I recently read this Joanne Jacobs article on the issue of homework and high achievement. I feel completely torn by it, because half of me thinks it's right on to get kids to work harder on homework--and half of me thinks it's utter baloney. And I can't think of how to reconcile my completely schizoid views.
Growing up, I hated school. Indeed, I don't think I can express with words how much I hated it, except to say that "hate" is exactly the right word. Unlike most people, my worst nightmare is waking up and finding myself back in school. Not "in class and forgot to put on my pants," or "taking a test and forgot everything about the subject." No, I mean just waking up and finding I'm 10 years old and in grade school again, doing all the things kids normally do in school. I think I'd rather go to prison, and no, I'm not kidding.
I'm sure some of you are reading this and thinking I'm weird. But I really hated being in school. I did homework only when forced to, and at some point stopped doing it altogether. I never gave a fig what my grades were, and my parents only sporadically paid attention. I managed to graduate High School, but barely, and on the 5-year plan with some pretty remedial classes. I literally did not give a damn. It's a miracle I didn't drop out and just get a GED, but I managed to talk myself out of that much.
I count the day I graduated as one of the happiest days of my life, but not out of any sense of achievement. All I felt was jubilant relief: I would never have to sit in a classroom again! Imagine Aretha Franklin singing "Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! Yeah Freedom!!!" That's what I felt, and that's all I felt.
At the age of 35, my career hit a brick wall and I realized I needed a college degree. I've been a full-time student for a year and a half. It's better now, as an adult. I do all my assignments. I have a 3.9 GPA, and it would be higher except for the one teacher who to this day I am fairly sure gave me an A- because she's a closet racist.
But in any case, I continue to laugh (or growl) at people who say the following things to me, all of which I've heard more times than I can count:
1) College teaches you how to think! (It hasn't so far.)I'm 37 years old, back in the classroom, and I still hate every second of every minute that I'm in class. I find it utterly without value, except to test my patience. I'm only there because it's required. If I had teachers who'd let me read the book and turn in the assignments, I'd just do that. (Funny thing is, the university has just such a program. But they have the gall to charge more for it, and I can't afford it.)
2) College teaches you how to learn! (Bzzzt! Not so far.)
3) There are some things you can't learn from a book! (This is very true. But I'm a year and a half in, with a 3.9 GPA, and I still haven't come across a single example of learning much of anything except by reading. Classroom learning has been almost zilch.)
4) College expands your horizons. (I've done more and seen more than most of my teachers.)
5) College sharpens your writing skills. (Bwaha! I was writing professionally long before college, and write better than most of my teachers.)
6) College teaches you things you'd never learn on your own. (With the exception of some math, which I still learned better by just reading the textbook and ignoring the teacher, I have yet to see an example.)
I've been a business entrepreneur, a repo man, a project manager, a writer and editor, and a professional trainer. I've been very good, an overachiever, in almost every job I've ever had. I get glowing reviews from my supervisors, and I've done all kinds of different, challenging things. Yet I have never found formal classroom training in the least bit valuable. Occasionally, a homework assignment has caused me to learn something. But 95% of what I know on any subject has come about through one thing only: self-directed learning through my bookworm instincts. And the assignments where I've done my best and learned the most have been the ones where I was able to go off on my own, do research, and write a report or do a presentation.
Occasionally, someone will try to defend standard education to me (hi Casey!) by telling me I just don't appreciate what I've been forced to learn in the classroom. To which I can only say: I've thought about this a lot, I'm 37 years old and I know myself pretty well. I utterly reject the notion that the classroom has ever amounted to even 5% of what I know. It has very rarely taught me any skill I couldn't have picked up better on my own, with a book and some experimentation and maybe a friend who's willing to answer some questions.
The classroom didn't even teach me how to read. My mother did that, which is one thing I'll be eternally grateful to her for.
So now I read about how putting kids through more homework, and tougher classroom requirements, would help them. On the one hand, it sounds good, because obviously our nation's schools are too frequently churning out a product that's inferior to what they were churning out 30 years ago. Instilling good work habits, making them stretch their brains hard--that all sounds good to me.
Yet I was reading on a college level by 4th grade, and had math skills three or four levels above my actual grade level. And I skipped most homework assignments most of my life, and barely tried to do the ones I did turn in. I got very little parental supervision as a kid, except to be occasionally berated or slapped around for bad grades.
