Reply #11: It's not always the teacher's fault. [View All]

[immoderate]

I agree with the Time Magazine article referenced in a post above.

When I was a classroom teacher, my supervisors insisted I give a lot of homework. Part of that was due to the fact that the parents wanted their kids to get a lot of homework.

It's much simpler to deal with than good teaching and measuring real progress.

As a teacher, I encouraged my students to find hobbies. Motivation is the key to learning, and something that students have a personal interest in motivates them to read and do research. At one start of the term parent-teacher meeting, I talked about this. One parent chimed in with, "That sounds like a good place for you to start." I shot back with, "As soon as the support checks start coming in."

I mostly taught math, and I did bring it up in class, but there wasn't much time for it as I had state exams to prep my kids for. I usually an assignment about how math is used in their hobbies. The laziest kids would challenge me.

"My hobby is fishing. That doesn't use math."
"Really? What kind of line do you use? How heavy are your sinkers?"
"How about skateboarding? That doesn't use math."
"Oh? What's a seven-twenty?"

I also had them do journals when I could fit it in. My biggest beef was the de-emphasis of art and shop classes. Building projects was where they got to apply what they had learned. That is the best motivation and reinforcement. Standardized exams is not a good substitute for real education.

--IMM