Meltdown Moment #2

Dear 8th Grade Math Teacher,

Is there a reason you feel the need to "bribe" your 8th students with promises of candy bars if they do their "extra credit" problems? 

We spend many years teaching our kids to eat healthy, take care of their teeth and to NOT take candy from strangers-and now this. 

You may not realize, but in many worlds, the "Extra Credit" equation goes like this: [extra work = extra grade points] - NOT [extra work = a candy bar].

Frankly, my child & several classmates were creeped out by your proposition to the class.

I know its not easy to teach teens, but you say repeatedly that you have been "in the business" for 20 years. I'd like to think that means you are a capable and knowledgeable teacher- and I'm sure your intentions are to help them love math as you do-but it is clear you are not well informed in regard to basic child/teen development.

Candy bribes may seem like a good idea, and may have worked when they were 4, but not at 14. Teens are not incentivised by a candy bar-they are insulted and de-motivated. They see through the bribe and understand that you are out of ideas. Pretty soon, the few that will actually take you up on the candy bar 'deal', will only do so to increase THEIR demands-and candy supply-fully expecting bigger/more candy bars to do any math at all. So-now they will have you where they want you and are still not doing any math. Where do you end it? The ones who don't take you up on your offer realize that in a few weeks they will go door to door and get all the candy bars they want. And no one-NO one- will make them do a single algebra problem to get them. Either way, candy bribes = Fail.

Teens are motivated by reachable challenges, honesty, collaboration, integrity and maybe even a little fun & creative planning. They like to know that they are not just learning stuff for a some standardized test they don't care about - or to justify and secure some state administrator's job. They are motivated & incentivised by knowing someone actually cares about their future, by understanding WHY the heck they are learning a particular thing-and how it is useful/beneficial to them in their world - NOT by "tricking them" with treats.

So, could you PLEASE just stick to being honest, respecting your student's time and intelligence & teaching them math - please?

Sincerely,

A Concerned Parent , 
Still SMH




The above post is one of my recent Facebook posts addressing a real situation at my daughter's school. This was not actually my main meltdown moment (more about that in another post) but this was the moment that I decided enough was enough & stopped 'venting' and started actively doing something about it.

It was one day after this above post that "Common Core Meltdown" was born.

What was YOUR meltdown moment? You final straw. Tell us about it in the comments below.