Many of the parents who signed the PQME petition last spring said in their comments that they were spending a lot of time at home trying to help their kids make up for deficiencies they saw as resulting from “Investigations”. I recently learned the name for this practice: “afterschooling”. It’s not homeschooling, and it’s not helping your kids with their homework, but rather supplementing what’s taught in school with lessons at home. Here’s a link to the the main parents’ web resource for afterschooling.
Mathematician and parent Barry Garelick wrote an essay on afterschooling his daughter, who was experiencing the “train wreck” of Everyday Math.
One of the things discussed at the last SCASD Board meeting was a survey of parents in the District. If they go through with the survey, I hope that questions on home math supplementing are included and whether this is a practice parents would do anyway or whether it is something they feel is required by SCASD’s use of “Investigations”.
