This year, as part of the 2nd grade curriculum, my kid has had to do monthly book reports. I have no problem with this. He is a good reader and through this program he has discovered books he’s thoroughly enjoyed that he might not have otherwise.
My problem is that along with the reading and summarizing, there is always a ridiculously elaborate project required to be completed as a major part of the grade. When instructions for these projects are sent home, they tell parents to actively participate in the creation and construction of said projects and/or to help out as much as necessary. Also, spelling and grammar in the written summaries count and it is left up to the parents to ensure all book reports are grammatically correct or the students’ grades are penalized.
Last I checked I am not in 2nd grade, but these projects, both in the way they’re expected to be completed and in the way they’re graded, directly require and reflect parental participation. If I cut my kid loose and just provide guidance on what to do and how to complete his assignment he would get poor grades on it. There is no way he can do all the work on these projects himself and get satisfactory grades. It’s simply not possible for a 2nd grader.
I’m of the opinion that these projects are assigned just to see how active parents are in overseeing kids’ schoolwork and to judge how much parents care about their kids’ success in school. Obviously, the parents who don’t assist enough will be exposed through the quality of the book projects. It can then be extrapolated (rightly or wrongly) that those parents don’t necessarily care about their kids’ successes in school.
The question that arises from my opinion is just what does the school plan to do with (generally subjective) data regarding parental participation in assisting student projects?
There’s something not kosher about all this but I can’t put my finger on exactly what’s not.
I’ll tell you what it is. AUTHORITY FIGURES are asking kids to do things that are NOT DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE for their ages. You would think that if they have all of these credentials in early childhood development, they would not do this.
But it’s not up to them. It’s up to the bureaucracy that is public education, and the rule says kids have to do more faster. Nobody cares if it’s an uphill sled ride against NATURE. We as parents have no one to appeal to that this is wrong. We’re all just stuck.
This crap has been going on for awhile now. When my now college age daughter was in fourth grade, the kids were required to build a replica of one of the California Missions. There was no way in hell a nine or ten year old could have satisfactorily completed this friggin project on their own. (When I was in fourth grade, our teacher let us go to town with sugar cubes, straw, and brown paint)
What you described is exactly what happens, the kids whose parents care end up with great projects, and the kids whose parent’s either don’t care, or don’t have the time to waste a few hours after work, or the money to blow $22.50 at the Hobby Store for miniature farm animals and little bitty peons, end up getting a big, fat F. And for people with more than one child, you can double or triple the irritation and expense.
Same thing goes on here in WI in our schools, and through the years (my oldest is in 7th grade now) I’ve had to remind my children’s teachers that I’ll assist my child if they are struggling, but I’m not happy when they send home assignments that REQUIRE a ton of my input. Every now and then I send a friendly reminder note (or email) to the teacher, along with the completed assignment. I usually get an apology in return. I think teacher’s sometimes forget that just because they enjoying teaching, not all of the parents do. To play fair though, I also let the teacher’s know when I am pleased with their teaching styles and abilities. You have to have a balance.
Obviously in re-reading what I just wrote, I wouldn’t even be a good teacher because I said “teacher’s” (twice) with an ’s when I shouldn’t have. (Give me a detention!!)
Wow cheese, this is crazy. I am in total agree ance with your analysis. This would not have worked for me at that age because my mother worked nights. She was gone when I got home from school and I pretty much only saw her on the weekends and you can bet for damn sure she wasn’t gonna spend that time doing my homework assignments.
I’d also like to know what the kid is learning from having their parents do the work and they are just sitting there watching?
Oh and Leslie baby, I have an email coming your way, hang tight a little longer!!!
this kind of stuff has been going on for years. When I was a kid, we had the ridiculous “science fair” project and the “mission project” (in california, you study the missions and build a reproduction of one) in elementary school and it was obvious to me as a kid, who got excessive help from their parents on those projects. They look like they were done by adults.
Current educational studies have presented the going theory, that for young elementary school kids, homework does not increase learning. Whether it is true or not, my jury is out, but I have to say that they might have a good point.
Still they give homework out all the time, even for kindergarteners, in most schools. I guess it’s some kind of way to get parents interested in their kids homework. And the kids who will have the best homework, are the ones who’d parents give a darn. It’s too bad that the kids get graded on the desire, effort and available time of the parents.