Isn't there something just wrong with this?

[AttachedMamma]

Students suspended for not doing their summer homework--

http://cbs11tv.com/topstories/local_story_234182821.html

I understand about holding children accountable, but what is being taught here?

So, they're going to rush and do the required homework so they don't get punished. Will they really retain much from that? A lot of kids see learning as separate from the home environment. It shouldn't be so! Isn't it sad that they can't wait to have a "break" from learning? I think it's b/c they're not enjoying it...it's not fun for them. Granted, every child has areas they struggle with and areas they love learning about, but I think many students have had their zest for learning squashed at an early age.

John Holt really knew what he was talking about. :sad2

cindi

[booboo]

I think suspension is a bit too strict. However, I can see the school wanting the kids to read. Assigning a book? Well, no. I think trying to raise the literacy rate is a good thing. Kids should read. If it's only 1 for the summer, it's not too much. Assigning a certain one shouldn't be the answer, but letting them choose a novel would be better, something they'd be interested in.

My kids love books and we have more than we can count in my home. Reading is never a problem and my youngest is an early reader. She surprises people with that.

The name John Holt sounds familiar - but who is here? Sorry I can't remember. And what did he say? I didn't see his name in the article.

[ChristianMother27]

frankly i read all summer long BEFORE i hit middle school and started doing "summer reading". i thought summer reading was unfair and boring... i think if you're in public school you need and deserve the break from school. if you're homeschool on the other hand that's different :giggle

[Mama Calidad]

Wow. :jawdrop I have a hard time fathoming. We generally read between 10-20 books a week to the kids.

I'm really concerned that 519 kids made it the entire summer without reading a single book! Assigned or no, I just have trouble imagining the home environment. I wonder if a lot of that number isn't comprised of already disadvantaged kids. :sad2 I don't think kicking them out of school really does anything to address the problem.

[Heather Micaela]

I like postive reinforcement MUCH better. Our library has always had a summer reading program. The child reads books on thier level (which is determined by you) and then writes them down on log. There are prizes and incentives and a bulletin board reaching around the library laid out like a board game. You get to move your peice after so many books read.

[phathui5]

Generally speaking, my "advantaged" brother won't read unless he's forced to for school. I honestly believe that the way schools teach literature sucked the life out of it for him.

[ChristianMother27]

Generally speaking, my "advantaged" brother won't read unless he's forced to for school. I honestly believe that the way schools teach literature sucked the life out of it for him.


:yes it does. i was in advanced classes too... i hate that we had to read for school. i like and have always like reading for pleasure. i read moby dick for fun. if i'd had to read it for school i would have hated it.

[Mama Calidad]

:yes it does. i was in advanced classes too... i hate that we had to read for school. i like and have always like reading for pleasure. i read moby dick for fun. if i'd had to read it for school i would have hated it.


I think a lot of that depends on the teacher. I've had classes like that...and on the other extreme, I had one that I came away from absolutely loving literature like Antigone, Lyssistrata, the Decameron... I actually went out and bought the book, because we only read selections from that one. But my prof absolutely loved the subject...and it didn't hurt that he really knew what he was talking about. PhD from Oxford :giggle

It was like that with Beowulf, too. We read it in 7th or 8th grade and despite the gore-factor, I enjoyed it. We switched over to public school for high school and "got" to re-read it for Senior English. I would have rather had a root canal. The teacher had no real appreciation for lit. Her system for grading book reports gave half the points based on how long the book was...and you got extra credit for going over. So, I read smut for book reports and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for kicks. You could do a bang-up analyasis of Animal Farm and get an F...or schmooze something about a book not worth the paper it was written on and have a shot at an A. :hunh Still leaves me :scratch

[ChristianMother27]

yeh. i didn't mind 6th grade book reports because our teacher had us do them in creative ways. like once we had to make a "book report sandwich" (it looked like a real sandwich!) we would past the parts of a book report - title, author, plot, etc to different parts of the sandwich. that was fun. also once we had to video tape a puppet show giving our book report. i still have that video LOL.

but i really hated the summer reading... not only did we have to do the reading (like 8 books or so) but we had to write reports on all of them due first day of school.... i wouldn't have minded just reading if it was "we'll be going over these books in your xth grade year" but having to do the homework of writing reports just got on my nerves.

