“My son’s teacher doesn’t give class notes or assign homework.”

“I have no idea what he’s learning.”

This was the mother of a grade 7 student (age 12), and she was voicing her displeasure that she had no way of supporting her son with the math taught at school. 

Backstory:
Parents voice their concern of ‘no class notes, no homework’ more than any other concern I have ever heard! And for some reason, this seems to be a common occurrence in the middle school years, age 12-13, grades 7-8*, just before they start high school.

It creates parents that feel left out of their child’s math education as they cannot help with strengthening weak areas because they don’t know what their child is weak in. It creates worries about the future. Why isn’t the teacher, Shouldn’t they, I can help my child if, I feel helpless  ...

For students, it creates a conundrum because they have no record of the math taught, and if they want to practice, they don’t know what to practice. And when test time arrives, there is nothing to go back and review or learn from.

The solution to the problem is obvious unless this isn’t really perceived as a ‘hamstringing the student’ problem.

*Does this ‘phenomenon’ occur in other schools, cities, provinces, states or countries around the world? I’m in Canada’s largest province, Ontario, and everything I write about in Math by Edison is transferable to any math class in any country except possibly this. I felt compelled to pass along this message as it hinders learning.

Message delivered by Edison