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I wonder how many parents just assume that their child's ideal day is being parked inside with a Nintendo DS and don't question it b/c it's easy.
Every Monday, I ask my students to tell me about their weekend, and about 90% of the time, "Played blahblahblahblah on my DS" is the answer. I suppose it's possible that their weekends are in fact crowded with various enriching family activities and pursuits that help to develop the whole person, and they're just keeping that to themselves, but, you know, I tend to take them at face value.
In MY opinion, it's unreasonable to oppose something as innocuous (to ME) as a summer reading list. Whatever, I don't care who agrees or doesn't. If you don't agree with your schools' policies, I would hope you would discuss this with the principal and possibly the school board.
I and most teachers with whom I've ever come into contact actually dispute a fair number of district decisions and policies. Short of being self-employed private tutors, though, dealing with the bureaucracy of a larger system, flaws and all, is part of the package.
Trust me that there are few teachers who are waving the flag of NCLB being some kind of revolutionary, awesome mandate, if any. Trust me that teachers have less than zero interest in dictating summer activities.
Although I don't work in any school district and I have no children in school, I am well aware of what is going on in our schools. (Our local high school principal was named State Principal of the Year in 2011.) Our local schools are HEAVY on reading and I have mentioned (a time or two) the reading program SMART (Start Making A Reader Today) that helps at risk students learn to read and develop a love for books by having adults read to each child for one hour (two half hour sessions) a week and also giving each child two books a month to take home and keep forever.
I know it is not the teachers wanting all the PC crap. They have to follow the orders of their bosses. I've talked to many teachers who said the same thing you did.
Are you saying that teachers are being told to send home required book lists? By higher ups? I really am curious.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katiana
You can't make an analogy between an adult's job and kids' education, IMO. It's apples and oranges. Child rearing, part of which is education, is 24/7.
I can and I did!
I did not say education was not a 24/7 job (although I can't ever remember teaching my son while he slept ), I said people insist on telling children that school is their 'job'. So, if school is their job then summer vacation is their vacation away from that job. By this I only mean that the school should have NO SAY in what children do over the summer.
I am not saying no school work over any other holidays (even Christmas), I am just against required summer school work in the summer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TabulaRasa
I wonder how many parents just assume that their child's ideal day is being parked inside with a Nintendo DS and don't question it b/c it's easy.
Every Monday, I ask my students to tell me about their weekend, and about 90% of the time, "Played blahblahblahblah on my DS" is the answer. I suppose it's possible that their weekends are in fact crowded with various enriching family activities and pursuits that help to develop the whole person, and they're just keeping that to themselves, but, you know, I tend to take them at face value.
I found this to be so funny. If you had asked my son that question on Monday that is the only answer you would have gotten. (Only he didn't have a DS back then... it was a Nintendo.)
I'm a baseball and auto racing fanatic from childhood. I don't play; I watch. I have been doing so all of my son's life. This means that weekends I was parked in front of the tv when not attending to household stuff.
My son wasn't interested so he did his own thing, which usually was playing a lot of video games when he was home. Playing outside was playing outside, but defeating whatever game he was into was an accomplishment he would talk about.
Books were always a part of his life, so he would never go to school and tell his teacher he read such and such.
Although we didn't do anything on weekends, we had five days a week to explore the world. We are big on geography so we both loved/love exploring the world around us. He was always a hands on learner. Field trips during the week became easier once I started homeschooling him in sixth grade.
He also has Asperger's and is so very literal. So, if the teacher asked him what he did over the weekend he would say he played games.
Just saying.
Maybe instead of asking them what they did over the weekend, ask them "What kind of interesting activity did you do away from home this week?" You might be surprised by the answers.
I wonder how many parents just assume that their child's ideal day is being parked inside with a Nintendo DS and don't question it b/c it's easy.
Every Monday, I ask my students to tell me about their weekend, and about 90% of the time, "Played blahblahblahblah on my DS" is the answer. I suppose it's possible that their weekends are in fact crowded with various enriching family activities and pursuits that help to develop the whole person, and they're just keeping that to themselves, but, you know, I tend to take them at face value.
Just to put that in perspective, about 90% of the time when I ask my kids what they did in school that day, the answer is "Nothing" or "it was boring". I don't, however, take those comments at face value, and have to do a little digging with specific questions to see what they really did do all day. So it is possible (perhaps even probable) that they are in fact also doing other activities. <g>
I wonder how many parents just assume that their child's ideal day is being parked inside with a Nintendo DS and don't question it b/c it's easy.
Every Monday, I ask my students to tell me about their weekend, and about 90% of the time, "Played blahblahblahblah on my DS" is the answer. I suppose it's possible that their weekends are in fact crowded with various enriching family activities and pursuits that help to develop the whole person, and they're just keeping that to themselves, but, you know, I tend to take them at face value.
"If you don't believe everything they say about us, we won't believe everything they say about you."
Just to put that in perspective, about 90% of the time when I ask my kids what they did in school that day, the answer is "Nothing" or "it was boring". I don't, however, take those comments at face value, and have to do a little digging with specific questions to see what they really did do all day. So it is possible (perhaps even probable) that they are in fact also doing other activities. <g>
In MY opinion, it's unreasonable to oppose something as innocuous (to ME) as a summer reading list. Whatever, I don't care who agrees or doesn't. If you don't agree with your schools' policies, I would hope you would discuss this with the principal and possibly the school board.
I don't bother to oppose summer reading with the school. However, I still think it is a bit of an imposition on my kids. There are so many policies put in place by schools that parents can't oppose everything they think is stupid. There are some things, like summer reading that the kids just do.
I wonder how many parents just assume that their child's ideal day is being parked inside with a Nintendo DS and don't question it b/c it's easy.