[booboo]

ITA that kicking kids out of school isn't teaching them anything. It's such a shame. Our library has a summer reading program that the kids finished a few weeks ago and they had a fantastic time with it. Since reading is so natural in my home, I had a hard time figuring out how many minutes my kids read each day. (we had to mark a square for every 15 minutes they read) They got a prize no matter how little they read, but got more prizes for reading a lot. Needless to say, my kids got spoiled. :giggle

Public schools are getting more and more :td

[Mama Calidad]

yeh. i didn't mind 6th grade book reports because our teacher had us do them in creative ways.


I think that you nailed it right there. A lot of the education system sucks the "creative" out of a subject that is entirely creative. :yes I think about the horrid readers we had. :sick Who would learn to love reading if that was their introduction to it? :rolleyes2

And I do understand why some kids in the schools would absolutely dread another book to read assigned from school. I just don't understand why so many parents who are sending their kids to the school would allow the assignment to go uncompleted.

[ChristianMother27]

I just don't understand why so many parents who are sending their kids to the school would allow the assignment to go uncompleted.


they might not know. i know my brother, who was notoriously bad about doing homework (one semester he got a 17 for his grade :shifty) - he would either lie about having homework, or say he already did it, he'd hide notes about homework, etc.... for a while my mom had to actually call his teachers to find out what his homework was and then check to see that he'd done it but that was a lot of effort and totally ridiculous for her to have to do it...

[Mama Calidad]

for a while my mom had to actually call his teachers to find out what his homework was and then check to see that he'd done it but that was a lot of effort and totally ridiculous for her to have to do it...


ITU My sister had to keep an assignment book that the teachers initialed for quite a while, 'cause she wasn't so hip on doing her work, either. The article just mentioned that the assignment had been widely publicised in the community, so I was just assuming that all the parents knew about it. And this was the second year that it was required, IIRC. I didn't see, though, what the kids needed to do to show that they read a book. :think

In 5th grade, we had to spend the summer scrapbooking newspaper articles about the presidential election. :sick I didn't think it was fair to have to do school work over the summer and "forgot" to tell mom and dad about it. They got wind of it a couple weeks before school started back up and man was I ever in TROUBLE! :shifty Luckily, an elderly pack-rat neighbor had all the St. Louis papers back to the start of summer and we got the project done before school started.

I wonder if there's something written giving the parents of the suspended kids POV. I'm trying to understand, but I'm just not getting it, 'cause my life experiences are so different.

[allisonintx]

ITU My sister had to keep an assignment book that the teachers initialed for quite a while, 'cause she wasn't so hip on doing her work, either.


That was me.

I hated school until I found midwifery,and then I was head of my class. I'd have been an amazing Unschooler, learning *everything* about things that interested me.

[Ellyane]

So, I read smut for book reports and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for kicks.

um. :hunh .. you know that smut is another word for porn, right? I wouldn't go saying that too loudly! :shifty

I agree about the stupid required reading though. In my school we had to read something over the summer and then write/talk about it once school started.

As far as positive reinforcement,
when I was in second grade my teacher did this thing she called the 'great gumball reader' game. Each kid had a paper gumball machine on the wall and got to put a 'gumball' in it for each book we read. I won (had the most gumballs at the end of the year) and got my first ever chapter book as a prize. :D

[Marzipan]

I've heard the word smut all my life and I have never heard it used to refer to porn. I see that it is included in the definition, but it is not the only one. It's also a plant disease. :mrgreen

[RubySlippers]

Students suspended for not doing their summer homework--
http://cbs11tv.com/topstories/local_story_234182821.html
I understand about holding children accountable, but what is being taught here?

That you'd better toe the line or else and that the local school district has power over your "free" time.
I think it's ludicrous...they suspended 1100 kids one year and over 500 the next. :td
And what kind of statement is this by a superintendent,

“The bottom line is if the kid is getting the message, that if you don’t want to come to Lancaster High School, or Lancaster ISD to learn, then this is not a place for you,” Lewis said. :hunh :hunh :hunh
Like children have a CHOICE over whether they get COMPULSARY education???
Makes me wonder how bad the drop-out rate is for their high schools. :think

[allisonintx]

We did the jelly bean version of the gumball reader game.

I hated it because I was reading big long books and got only a small gumball, the same one that the kids reading the 12page 'mostly pictures' books got. I protested and the teacher finally decided that bigger books did need bigger jellybeans.

FWIW, to me 'smut books' are those "romance novels" and I know some people consider them porn.

[Ellyane]

I've heard the word smut all my life and I have never heard it used to refer to porn. I see that it is included in the definition, but it is not the only one. It's also a plant disease. :mrgreen


well.. :shrug learn something new every day right?