On the surface, it seems like an innocent question, but it is rife with condescention and pity. I’ve heard the question enough to understand what they’re really saying is, “I can’t believe that a dad is out with children by himself.” After I assure them that my wife is healthy and alive, they smile and give me a backhanded compliment.

“You’re a good dad.”

Really? Are the expectations for dads so low that showing up in public with your kids, makes you Dad of the Year?

I know that many dads have experienced similar scenarios. While we try to be polite and respond respectfully, having strangers question our parenting abilities can be annoying.

The next time you observe a dad out with his children, please exercise some restraint and avoid saying the following five things:

1. “Do you know what you’re doing?”

Despite what some TV commercials will have you believe, dads are competent parents who are perfectly capable of handling their parental duties without their wives’ supervision.

Once when my daughter was an infant, I had to change her on a park bench because there were no restrooms around and my car was too far away. I carefully covered the bench with the changing pad and placed a few cloths underneath to make it a little more comfortable for my daughter. Within a couple of minutes, I heard a voice behind me. “Excuse me sir,” she said. “Have you changed a diaper before?” Earlier, I noticed her sitting with a group of moms. I guess she was nominated to check on the poor, pathetic dad. “Um, yes,” I said. “I can handle it.” She refused to leave and proceeded to give me a few diaper changing tips. That wasn’t the first time that someone questioned my ability to care for my daughter nor was it the last. 

It’s okay to offer assistance, but do it out of genuine concern, not because you think the dad is incompetent.

2. “Does your wife approve of that?”

Dads and moms do things differently. Neither way is better than the other. But people seem to believe that dads are placing their kids in danger if they don’t get their wives approval before making the most basic parenting decisions. 

I recall one occasion when I took my daughter to the park and I was pushing her on the swing. I pushed her higher and higher until she started to squeal with glee. A woman, who was pushing here daughter on the next swing, asked “Is your wife okay with that? Because I would freak out if I knew my husband was being so rough with my daughter. I don’t think I’d let him take her out again.” I was stunned. I politely told her that I don’t need my wife’s permission to play with my daughter. She rolled her eyes and left me alone.

3. “How do you like being Mr. Mom?”

I hate the term “Mr. Mom” and I wish it would vanish from our lexicon. When a man cares for children, he isn’t attempting to be their mom. He is fulfilling his role as a parent. Even if he stays at home while his wife works, he is still the father. Dads are just as important as moms in the lives of our children. We are equal parents and should be treated as such.

4. “I see you’re on babysitting duty.”

I can’t even count the times that people have called me a babysitter. If I’m alone with the kids for more than 30 minutes, I suddenly become the babysitter. Not once, has anyone ever called my wife a babysitter while they were in her care. Dads don’t babysit. Like moms, we are parents who care for, nurture, and raise our children. 

5. “Don’t you miss your life without kids?”

While there are a few guys who long for their bachelor days, most dads cherish their roles as fathers and wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. In fact, many guys would be offended by this question because being a dad is so important to them. Life with kids is richer and more fulfilling than their previous lives.

By Frederick Goodall

Source: Yahoo! Canada Shine On - http://goo.gl/IYzwk

Redditor Oremor explains that his child came home from preschool and explained the superhero play ban, telling his dad that “make believe” was no longer allowed at preschool because of the inherent dangers of being playful and adorable.

The original text of the make believe ban read:

“Recently it has come to our attention that the imaginations of our preschool children are becoming dangerously overactive causing injuries within our pre-k community. Although we encourage creative thinking and imaginary play, we do not promote out [sic] children hurting one another.”

The note continued:

“Wrestling, Super Hero play, and Monster games will not be permitted here at [redacted school name]. In addition, please monitor the different media that your children may view. The re-enactment of televisions shows/movies are being done during active paly [sic] times in school.

Oremor posted the flyer to the r/philly subreddit, where Geekosystem rapidly picked up because there is no way to piss geeks off more than telling them they can’t be Batman. The additional factor of copious errors on the superhero play ban note was just icing on the outrage cake.

