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Homework for parents

February 8, 2012 By 11 Comments

Parents are tasked with teaching measurement to their third graders by TERC’s Investigations, complains Katherine Beals of Out in Left Field. In high-scoring Singapore, she points out, third graders’ parents don’t get homework to do.

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In the comments, FedUpMom writes:

Oh man, if there’s one phrase I never want to hear again, it’s “parent involvement.” Involve me out!

Notice the confident assertion that “kids find these activities fun.”  Not my kids.

Cranberry objects to Everyday Math’s family activities, which tell parents to “spend chunks of valuable time on poorly planned make work.”

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The Onion: Brain-dead teen to be euthanized

February 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Brain-Dead Teen, Only Capable Of Rolling Eyes And Texting, To Be Euthanized, reports The Onion, in jest.

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Who will choose your child’s education?

January 29, 2012 By 41 Comments

In 1976, as a high school newspaper reporter, Robert Maranto asked retiring Baltimore County schools Superintendent Joshua Wheeler why students weren’t required to pass a proficiency test to graduate. ”The purpose of public education is not to educate students,” Wheeler answered. “The purpose of public education is to provide an education for those few who want it.”

Someone will choose your child’s education, so why not you?, writes Maranto, now an University of Arkansas education professor, in the Baltimore Sun.

In college, he asked an education professor how to become a social studies teacher.

He explained that I would need 12 education classes but only four in the social sciences. I had no need to understand the subject I taught, since “the curriculum people will tell you what to teach.” In fact, it would be dangerous to have teachers who loved their subjects, since they might not “relate” to students who didn’t. (I couldn’t help but wonder whether schools would hire football coaches who didn’t love football, and whether such coaches could win any games.)

He gave up on teaching high school.

Who decides which kids get taught and which kids get warehoused? Who decides which schools get AP programs and which don’t? Who pays a price if the school bureaucracy in Towson decides that disadvantaged kids in Woodlawn don’t want to learn, and thus need not be taught?

It struck me that the best way to have schools serve children, rather than just hold them in place, is to give parents their choice of schools.

If parents choose mediocrity — easy classes, little homework, sports and socializing — at least it would be their choice, Maranto writes.

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Parents should pick their kids’ teachers

January 23, 2012 By

Parents should be allowed to pick their kids’ teachers, writes Andrew Rotherham in Time. It’s not enough to pick a high-scoring school, he writes.

Other parents are usually quick to share their perspectives and experiences. Pay close attention to what families with older siblings do with their younger ones — what teachers do they insist on or avoid? You can also ask to drop in and observe a lesson or two. You don’t need to be an expert to get a sense of whether a classroom is a place where there is learning going on and where you’d want your child to spend a lot of time. If you’re not crazy about your kid’s teacher, ask to observe another.

Don’t be shy about telling school officials well in advance of class assignments if you have a strong preference or concerns — there’s no guarantee they will accommodate you, but at the same time, they won’t even think about reassigning your kid to a different teacher unless you push for it. And squeaky wheels do get the grease.

Of course, if all parents investigate teachers’ reputations and request whoever’s considered best, this doesn’t work.

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Obesity starts at home, not at school

January 18, 2012 By

While childhood obesity tripled in the U.S. between the early 1970s and the late 2000s, weight gain doesn’t correlate to junk food sold in schools, concludes a study in the January issue of Sociology of Education. Kids do most of their eating — and overeating — outside of school, according to the  study, which followed children from kindergarten through eighth grade.

“We kept looking for a connection that just wasn’t there,” said Jennifer Van Hook, a Penn State sociology and demography professor, who was the lead author.

While 59.2 percent of fifth graders and 86.3 percent of eighth graders attended schools that sold junk food, a significant increase, the percentage of students who were overweight or obese decreased from 39.1 percent of  fifth grade students to 35.4 percent of eighth graders.

Kids don’t have much time to eat at school, Van Hook said.  At home, they can “eat endlessly.”

Bad eating habits start very early, she added.

Filed Under: Health, Parenting Tagged With: , , ,

‘You can do anything’

January 17, 2012 By

Saturday Night Live celebrates the self-esteem of the YouTube generation in this skit.

Self-esteem is making your kids weak and dumb, warns Gawker.

Filed Under: Culture, Parenting Tagged With: , ,

Shame

January 13, 2012 By

When her 14-year-old son got a few hours of community service for his crimes, a Georgia mother decided shame was the way to get him to behave.

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Parents use charter threat to force reforms

January 12, 2012 By

California parents will pull the trigger today on a low-performing elementary school in Adelanto, a Mojave Desert town east of Los Angeles. Nearly 70 percent of parents at Desert Trails Elementary have signed a petition demanding the school district negotiate changes in the school or turn over control.

The Desert Trails Parents Union wants to work with district leaders to improve the school, but couldn’t get a response until the petition drive started. If negotiations fail, the petition seeks to convert Desert Trails to a charter run by parents and local teachers.

“There could be lawsuits for years,” Principal David Mobley told the LA Weekly.  But the law is on the parents’ side.

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‘No excuses’ for teachers, but plenty for kids

January 9, 2012 By

‘No Excuses’ Is Not Just for Teachers, writes Laura Klein, who teaches at a Bronx middle school, in the New York Times‘ SchoolBook. “By allowing ourselves no excuses, and doing whatever it takes to make students successful, we often find ourselves accepting excuses from them.”

Students don’t complete an assignment, and we give them a second chance. A parent comes to school, upset to hear that his or her child is failing math, and we say, time and again, “they can make up the work.” A test is failed and we provide a chance to retake it, or do test corrections for extra credit.

Teachers want to be understanding and supportive, Klein writes. But it’s easy to turn into an enabler.

“Being a jerk is not a disability,” one teacher said to me about a boy who was cursing, bullying and harassing students during class. He was a special education student, and often this status was used as an excuse for his behavior. But what type of future are we setting him up for if we allow him to act in a way that will not be accepted once the training wheels of middle school have been removed?

Children need to experience and overcome failure on the path to success, Klein writes. They need to learn what lines can’t be crossed.

Hube of The Colossus of Rhodey recommended this.

Speaking of lines that shouldn’t be crossed, check out this post on the mother-daughter pair protesting because the yearbook staff rejected the girl’s sexpot photo.

 

Filed Under: Disability, Education, Parenting Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Judges redefine parenthood

December 24, 2011 By

California courts are redefining who counts as a parent, reports the Sacramento Bee. A woman who never adopted her ex-girlfriend’s children was declared a co-parent by a Sacramento appeals court because she “acted like one – providing for them financially, cleaning up after them when they got sick, and volunteering at their school.”

As a colonel in the Air Force Reserve, the woman couldn’t have adopted the children without risking expulsion from the military under “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the court ruled.

In recent years, courts have assigned parental rights and responsibilities to adults who aren’t biological or adoptive parents, said McGeorge School of Law Professor Larry Levine.

“The state has a great interest in having those who want the benefits of parenthood to take on the responsibilities and obligations that go with parenthood,” he said. “That’s true for straight and gay couples.”

“Now the courts are starting to ask, ‘Who do these children think their parents are?’” said Deborah Wald, who handled S.Y.’s case at the appellate level. “Courts aren’t willing to take children away from people whom they rely upon.”

S.B.’s lawyer, Elizabeth Niemi warned single parents to “be careful about who you allow to have a relationship with your kids.”

Filed Under: Family, Parenting Tagged With: , , , ,
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