The Homework Debate

I read this article over the weekend about a family that has created a contract between the children, parents and teachers stating that the children would no longer have to complete homework. The article stated that the family spent years struggling to get their children to complete homework and were finally fed up. Mrs. Milley joined a homework committee for the school but after no changes were made, Mr. And Mrs. Milley took matters into their own hands. This article on the same story show’s the Milley’s Differentiated Homework plan in which the children must read, practice their musical instruments and study for tests, however they are not required to complete any additional schoolwork. After I read the article I saw that Eric had also posted a blog on the issue too.

I find it very interesting that such a contract would be approved in schools. Although I agree that there shouldn’t be homework in Elementary school, other than reading and perhaps spelling words, I don’t think cutting out homework in upper grades altogether is the answer. I think that there may need to be some additional work completed outside of school. This provides opportunity for review of the material learned in class. My PS1 mentor did not assign homework to the students but did expect them to read for minimum 15 minutes and review their spelling words every night. Depending on the amount of time they read, this may only add up to 20 minutes of work each night. And there was no consequence if the students did not read, but there was a reward if the students had their agenda signed to say they had read the night before. So I agree that in young grades, children should no be given additional homework and I think there should be ample opportunity for students to complete their work in class. In elementary, the students are still young and should be able to play and release their energy after school. This should also be a time when children partake in extracurricular activities to promote social skill development and spend quality time with their families.

In older grades, however I think there should be some homework. This could be simply finishing a couple of math problems that were not completed in class or reviewing material from class. I wonder if students know they will not have homework, will they actually work efficiently in class? This contract says that the students will work efficiently and if they do not, the portion of material completed will be graded for the whole assignment. Does this encourage quality work? I also find it interesting that in the parents responsibilities is states that they will provide time to discuss class work and help prepare and study for tests and quizzes, provide opportunity to practice math concepts, assist with editing writing that may by choice be taken home. Isn’t this homework? I guess the parents just want to support reading, writing and arithmetic skills, and not all the other frills that can make school interesting. Fair enough. But I think sometimes there are just not enough hours in the class to get everything done and some things need a little extra time. I wonder about all the other students in the class? Do they still have to complete homework or is the entire class exempt from homework?

I also think that students need to develop the ability to review important material and complete assignments on their own. If they don’t learn this through high school and then go on to university, I think the students will struggle in university. Generally all assignments and readings are completed outside of class in university. I wonder how successful these students will be in university or on the job. Many jobs also require some form of work to be completed at home. It would be interesting to know how these children succeed in life.

But an interesting question, how much homework should kids be expected to complete? When should homework start?

The Up Series!

This week we started to watch a video series called “Up.” It is a documentary of the lives of thirteen British children of various social classes. The series starts when the children are 7 and then continues every seven years after that. So far there are seven videos in the series and have captured the individuals at age 49 but they are in the process of filming 56Up which shows the individuals at age 56. I think it is really neat that one director has spent the time to stay in contact with these individuals so we can see how their life progresses and how it changes depending on their circumstances.

The first video, which we watched on Tuesday, shows the lives of the children at age 7. At this age, the children were in a wide range of social classes from upper class to working class to a lower class orphanage. I found it very interesting to see the differences between the children. The boys and girls from the upper class spoke proper English and really articulated their words. In comparison, when the children from the lower class spoke, I found they were hard to understand and tended to mumble their words together. Even the manner in which they spent their free time was extremely different. The children from the upper class would come home from school and have tea with their parents, watch television or read the newspaper. Their evenings appeared to be very structured with a definite bedtime. The lower class children would play outside and watch t.v. and would go to bed much later than the upper class. I thought it was really interesting that when the children were brought together, the lower class boys were a lot rougher in the way they played than the upper class boys. The upper class children had already been taught to act proper and “civilized”.

In addition to differences in the way the children spent their free time, the children also had different aspirations for their education and careers. The majority of the children in the upper class already knew which prep schools they would attend and which universities they wanted to go to. I found the children of the lower class had greater dreams and aspirations than those of the upper class, however some of them already knew that it would be too hard or that they would never get into university. For example, Paul wanted to be a policeman, however he knew it would be too hard for him. This made me wonder if he would still try or if he knew that since he was in the lower class there was no point in trying. I find it difficult to watch children with that have big dreams for their life but their dreams are squashed because of the class they were born into. I see this as a big problem with the sponsorship system. Unless children are born into the upper class or succeed on their 11+ exam, they are restricted in the careers that they can have.