A Geekosystem writer talked about his post, to which Oremar replied in part:

“My son and I have always utilized superheroes as role models. We often talk on ways problems could have been solved rather than utilizing violence. (I have a masters in restorative practices, so believe me, I am not making this up. It’s sort of a game we play at home. “How could this have been solved peacefully?) However, sometimes, when the bully is too big, we find little recourse left but to meet force with force. It is this constant dialogue of ours regarding superheroes that has allowed us to address concepts such as right and wrong, good and bad, justice and injustice.”

Indeed, it seems contextualizing media (and not banning superhero play) is a fine strategy for dealing with life’s beasties, and the approach is correct — plus, banning imaginative play seems a losing battle.

The angry dad adds:

“You can therefore well imagine my anger when my son showed me the flyer with superheroes crossed out. I was livid! It was akin to a religious person (which we are not) finding their deity of choice called into question and ridiculed … This is nothing more than a bully who has her own issues with superheroes and is trying to force her views down the throat of others. Luckily i have my own superhero to turn to. THANK YOU REDDIT!”

The school involved has not commented on the superhero play ban (nor the atrocious spelling), but the internet is already beginning to take exception to this silly rule.

Do you think superhero play and other imaginative make believe is a healthy outlet for four-year-olds, or is the preschool correct in saying there is danger?

Source: The Inquisitr - http://goo.gl/7oDKE

Your baby’s name is one of the greatest gifts (or biggest problems) you can give him or her. Names have been found to influence all aspects of our life, from relationships to job prospects.

So choosing a name that is unique and special but still stands them in good stead for the future is essential. And with celebrities setting trends for naming children after everything from fruit to album titles, here are some essential considerations before you sign that birth certificate.

Traditional

At the beginning of the last century, the vast majority of parents chose names from around 200 established monikers. Most families had a few well-used names that travelled through generations.

But in the 21st century, that seems rather quaint and there are far more names in circulation, with parents keen to mark their child out as an individual. After all, picking a name in the top 10 for your child’s year will no doubt lead to 20 Olivias running towards you when you call their name in the playground.

That said, there are benefits to traditional names, such as William, David, Mary, Ruth and Helen. People generally know how they’re pronounced and spelt and there is some evidence that traditional names such as these are more attractive to employers.

With immigration and travel, we’re far more aware of names from other cultures and society is much more mixed and diverse. And there’s nothing wrong in borrowing traditional names from traditions that aren’t your own. 

But it’s certainly worth thinking about how this may affect perceptions of your child before they meet people and whether you want to use your name as a chance to highlight your own family background.

Wacky

This is the category celebs often fall into. The appeal of a truly unique name that won’t be shared by any of your child’s peers is an attractive prospect for parents. It may help your child to stand out or be remembered in important situations.

But go too far and your child could end up a laughing stock. Children really can be very cruel and if there’s a chance it could be misconstrued or ridiculed in the playground, it might be best to reconsider or be prepared to give your child the verbal ammunition to fight bullies. We wonder, for example, how Astala Geldof will get on at school when even his grandfather considers his name ‘girlie’.

On the whole, getting a good balance between the traditional and the wacky is probably the safest bet.

It’s also worth remembering that names go in and out of fashion, so look at your reasons for choosing your name and think about whether it’s something you will always love. In some ways, they’re a bit like tattoos – yes they can be removed or changed, but it’s a difficult process.

Meaning

It’s likely that at some point your child will want to know why you chose her particular name. It could simply be that you liked the sound of it, but if you’ve picked something a little bonkers, it’s good to have a story behind it that can help them adjust to any negative reactions they get. 

Shortened

Can your chosen name be shortened to anything silly that could get your little one teased. And on a lesser level, do you mind the shortened version? Names invariably get shortened whether you like it or not so make sure if you pick Margaret, you’re OK with Peggy, for example.

A name for life?

A name is for life, not just for nursery and if you can’t imagine your child introducing herself as an adult then rethink. Everyone, employers especially, makes snap judgements about your race, education, class and background from your name so imagine how it will sound in a job interview before saddling your child with a cute-as-a-baby title.

Does it work with your surname?

Another key decision is to match your child’s name to her surname. Make sure you see it written down and say it out loud to ensure it works both ways. Names that end in the first letter of your surname often don’t work, for example, and rhyming names can sound twee.

Should you canvas opinion?

