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sabotabbyBoingBoing discussion on a new documentary called Race to Nowhere. The movie looks interesting—certainly something that I'd like to see. The discussion on BB is interesting. As always, the libertarians, homeschoolers*, and union-bashers are out in full-force, but so are a number of high school teachers and geeky types. (Oddly, the two posts from high school students seem to roughly concur with what the teachers are saying.)
My favourite comment so far is bigmike7 at #15, who says some sensible things, including:
I did far too much homework in elementary school, where the focus was rote memorization, and I recall being stressed out from an early age. I did a substantial amount of homework in high school as well, both because I had to but also because I was genuinely interested in what I was learning. I bitched and moaned about it, because I was a teenager, but I won't say that staying up until 2 am hand-painting Victorian floral wallpaper with watercolours taught me nothing, despite being repetitive, torturous, and technologically pointless**. Self-discipline is an undervalued skill in modern education.
My subject area is not conducive to homework, much to the joy of my students. I tell them at the beginning of class that if they are reasonably disciplined, they can get away with little to none. There is no legal way for the vast majority of them to afford the software we use in class, so the amount of homework I can assign is limited. It's essentially studying for tests (which few of them do; it's standard practice in many classrooms to allow five minutes of study time before a test) and planning work (which few of them do). A student who is focused can obtain a reasonably high mark in my class without doing homework. A student who is not focused will need to do homework–amazingly, they tend to not figure out that they can't slack off for all 75 minutes of the class, hand something crappy in at the last minute, and then expect a decent grade. A student who is actually serious will choose to do homework.
In other subject areas, I think homework is necessary. Math is a no-brainer, but there's also English. I compare the number of books we read in my high school English classes to the number of books my kids read, and the difference is staggering. Short of the university-level English classes, kids read maybe one novel a semester. We read at home and discussed in class. In a semester system (and even in a non-semester system), there's not enough time to read multiple books and analyze them.
It may very well be that today's students have too much unnecessary homework, and they definitely have too much make-work (which is different than drilling and rote-learning, by the way). But I've seen the result of the other extreme too, and it's no less useless.
Boyhowdy at #33 says the same thing:
* I am not 100% against homeschooling, but damned if homeschooling parents don't make incredibly difficult not to be.
** Even in the 90s, you could have just scanned it and used Photoshop. But that wasn't the point.
My favourite comment so far is bigmike7 at #15, who says some sensible things, including:
[...] not everybody should be expected to conform to one way of learning. The older system most of us grew up with assumes a student is highly motivated and wants to learn. Students that either don't try or aren't bright were expected to fall by the wayside. The current system is basically the same, but overlaid with the idea that every student is intelligent and if the student is failing then it's the teacher's fault. I say it's the same in that it's still a program everyone is expected to go through.
[...]
The people in my school that are fanatical over "Schools of the Future" are the same ones that two years ago told me my students were too loud as they were working on their math problems together. Now they're preaching to me about collaboration. Schools of the Future people are extremely rigid and do not want to hear anything besides testimonials about the miracles of students' making powerpoint presentations. They are the teachers that were failing at teaching their students. Assigning no homework and no tests lets them off the hook.
I did far too much homework in elementary school, where the focus was rote memorization, and I recall being stressed out from an early age. I did a substantial amount of homework in high school as well, both because I had to but also because I was genuinely interested in what I was learning. I bitched and moaned about it, because I was a teenager, but I won't say that staying up until 2 am hand-painting Victorian floral wallpaper with watercolours taught me nothing, despite being repetitive, torturous, and technologically pointless**. Self-discipline is an undervalued skill in modern education.
My subject area is not conducive to homework, much to the joy of my students. I tell them at the beginning of class that if they are reasonably disciplined, they can get away with little to none. There is no legal way for the vast majority of them to afford the software we use in class, so the amount of homework I can assign is limited. It's essentially studying for tests (which few of them do; it's standard practice in many classrooms to allow five minutes of study time before a test) and planning work (which few of them do). A student who is focused can obtain a reasonably high mark in my class without doing homework. A student who is not focused will need to do homework–amazingly, they tend to not figure out that they can't slack off for all 75 minutes of the class, hand something crappy in at the last minute, and then expect a decent grade. A student who is actually serious will choose to do homework.
In other subject areas, I think homework is necessary. Math is a no-brainer, but there's also English. I compare the number of books we read in my high school English classes to the number of books my kids read, and the difference is staggering. Short of the university-level English classes, kids read maybe one novel a semester. We read at home and discussed in class. In a semester system (and even in a non-semester system), there's not enough time to read multiple books and analyze them.
It may very well be that today's students have too much unnecessary homework, and they definitely have too much make-work (which is different than drilling and rote-learning, by the way). But I've seen the result of the other extreme too, and it's no less useless.
