Terrific job by Lucy Mathiak

Lucy Mathiak deserves high praise for her performance in the discussion on the MMSD’s math curriculum. She pressed and pressed the superintendent to justify his recommendations.
A board member of any organization or corporation does not need to be an expert on a topic, but simply has to be certain that the head of the organization holds a firm grasp of the facts to support the direction of the organization.
We need more Lucy Mathiak’s on the board.

2 thoughts on “Terrific job by Lucy Mathiak”

  1. Hear! Hear! And also to Ruth Robarts for being so insistent that the requirement for teachers to be trained in CGI needs to be justified.
    Funny how Art Rainwater says we need to ‘stay the course’ with the math curriculum. I do appreciate how difficult it is for teachers to spend time learning how to deal with a curriculum and find the supplements they need to make up for its shortfalls, only to get the rug yanked out and be presented with something new. Some might rather stay with an inferior curriculum, rather than take a chance on another new one that might be just as bad. But I suppose he wasn’t thinking so much of them.
    If Art Rainwater is indeed, as he claims, someone to whom mathematics came very easily, he should be able to see at a glance how inappropriate the CMP is for students who actually like and excel at math.
    I know it is politically incorrect to give these students what they need, but it is a travesty to force them into CMP.
    Personal anecdote: My daughter is currently at a school that uses the Passport series for middle-school math. This is a traditional math book in rigor and presentation, but also full of the pictures and real life examples that educators love, and also an occasional nod to the ‘explain it in words’ crowd. It should be very acceptable to our educators, except, except,.. well, they don’t force kids to do their math as group projects. They get to work independently. Hurray!!! She has been able to skip ahead 2 grades, courtesy of wonderful public school teachers who supplemented Everyday Math heavily, and parents who drill in Singapore at home. When she was doing her math homework recently, I heard her murmuring to herself and got closer to hear what she was saying. It was, “I love my math. Oh, I just LOVE my math.” And she really does, for the first time. Finally, the right kind of curriculum for her brain structure. It’s wonderful to see. After all these years of her tortured anguish in math class.

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