Parents can be very secretive about their choice of names and for good reason. After all, we’ve all seen the episode of friends where Rachel ‘steals’ Monica’s baby name, Emma.

But there’s no harm in sharing your baby name shortlist and garnering opinions from family and good friends. They’re bound to be biased, but you can take comments under ‘advisory’ and it may help crystalise how you feel about a particular name or become aware of how the wider world will react to it.

Stop short at introducing your bump as any particular name, however, as you may find when your little one arrives, the name totally doesn’t suit his or her face.

By Kim Hookem-Smith

Source: Yahoo! Lifestyle UK - http://goo.gl/O5u7f

Transitional Kindergarten, a two-year kindergarten program that districts across the state of California have begun to implement in response to the passage of the Kindergarten Readiness Act of 2010, reminds Cole Canyon Elementary School teacher Alicia Jaime of the old days.

Jaime, who first worked in a classrom as a teachers aide in the early 1990s, says the emphasis on oral skills and developmental learning in Traditional Kindergarten makes for a more open — and frankly louder — environment in the classroom.

“So they talk a lot,” Jaime said. “You know, not every teacher likes their kids talking.”

The program started in the Murrieta district this year, and is getting off the ground in districts across the region and state. It is a two-year program that provides for students who are being caught up in the rolling back of the minimum age for kindergarten.

Before 2012, children who turned 5 on or before Dec. 2 were eligible to start kindergarten that fall. The Kindergarten Readiness Act rolled that date back to Nov. 1 last fall. It will be Oct. 1 this coming school year, and finally Sept. 1 in 2014.

Transitional Kindergarten is offered for those children whose birthdays are caught up in the roll back. In Jaime’s classroom, that is illustrated by the cluster of candles over the month of November on the birthday board.

Murrieta school district spokeswoman Karen Parris said the district initially planned to offer three transitional kindergarten classes this year. But the response from parents prompted administrators to expand the program to eight classes in five schools, Parris said.

Parris said students who would have been eligible for standard kindergarten are allowed to take part in the program.

Beyond providing an adjustment period for the youngest kindergartners, the standards and curriculum are designed to get students prepared for changes that are coming as the state adopts the national Common Core program.

“One of the differences with the TK program is there is a lot more emphasis on oral language skills, less reliance on worksheets,” Parris said.

And while the students were busy playing with Legos recently in Jaime’s class, they weren’t just trying to assemble imaginary light sabres and robots, they were linking together patterns of colors at the teacher’s direction.

“There is an academic component, but it’s all through the developmental approach,” Jaime said.

Jaime said that all of these students will be back with her next year for the second year, or TK2.

“The old school was, they sit quietly and it’s all about the teacher,” Jaime said. “And now it’s not. Now we’re the facilitators, but we’re just part of the show. We’re all in the show now. They learn from each other too.”

By Tom Sheridan

Source: U-T San Diego - http://goo.gl/oqBY4

Reading about this new Get Britain Fertile campaign over breakfast really put me off my cornflakes.   

The basis of the campaign is a new YouGov poll showing that 70 per cent of women over 55 are opposed and uncomfortable with the idea of women having babies at 40. 

Beyond the obvious retort which would be, if I am not asking you to financially or emotionally support me, what difference does it make to you? There are quite a few other things that spring to mind. 

Amongst the reasons cited for this overwhelming disdain by older British women was the increasing likelihood of health issues for mother and child, and fears that the mother’s declining energy levels leave her ill-equipped to cope with the demands of young children. To this I say, rubbish. 

Another possible motivation I would argue, is far more sinister; pure and simple jealousy. After all, we are talking about a generation of women that for the most part gave up on their own aspirations and dreams to be chained to a stove and a man and the needs of a crying baby at the ripe old age of 21.  

Therefore, why should modern women get to have full and rich lives, years of freedom, successful careers, our own money, and still get to revel in the delights of motherhood?  

Our ability to enjoy both worlds highlights their limited choices.  

To me, it smacks of pure and simple resentment. 

Additionally I find the subtext of this new Get Britain Fertile campaign hugely condescending. Do you really think that with today’s media and a new study out by the NHS each week highlighting these issues, that women in their 30′s are unaware of their ticking biological clocks?