Boyhowdy at #33 says the same thing:
I teach in an inner city school where there is a comprehensive culture of "nobody does homework here" that I have concluded, after three years of pushing every which way, is a truly immovable force. The result: students read less, because they do not read at home, and have to spend classtime READING BOOKS OUT LOUD; students often arrive in ninth grade functionally illiterate as a result, and the average four-year graduation rate is far under 30%. Even in my media and communications class - where homework can be "watch the evening news, and watch for x, so we can discuss it in class", or "have someone tell you a good joke, and then come tell us about it and the experience of hearing/telling it", only gets done by about a quarter of the kids.
* I am not 100% against homeschooling, but damned if homeschooling parents don't make incredibly difficult not to be.
** Even in the 90s, you could have just scanned it and used Photoshop. But that wasn't the point.
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no subject
Date: 2010-11-20 05:59 pm (UTC)at my primary school (5-10 years old) we had very few lessons - just handwriting and then maths in the last year - and no homework. My friends and I used to get extremely bored and beg for homework. We joined the astronomy and birdwatching clubs so we could learn something. Then at secondary school for the first two years I was so shy and scared that i did my homework studiously, then when I realized I could get high marks without bothering I stopped doing it. I only worked for Russian, because it was hard and I had to and I wanted to learn it, and English because I loved reading and writing anyway.
I suppose it differs from person to person greatly, but I agree about reading. Most people do need to be set reading to do for homework or will not read much at all, and reading the books in class takes up way too much time. Going on theatre trips probably helps a great deal. My little brother's school only got him to read one play by Shakespeare throughout his whole time there, whilst at my school we read two a year and went to see plays regularly.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-20 06:40 pm (UTC)I was one of those kids who didn't function particularly well in a standard classroom environment. I went to Montessori as a very small child, and as a result, I had very strong reading and writing skills, but a hard time with sitting in rows or putting my book down when I was told to do so. High school was an improvement over elementary school, in that many teachers were understanding of this (my favourite English teacher allowed us to work anywhere in the school when there wasn't a lesson or class discussion), but the end result is that I goofed off in class and worked better at home.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-20 07:12 pm (UTC)A Shakespeare per semester sounds like loads. Way more than people in England get - I don't think they have to read even one now in state schools.
Montessori sound good. My little brother had trouble at primary school when he was five as he just didn't get why he was expected to be quiet. He was so friendly and so excited at having so many people to talk to that he chatted away all the time and ended up getting a really hard time from teachers who called him "disruptive" when he was just trying to be sociable!
I have a friend who is a Steiner teacher in Germany, where Steiner schools are state-funded. Here they are fee-paying only. They sound nice if a bit hippie drippy. My friend had to play the guitar and make papier mache models for her training to teach English at secondary level.
Aaargh. schools. Ugh. I go between extremes of wanting everyone to be forced to be well educated and wanting no such things as schools because they are compulsory and I don't believe in forcing people to do things. I am contradictory in my head, and luckily I have no say in such matters. I do believe it important to allow home education and choice of schools. But then here the Tories have weird "free school" plans which sound elitist and not good.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-20 07:49 pm (UTC)It was more like a Shakespeare play per year, because we typically had English one semester and not the other. (I took extra English classes in my last two years, but this was by choice.)
I really liked Montessori. I was privileged to go, even if it was for a short time, and think that it's probably the biggest factor in me learning anything at all as a kid. But I'd like to see much of what makes Montessori successful for kids whose families can afford it applied in the public school system.
Public, compulsory education is vital. We're just doing it wrong.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-21 04:52 pm (UTC)Despite my life since school having been full of deaths and misery, I would never, ever want to go through anything like that again. I just wanted to die every day for years. I still feel exhausted just thinking of it.
So I just can't see compulsory school as a good thing!
Even if all teachers were nice to children instead of making hurtful personal comments and making them do stupid and humiliating things, there would be the problem of other children usually being pretty unpleasant. Children are not usually very nice when they are in big groups. I think being forced to be with lots of stupid and unpleasant people was the worst thing about school. And my school only took people of "average intelligence and above," had very little bullying, and was considered extremely lax on rules for a private school.
I suppose, to be fair, a lot of it was due to me being a weirdo and extremely shy and not having any interest in pop music (it was the eighties - eeurgh)! And in having an unhappy home life so I was withdrawn and miserable.
I think smaller groups for classes and more choice in subjects would make a big difference. I love the sound of the school (Summerhill?) where the children set the rules together at the beginning of each year, and lessons are not compulsory.
I like the idea of home ed - if I had children I'd want to be able to give them that choice if they didn't like school. Last time this came up Zingarella explained to me exactly why home ed is not good and compulsory education for all a necessity, but I just can't help it - however reasonable that argument is, and it is, I just shudder with horror at the thought of anything compulsory and the memory of school!!!
I just have a problem with things being compulsory. And I feel so sorry for children, working such long days and not getting paid and having no choice in the matter!