Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Fourth Grade Learning



Here are a few multiple-choice questions from my child’s Unit 1 Test.  She’s in fourth grade.

How does globalization affect the economy? 
Why are many regions of the United States economically interdependent?

Which of the following is a factor that affects climate? 
       A)   Natural resources
       B)   Humidity
       C)   State boundaries
       D)   Elevation
My FOURTH grader chose option B.  It was marked wrong.  Yes, I took issue and emailed the teacher. 
 
Why is it important for citizens of the U.S. to understand their rights and responsibilities? This required writing a few sentences to correctly answer.

Is it me (and her mother) or are these concepts a bit advanced for a fourth grader?  I’m not sure my kid knows what a “right” is just yet.

Even more frustrating are the science lessons.  These meaningless activiteis distract from real learning (reading, writing, and arithmetic) and attempt to orient kids into politically-correct thinking.  Now I have to spend time unlearning my kid, but any time spent with my child is good.  So maybe it's a blessing in disguise.

 

2 comments:

  1. And this is happening in Korea? I guess it's an American-style school though, right?

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  2. Yep. It's 100% American. It's a Dept of Defense school located on base. (We put our kids in public schools for various reasons, and they enjoy going to school, surprisingly)

    I think high standards are great, but when they are combined with old, traditional, one-size-fits-all-learning style the outcome isn't always that great.

    Some good ole competition is sorely needed in k-12 education.

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