Believe me, any single woman who can read a newspaper knows that her time is limited.  Sending her into further spasms of panic about finding the right partner with which to conceive isn’t helping anyone. Least of all her.  

As a currently pregnant 40 year old, the idea that I waited around in order to intentionally be an older mum is beyond ridiculous.

Spokeswoman Zita West, a fertility expert who counts a number of celebrities among her former clients, including Cate Blanchett and Kate Winslet, told the Mail that the campaign is being launched in response to a growing number of fertility issues that are being seen across the country.

‘Britain delays motherhood longer than almost anywhere else globally and the average age of a first time mother has risen steadily over the past 20 years to thirty,’ she says. 

‘The campaign’s aim is to educate couples on how to prepare for conception and take care of their bodies with up to date practical information.’  

The key word there for me is couples. Erm, excuse me, but if every responsible and lovely 35 year old I know was able to find an equally responsible, happy to commit and caring man – we would not be in this situation.

Let me ask this same generation of over 55 women who look upon us older mums with scorn – exactly what kind of sons did you raise? Are they men who happily took on the responsibilities of marriage, commitment and fatherhood to a woman of their same age in their 20′s? Or did they delay it themselves until they were 45 or so, and then seek out a girl 15 years their junior?  

Maybe I’m biased. But I have heard the same refrain again and again from my single friends. Indeed, I can vividly recall being set up on a date at the age of 36 to a man my own age. He was perfectly respectable, but to be honest, nothing to write home about. However, after a lacklustre first date I was determined to go ahead with date umber two because I really wanted to give him a chance. Despite my lack of attraction, I didn’t want to rule anything out. To my surprise he emailed me after our date to tell me that he could no longer see me ‘because you are too old.’ 

We were the same age! 

However, he mentioned in his very pointed missive that he was looking for a woman ‘no older than 30, because I want children.’ 

Years later I heard from a mutual friend he is still single – now 41 and bald, and undoubtedly still seeking a hot 25 year old. Good luck to him. Chances are he may yet find one. 

In addition to societal pressures, much of this vilification seems to be coming from the NHS. Bear in mind, it’s more expensive to support an older mother and it undoubtedly would save the government money if we all had our babies in our 20′s.  

And who exactly is funding all these studies about the dangers of being an older mum? 

This new study declares that the UK delays motherhood longer than any other country in the world – with the number of British women in their forties having babies increasing steadily in the last five years, rising by more than 15 per cent -  the biggest rise in any age group, according to NHS statistics.

A better question to ask, I would argue is just why is that?

Is it because we are brigade of selfish, career-obsessed women who are too fussy in our choice of partners and too focused on our own freedoms to adequately address our declining fertile years?

Indeed, I will admit that there may be a few of us like that. But I’d say it’s a very small percentage. There are also those special women who are fortunate enough to find that the love of their life is not afraid of commitment and happy to settle down and have children with them in their 20′s and early 30′s. 

However, when will Britain get it into their head that the vast majority of older mums are not in this category by choice? We waited until we could financially support a child, as well as making sure we had a supportive and appropriate partner. Why is that so offensive?  

To be honest, this decision seems far preferable to me than the path of a woman who has a baby simply because it’s easier than trying to figure out a career for herself, or gets pregnant to hold on to a boyfriend or husband who seems likely and ready to leave her. Both of which are far more common occurrences in my opinion than the selfish career girl who intentionally leaves motherhood off her list until it’s nearly too late. 

For the women out there who read this latest study and were disheartened – let me say this. Don’t let the haters get you down. Live your life, Find love where you can, and Do what you have to do if motherhood is important to you. Don’t let anyone judge your choices, because simply put,  they clearly haven’t walked a mile in your shoes. 

As a first time mum-to-be over 35, Ashley Pearson writes about fertility issues, the ups and downs of pregnancy and ultimately the joys and stress of motherhood for the career girl who may have come a bit late to the party, but is happy to be here just the same.

By Ashley Pearson

Source: Daily Mail - http://goo.gl/ZAlZG

A website that aims to empower black parents to take control of their children’s education has been launched in response to decades of under-performance.

Parents of Black UK Children (PBUK) was founded by mother-of-four Phinnah Ikeji to function as a platform to share information and swap tips on boosting success in education among black students.

