Not all kids are ready or even capable of all levels of math. It’s ok. There are more jobs that don’t use higher level math than do use them.
It’s not teaching anyone to “run away from a challenge” when they start to find their strengths and weaknesses. It’s teaching them to find their niche for their future lives. When they find what they are naturally good at and love, plus it helps them be self sufficient at a level they like, it’s a first place finish in the game of life.
Teaching kids to stick with something even when it’s not their strength more often leads to poor self esteem and depression than it does to success - even with tutors. I’m glad it worked out ok for your daughter, but that is one data point. It’s not the norm from my experience teaching math.
Again, not true at all.
A stats class is definitely helpful, but high school level is sufficient for the modern world.
Using computers and spreadsheets is pretty crucial now. A CS class going into coding is not. Any kid graduating from a modern high school tends to know how to use a computer well - often being able to teach senior citizens more about their technology - with no additional class required.
There’s a reason many top colleges don’t require a math class as long as the major being sought after doesn’t. Kids who got into the college have all the math they need. If the major needs it, they’ll still take classes. It’s hardly as if one is going to get an engineering degree with no math class or a social sciences degree without more training in stats.
Respectfully disagree with you there. Teaching kids to run away from something the moment it gets hard is the exact opposite of a confidence booster. Plus, life is full of difficult, hard tasks that one is “not naturally good at.”
I remember reading that the Obamas forced their daughters to play two sports — one that each girl picked out, and one that the First Lady picked out for them. The point was to encourage the girls to stick to tasks that may not come naturally to them and to teach them the value of sticking with difficult activities rather than just picking and choosing things that align perfectly with their strengths. It’s a philosophy I share myself.
The one exception is if your kid has a learning disorder or something similar.
Sports, for fun, is totally different than higher level math or any other high level subject.
At lower levels of anything, exposure is good. In high school I tell students that schools are there to be sure everyone gets exposed to everything from art to history to various sciences, etc. As they go along, they’ll discover what they like and are naturally talented at and what they aren’t. There’s a reason older kids start to diversify. Our world works best when everyone finds their niche.
No one has said scrap math or gym in the K-12 years.
Oh absolutely. I was recently talking to a friend of mine with a very STEM-y son. She was telling me how her son wanted to drop Spanish since he found the class very difficult. I told her the same thing I wrote above and also added that learning a language is an essential part of being a well-educated person.
And at least at DD’s college, most STEM majors are also required to take foreign language classes.
High school is too young to specialize. I think that’s really for the last two years of college. There’s a reason why many colleges have the first two years be mostly gen-eds.
Foreign language is actually more useful to most students than higher level math (> Alg 2). But foreign languages in the US are often started way too late for the brain. The brain picks up languages the best before puberty. Many students start languages in this country in 8th or 9th grade - right at or after puberty. It’s crazy. Start them in elementary school.
Once the brain has picked up an extra language, it’s easier to learn others too.
I wish we could align public school with real life studies of what works best, but schools are super slow to change anything.
Most colleges will know if the high school has an honors section or not. It’s part of their school profile which almost every admissions department references. To be clear, I’m not suggesting the student shouldn’t drop down or that it will be a problem for college, just clarifying that they will know what classes are available to students.
That’s due to the many kids who really aren’t sure what they want. There are several other colleges, including most (all?) foreign ones that only specialize in college, after having done so more than the US in high school.
More colleges also seem to be switching toward allowing specialization (fewer required courses - see how many in the Top 20 fit the bill, even more if one goes to Top 50) than away from it. I can’t think of a single one that has switched to requiring more.
You and I are more on the same track when it comes to thinking high school students should still diversify. We just disagree on whether students need honors level or higher math.
Would recommend the following for those who do not need math beyond algebra 2 or any specific computing course for future college study (mainly humanities and arts majors), and are not otherwise interested in the subjects:
High school AP statistics or college introductory statistics (which typically has a prerequisite of high school algebra 2).
High school AP CS principles or a college course like https://cs10.org .
One of my majors in college was French and until I went to live there for the year, as a college junior, I didn’t speak very well at all. And I had taken French for 7 years at that point. Foreign language education in this country is not very good in my view. It starts too late, and focuses on the written too much which is not as useful at gaining proficiency in speaking which is what most people find useful.
I agree with this. I am glad that my kids’ schools all had some kind of Spanish instruction starting in K. Often it was just once or twice a week, but it was enough to tune their ears to the accent. They have not stuck with it, but if they want to become fluent I think they could do it fairly easily. Spanish was always an easy class for them in high school, but they just thought it was kind of boring with all the conjugations and what not.
My kids do pick up languages pretty easily, but math is not their thing. My oldest was learning Vietnamese on Duolingo for fun (that one is never learning math for fun).