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Re:'Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco by bigbacaloa on Monday April 17, 2023 @03:06AM (#35597602)
Kids don't need "support at home from parents". Very few parents are competent to teach kids math properly (even those who think they are). Kids do better learning from someone else, better still if the someone else is a professional.

Tutoring rarely helps anyone learn as it almost always consists in heavily guided spoon-feeding. Also there are very few good tutors as those who are adequately trained in math to tutor it have much better employment alternatives (including teaching).

In 25 years teaching math in universities I've never seen a student who used a tutor and learned math at the same time. I don't teach my kids math and I don't help them with their homework. What kids need is teachers who know math.

Re:'Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco by WillAdams on Monday April 17, 2023 @09:17AM (#35600184)
>What kids need is teachers who know math.

I would add, "and how to teach it." to that.

My final "Advanced Math" course in high school was a young teacher just out of college who apparently knew math, but failed completely at teaching anything meaningful to anyone in the class --- this may have been the fault of the textbook being used, but the fact that the school board chose to replace Calculus with this class because they couldn't find a teacher competent to teach it, speaks volumes to my mind.

Re:'Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco by horns4lyfe on Monday April 17, 2023 @02:42PM (#35604762)
If the problem was kids showing up, trying hard, and not getting it then sure. But the problem is kids not showing up and putting no effort in when they do, and that’s on parents.