It followed a feature published in The Voice in January which asked why pupils of African and Caribbean descent were failing to meet the national average at GCSE.

Figures from 2011/12 revealed that only 54.6 per cent of all black children achieved five or more A-C grade GCSEs, including maths and English, compared to the 58.8 per cent benchmark.

A further analysis of these figures showed that African pupils performed noticeably better than their Caribbean counterparts, at 58 per cent and 49.8 per cent respectively.

“After reading the school debate and coming face-to-face with the results of the last five years, I got fired up,” said Ikeji, of Dagenham, Essex.

“We have got to come together and do something about closing the gaps. Quite frankly, it’s embarrassing.”

As well as her full-time job as a chartered accountant, Ikeji is now managing the organisation’s website and Facebook group.

Already the response has been positive. A feature posted on the introduction of the Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPAG) Test for Year 6 pupils received hundreds of views in only a few hours.

“All the information is in one place and that makes it easier for parents to keep up-to-date with what is happening,” she explained.

CHALLENGE

“Some parents don’t have a clue what’s going on. For example, do they know what set their child is in? If your child is in a lower set, your challenge should be to work with the school to get them into a higher set.

Ikeji stressed: “If parents are not concerned, the teachers may just leave them there and that’s it. And when they get to GCSE level they will be entered into exams where the highest grade they can get is a C.”

Importantly however, Ikeji said the success of the network depended on parents and carers getting involved.

“When parents hear from other parents, it is encouraging. We’re all in this together. If parents get on board and start motivating our children, they will do better. No child wants to be over-pushed, but they do respond to paying an interest in what they’re doing. Sometimes what happens is because this is the ‘western world’, parents think it’s ok to leave education to the teachers. Or because of work commitments, parents are genuinely tired. But it is critical to stay as involved as possible no matter how old their child is.”

GAP

The ultimate aim of PBUK is to narrow the gap between black children and top performing students.

Ikeji said: “I will be satisfied if we see an improvement in the annual GCSE results. I have a strong passion for children, especially our black children. I want to make a difference.”

By Elizabeth Pears

Source: The Voice Online - http://goo.gl/lrsxA

One of the key things Dara Hogan has learned over the last five years working with early years experts is not to judge a childcare facility by its appearance.

The neatness of a room, the standard of drawings on the wall or how well-behaved the children are don’t reveal much. Instead, he says, everything hinges on the quality of education and the programmes offered to children.

High quality early education, says Hogan – manager of Fledglings Early Years, a social franchise in early education based in Tallaght – can instil the kind of confidence, independence and self-esteem that helps children reach their potential.

“The children have a say in structuring their own learning through play. They plan what they’d like to do and our educators facilitate it,” Hogan says. “Sometimes you go into other services and see children all sitting very quietly around a table engaged in the same activity. That’s not necessarily a good thing.

“Quality is about encouraging and supporting children to develop at their own pace, and taking the time to observe and support them . . . I’m much more impressed when I see children actively playing and being curious about who’s just arrived into the room.”

Hugely popular

Quality preschool education lies at the heart of the Government decision to invest €175 million in providing a year’s free place for every four-year-old child in the country.

It has proven hugely popular: almost 95 per cent of parents have availed of it, with 68,000 children taking part each year.

In recent weeks, some Ministers – such as Frances Fitzgerald and Ruairí Quinn – have expressed support for the expansion of the scheme to include a second year.

On the face of it, it makes perfect sense. The benefits of early years education have been well documented over the past 40 years or so.

A major study in the US, for example, found that children from poorer backgrounds who benefited from HighScope – a form of high-quality childcare – were more likely to have higher earnings, stay in employment, have higher academic achievement and commit fewer crimes. Overall, it found that for every $1 invested in the programme, the overall return to society was some $16.

New research is helping to explain why. It indicates that a child’s brain is at its most sensitive during the first three years. A lack of stimulation, for example, can have lasting effects and affect cognitive capacity, as well as behavioural development. In short, quality early education can make children smarter and improve their quality of life.

Troubling indicators

But there are indicators which raise troubling questions over the quality of tuition in many services and whether the investment is as effective as many might like to think it is.

