Junior Kindergarten teacher, wrote to express her concern after seeing my son’s first solo blogging attempt (later edited by the Mommy Review Board):

However, after looking at California’s third grade writing standards, he is falling way short. I do not know what the purpose of the blog is, and maybe its not educational, (which would somewhat explain the mistakes.) Regardless, he still should know how to write basic high frequency words and write more supporting details for being in the third grade.

I took her advice to heart and stepped up Alex’s Spelling instruction, switching to a different textbook that seemed better suited to his needs.  I also reviewed our Language Arts program, checking that Alex was at least on grade level in Writing.

Then, I responded and reassured her that we were covering the appropriate Language Arts material, and that Alex has learned the material sufficiently well enough to pass a grade level assessment test.  He just doesn’t always choose to use what he knows.

Curriculum Standards in New York State

I’ve paid close attention to the New York State guidelines in our homeschool planning, and I can say in all honesty that our curriculum can be interpreted as being right on target with the NYS Core Curriculum.  Of course, the NYS Core Curriculum is open to all kinds of interpretation.  (See Education World’s National Standards for various standards, including a state by state access list.)

The NYS Education Department maintains a website outlining the core curriculum that is supposed to enable students to achieve the learning standards so that:

Schools and parents are encouraged to collaborate to ensure that all students graduate from high school ready for work, higher education, and citizenship.

It is then left to the local school districts to:

… develop curricula based on the NYS Learning Standards, select textbooks and instructional materials, develop pacing charts for learning (scope and sequence), and provide professional development to ensure that all students have access to instruction leading to attainment of these learning standards.

Within a school district, there is a certain amount of uniformity, but there is still room for interpretation and differentiation between individual schools and teachers.

Gaps In A Public School Education

As a result, a student may be challenged and stretched one year, and bored to death another.  When my daughter was in 2nd Grade, her teacher gave her the option of doing an independent research project, in addition to daily writing exercises.  Then, in 3rd Grade, her teacher assigned many creative projects, but few writing assignments.

That created a gap in writing development that was not fully addressed until she moved to a private school that puts communication skills at the center of its collaborative learning curriculum.

While my daughter’s learning gap in writing could be attributed to individual teachers, I’d argue that the gap in other areas – specifically History and Science – is directly attributable to the NY State learning standards.

I won’t embarrass myself by explaining what kinds of gaps exist in Science instruction since I have no clue.  When my daughter was in PS, my veteran California teacher friend was horrified at the lousy textbook being used for Science at our school.  Personally, I don’t know if it was good or bad, but it seemed a bit dumbed down relative to what she was learning outside of school.

Those Who Forget History Are Doomed To Repeat It

It was the coverage of Social Studies that bothered me.  Although the Overview of the Social Studies Core Curriculum is impressive, with its emphasis on an array of dimensions spanning intellectual skills to multiculturalism and multiple perspectives; the reality is that, even overlooking the impact of NCLB, Social Studies is given only the most cursory attention in the Elementary Grades.

By the time 6th Graders in our local public schools finally encounter Ancient History, it’s too little, too late.  They miss the chance to just enjoy learning about ancient civilizations, without the stress of Middle School grades.  Most regrettably, all of history -from Prehistoric beginnings through the Middle Ages – is covered in Chevy Chase Vacation fashion in 6th Grade, with a quick nod and a shove out the door. 

Coverage of American History in our public schools is better as it is touched upon in several grades, but it’s far from comprehensive. 

In 5th Grade, usually early in the school year, NY students are required to take the Social Studies Assessment.  They begin to prepare for this test in 4th Grade when students are introduced to American History within the context of New York State (the subject of NYS’s 4th Grade Social Studies Curriculum.)  Note, that this means that they are not introduced to facets of American History that didn’t take place in NY State.  The Spanish Mission History (or Gold Rush or Pioneer History) that is covered in depth in California barely gets mentioned, if it’s mentioned at all, in our local schools.

Testing History

Students enter 5th Grade in NY supposedly knowing enough about American History to do well on the assessment.  Then, they are introduced to the DBQs, in which they are asked to write an essay that incorporates their own knowledge of history as well as a collection of provided documents.  This tests their knowledge, analytical skills, and their ability to follow instructions.

Being the kind of mother that I am, I had my daughter take a practice test at home.  I wanted to see how she would do, and to help her with any test-taking skill work that she might need.  Over the years, I’ve found that it’s helpful to coach my daughter to have a game plan for attacking these assessment essays that includes: remembering to restate the question, following a time schedule, and making time for outlining.

We started out with the 2003 practice test, the first available online, but were a little shocked when we saw the DBQ essay question.  It asked students to “Describe how New Yorkers and others worked for women’s rights.”

I couldn’t recall Kayla ever learning anything about the suffragette movement, and she didn’t either.  When I went back and questioned the 4th Grade teachers, they said this had been covered with a skit that the students had done based on the life of Sojourner Truth.

Being hazy on historical details myself, I didn’t think much of this, until I went back and investigated.  As you probably already know, Sojourner Truth was an abolitionist and a women’s rights advocate who was born into slavery in New York in 1797.  I have to wonder how learning about a woman who died in 1883 would prepare students to know much about the equal rights movement in the US during the 1800s and early 1900’s.

How could anyone expect a child to know much about the suffragette movement from a Language Arts assignment that asked the student to read a short story about an abolitionist, and then respond with a group project skit?  The entire project was done in one week, mostly during the 45 minute daily Language Arts class, much of the time spent slowly reading the story aloud and then creating an original skit.

This is the kind of sketchy coverage of History that drove me nuts when my daughter was in public school!

My 21st Century Education Plan

Getting back to My 21st Century Education Plan, I tried to fill these gaps with a Classical Education Curriculum.  However, this posed its own set of benefits and drawbacks, one of which was that it doesn’t adequately address our changing world, and the needs of our future adults in this environment. 

My response can basically be described as throwing a bunch of stuff at a wall, and seeing what sticks.  Lots of trial, lots of error.  I’m reading or re-reading E.D. Hirsch on The Knowledge Deficit, but also Tony Wagner on The Global Achievement Gap.

At this point, I’ve synthesized a Go With the Flow approach to teaching my children, but it’s built on a foundation crafted out of the bricks provided by a lot of smart educators.

Stay tuned for more.

On Living By Learning 21st Century Education Plan

This article is the second in a series.  Please refer to the first, How Should We Educate 21st Century Students?, to see how this fits into my Big Plan.

Possibly Related On Living By Learning Articles:

Emerging Trends In Education – Transforming Education to reflect needs of 21st Century Student.

Is It Too Early To Start Thinking About College? – On forging an alternative path.

 Want more from On Living By Learning?

Follow me On Twitter or Facebook.

Sign up to receive free articles from On Living By Learning by Email. (Click this link. Fill out the form. Don’t forget to look for your Verification Email.)