In yesterday’s class we watched a portion of the 28Up video. We saw how the lives of three of the individuals, Paul, Suzy and Nick, changed from age 7. The video also showed segments from the 14Up and 21Up videos.

Paul – at age 7 he wanted to be a policeman but thought it was too hard for him. He went to a Charity boarding school and did not seem to know much about the school system. At age 28, he is a bricklayer living with his wife and two kids in Melbourne, Australia. He stated that he was able to have a better life because he left England. By moving from the sponsorship system to the contest system, he was able to use his talent and effort to move into an upper-middle class. At age 7, Paul was shown building a house at the playground and then he becomes a bricklayer. It makes you wonder if what you do at age 7 impacts where you become later in life.

Suzy – at age 7, she was in a private girls boarding school and definitely knew she was “above” other people. Although she did know say what she wanted to be when she was older, she thought she would go to university. At age 16, she left school and went to Paris where she took a secretary program. At age 28, she was a house wife but had married someone of upper class so had remained in the same class. What I thought was really interesting was hearing about all the things she did not want at 21. She did not want to marry or have a family, and then at age 28 she was married and had two children. The other thing that I thought was interesting about Suzy was that she hated prep school but would still send her children to private school around age 13.

Nick – I think Nick is a really interesting individual. At age 7, Nick went to a rural one room school and did not have much interaction with other children. In his spare time he would explore the countryside and he wanted to “learn about the moon and things” when he was older. At age 28, Nick was in America and was a nuclear physics assistant professor. He was able to succeed in the sponsorship system due to the 11+ test. He wrote the test and was found to be gifted so he went to boarding school and university. However, leaving England and entering into the top of the contest system has allowed him to further succeed. I wonder how Nick’s life will continue.

So far it seems that what the children do at age 7 or what they desire to do becomes a relatively accurate portrayal of how their lives turn out. I wonder then what I was like at age 7. I can’t remember what I wanted to do or what I was really interested in. At one of my friend’s birthday parties when we were around 6, her dad videotaped all the kids and asked us what we wanted to be when they grew up. I said I didn’t know. Apparently I didn’t have any dreams of a specific career at that age, or at least that day. I have seen the video a few times since then and I would be curious to see what the people on that video are actually doing.

Social Mobility

Last week we talked about social mobility. Social mobility refers to the movement of an individual from one class to another. It is usually defined by occupation but could also be defined by education. There are two types of social mobility: intergenerational and intragenerational. Intergenerational social mobility refers to the difference in social class of an individual in relation to their parents. Intragenerational social mobility refers to the change in social class within one’s own life.

I thought it was really interesting to learn about social mobility and link it to my own life. I would also consider my parents to be middle class. This is based on both the education and occupation that my parents have. Both of my parents went to university and had good jobs. They were able to make a good living for themselves and our family. As such I was also able to go to university and will (hopefully) get a good job. I would also consider myself middle class, therefore unless something happen I think there would be no intergenerational social mobility between my parents and I.

It is tough to say how much intragenerational social mobility I will encounter in my lifetime. At this present time I would venture to guess that I will stay middle class my whole life, unless something misfortunate happens and I drop a social class or something miraculous happens and I move up a class. I think this because of the social mobility of our society is based on contest mobility and people must compete for success and earn elite status. In contest mobility, people can always move to different social classes depending on the circumstances of their life. We allow people to go back to school at any time to increase their status, however this also opens up the possibility of movement down a social class if someone fails.

In contrast to contest mobility of our society, the social mobility in England is based on sponsored mobility. This implies that the elite give social class to the people they think are suitable. In this system there is an emphasis on early selection in which young students are selected so they can be moulded into the type of individuals the elite want. Generally there is very little intergenerational mobility and the sons are expected to take on the same type of job of their father. The people in this system seem to understand that there is little mobility and therefore they take ownership of the job they do.

