#BlackMastodon only:
The debate about whether parents should or should not spend time educating their kids after school, or if that's the school's job, has strong opinions all around.
I don't judge any opinions on the spectrum, because I know that those that feel like "it's the school's job" say so more out of the reality of time constraints of surviving US racism as an underpaid Black person, and I know that Black parents are *more* likely to help their kids with homework.
And... 2 Sigma🤷🏿♂️
Bloom's 2 Sigma Problem shows that school doesn't really work for creating academic excellence.🤷🏿♂️
Because an average student that gets individualized mastery level teaching, performs two standard deviations above their peers.🤯
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_2_sigma_problem
Go to a school with 1000 kids. Find two identical twins, with identical mediocre performance, at 50th percentile. 1050 SAT scores. Now take one twin, give her individualized mastery level instruction. She will now be 98th percentile, 1550 SAT.
A lot of what people call "Better schools" are just schools that get closer to that individualized, mastery level tutoring. 🤷🏿♂️
* Smaller class sizes
* Teachers that actually care
* Not restricted by a state level curriculum
* Ability to explain concepts in the way that resonates with the student.
Show me a college kid that got straight As in a difficult major, and I'll show you someone that went to office hours, attended study groups, did research with a prof, etc. Shrinking that class size.
If you can afford a private tutor to walk around with your kid 24/7 like a prince, go for it! Do that! Must be nice! 👍🏿
If you can afford a school with class sizes of 15 kids vs 50 kids, do that! Some private schools have a teacher to student ratio of 1 to 4. Not a typo. 8 kids in a class, 2 teachers. If you can afford it, do it!
If you can afford a tutor a few hours a week, do it!
But if you can't afford any of that, I recommend doing a few hours yourself. 1 hr a day. I know time is short.
@mekkaokereke
Many parents have short educational histories and discount their own ability to help their children with school. This is usually a mistake, at least as far as elementary school. If a parent is capable of keeping a child alive, they probably engage in math multiple times daily. Explaining how they carry out their calculations, out loud to their children, and inviting them to participate is a helpful strategy.
@Osteopenia_Powers @mekkaokereke I feel ya, but there's a big gap between knowing how to do something and being able to effectively tutor someone through it. Also, poverty looks a lot of different ways. You're absolutely right that some poor people have sharp math skills that they use to survive. But it's also true that others rely on other supports for survival. One of the hardest parts of teaching a high poverty population is that it's impossible to generalize the challenges.
@acjay @mekkaokereke
My point is not to add more shame, but to replace some of it with pride. Because so many parents I conferenced with expressed shame at their brief educations, and teachers know that parents actually have a wealth of strengths that they can use to help their kids.
@acjay @mekkaokereke
Thx, and I agree. You and I both know that some parents surviving poverty can raise children who thrive in school, and others don't. I don't know what you taught, but as an elementary T, I was continually impressed by the budgetary genius of my students' parents. If you pull up to the gas pumps with $20 in your pocket, and gas is $4.599 a gallon, you're likely to do some rounding and x in your head. Even more at the grocery store. Those problems bedeviled my students.