Tales From Public School 2

Mindie is in Integrated Physics and Chemistry this year. The teacher is a former homeschool mom. I say this only because her daughter is in the class as well and this is a very bright, well-educated girl who is in several classes with the grade ahead of them so I don't question the teacher's ability to teach in general. I do, however, question her ability to teach in a public school setting. She claims to spend an average of 20 hours per weekend on teaching work but if she is, it's not on prepping for this class. The basic format of the class the past five weeks has been "Here's the book about stuff. Here's the photocopied packet from the textbook publisher for this chapter of the book. Read and answer the questions."

Mindie is thoroughly confused, has no clue about anything she's read, and is incapable of doing the packet of questions. I spent 2 and a half hours yesterday reading the chapter myself and attempting to help her with some of the homework. We made it through most of one page except for the two questions for which we could find no answer in the book. Ben's been working with her for an hour and a half today, using not only the book but the internet, video lectures from Khan Academy, and an old college chem textbook. They still can't answer the two questions we skipped yesterday but they have completed another page. Just two pages to go.