The Legislative Session begins in Concord next week as legislators start hearing testimony on legislation that has been submitted.
There are several Bills addressing Common Core, privacy and assessments.
Below is a letter sent to the Senate Education Committee by a Pittsfield parent notifying them about the damage that is being done to her children through the Common Core math.
At what point will Governor Hassan step in and stop the madness? When will legislators listen to parents and do something?
This is what happens when you let the federal government continue to dictate what has to happen in our local schools.
…with permission to post:
Dear Senator,
I was asked to attend on Tuesday, but I have no way into Concord. I hope this email makes the same Impression I could in person.
I live in Pittsfield and I am the mother of an amazing 10 year old boy. Nicholas is in 4th grade and is extremely bright, he has always grasped new concepts and learns quickly.
This past year I have seen my eager to learn little boy struggle of the constantly changing math. Some days he sits and cries , slaps himself in the head and calls himself stupid or idiot while doing homework.
There are so many issues and I will try and pick out a few. Like breaking down Multiplication. I will try and keep the examples simple. 124X6= Now to simply write 744 would be marked wrong. Now it is 120X6= 720 4X6= 24 720+24= 744. The issue is some of the problems were longer and he would get confused, miss a step and then get marked wrong. In fact he got most of the paper wrong. He gets word problems that can have different answers but still be correct, but gets marked wrong if it wasn’t the one they were looking for. Any math that involves estimating. Writing to explain. There is a good one. If the answer isn’t worded the way they want he gets marked wrong. Maybe sometimes 6 X 4= is just 24.
Last Night his homework was divide by subtracting several times. I thought Oh that’s easy. 16/4= 16-4 = 12 12-4= . Nicholas stopped me and proceeds to show me this complicated equation. He lost me halfway through it. After an hour he still was not done. I took the paper away and told him to turn it in the way it was.
I am so concerned about how they are teaching and that they are constantly changing how they teach the math. It makes him feel stupid. He sees his classmates struggling and told me one child started to
cry during class over the math. I do not know what the math is trying to accomplish other than divide children from their parents because we cannot understand the “New Math” or are they deliberately trying to confuse them? Education cannot be a one sized fits all concept. It will not work. The math is often Cognitively and developmentally inappropriate. They are trying to force kids into concepts and skills they are not ready for. I will not stand by and watch my child loose confidence in himself. I will not stand by and watch as people try and destroy the love for learning I instilled in my child from the time he was born. I cannot watch it happen to an entire generation.
Now I was informed by the superintendent that Pittsfield has not adopted the CCSS, Yet this is clearly the same math being used across the state and the country. The Papers say Common Core On it.
What kind of a world are we handing our children when we teach them 2+2+5? It’s high time we stop this in it’s tracks before we hear that clock begin striking 13.
Thank You,
Dawn Mistler, Pittsfield, NH