Quote:
Originally Posted by Antlered Chamataka
I love the Cooum river 
Anyway, what do you think of your kids' education??
Is it even close to the education we used to get?? A guy who worked with me moved his wife and kids to India, blaming the second grade education they were getting. It was a private school and he was paying tons. He's also an IIT alumnus and he expects a lot LOL.
He was mad that 16 year olds are learning what 11 year olds learn in India. He lives alone now and his wife comes stays over for three or four months and the kids are permanently housed with the grandparents. He wants to move them back here after they finish middle and high school.
I am not sure if I can take such drastic measures but I sometimes worry about these schools. Your thoughts are most welcome  |
Oh - a loooong post - brace yourself
. Of course you asked for it
.
We didn't want to do the long distance family thing either
. Otherwise had no plans of leaving home except for vacations.Life is very good back home
. Have not had any bad experience here reg- schools. Have been lucky so far about my kids' education - they left good schools back home and joined some here
.
First about my preschooler - loves going to school and the set-up here is the closest possible to the preschool he went to back home. Similar teaching-style, student-teacher ratio, equipment and facilites. Am paying almost the same amount of fees, albeit for school on three days a week and 2 hours less per day. Next year he'll have school everyday (waiting for that!) - still 2 hours less.
He seems to have the gift of the gab and had started learning English a few months before we moved here, from hearing people speak it around him in India - intermittently at home and all the time at his preschool (he would speak to his teachers in his mother tongue). We haven't had anything to do with it, frankly. We (mainly my mom) would always speak to him in the mother tongue. The only difference since coming here is in his speech - he is getting a bit of an American accent, unlike his older brother in grade school, who could s/r/w English very well before moving here and hasn't seen the need to acquire it so far.
For my older one, I like to think our research on the schools has paid off
. He is in a good public school, where the system is strong and the teachers are involved.
He takes a couple of ELL sessions per week at school (during schooltime) - still don't agree that he needs it, but have gone along with it because he gets a bit of extra one-on-one time with the teacher to talk about how things are different in America. Now, the assessments have shown he is proficient and don't know how much longer he'll have them.
I do feel that after six months of schooling here, he is getting bored in the class. The system caters to the 'average' like any other public system anywhere and many kids have trouble with spelling and math. I spoke to his teacher and she gave him extra packets to work on. Its not much, but am glad that they are looking to challenge him. Many parents send their children to Abacus and Kumon classes for more math and reading. I do not think these are necessary. Am planning to use this opportunity to work with him on other activities like sports and Cub Scouts, since schoolwork is not difficult for him right now. Might as well have some fun
.
I see quite some 'labelling' of children here in early schooling - 'ADHD' being the most common of all. My neighbour's son is a case in point. Not sure why the system expects children to fall into the narrow 'normal' at such a young age
. IMHO some slack needs to be given to children till they come to a certain age - what that number needs to be can always be debated upon
. All I'll say is the threshold is too low right now.There is no need to jump upon and exercise strict control over every 'aberration' from the narrow 'normal'
. In early childhood, family and the community are equally important, if not more than school in the child's development. Many parents seem to expect the school to fulfill all these needs.A lot of resources in the schools are spent on these which is increasing the burden on the budgets I think.
Though I have no experience with life in the higher grades here including academics, I understand schoolwork will get more rigorous, with emphasis on projects. I also understand from parents with older children that peer pressure to do a lot of 'acceptable' things to blend in with the crowd will increase. Anyway, high school is a very tricky stage and I want them to finish their schooling back home. The kids can go to college wherever they want.
As to the standard of education, I think it reflects the expectation of the seekers from it. Didn't mean for it to sound quite so profound
. Though one might see variations in the intermediate stages, by the time the student reaches college, it all starts levelling off, I think. I used to hear about the difference in the 'levels' of various state boards back home. But have seen classmates from different states do well/not well based on their individual styles of learning and not because of their school syllabus.
Don't know about your school and learning experience, but I grew up in a family and community, where it is considered 'normal' to be good at academics. Do you identify with it
? My parents were sensible not to push us, but most of us did well on our own. Very few kids struggled. These usually stayed back a year and eventually passed.
The debate on education and budgets is raging across the US and what the strain of all this will be on the teachers and the system remains to be seen
. A safe way to guard against bad quality is to work towards raising the family in a 'good' (expensive?) town/neighbourhood. Chances of getting good teachers are then loaded in your favour
.
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