One of the reasons my oldest child is having a hard time adapting to middle school, I believe, is getting used to the curriculum used at his school. You see, he has always been at the one of the district’s magnet schools where the standard curriculum is enriched with outside activities. Those supplementary activities explored the concepts taught above and beyond what was covered in the classroom text.
He is no longer at a magnet school, and is using the districts standard curriculum. Now I see the curriculum for what is really is; social engineering. Most of the tests, quizzes, and assignments are very subjective. There are many questions on how they feel and what their opinion is on certain subjects. While I assured him that his thoughts cannot be graded, I am really not too sure why questions like this are included.
I understand that these kind of subjective assignments should be (and are!) included in language writing assignments, but I feel they have no place in subjects like math, science or geography. Unfortunately, these subjective questions are included in these subjects.
And to top it off, the textbooks are lacking in basic facts – but that is another story for another time.
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Your child will be better off because of your efforts to at least question the indoctrination. But the other kids will not be learning any critical thinking. Instead, they will be rewarded with good grades if they can correctly memorize the attitudes and feelings espoused by their teachers. This is not an education.
I agree with you, but many will argue that these subjective questions included will "lead" to critical thinking skills. However, I am not too sure. Many of these questions have nothing to do with the subject, only to explore the students’ feelings and boost their self-esteem.
Many of the texts are also multi-disciplinary in nature, and normally, I would find that a good thing. Reinforcing a supplementary mathematical concept in science can be good, but when the science book is short on science facts, overloading the science book with numerous math or reading concepts only make the book more difficult to read and comprehend.
All the material is presented in an abbreviated and disjointed manner; it is why I am beginning to refer to as “short attention span education”. My son’s science book does not cover anything in depth; it only scratches the surface and then quickly moves to the next topic.
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