Unpublished inspection reports into the free preschool year reveal “significant weaknesses” in the quality of tuition. “It is of particular concern that the extent to which the programme of activities and its implementation supports the children’s development was effective in less than half of the settings observed,” states a report by a joint inspection team from the the Department of Education and the HSE.

By Carl O’Brien

Source: Irish Times - http://goo.gl/lq55z

The popular image of the modern, hands-on father might have to be scrapped. The idea that men are cutting back on work to help their partners with childcare is a myth, according to a provocative new book that presents stark evidence illustrating the British male’s reluctance to step back from his job.

One parent came because he could barely help his daughter with her 8th-grade homework. Another because math frightened her. And another because algebraic equations were as foreign as Chinese symbols.

In the cafeteria of Fall Mountain Regional High School earlier this year, parents and business owners met to learn about new math standards their students face.

During a series of sample problems, one woman joked that it would take her all night to solve one of the questions, a reasoning problem for 5th-graders.

Everyone laughed with her.

But why is it funny? Since when is it OK to be bad at math?

Those at the Fall Mountain gathering aren’t alone. Somewhere along the road, it’s become socially acceptable for Americans to admit their lack of math skills, shrug and chuckle about it.

Meanwhile, there’s a shortage of job applicants with the math wits to fill openings in certain industries. In New Hampshire, a 2010 survey of manufacturers found that more than 40 percent of employers said job applicants lacked basic math skills.

The U.S. routinely ranks below other developed countries on international indexes of math skills.

And roughly one in five adults in the U.S. lacks the math competence expected of a middle-schooler, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That means they have trouble with tasks like doubling the measurements in recipes and calculating the savings on a 15 percent sale.

But perhaps the biggest challenge, teachers say, is that the way Americans view math can cause a self-fulfilling cycle for many students, where they don’t think they can achieve — and in many cases they don’t see the need to achieve — a deep mathematical understanding.

Experts say that’s a problem for which there’s no easy answer — but we should start by looking at ourselves.

Studies show that the number skills children develop at an early age follow a student through his or her education, and so even early experiences with math need to be positive ones.

Yet too few elementary school educators go into teaching for a love a math, said Beverly J. Ferrucci, mathematics professor at Keene State College. Some of those teachers may skip over a math lesson they’re not fond of, or spend an hour on reading while cramming math into a 30-minute lesson.

“They don’t see the beauty in math and so they can’t pass that on to their students,” she said.

When elementary teachers aren’t confident in their math skills, students pick up on that, Keene State sophomore Ryleigh Dimattei said. And then math becomes this scary, unapproachable thing. That’s the first part that needs to change if the goal is to get more students to like math, she said.

Dimattei just finished a geometry course Ferrucci teaches that aims to train math specialists for elementary schools, something that’s growing more common, Ferrucci said.

Teachers say whether kids enjoy math usually comes down to a pretty simple determination: If they can see how it relates to their world, they appreciate it, and if they’ve had success, then they like it.

Yet success in the subject is too narrowly defined by many teachers, parents and students, said Jesslyn Mullett, a math teacher at Marlborough School.

When all the emphasis is put on finding the right answer, messing up can be so intimidating for students that they’d rather not try to solve the problem at all, she said.

Instead, being good at math means being able to look at a situation, determine the problem, and come up with strategies to solve the problem based on what you have to work with.

If teachers and parents attributed students’ success to their hard work and attempts to find creative ways to solve problems, more students might feel successful, said Mullett, whose background is in psychology and statistics.

Just tweaking the language that we use around math can help change the way students look at and feel about the subject, she said.

Students’ attitudes toward math and their math achievement tend to reinforce each other, according to the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study, an international assessment of math skills in 4th- and 8th-graders. That means that students who feel good about math are the same students who tend to do well at the subject.

So Mullett starts off her classes by telling students that we’re all “math people.” We wouldn’t be able to function without an understanding of numbers, she said. We’d walk into walls, and we wouldn’t be able to make music, much less appreciate it.

“We’re all inherently mathematical because our minds inherently look for patterns,” she said. “Don’t tell me you’re not a math person because we all are. You just may not like math yet.”

Students in Mullett’s 7th-grade algebra class are learning how to balance and solve equations. She introduced the topic with physical items, Legos and building blocks, so students could actually see what a balanced equation looked like.

