2002-09-03 - 9:49 p.m.
INTERFERING WITH EDUCATION
Life would be much easier if only I could convince myself that all this homework is worthwhile. Some of it is work worth doing but it gets so buried in the busywork that is intended to tell me that my school has high standards that I begin to believe that virtually none of the homework is worthwhile. If it�s not worthwhile, we sure are wasting hours and hours on it.
Perhaps part of my attitude problem comes from having children who read. If they were not spending hours and hours answering stupid questions in full sentences, they would be educating themselves with books. Kat loves reading Shakespearian plays. Last year�s English class did not read a single entire novel except for the extra credit project for which she elected to read Dante�s Inferno, all of it. Reading about the dangers of teenage parenthood and answering five questions on it takes her time because her coordination is poor and the physical act of writing (or typing) takes her longer than it should. By the time she�s done, there is time for a shower but not for bedtime reading.
Day-Hay also loves to read. Her taste in literature is not quite as high-brow as her sister�s taste but she reads solid books. She also has been teaching herself html. But filling in worksheets on power words is filling up her time and web design will have to wait, perhaps for days. She�s developed a fascination with geography but her map studies also will have to wait. Homework is more important. Sometimes it feels as though it is more important than learning.
I went to a very competitive high school. I took a lot of Advanced Placement classes and Advanced Placement exams. I had homework but most of it consisted of essays, reports, research, and other activities that require blocks of time not found within the classroom. Little of my children�s homework is of this type. They have more homework and less worthwhile homework than I did and I thought my motto needed to be, �Don�t let school interfere with your education.�
School has only been in session for one week and already I�m burning out. There is more tension and more conflicts. There is more pressure and less fun. There is more hassles and less family cohesion. Worse, I�m not convinced there is more learning going on.
I wish I knew how to buck the current homework frenzy. I feel like a salmon swimming upstream. No, I feel like a salmon swimming upstream only to encounter a high dam. I feel doomed.
And there�s a whole nine more months of this to go.
LAST YEAR: Philately in Unrequited Love
LAST FIVE ENTRIES:
The Discipline of Cleaning Ladies
Never Mind
I�ll Never Grow Up
Bear Mountain Perspective
Delicate Balance
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Copyright 2006 by Ellen |
