Friday, November 20, 2009
One of my facebook buddies recently posted a link to a story about a family who, fed up with the life-draining* homework treadmill, have negotiated a homework-free grade school experience for their kids. If that's what grade school is going to be like for my kids, I can see why our current hosts have taken the home-schooling route. Among friends and family, I have access to many, many teachers, so I would be interested to find out what that's all about. It certainly wasn't like that when I was growing up. I don't remember ever having homework. Or, more accurately, I can remember not having homework because I recall spending Labour Day each year wondering whether this would be the year that I'll have homework (for the record, I also wondered each June whether I would be passing that year because I apparently had no idea how the system worked, nor of my place in it).
(Also, for the record, it didn't occur to me until well after grade school that there was really nothing that obliged me to write out lines as punishment when the class misbehaved. However, I do wish that I was precocious enough to have instead spent that time writing out mini-essays on the injustice of the punishment.)
(I also should have not skipped out of school on the day that we were taught the correct use of parentheses).
Jude's still a couple years off from going to school, and we don't yet know what sort of school system we will find him in. Perhaps we'll negotiate something similar with his teachers should it come to that point. He's already interested in reading and math, so I'm not worried about his ability to do well in school. But that first day of grade school is going to come really quickly -- especially if we stay in our neighbourhood much longer: Jude was standing at the end of our driveway as I went in to bring a suitcase out to the car. While I was inside, a school bus stopped at the end of the driveway to pick him up for school. Fortunately, Jude had both the good sense to not get on, and was articulate enough to explain to the bus driver that it wasn't his bus. They apparently take "no child left behind" very seriously in Illinois.
*Apologies for the link. It was a trap.
1 comments:
when i first read this story (it was a calgary couple, right?) i thought, well that's just silly. but that was mostly because, based on what i read, they were one of those couples that had an overscheduled kid.
but now, i think i should have spent more time telling off teachers than i already did.
honestly, the worst part? the way at the beginning of the year parents get letters home about "their" responsibilities. as in mom and dad's responsibilities. hmm, and then worse yet, if heaven forbid, either of your boys, is less then thrilled about school, and isn't performing as expected, you will be blamed and it will all be about the homework.....
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