I think there is something to be said for people doing the best job they can do, regardless of what the job is. I think that sometimes in the contest mobility system, people see their job as simply a stepping stone and do not put out their full effort. Although I would not want a system where there is no opportunity for movement between classes, I think people should be encouraged to work hard all the time.

Bubble Gum??

I find it interesting how this blog has influenced other people in my life, well mostly just my parents. I have told them both about having to find things to write about and how difficult it can be to come up with something interesting or original. As such, I have often received e-mails or been handed an article that might be something I could use in my blog. I think it’s great! It’s not that my parents are searching for things to help me out but if they read something that is applicable to teaching or schools, they pass it on to me. I don’t use everything they send me but some of it has made its way onto my blog. This weekend I was home visiting my parents and my dad once again handed me an article that he thought was interesting and “might be useful for your blog!” And so here it is:

Can chewing gum help people concentrate? Apparently yes! An article in the health section of Thursday’s Calgary Herald suggest that gum can have a lot more benefits than simply freshening breath. Some of these benefits include increased ability to focus, help with memory and stress relief. Not surprisingly the greatest gum use in North America is by teenagers but this large amount of gum chewing could help this age group in the classroom. “The act of chewing increases blood flow to the brain by as much as 25 percent” and increases activity of the frontoparietal brain region. I had to look up what this region of the brain is used for. This area has implications in higher-order processing like attention, decision-making and intelligence. The article stated that this is the reason some scientists believe that chewing increases cognitive skills like concentration and memory and that some schools are providing students with gum during testing periods.

I found the article quite interesting because I find that most schools have banned gum on school grounds. I definitely understand some of the concerns with the disposal of gum and the distraction that some gum chewers bring, but if gum increases concentration and memory, couldn’t we be helping students by letting them chew gum in our class? As with everything could we not teach students how to properly dispose of their gum and how to chew without causing great distractions to others? I am curious to know if there might be an increase in the allowance of gum in schools with the findings of this research. The article stated that some schools were using gum during testing situations to see if it helped students with concentration. Wouldn’t it be beneficial to allow gum in regular classrooms when the material is being taught? I have heard that having students write tests in the same space that they learned the material can help students recall the information so wouldn’t it make sense for students to chew gum while learning the material and writing tests?

I have heard that students with ADHD often need to do something to help them concentrate. Some classrooms allow these students to move around at the back of the classroom. Or provide the students with small squishy balls to squeeze. One of the classrooms that I helped with had large elastic bands around the legs of the desk so the little boy could quietly move his feet to help him concentrate. I think they also allowed him to chew gum at times to see if it would help him at school. So should we be bringing gum back into the classroom?

Would you let students chew gum in your class, if it was allowed in the school?

Hidden Curriculum: Process

On Thursday we had another presentation on the hidden curriculum but this time the focus was on the process rather than the content. This basically implies how students learn the social norms and values of a society and the socialization of students. I thought the presentation was really well done and very interesting. It helped me to examine my own school experiences and evaluate how I was socialized as a student and how I am influencing the socialization of the students that I teach.

The presentation focused on early elementary students and how the hidden curriculum is used to teach and reinforce the values of our society. As soon as children start school, they are being shaped into individuals that follow the rules in our nation. We setup rules and routines in our classroom to help with the management of the class but also help students to know how they should act outside of the classroom and school. Students are told where to sit, when to eat, when to play and how to move between activities. We teach students to conform to the rules and obey authority figures.

In part of the presentation we were asked to recall our first day of school. I had a hard time remembering what it was like on my first day but I remember different areas of the kindergarten classroom. We had a labelled hook for our coat and place for our shoes right outside the classroom. Inside, the classroom was divided into different sections. One section was for dress up and to make plays. Another had tables for drawing and small lessons. Another area had a sandbox and water table. And a larger fourth area (there may have been more areas but these are the ones that I remember) was an open space where we would sit to have stories read to us. One member of our class said he remembered having a piece of tape on the carpet with his name on it and they had to sit on their name. I don’t think we had to sit on our names when we sat on the carpet but I think we had name tags for sitting at the tables. I wonder if this is why now as adults we have a hard time sitting in a different desk or chair then we normally do. As children we were told where to sit and it was always in the same place until someone changed our seats, so perhaps we have developed this nature (or socialised) to always sit in the same place. If you haven’t noticed this yet, think about where you sit when you enter a class. Chances are you typically sit in the same general area if not the same seat in every class. Or have you ever sat in someone else’s seat and watched their reaction? Often they are a little confused and don’t know what to do. It’s sort of funny to see…

