Some Schools Are Leaving Recess Behind

[Pyrrho]

The problem with our school system is simple. Our children are not being taught. Period. Both of my boys homework is a joke, the younger one has hardly any. All his teachers do is send home stupid projects that my wife or I end up doing. I let him do one project by himself and he gets an D because it was not well made. WTH? he was 10. I also do not believe in this 3 months off for summer. BS, let them go to school for the entire year, with only holiday breaks and maybe two weeks off in the summer. My older son was friends with a German exchange student last year. After he graduated High-School here in the US, he still had 2 more years left in Germany. What does that tell you?

The solution, I tell you the solution. Teach our kids Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, quit sending stupid projects home for parents to do, give them homework out their little arses, make them go to school all year, and get rid of political correctness and disband the liberal teachers unions.

You are right that they are not being taught. However, people have been able to be taught with a summer break. Also, more bad schooling isn't going to help much, is it? I do agree that more emphasis needs to be placed on the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, particularly in the early years. But one of the problems is that many parents have taught their children nothing in the first few years of their lives, and when the children then go to school, the school could theoretically do a couple of different things. One, they could try to teach them from where they start, and do the best they can, or, two, teach as if the students had had decent parents who did teach their children when young as they should, and then a significant number of children will not have any idea what is going on, and fail. If they do this second choice, parents complain, and vote in a school board that will make sure it doesn't happen any more. So then they do the first option, even if they wanted to do the second. This means that the school is at a much lower level than it should be.

As for the specific projects that you mention, as I have no idea what they are, I cannot comment on their appropriateness. They could be good, bad, or indifferent. It may be that they are useless for all I know. However, you seem to be more concerned with your child's grade than with whether the child learns. So what if he gets a D on a particular project? Did he do as well as one would reasonably expect a 10 year old to do? If he did an average job, then he deserved a C. D is below average, but not so bad as to fail. You doing your child's projects is not going to help your child learn, is it? Don't you think he might get better at doing them if he actually started doing them? Sure, he may mess up a few, but have you never heard the saying, "practice makes perfect"? You might want to try helping him do it, particularly at first, as he is not used to doing them, but that is far different from doing them for him. Frankly, if you are going to do your child's homework, what is the point of the teachers giving any homework at all? And yet you say that they should give more homework!

Many years ago, most parents who had children who got bad grades blamed their children for not working hard enough. Now, they seem to mostly blame the teachers for not giving them a better grade. And "giving" is exactly the right word, as the concept of earning a grade appears to be missing from most people's thoughts.

 

[philh]

All his teachers do is send home stupid projects that my wife or I end up doing. I let him do one project by himself and he gets an D because it was not well made.

Don't do his project for him. Our girls have successfully completed several large projects, with our help. But, if they don't do it, we don't do it. They usually start getting serious about doing the project, when the TV, internet, computer, telephone, and friends are all cut off, AND we find other work around the house for them to do. My wife and I fight to see who the meanest parent in the world is, and right now I'm winning, LOL.

My oldest is famous for not asking for help, but what she is quickly learning, coming home with a D is not conducive for a pleasant household. She was flunking algebra because she didn't understand what the teacher was teaching. I can't judge the teacher's technique, but I can fault the oldest for failing to request help from either the teacher or us. Once I discovered she was having issues, it literally took a week and her grade showed tremendous improvement.

Homework is so important, and I wonder if your school district has given up sending homework home, because nobody ever does it anyway. Basically catering to the lowest denominator. I'm disturbed by our high school having at least 27% of the students flunking at least one class per semester. Especially disturbing because in all my oldest's classes, all she has to do is the homework and get a C+/B-.

 

[philh]

If someone isn't up to taking the time and trouble to raise children, they shouldn't have them.

Of course, there are some parents who do realize that their children's education is their responsibility. And guess what? Generally, their children do well, regardless of whether they attend public or private schools.

AMEN!

We fight an unusual problem in the area I live in. It's interesting that it's either low income or high middle class+. There's not much of a true middle class. The low income parents either have their own personal problems, or flat out don't care what happens to their kids. The higher income people feel they are paying the school babysitters to do the job. Tremendous amount of peer pressure to NOT succeed. Frustrates us to no end trying to fight the perception.

 

[Pyrrho]

As a parent, no one wants their child to get bad grades. Begging the teacher to cut some slack is definitely not the answer. Many good teachers hands are tied because of all the PC bull crap that goes on in schools today. Kids are the ultimate manipulators. The way I see it, they are manipulating the schools into not teaching them. Adults need to be just that, ADULTS. Stand up and put your foot down, or kids WILL walk all over you. If the kid comes home and the kid is whining that the teacher is hard on them, the first thing that should come to mind is what did the kid do to merit the treatment. The last thing a parent should worry about is what they can do to punish the teacher.

My six year old is almost finished with kindergarden. She is in a public school. She can read, write, and do basic math. She is well ahead of her classmates. I believe that most of that is due to the enviroment she has at home. We try to teach her every chance we get. Parents need to remember that they are teachers too.

Damn straight. Unfortunately, there are not more parents like you. Many parents' first thought is punishing the teacher if their whiny brat complains about a "hard" teacher, who is so "unreasonable" that he or she wants the students to work and learn. (Imagine a teacher wanting that! Obviously, such a teacher must be an evil ogre who deserves to be fired!) If the teacher wants to not be fired, they typically must bend to the pressures of so many parents. So, many of them give passing grades to students who deserve to fail, and are then advanced to the next grade, so they are then at a knowledge level behind where they should be for their grade, and the process repeats itself. So we often have crap for schools.

Still, if you put your foot down and make your child study at home, they can learn almost no matter how bad the school is. It is a question of taking one's parental duties seriously, which, unfortunately, many do not. Obviously, it isn't easy being a good parent. But if you don't want the work and responsibility, you should think about that before having any.

 

[Pyrrho]

AMEN!

We fight an unusual problem in the area I live in. It's interesting that it's either low income or high middle class+. There's not much of a true middle class. The low income parents either have their own personal problems, or flat out don't care what happens to their kids. The higher income people feel they are paying the school babysitters to do the job. Tremendous amount of peer pressure to NOT succeed. Frustrates us to no end trying to fight the perception.

Unfortunately, your problem is not unusual at all. That is exactly what is happening in many, many schools, and is why this is a nationwide problem. A significant number of parents all across the country, in every economic level, refuse to take their parental responsibilities seriously. Bad grades are almost invariably blamed on the teacher, not the lazy student who didn't work and deserved the bad grade, or the lazy parent who made no effort to get their child to try to learn.

And no doubt about it, being a good parent isn't easy. So if you are not up for it, get a vasectomy and don't have any.

 

[jeffsg4mac]

Don't do his project for him. Our girls have successfully completed several large projects, with our help. But, if they don't do it, we don't do it.

The issue I have is sending the project HOME in the first place. The project needs to be done in class and homework at home. If ALL the students do their projects in class then it is assured that ALL the students will be doing the their own projects. It's not fair to let a a 8 or 10 year old do a project and then fault him or her because it is not as well built as the other students whom you know darn well that they did not make the thing.

He was not faulted because it did not meet the requirements, he was faulted because he is just not artistic to make things like that to begin with. It happened to be a science project, a simple machine. He had all the requirements but because his looked like a 10 year old built it, he gets a D.. Leave the projects in class, and give them homework until their fingers bleed. US schools are just not giving out enough homework and seem to be project crazy. I have experienced this both in FL and in here in NH, with both boys.