In which I begin to learn that high school has changed – not always for the better

Last updated on: March 1, 2015 at 10:20 pm by Jane the Actuary

In which I begin to learn that high school has changed – not always for the better 2015-03-01T22:20:34-06:00 Jane the Actuary

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I’d mentioned periodically that my oldest son has started high school, though I can’t remember if I’ve griped, in this forum, about the fact that the freshmen class has iPads and the teachers are going overboard with using them, to the point that all class readings, and homework assignments, and pretty much everything, is found via an app on the iPad. As we speak, he’s struggling through an assignment where he seems to need to flip back and forth between the reading, the questions, and his own work answering those questions, instead of being able to have all these materials in front of him at the same time.

And it looks like we’re going to have a problem with biology, one of the two classes we had dared to place him in the honors-level class. Our first issue — and we’ll have have to talk to the teacher about this — is that the teacher thinks that, since she has said that she’s available for questions off-hours, that it’s equally OK for her to send out homework assignments after class has met, due the next class — so he got an e-mail Saturday at noon with an assignment due tomorrow. Highly unprofessional!

What’s more, so far, the instruction has been very vague: “think like a scientist!” with questions that he can’t make heads or tails of. If you give him an assignment to read about the parts of a cell and answer questions on the content of that chapter, he’d do fine. But if this continues, if even biology is about verbal/writing skills, he’s doomed.

Perhaps I’m too ready to jump to conclusions, having read a while back a book asserting that this new emphasis on verbal/writing skills, even in math and science subjects, is what’s causing boys to fall behind. But I’m worried. The stakes are a lot higher these next four years. We know he’s not going to be getting financial aid/scholarships, and, instead, we’re going to be the ones subsidizing the other kids, and I’m not particulaly keen on paying the tuition bill if we’re not going to (that is, he’s not going to) get our money’s worth. (The fact that financial columnists talk about the “net price” of college as if it’s something parents have any control over is another one of my pet peeves.)

Uncategorized

education

high school

Previous Post

September 6, 2014

Question of the day

Next Post

September 8, 2014 A new CDC report: crying wolf?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Actuarial/Retirement Issues Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not ____ but have eternal life.

Select your answer to see how you score.

Suffer Fail Perish Fall