And please, before you hit the comment button: if you're about to tell me my problem is my attitude, please stop. I'm pushing 40, and I have a 3.9 GPA. If I haven't learned in the classroom by now, a pep talk isn't going to change anything. The only reason--the only reason--I put up with the psychic pain of sitting in the classroom week after week is the love of my wife and child. By sitting through this utterly unhelpful exercise, I can bring them greater financial security. There's nothing I wouldn't do for them.
So why am I talking about all this? Well, see, I've got this 5 year old son in Kindergarten. He likes it, although he often says he'd rather stay home. In September, when he enters the first grade, I'm imaginging what it will be like when he has to go to school all day, rather than just a half day.
They say we have a tendency to project our own fears and frustrations and hopes on our kids. I don't want to do that to Jake. Yet I have to say, it's like a knife in my gut every time he tells me he doesn't want to go to school. I never wanted to go either, and at the age of 37 I can't for the life of me think of much good that it did me--except to teach me how to put up with regimentation. Everything in me wants to keep him at home and school him there, but we are financially so precarious right now that it would be insanely difficult. Maybe by the time I graduate, I'll be able to get a job with the kind of income that'll make it possible again. 9/11 and the Dot-Com bubble-burst took that away, but maybe after graduation things will be brighter on that front.
In the meantime, I feel a gamut of emotions regarding my son's schooling. I do encourage him. I help with his homework and praise his efforts. Yet I read about people who want to make education "more effective" by making the kids by making assignments tougher and making them do more and more homework. And I remember how, by doing as little homework as I could get away with, and daydreaming as much as possible just to escape the dreary classroom, I still read and did math better than most other kids at my grade level.
Maybe I'm stubborn. Maybe I'm naive. Maybe I'm just plain nuts. But I know I worry about whether or not my son will be like me, and what I can do to help him if so.
I wasn't going to comment, but since you brought me up... :)
I would like to make a tiny correction: I do not claim that you don't appreciate what you've learned in the classroom.
My position is that, despite what you've personally experienced, there are good universities out there, that do teach people to think, and so on. Normal people, anyway. You are, apparently, on the far end of the bell curve. Shall I start calling you sigma-3? Heh.
Heh. Well maybe so.
Although I'm increasingly convinced that there is at least a segment of the population that's the same as I am. I have friends who, even if they don't feel quite as negative about classroom learning as I do, agree that they found class a pointless exercise that they only put themselves through because they had to. Some of them are very bright. All of them are men, although that may be a coincidence.
I remember watching A Beautiful Mind, and being very amused by how John Nash was berated because he never showed up for class while pursuing his doctorate. I don't claim to be a genius, but watching him learn by studing things on his own, working things out in his own head--I completely related.
I love Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes precisely because I relate to how Calvin spends all his time in the school--escaping into a fantasy world because the classroom is so utterly dreary. That was me. Indeed, I wish I could still do that.
I learned a lot in class -- because I read books under my desk. Actually, I liked school most of the time, especially when I got to high school, where classes were tracked. I had some very bright classmates who made classroom discussions fun, and I enjoyed being good at school. But I got most of my education through reading. I literally read every fiction book in our elementary school library, including the sports books, plus 10 books every two weeks from the city library. (Five was the limit; my sister and I would trade off.)
If your son takes after you and loathes school, I'd suggest finding a home-schooling family that will include him, assuming you and your wife can't afford to do it. But he may do OK in class. I really do recommend reading through the boring parts; most teachers don't mind if the kid doesn't make trouble.
I guess I think kids should learn to deal with some frustration and boredom, but not tons of frustration and boredom.
I learned a lot in class -- because I read books under my desk.
Oh, man, I used to do that constantly.
I'd get yelled at for it, but I'd still do it.
Although I'm good at math, I never would have made it through my 3 math classes without an excellent teacher (the book seriously sucked - not just my opinion either).
I had some classes that were geared toward 20 year olds (which didn't teach me much) and others that were geared more towards older students, such as myself (in which I learned loads).
For the most part I enjoyed the experience of going back to school in my mid 30's (graduated at 40). Of course I was always weird in that I liked school when I was younger!
I'm with Dean on this one. For me, school was just a means to an end; a hoop I had to jump through on the way to bigger and better things. I found (most) classrooms to be dull and unchallenging; requiring nothing more than regurgitation. In 4 years, I never cracked a book, and still managed to graduate at the top of my class.
