Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Convictions are nice - but they can also lead to overflowing plates, serious back-aches and other things similar. Oh, well - we all do the best we can, with what we think matters most. Thank you for your kind words.
On a related note...if someone could explain in more detail the specific difference between AP classes and Honors classes, as well as the criteria of admission into such classes in middle school and high-school - I would appreciate it.
In an AP (Advanced Placement) class, certain college-level standards are to be met. The students take an exam at the end, and if they do well enough, can get college credit. An AP class at School A may be more difficult than the same one at School B because of teaching style and assignments given, but the standards are supposedly the same and the test is the same.
An honors class is made up of students who have been successful in school and generally are wiling to work a bit harder than the average student. These are college-bound kids, but the class itself doesn't need to meet college standards. Honors classes at two different schools (or even two classes at the same school) can be very different, depending on the teachers and the abilities of the students.
When I was in school there was another option: "gifted," for students with high IQ's. These were available only for 9th-10th grade classes. After that, the "gifted" students ended up in AP or honors or regular classes, depending on how hard they wanted to work. (AP was only for 11th-12th in those days, at least in my district.) I don't know if any schools still have these.
AP students are typically high school juniors or seniors. Sometimes younger students enroll, but they must have fulfilled any pre-requisites first, indicating they have been on an accelerated academic schedule. These students are most commonly found in math and science courses.
In the case of Language Arts, the act of copying well-written, articulate text at the elementary school level (ideally from master writers) is a tremendous exercise in rigor, language acquisition, developing an ability to express yourself clearly and elegantly, etc.
I was talking about high school students. I do see some value in having students do some copying at the elementary school level. However, I stand by my statement that having 9th grade honors students copy questions that had already been printed out on paper is plain old stupid.
Quote:
Originally Posted by syracusa
Don't kid yourself you have it all "figured out".
I don't think I have everything figured out. But I still think it's stupid for high school students to be copying things verbatim from an already printed science lab. It is a waste of time and paper with nearly zero educational value for that age group. I do have that much figured out.
Convictions are nice - but they can also lead to overflowing plates, serious back-aches and other things similar. Oh, well - we all do the best we can, with what we think matters most. Thank you for your kind words.
On a related note...if someone could explain in more detail the specific difference between AP classes and Honors classes, as well as the criteria of admission into such classes in middle school and high-school - I would appreciate it.
Admissions vary by school. Nobody can tell you the one way it is always done. At my kids school you need a teacher recommendation to take an honors or AP class but other schools have other requirements.
AP classes are meant to be at a college level. Students take a standardized test at the end of AP classes. Depending on their scores some colleges may offer them college credit if they score highly enough on the exams. The exams are content based and differ from the type of standardized tests given by the states.
Honors classes are high school level classes that generally require a higher level of achievement than regular high school classes. There are frequently additional requirements to get honors credit compared to the regular level. The curriculum is usually deeper (not broader) in honors classes compared to regular classes.
Many schools weight honors and AP classes in order to compute class rank. For instance, in our school students get 4.0 for an A in a regular class, 5.0 for an A in a 6.0 for an A in an AP class (for ranking purposes only). Some schools use different weights but the majority of schools do weight GPAs for ranking purposes.
AP classes are meant to be the most rigorous classes in a school where there is no IB program. However, my experience is that some honors classes are more rigorous than AP classes. It all depends on the teacher. I don't know much about IB other than what I read on the internet.
However, I stand by my statement that having 9th grade honors students copy questions that had already been printed out on paper is plain old stupid.
Yes. That's plain ol' stupid - and it's exactly because it is the way you say it is - nobody has ever done something like that.
Go check what a Classical Curriculum for elementary school would look like. If you come back prepared to argue that this is a "stupid approach", then we can continue this.
If no, let's just say you misunderstood my post.
Admissions vary by school. Nobody can tell you the one way it is always done. At my kids school you need a teacher recommendation to take an honors or AP class but other schools have other requirements.
AP classes are meant to be at a college level. Students take a standardized test at the end of AP classes. Depending on their scores some colleges may offer them college credit if they score highly enough on the exams. The exams are content based and differ from the type of standardized tests given by the states.