On Thursday, students broke into groups to use white boards and iPads to solve equations by using pictures and symbols.

They work at their own pace, and call over one of the teachers if they get stuck.

Mullett, Staci Willbarger, a paraprofessional, and Alex Gorokhov, a permanent substitute who co-teaches with Mullett, rotate among the groups, prompting the students to work through the problems step-by-step.

The hands-on activities help the teachers see exactly where the students struggle and where they have strengths, Mullett said.

She tries to give students things they can make meaning out of, math problems they can relate to their world. For example, the school is building garden beds, so math students have mapped out the landscaping using measuring and geometry skills.

The Common Core State Standards, a set of grade-level expectations adopted in New Hampshire and 44 other states, encourage more hands-on, project-based learning.

But by the time students reach high school, they are so conditioned to a more cut-and-dry mentality, where they only want to apply a memorized equation and calculate the answer, that there’s a lot of push-back from students on open-ended questions, said Bernadette M. Kuhn, a math teacher at Monadock Regional High School.

Most of the seven juniors and seniors in Kuhn’s algebra II class say they don’t dislike math, but they don’t think they’re good at it, either.

As teenagers, many students have spent years building up these walls and excuses for why they can’t do math. Eventually, that wall becomes more of a problem than their actual math skills, Kuhn said.

Senior Jared D. Stephenson said many students he knows don’t think they’ll need what they learn in math class when they graduate high school. So most of them, the 17-year-old included, only care about getting the grade they need to graduate.

But people eventually realize after they leave school that they need math for all kinds of jobs, said Virginia I. Herrick, manager of the Keene office of N.H. Employment Security.

Whether it’s working as a landscaper, a cashier or a machinist, basic math of some type shows up every day, and employers need new hires to be able to handle that, she said.

In New Hampshire, jobs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the so-called STEM fields, are expected to grow by 17.3 percent by 2020, compared with job growth of 10.4 percent for the state as a whole, according to an April report from the state’s Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau.

More locally, one of the biggest complaints in talking with manufacturing companies, which represent roughly 15 percent of the economy in Cheshire County, is weak math skills, said Susan B. Newcomer, workforce coordinator for the Greater Keene Chamber of Commerce.

In an effort to help combat that problem, some companies, such as Whelen Engineering in Charlestown, are starting to offer internships and to design curriculum for high school students.

Kuhn concedes that her students may not use exponential polynomials, the class’s current topic, when they leave high school. But as a math teacher, her goal is to help students build skills to logically think through a problem, she said.

Stephenson and his classmate, junior Wyatt A. Fabrinski, are skeptical, though. They don’t buy into the philosophy that math is more about learning effective strategies and reasoning than it is about finding the right answer.

“(Students) are in such a society now where if they don’t understand it immediately, they won’t give themselves the time to get it,” Kuhn said.

Ferrucci, the Keene State professor, lived in Singapore for two years during a sabbatical. The country consistently scores at the top of international math tests.

The U.S., on the other hand, ranked 11th in 4th-grade math achievement and ninth in 8th-grade math achievement in the 2011 Trends in Math and Sciences Study assessment.

People in Singapore look at math differently, Ferrucci said. They don’t allow their students to make excuses about why they can’t get it, and they see math as something everyone needs, something everyone can do.

That’s the message Keene State assistant professor Dick Jardine likes to send home with students in his applied mathematics, statistics and differential equations classes. Jardine, a runner, said he knows he could never run a marathon in two hours and 10 minutes, a nearly world-record pace. But if he trains, he knows he can finish one.

“It’s the same with math,” he said. “Everyone can do it at some level.”

Jardine thinks part of the solution to training a math-literate society is in improving the training available to aspiring math teachers. Students need teachers who are creative in their approach to tying math to real-world problems, and who don’t buy into the myth that some students are simply able to understand math, while others aren’t.

Winchester School District Superintendent James M. Lewis has another suggestion: Stop making excuses. Society is too forgiving in its math expectations, and that means adults and children alike are let off the hook too easily.

“Math can be difficult,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it.”

By Kaitlin Mulhere

Source: The Keene Sentinel - http://goo.gl/7RZGR