College wasn't much better, as most of the professors (with some exceptions) only wanted you to spew back the party line. Plus, skating through high school didn't prepare me for college at all.
Now, in my mid-thirties, I find myself back in college, and in the same mindset as Dean. I'm getting high grades, but I hate being there. I'm not learning anything new, and in fact, some of what they are teaching is contradictory to how things operate in The Real World(tm).
But, I'll bite my tongue, and jump through the hoops, because that's what I'm going to have to do to advance any further.
I hope that my kids love school, and find it challenging. They will have a leg up on me when it comes to later on in life. They won't be in their mid-30's going back to school, and hating the classroom time.
Wow! Dean, you've really touched a nerve in me. Some random ruminations in response...
I don't recall ever doing any homework before junior high. Where did all this homework come from? I talk with friends and neighbors today who go crazy helping their kids with endless loopy homework assignments.
Through much of my childhood, I felt much the same about school as you did. I hated school with a passion. It seemed to me (and still seems to me) that one of the chief functions of a public school education is to crush the life out of kids, instill conformity, kill curiosity, and grayen the human soul. ("Grayen": is there such a word?) One of my common catch phrases from around junior high age: "Sentenced to 13 years in school, for the crime of being born..."
Part of it was, I arrived at school already knowing how to read, and most of what we learned in class, I already knew. Up through eighth grade, the only thoroughly useful thing I learned in school that I didn't already know was the skill of touch typing. Yes, I found school boring as hell: I dealt with this by doing my schoolwork as quickly as I could, getting straight A's on everything, and then spending the rest of my time reading on my own. Some of my teachers found this attitude threatening; others, like my wonderful fourth grade teacher Mrs. Swingle, encouraged me to read up on square roots and complex numbers while the rest of the class was learning the multiplication table.
Another part of it was, I arrived in kindergarten not having the slightest idea how to mingle or interact with other kids. It took me several excruciatingly painful years to learn how to deal with other human beings on a basic social level. I think the jargon phrase nowadays would be "radically undersocialized." In the meanwhile, I had a small circle of close friends, and I seemed to be wearing a sign, visible to any school bully, which read "Kick Me." To this day, I believe (only half jokingly) that there's nothing wrong with school bullies that couldn't be cured by packing them off to some South American military dictatorship for "interrogation." Complete with alligator clips and a hand-cranked electrical generator.
Somewhere around my sophomore year in high school, my attitude toward school mellowed somewhat. I could still see the idiotic side of school and its social atmosphere, and I still considered a lot of my classes a waste of time. But I liked it well enough that, once I graduated from high school, I went straight on to college. And I ended up hanging around in the academic world most of the time up through age 35.
In college, in graduate school, in seminary, and then back in graduate school again, I still found many of my classes and much of my coursework a waste of time. It seems to me that the most worthwhile aspects of my life in academia were:
When I finally bailed out of university life, it was because I had finished my Ph.D., political correctness was in full swing, and I couldn't stomach the thought of "engreying" myself through the scramble of "publish or perish." So today I enjoy a slower pace of life, living on a gravel road far out into the countryside, with an entire roomful of books downstairs, an entire roomful of books upstairs, an upstairs hallway crammed full of books, and several other bookcases scattered around.
Gee, this must be The Dying Place of Those Who Are Too Bloody Smart For Anyone. Heh.
School? We don' need no stinkin' SCHOOL!
(Floyd in the background)
Casey:
We don't need no education
We dont need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.
:-)
Homework is a pile of crap. It's supposedly a reinforcement of the day's lessons, but what it is, is taking time away from a student which could be better spent getting educated -- eg. reading Albert Jay Nock, or just thinking and reflecting.
Has anyone else considered the health aspects? Not just that kids are expected to spend a lot of time on homework, either. Doctors in at least one city have been griping a they note problems when eighty-pound 10-year-olds carry forty-poumd packs of books to and fro: forty pounds is about the weight of a Marine combat pack...
Those who do the most get the most, except when it comes to education. Education is a meritocracy. Liberals have turned it into a PC world.
"I never gave a fig what my grades were, and my parents only sporadically paid attention. I managed to graduate High School, but barely, and on the 5-year plan with some pretty remedial classes. I literally did not give a damn."
