Saturday, May 02, 2009

I Must Be Missing Something

Every subject is assigned certain test days and we are not supposed to deviate from these days. The reason is simple, the kids should not be over burdened with too many tests to study for on the same day. They can't do a subject justice if they are studying for too many exams on the same day.

What I want to know is why it is okay to give kids an extended day of school, extra classes with extra homework and extra studying? Aren't these kids being burdened as well? Aren't these kids being deprived of much needed studying time?

Is there something wrong with the way I am seeing things? Am I missing something?

7 comments:

Magical Mystical Teacher said...

Of course there's something wrong with the way you're seeing things: You are not a politician!

Anonymous said...

Even before "credit recovery" I asked frequent, unwelcome questions about PM School.

How can a kid who can't do the work for, and pass, 6 majors at a time, be realistically expected to give up a few hours of potential studying time, and pass 8?

(answer: PM classes are seat time. Show up, you pretty much pass. Since your sitting doing nothing, might as well do some reading or homework from the other 6)

Of course, no one actually gave me that answer, not out loud, at least.

Jonathan

Anonymous said...

Did you ever have an after school job? I know I did, I would finish school then work till about 9ish. Between work & school, I found time to study on the bus, at night when I got home etc.

I did it because I had to. I did because I liked having money in my pocket. They didn't have credit recovery back then... but then again there was no accountability. If you graduated...good for you. If you didn't so what. No one was held accountable, so who cared.

Boils down to accountability. Who should be held accountable if a student doesn't graduate?

Pissedoffteacher said...

I was an honor student in high school and I was able to carry a heavy load and work. You can't compare what you and I did to what kids who are barely getting by are doing. We made time to study. These kids don't. We had above average intelligence. Many of these kids don't. We had study skills that they lack. Many are holding down jobs as well as taking all these classes.

Talk about accountability--how about holding the kids accountable? We are graduating them with "slam bam thank you mam educations" and as far as I am concerned, this sucks.

The business model does not work in education and it is up to the educational scientists and teachers to try to change this model.

Pissedoffteacher said...

Anonymous--you didn't address the issue.

Why must tests be scattered while takinga zillion credits at a time is allowed?

I can't believe I fell into the politicians trick.

mathteacher said...

You're making the assumption that more time in school means more classes. The other logical choice is to allow more time for each class. This allows for richer, more nuanced lessons and does not necessitate more homework. That's how we do it at our school. I give less homework than I used to because now I get larger blocks of time with my students in class.

Pissedoffteacher said...

At Packemin HS, more time in school is more classes--PM school, independent study and Sat school. The kids don't study and they spend time in class doing work for other classes.