Every Monday, I ask my students to tell me about their weekend, and about 90% of the time, "Played blahblahblahblah on my DS" is the answer. I suppose it's possible that their weekends are in fact crowded with various enriching family activities and pursuits that help to develop the whole person, and they're just keeping that to themselves, but, you know, I tend to take them at face value.
You know kids tell parents that they did "nothing" when parents ask what kids did at school right? I don't take my kids at face value when they tell me that. I assume they just don't want to tell me what they did right that second.
There is plenty of time in the summer to play video games and do other things. Today is our first day of summer break (my kids are done with their exams). My middle son is going to see a movie with a friend. Afterwards they will come back here and most likely, play pool basketball, make some music, watch tv and play video games. There are many hours in the day and video games are not an evil pursuit.
While my children are all grown men now, they have families of their own so I can (sort of) keep up with what the educational system is like.
I have one granddaughter who is now finished her freshman year in college. She used to spend a week with me in the Summers and always brought one of her four "required reading" books with her to read before she went to sleep. She never seemed to feel it was a burden. And she participated in quite a few activities in elem. and high school. Dance, music, strings, Student Council, etc. But even though she had plenty of purely recreational activities, there was always time to read. A half hour before bed. A rainy afternoon. Just because.
While I do agree that the required reading selections should be varied, I also think that kids should be able to read books that 1.) are of interest to them, 2.) geared to their age level, 3.) something just fun.
My youngest in-school granddaughter (finishing 1st. grade) loves to read. She used to love to be read to, but since she
"got good at it", she prefers to be the one to read aloud. And as she learned in Pre-K, she never fails to turn the book to display the picture to her audience. At this point in time, I'm trying to teach her that a line break is not the same as a period.
Yes, children should take advantage of Summer vaca, but they also need to learn that a little structure is a good thing. While playing video games is not necessarily a bad thing, I think the "bad" part is unrestrained, unrelenting, uncontrolled (by parents) playing of video games. A well-rounded child will have friends with whom he can enjoy various pursuits. I champion that cause. I also believe that vacation or not, brush teeth AM and PM; keep your room tidy; come to the table for meals; bathe before bed. These are all tasks that we follow year-round, why not reading?
Mags, I have a feeling that your kids are readers, because I think you are. And while that may be true in your house, there are scores of homes where there isn't even a book, let alone encouragement to read. I do think 20 to 30 books is excessive but I would hope that a reasonable number might encourage a couple of kids to learn to love/like reading.
Honestly, reading for pleasure is something schools have little control over...kids either love to read, or they don't, and most of the time, it is related to whether that is nurtured or reinforced at home.
I can see this at work every day.
My 6 yo son (to be 7 in Sept) was in the advanced reading group in K, he reads well ahead of his grade, he has amazing phonetic awareness, he also reads quite well in a second language (my native tongue)...but he is simply a child who - AS OF NOW - will simply NOT choose to read on his own.
Reading is not something he opts for on his own, so I cannot say he reads for pleasure. He must be required to read something in order for him to read anything at all.
Yes, we value reading in our family, and he catches us at times reading or discussing a book ( I usually read something out loud to his dad); but we are also very busy all the time and we simply do not have the luxury to lie around frequently in order to do a lot of reading "modeling" for the children.
This is very frustrating to me because I was an avid reader and writer as a child, without constantly seeing my parents reading. Yes, they were college educated too but like any busy parents with small children they didn't have time to read for pleasure in front of us. Yet, by the time I was in second grade I was reading a lot and had written dozens of fairy-tales.
Today, when I see my son simply NOT caring to pick up a book on his own, it drives me up the holy wall.
I continue to believe that children who are not naturally driven to avid reading will never be as educated as those who are. Some of the non-readers-for-pleasure will eventually understand that they must read certain lists in order to achieve a given professional goal...but that is not education in my book. I know medical doctors who have made the effort to do what they had to do but who DO NOT read for pleasure and are clearly NOT erudite/truly educated people. They are just trained in a profession.
You must want to know a lot and gulp up a lot from books in order to become truly educated/erudite.
I am afraid my son doesn't have this in him and it frustrates me terribly.
The only reason why he did so well in K is because I taught him how to read and I worked a lot with him; but his being in the advanced reading group and all the crap on paper means nothing to me as long as I don't see him driven to read on his own (without prompting, without reading lists, without incentives, without anything).
I have tried a million incentive-based approaches, including bringing him books on things he is beyond passionate about (in fact obsessed with) such as dinosaurs. We go t the library, we bering tons of books at home, we have a library of our own, I eliminate all distractions during the week such as TV on; I bring him some cookies or some goody at reading time so he can associate reading with pleasure.
But to H*ll with it all, he will still not pick up a book on his own, to put in the effort and spend more time with the printed word.
I am already so worn out and tired from trying to come up with "incentives" as well as from making him do it - because if I didn't MAKE HIM do it, he wouldn't read anything at all.
Right now, "mother pressure" still works to yield some nice results on paper (again he did very well in K)...but how long will I be able to keep this up?
I really want to see the day when he will opt for reading on his own, but I don't think this day is very close.
Some said this is because he is a boy and boys are less inclined towards reading (not a satisfying enough explanation for me); others said 6 yo is still too early to see love of reading in a child - but again, I know there are kids who read like nuts at 6.
We also believe it might have to do with ADHD (we are bracing ourselves for a dx in August).
Either way, it's frustrating.
Any input welcome.
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), I said people insist on telling children that school is their 'job'. So, if school is their job then summer vacation is their vacation away from that job. By this I only mean that the school should have NO SAY in what children do over the summer.
This.
