I've said this to you, but I'll post it here too. I know this makes me an old skool reactionary, but with the current focus in the elementary school curriculum on higher-order thinking, and critical thinking this (as long as your version of critical thinking is like the teacher's manual's version), and anti-bullying that, and whatnot, I don't see how kids can possibly acquire mastery of their basic skills without some home-work.
Writing, for example, requires practice at the very early stages. It's very difficult to acquire the motor skills to write fluently and easily without sitting down and practising penstrokes. It's tedious and lacking in immediate rewards, but it's necessary. If you can't write easily and fluently, then you can't take notes, unless you give every child a computer, and teach them to type. Oh, and by the way, fluent typing also takes drill and practice. Reading fluently and capably gets easier the more you read. Some kids will indeed read everything they can, including the nutritional information on the cereal box; others need designated practice time and programs. But you can't skimp on the reading in the early learning years, or you're going to have a student who struggles with basic comprehension and is working on decoding when you want to be discussing symbolism and plot structure. They're not going to learn to spell or write capably unless they can read.
And while it's very trendy to teach applied problem solving and logical thinking in maths, it's difficult to, for example, make change quickly unless you can do basic sums in your head. Guess what? Some kids need to drill in order to acquire basic mastery of sums. And you can do certain things in order to make drill less tedious and demoralizing, and that's great; I certainly support that, but you still need to put the time in.
Not every kid needs to put the same amount of time into the same things. Some kids learn to read relatively easily, others struggle. Some kids learn math pretty quickly, others spend a lot of time drawing 5 baskets with 5 apples in each basket to get 25; do this enough times and eventually the kid remembers that 5 fives are 25.
A lot of us don't remember doing all this foundational work, because we did it when we were really, really little. I remember doing it for math, at which I sucked, but not for reading, to which I took like a duck to water.
I remember doing in-class handwriting drill: endless pages of penstroke practice (in pencil), and letter shape practice; I had to do it at home if I didn't finish in class. I am assured that there's no time in most classrooms today for this kind of drill. And you know what? Kids are not teaching themselves handwriting. Reluctant readers do not teach themselves to read. Budding mathphobes do not teach themselves to make change or halve the quantities in a recipe. I am closely associated with a seven year old who would spend all day every day playing Lego and looking at pictures in books if he were permitted to do so, and would never learn to read.
I don't think it's his teachers' faults, entirely. I do think the school system isn't quite giving him, or other kids, what they need. I definitely think a more flexible curriculum, a more kid-focused curriculum, and smaller classes would do him a lot of good.
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Date: 2010-11-20 10:39 pm (UTC)Writing, for example, requires practice at the very early stages. It's very difficult to acquire the motor skills to write fluently and easily without sitting down and practising penstrokes. It's tedious and lacking in immediate rewards, but it's necessary. If you can't write easily and fluently, then you can't take notes, unless you give every child a computer, and teach them to type. Oh, and by the way, fluent typing also takes drill and practice. Reading fluently and capably gets easier the more you read. Some kids will indeed read everything they can, including the nutritional information on the cereal box; others need designated practice time and programs. But you can't skimp on the reading in the early learning years, or you're going to have a student who struggles with basic comprehension and is working on decoding when you want to be discussing symbolism and plot structure. They're not going to learn to spell or write capably unless they can read.
And while it's very trendy to teach applied problem solving and logical thinking in maths, it's difficult to, for example, make change quickly unless you can do basic sums in your head. Guess what? Some kids need to drill in order to acquire basic mastery of sums. And you can do certain things in order to make drill less tedious and demoralizing, and that's great; I certainly support that, but you still need to put the time in.
Not every kid needs to put the same amount of time into the same things. Some kids learn to read relatively easily, others struggle. Some kids learn math pretty quickly, others spend a lot of time drawing 5 baskets with 5 apples in each basket to get 25; do this enough times and eventually the kid remembers that 5 fives are 25.
A lot of us don't remember doing all this foundational work, because we did it when we were really, really little. I remember doing it for math, at which I sucked, but not for reading, to which I took like a duck to water.
I remember doing in-class handwriting drill: endless pages of penstroke practice (in pencil), and letter shape practice; I had to do it at home if I didn't finish in class. I am assured that there's no time in most classrooms today for this kind of drill. And you know what? Kids are not teaching themselves handwriting. Reluctant readers do not teach themselves to read. Budding mathphobes do not teach themselves to make change or halve the quantities in a recipe. I am closely associated with a seven year old who would spend all day every day playing Lego and looking at pictures in books if he were permitted to do so, and would never learn to read.
I don't think it's his teachers' faults, entirely. I do think the school system isn't quite giving him, or other kids, what they need. I definitely think a more flexible curriculum, a more kid-focused curriculum, and smaller classes would do him a lot of good.