That's nearly my story. Loved the New York State Regents Exams as they would get me over the top in high school. College was supposed to be different so I looked forward to that. In vain.
I think that what you hated was not "school" but the institution of schooling. Had the thing been about fostering a pursuit of learning...
The Hands of the Teacher
After 30 years ('57-'86) in the classroom I
am convinced that the personal example the
teacher sets before the student is the
single most important reason learning
occurs. Example offers a behavioral
definition of character that may determine
a student's perception of his own value,
the value of others, and reciprocal rights
and responsibilities. Since emulation is
both an early and an on-going learning
method and because everyone passes through
the hands of the teacher, the example of
the teacher-leader is, I believe, funda-
mental to the successful human experience.
When standards are personalized and
manifest in teacher conduct, the student's
perception of other criteria for measuring
other values and options prior to decision-
making becomes more and more comprehensible.
Such a comprehension may be considered
critical to the student's personal ability
to anticipate consequence of choice and
ensure survival and progression.
Because decision-making is the proper
domain of the mind in the hierarchy of the
individual person (spirit/mind/body), it
is essential that enlarged opportunities
for observation and awareness be encouraged
and available. Such opportunities go far
toward raising the qualitative level of
selectivity on the part of the student.
Additionally, because selection occupies
the fulcrum point of the creative process
in the individual, it is essential that
criteria be available to the intellect of
the student in order that evaluation and
progress will occur.
We are reminded that the unique individual
person is the basic unit of value and a
prime source of social values in a free
society.
Consistent with a criteria concept and
personalized value definition, the
individual student should continually
experience high levels of challenge,
expectation, and goal orientation,
eliciting and reinforcing standards of
excellence. Such a conceptual environment
teaches, encourages, and reinforces valid
self-esteem.
It is thus that the teacher completes the
appropriate fulfillment of his/her role:
Enabling the student to become a self-
directed, responsible, choice-maker in
freedom.
James Fletcher Baxter
choice.maker@verizon.net
http://www.geocities.com/James-Baxter/
The Hands of the Teacher
After 30 years ('57-'86) in the classroom I
am convinced that the personal example the
teacher sets before the student is the
single most important reason learning
occurs. Example offers a behavioral
definition of character that may determine
a student's perception of his own value,
the value of others, and reciprocal rights
and responsibilities. Since emulation is
both an early and an on-going learning
method and because everyone passes through
the hands of the teacher, the example of
the teacher-leader is, I believe, funda-
mental to the successful human experience.
When standards are personalized and
manifest in teacher conduct, the student's
perception of other criteria for measuring
other values and options prior to decision-
making becomes more and more comprehensible.
Such a comprehension may be considered
critical to the student's personal ability
to anticipate consequence of choice and
ensure survival and progression.
Because decision-making is the proper
domain of the mind in the hierarchy of the
individual person (spirit/mind/body), it
is essential that enlarged opportunities
for observation and awareness be encouraged
and available. Such opportunities go far
toward raising the qualitative level of
selectivity on the part of the student.
Additionally, because selection occupies
the fulcrum point of the creative process
in the individual, it is essential that
criteria be available to the intellect of
the student in order that evaluation and
progress will occur.
We are reminded that the unique individual
person is the basic unit of value and a
prime source of social values in a free
society.
Consistent with a criteria concept and
personalized value definition, the
individual student should continually
experience high levels of challenge,
expectation, and goal orientation,
eliciting and reinforcing standards of
excellence. Such a conceptual environment
teaches, encourages, and reinforces valid
self-esteem.
It is thus that the teacher completes the
appropriate fulfillment of his/her role:
Enabling the student to become a self-
directed, responsible, choice-maker in
freedom.
James Fletcher Baxter
choice.maker@verizon.net
http://www.geocities.com/James-Baxter/
Yeah. I'm still stuck in that; 95 days until graduation. Really though, I've been better off because my teachers really have been for the most part understanding. Yeah, I don't ever do homework, but they're smart enough to figure out that I know the material being taught. Your comment that the vast majority of your learning came from reading completely resonates with me. I'm told that I was reading the newspaper at age 3. I think the school experience's been good for me as far as socialization and learning to deal with, um, the stupid people. I guess that's an important life skill...
All this talk about the value of formal education is fine, but I want to hear about your life as a repo man.