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The American public school system is a veritable penal colony proxy. My experience with math was much the same. As someone on the tail end of the Bell curve an

The American public school system is a veritable penal colony proxy. My experience with math was much the same. As someone on the tail end of the Bell curve and for whom such a monolithic system was a poor fit, I wasted over a dozen years of my life there, in unfortunately what were my most formative years. Luckily my siblings are correcting that with their children.

wccrawford 4y ago
I know someone who got their first B in band because that teacher didn't think that anyone should get all As. Nevermind how hard she worked, nobody was allowed to get all As if that teacher could help it. She cried, and I am still pissed about it to this day. What an awful person.
- boole1854 4y ago
  What a bizarre teaching philosophy.
  - macinjosh 4y ago
    I'd categorize more as a power trip than a teach philosophy, but I guess that is a kinder way of stating it :)
- inanutshellus 4y ago
  I spent a semester in a foreign country. The teacher gave me what would translate back as a "C" saying I'd done a great job. Turns out in order to get an A in "Absolute Beginner's Crash Course In [Language]" you had to be fluent. :-\
RHSeeger 4y ago
It depends entirely where you are. I have fond memories of Math in school; particularly in 6th and 10-12th grades. Teachers were interesting and extremely invested in making sure we enjoyed ourselves and the material. When we were bored, they switched things up to get us interested.
- jason-phillips 4y ago
  For most (~80%), it's a good fit. However, if you learn several orders of magnitude faster or slower than most, it's not. For example, if you're ready for university-level material when you're thirteen, then no amount of switching it up will serve the student well. To speak to your experience, I think it's fantastic that you had great teachers.
kodah 4y ago
Some more bits: It was actually a private school, but I don't doubt that during this time period similar things were happening in public school. The private school I went to was very big on standardized testing and what got me into the upper math course in the first place was my standardized testing score. My math scores, throughout my time at that school, declined after fourth grade because the "lower" class was roughly two years behind the upper class. This effect would leak into the sciences too because curriculum obviously was difficult to align at that point.

wccrawford 4y ago

I know someone who got their first B in band because that teacher didn't think that anyone should get all As. Nevermind how hard she worked, nobody was allowed to get all As if that teacher could help it. She cried, and I am still pissed about it to this day. What an awful person.

boole1854 4y ago
What a bizarre teaching philosophy.
- macinjosh 4y ago
  I'd categorize more as a power trip than a teach philosophy, but I guess that is a kinder way of stating it :)
inanutshellus 4y ago
I spent a semester in a foreign country. The teacher gave me what would translate back as a "C" saying I'd done a great job. Turns out in order to get an A in "Absolute Beginner's Crash Course In [Language]" you had to be fluent. :-\

RHSeeger 4y ago

It depends entirely where you are. I have fond memories of Math in school; particularly in 6th and 10-12th grades. Teachers were interesting and extremely invested in making sure we enjoyed ourselves and the material. When we were bored, they switched things up to get us interested.

jason-phillips 4y ago
For most (~80%), it's a good fit. However, if you learn several orders of magnitude faster or slower than most, it's not. For example, if you're ready for university-level material when you're thirteen, then no amount of switching it up will serve the student well. To speak to your experience, I think it's fantastic that you had great teachers.

kodah 4y ago

Some more bits: It was actually a private school, but I don't doubt that during this time period similar things were happening in public school. The private school I went to was very big on standardized testing and what got me into the upper math course in the first place was my standardized testing score. My math scores, throughout my time at that school, declined after fourth grade because the "lower" class was roughly two years behind the upper class. This effect would leak into the sciences too because curriculum obviously was difficult to align at that point.