Honors classes are high school level classes that generally require a higher level of achievement than regular high school classes. There are frequently additional requirements to get honors credit compared to the regular level. The curriculum is usually deeper (not broader) in honors classes compared to regular classes.
Many schools weight honors and AP classes in order to compute class rank. For instance, in our school students get 4.0 for an A in a regular class, 5.0 for an A in a 6.0 for an A in an AP class (for ranking purposes only). Some schools use different weights but the majority of schools do weight GPAs for ranking purposes.
AP classes are meant to be the most rigorous classes in a school where there is no IB program. However, my experience is that some honors classes are more rigorous than AP classes. It all depends on the teacher. I don't know much about IB other than what I read on the internet.
Yes. That's plain ol' stupid - and it's exactly because it is the way you say it is - nobody has ever done something like that.
It is my opinion that having 9th grade honors students copy questions that had already been printed out on paper is plain old stupid. My opinion is what it because it is mine. You don't have to agree.
Quote:
Originally Posted by syracusa
Go check what a Classical Curriculum for elementary school would look like. If you come back prepared to argue that this is a "stupid approach", then we can continue this.
If no, let's just say you misunderstood my post.
I was not talking about elementary school. I was talking about 9TH GRADE HONORS students. I have repeated that multiple times.
How much time do your elementary school children spend on academics work (including homework) at home, every day (on average) - AFTER SCHOOL?
Same question for middle school and high school.
It was decades ago for me. But from what I recall, I used to do about 1 hour of homework every night for elementary school. In middle school, it was 2 hours.
By high school, I was doing 5 hours of homework every night. I went to a private catholic school and took AP classes in biology, chemistry, history, physics and calculus 1, 2, 3. I felt I had to do that much homework to excel in those classes (I was never satisfied with anything less than straight-As. I felt I was shortchanging myself otherwise).
We live in North Carolina, and my school-aged kids are in third and first grades. They each receive a homework packet every Friday, and have to return it completed the following Friday. The work is broken down into four daily assignments (Mon-Thurs) but they are free to work at their own pace. Because we have extracurriculars on Monday-Wednesday, and I don't like to leave everything until the last minute, they usually do the bulk of it on the weekend.
They are both supposed to read for at least 20 minutes each day. The third grader reads considerably more than that, on her own, so I don't bother tracking, and we've never treated it like homework. My first grader also reads on her own, but she's not completely fluent yet, so I do insist she read aloud to me each night as well. Although I don't watch the clock when she does this, it probably averages 10-15 minutes a day.
Other than reading, I would say my third grader has maybe an hour's worth of work for the entire week. She zips through it quite quickly.
My first grader is required to answer some questions after each of her required 20 minute readings, plus some math, each of her four homework days. I would say it probably takes her 45 minutes for each of those four segments, so a total of 3 hours per week. That is including the required reading, though.
In addition to assigned school work, the third grader is reading a lot of nonfiction, so I guess you could say she is teaching herself social studies and science. She also takes a 2-hour robotics class on a weekly basis, where they build robots out of Lego-like materials and then program them to perform various tasks, on a computer. I enjoy Sudoku puzzles, and she works them with me.
During the summer and on breaks, I give her Sunshine Math worksheets, which are puzzle/logic type questions, kind of brainteasers of a sort. She attends a week-long science camp in the summer as well. She is constantly reading, or building things. I don't feel the need to give her too much structured academics, as she's curious on her own and seems to do well with self-motivation and exploration.
My first grader isn't quite as academically inclined. She does well in school but doesn't push for anything more than what she gets in school, at least not on a regular basis. We have the Brain Quest workbooks at home that she will occasionally pull out and work on them, but it's not something I require her to do, during the school year. During summer and school breaks, I will her do some, to keep her skills sharp.
Both of my kids are involved in several extracurriculars, and I like them to have time to run around with the neighborhood posse, so I don't want to overload with formal academics, if they aren't interested (like my younger daughter). I'll always make sure they are keeping up with grade level expectations, and will supplement according to interest and abilities, though.
This doesn't answer the original question, but if I wanted something extra for my kids I would consider enrolling them in Chinese School or Korean School.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Oh, well - we all do the best we can, with what we think matters most. Thank you for your kind words. 
