Algebra Help Please

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My son is a freshman at our local Catholic high school. He is having a terrible time in algebra. He stays in every day at lunch to get help from his teacher. He turns in all homework but bombs all his tests! He does well in all his other subjects and his goal is to get into college.
With the high cost of tuition, sending him to a tutor such as Sylvan Learning center or Huntington is out of the question.
We are all math deficient in our family, so as parents we are no help.We have scheduled an appointment to see his counselor next week. But I would like to get advice/opinions from other families.

Thank you and God Bless
 
Good idea about meeting with the counselor…

In my opinion… if he’s attempting to get extra help from the teacher, and he’s NOT seeing improvements, then I would request a NEW TEACHER.

Coming from my own experience… a bad teacher can ruin a subject. A good one can open new doors!

When I was in middle school I had HORRIBLE math teachers. One even told me (no kidding), “you’ll just never be good at math” :eek:

Eventually in high school I was blessed with much better teachers… before graduating I got the highest score possible on the AP calculus exam, and then went on to major in engineering and minor in mathematics. 😃

GET A NEW TEACHER… most schools have multiple math teachers… I hope yours does too!

God bless and good luck… your son will be in my prayers… I COMPLETELY sympathize!
 
Haha this is so true.

I was convince I couldn’t “do” math. I pushed through algebra in HS and one college course of it. I had one more course of Math for my BS degree in Biology (at the time) and had a Calculus class.

Within one or two class times-

“By George I think she’s got it!!!”

I went from having no clue in math, to aceing Calc, and moving on to Econometrics.

New teacher. Or ask the teacher to find a good student tutor. One of those classmates ought to be able to show some christian charity in helping a fellow student.

👍
 
Shiann said:
New teacher. Or ask the teacher to find a good student tutor. One of those classmates ought to be able to show some christian charity in helping a fellow student.

👍
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Or maybe an older student in a higher math class. I agree with Em_in_FL, though. A good teacher is so important. And it may not be that this teacher is “bad”. But something isn’t clicking with your DS and maybe someone else will be able to make it happen.

Good luck to your DS. 👍
 
You’ve gotten good advice from other posters.I think it would also be wise to watch what you say about family members and their math aptitude. If he goes into it thinking that mom and dad are terrible at the subject and he is too, what are his odds of success?
 
Does your school have a chapter of the National Honor Society? Those students are sometimes required to tutor students as part of their service hours. My daughter said she knows plenty of kids who are doing so poorly in math but do not use that service. Tell your son if that service is available, those kids would be thrilled to help him out. Sometimes a small push will get a person over that mountain.
I know another trick that helps a lot with math is to do all of the problems in the chapter, rather than just those assigned for homework. Tests are usually based on textbooks and the teacher might not cover everything in the chapter. I know at my daughters’ school they usually get all the odds or evens. If you son does all the problems, he can check his work with the teacher.
Just to let you know, I failed (literally failed as in had to repeat the subject the following year) algebra as a freshman in highschool. It was a combination of being overwhelmed by this new type of math and the teacher not getting through to me. I went on to get A grades the rest of highschool in all the math subjects, and made it through Statistics 1 and 2, Pre Calc, Calculus 1 and 2 in College. Have to admit, I did get a B in Calc 2, but that was HARD!
 
AbbyLane said:
My son is a freshman at our local Catholic high school. He is having a terrible time in algebra. He stays in every day at lunch to get help from his teacher. He turns in all homework but bombs all his tests! He does well in all his other subjects and his goal is to get into college.
With the high cost of tuition, sending him to a tutor such as Sylvan Learning center or Huntington is out of the question.
We are all math deficient in our family, so as parents we are no help.We have scheduled an appointment to see his counselor next week. But I would like to get advice/opinions from other families.

Thank you and God Bless
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Algebra is tough for a lot of kids because up until now most math has been about getting an answer to a problem. But algebra is different. It’s about the method. (But you still get graded on the answers. 🤷)

You’ve gotten some advice for how to get help. I’ll just suggest that maybe your son needs to rethink what he’s trying to learn. I don’t know if schools still teach diagramming sentences in the sixth grade but algebra is too math kind of what diagramming sentences is the English language.

The point is not to solve algebra problems but to learn the*** rules ***for solving any kind of math problem. Unfortunately not all teachers understand this and they fail to emphasize the rules (and the reasons for the rules) and let kids think that it’s the answers that matter.
 
“GET A BABY BOOK”

I’m not being insulting, this is what my favorite professor at university told me and I have stuck to this maxim my whole life. Right now I am learning Biology out of a 10th grade book but guess what- now I know enough to start reading college books.

Really, go onto amazon.com and search for “math help”. Look at the reviews. Find a book that will help people who think they are not good at math.

I came from a “non-science” family and my whole life I thought I could never do math or science. Well, I got a good teacher one day and I ended up getting a B+ in algebra and differential equations.
 
Talk to the counselor and see what they say. Your child could be late in developing the abstract reasoning skills essential for Algebra. There could be a learning disability. If he can do it in class but not on tests, there may be test anxiety.

Talk to the teacher too and see what he/she says regarding p(name removed by moderator)ointing the exact nature of the problem. If the teacher is working with him every day surely he/she can articulate the root of the problem.

While it may be the teacher, it may be that your son isn’t ready for algebra yet.
 
A very belated thank you to everyone for their replies. The ugly flu got me and I have not been able to pick my head up till today.

I deeply appreciate everyone’s wonderful advice, prayers and support. I am looking forward to meeting with our son’s counselor now more than ever.

Chovy, you made a very good point. We are guilty of talking about our own struggles with math with our kids. Especially guilty of saying people are either good in math or good in english not both!
This was first told to us by our oldest son’s counselor. OUR BAD!!! Thanks for pointing that out.

Thank you again to all for your wonderful replies.

God Bless.
 
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