Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Bad News for NYC Tutors
The publishers of the controversial TERC math program, used for years in NYC's District 2, are revamping the curriculum to include... stuff that actually looks like math. (Via Insideschools.org.)
The realization on the part of parents that the TERC curriculum, while very strong in math concepts, was severely lacking (fuzzy, they say) when it came time to teaching basic skills created a MASSIVE market for private tutoring after school among middle- and upper-class students. As usual, poor kids were left to fend for themselves (except in cases where teachers wisely blew off the curriculum and taught what they knew kids needed anyway.)
Oh and that whole goofy thing about TERC shunning textbooks? It's gone the way of the abacus.
All of this sounds like good news for kids, parents, and teachers (who never seemed all that thrilled with the old TERC anyway.) Bad news for the private tutors who made a killing off teaching Manhattan kids how to do long division and such.
The realization on the part of parents that the TERC curriculum, while very strong in math concepts, was severely lacking (fuzzy, they say) when it came time to teaching basic skills created a MASSIVE market for private tutoring after school among middle- and upper-class students. As usual, poor kids were left to fend for themselves (except in cases where teachers wisely blew off the curriculum and taught what they knew kids needed anyway.)
Oh and that whole goofy thing about TERC shunning textbooks? It's gone the way of the abacus.
All of this sounds like good news for kids, parents, and teachers (who never seemed all that thrilled with the old TERC anyway.) Bad news for the private tutors who made a killing off teaching Manhattan kids how to do long division and such.
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