Teacher Disagreement?

Question

My son is in the third grade in Texas. He attends a public school. His grades are good, the last report card, they were straight B's and behavior is not a problem. However, his teacher is not listening to me. He is starting to struggle with math, I think I know what the problem is. He attended a private school last year, and already did the work last year this public school is currently working on. My son just hurries to get the work done. He tells me he is bored with repeating the same work. The teacher says my answer is a cop out. I've had a conference with the principal, she is just as bad, if not worse. What am I to do. I had to transfer from the private school because tuition became too high. How do you challenge a bored child? Grades and behavior was never a problem last year, either. This is the Carroll School District in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. If anyone has any experience with how to deal with this, let me know. I don't know what else to do.

Answer 1

Carroll ISD? For the love of your child , move to Plano ISD

You need to keep after the principle about moving him to a gifted program. Don't give up - squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Answer 2

You're probably right about the reason your son is having a problem. But the teacher has a somewhat valid point about its being a cop out, too.

This could be a valuable learning op for your son, because he's going to find himself bored with assigned tasks at times for the rest of his working life, and he'll still need to produce the work.

Instead of butting heads with the teacher (who doesn't sound all that flexible), encourage your son to prove he knows the work by doing it carefully, and help him plan good stuff to do when he's finished, as a reward for working through the boredom. Best case: the teacher will come to realize that he really DOES know the work, and will either enlist him to help struggling classmates or assign him more challenging work. Less-than-best case: he'll learn that sometimes you just have to suck it up and do it.

Answer 3

well this is a tough one, i know what your son is going through, i am a teen that has just transfered to a public school into a publich hs, the thing is i had the choice to take AP classes. but one thing u can do is challenge him at home, and if he is having problems it can also mean that he is having problems with friends and all. Also ask the teacher if your son can take 4th grade math instead of 3rd grade math, i understand what you mean about the tuition and all, so you cant really do much unless u send em back to the other school, or just wait till next year when he might feel a bit more challenged.Sorry i cant help much.

Answer 4

You should jump on this as quickly as possible! Your son will soon realize why he is bored with math and may start to slow himself down.
I went through the same thing when I was young, I was constantly in trouble at school and the teachers insisted I had ADD, but it was only because I was bored in class. My mother tried telling them that but they did not listen either, even though I made straight A's.
YOU must challenge your son, begin teaching him the next level of math on your own time, when he moves so far ahead of the other students then your teachers will come to realize what is going on. He will most likely be bumped to the next grade.
The solution for me as a child was placement in a extra-curricular math course.

Answer 5

The upside is that next year your child will (hopefully) have a different teacher. If you have respectfully spoken with the teacher and principal and have gotten nowhere you may need to try to find a private tutor to give your child some extra challenges. It's not easy to keep children at different levels motivated in all subjects throughout their school career. I'm not sure why your child is struggling though if he has already mastered the material from a previous year. It would explain the boredom, but not the struggling. I would investigate that more thoroughly.

Good luck.

Answer 6

Third grade is a huge transition in early childhood education. He will (for one) begin working on more complex math skills. If you're noticing some struggle, why is that not reflected in his grades? PS you said he gets B's, A's are better so he is not bored with having to repeat the same material). His teacher/principal would have informed you if there were any acedemic problems. I think you are worrying for no real apparent reason. They are the professionals in the educational field, please put more trust in them. I think it's wonderful that you care about your son so much! And wish more cared the same way. Remember, every individual has their strengths and weaknesses. Some are good in math/science, others in English/Language Arts. His talent may not be math. Help him with his homework, he'll be doing multiplication in 3rd grade, and he'll be fine!! good luck to you and to him!!

Answer 7

I think you should persist with the teachers, unless it is feasible to get him into a different school, but hopefully it shouldn't come to that.
If your son is bright then this shouldn't hold him back too much. Perhaps you could even talk to him? Explain that if he rushes the work he might make mistakes, and the teachers will think he is struggling. But you know that he can do i really well, and if he is careful and shows them how well he can work, they'll see that too. Make it something for him to acomplish.

Good luck :)

Answer 8

I am an 8th grader and I have the same situation your son has. I don't have a problem with doing the work again but I have a deal going with my parents. If I get straight A's, or close, 30$,B's or close 25$, and so on. You might encourage your son with something like this if he does his work well and gets good grades on it.

It helps me.

Answer 9

The teacher is right if the kid is getting the problems wrong then to say its because he is bored - it is a cop out. If he can do the math then he needs to prove had can do it. Tell him that if he learned this already its his chance to show then not only that he knows it, but that he is above it. Getting B's aren't enough - tell him then he should be getting A's.

Good Luck!!!

Answer 10

Since both the teacher and the principal are being blockheads about the situation, and considering your son's age, see if you can convince him that "the rules" say he has to do the math he gets in school, even it it's a repeat, but that if he does it carefully, you will reward him with some challenging math at home. Then check to see that he's keeping up his end of the bargain, and find some extra-curricular math stuff for him to do at home - at his own pace, with your encouragement.