I thought the use of literature was a good way to see how we try to teach children about the norms and values of our society at an early age. I have always thought that parents often try to help their children understand what the first day of school would be like and many parents use books to help illustrate the idea of school. Using these types of books in school would also be helpful to show how students should act in a certain situation, such as being a good friend, keeping secrets, listening to parents or teachers. These books could also help teachers explain rules in the classroom.

Overall, I think the hidden curriculum is helpful to teach students how they should behave in social settings. It helps students to learn the norms and values of our nation and become successful individuals. Although we may think we are simply teaching students the rules of our classroom, we often are also teaching the rules of our nation.

The Canadian Way!

In yesterday’s presentation, Robert commented on a classmate’s suggestion to have 3 arguments for and 3 arguments against a topic so that the students can see other people’s view, as being the “Canadian Way”. I thought this was so true! Or at least it has been for me. I think I have always been taught to think of all points of view. So much so that sometimes it hinders my ability to develop my opinion of what I think is right. I can see both sides of the story or issue and can see how both could make sense to different people. I remember writing essays in high school social studies classes where I had to discuss both sides of an argument and then choose the side that I agreed with most to support it. Most of the time, I could have argued either side but for the purpose of the assignment I would pick one.

I’m not sure if this is the experience of all Canadians because I definitely know some opinionated people, but shouldn’t people try to see both sides of an issue? Wouldn’t it help create more harmony than disharmony in the world? Is there something wrong with compromise? If two students are arguing over something on the playground, wouldn’t you rather help them see each other’s side and come up with a compromise rather than arguing or fighting over the issue until one finally gives in? Again, this is how I was raised so it makes the most sense to me. But I think that students should also be encouraged to develop their opinion and be able to stand up for what they believe in. I guess being able to see the other person’s side doesn’t necessarily mean you agree with it, simply that you can work with it.

Overall, I like the Canadian Way! I think compromise is the way to go on most problems so that’s how I will continue to live. Compromise is the Canadian Way….the best way!

Bill 44

Today we had a presentation on the hidden curriculum with a focus on the hidden curriculum content. The first part of the presentation discussed Bill 44. This bill was passed this summer in which parents have the right to remove their students from classes when lessons on sex, religion or sexual orientation are taught. I think this could make life for some teachers quite tricky although as Robert mentioned there may be simply a form that the parents sign when they register their children to either allow or not allow their child to sit in these classes. It sounds sort of like the FOIP forms for students that are not allowed to have their pictures taken. I guess teachers will have to be aware of which students are not to be included in these classes and should a question arise, either remove these students for the discussion or field the question for another time. Teachers will have to be on guard all the time and make sure they do not answer questions without considering who is in the class.

I think this will have the biggest impact on the teachers that teach middle and high school students. Although some students in elementary are curious, I feel that they do not tend to ask such controversial questions. Students in middle and high school are trying to figure out who they are and will probably have more questions regarding sex, sexual orientation and religion. I think it is important for the students to be able to get the knowledge they need in order to develop their own understanding and create their own opinions, which may not be the same as their parents. I thought the videos expressed an idea that I really believe….teachers should teach students to think, not what to think. Although teachers have their own opinions on certain subjects and ideas, I don’t think they should be portrayed in class. Teachers should teach students how to develop their own opinions and how to adequately express their opinions to others.

A little bit of history...

We have been talking about the education history of Canada so I figured I would read this section of the textbook to see what they discuss. I think the history of education in Canada is interesting and relevant to me as I begin my teaching career. I think knowing about some of the history may help me to understand some of the reasons behind some of the current issues facing teachers and schools. From what we discussed in class, some of the current struggles that teachers are faced with are related to something that occurred decades ago.

Canada’s education system started under the influence of Britain and the United States. Initially, there was a school system for the upper class called “grammar schools” based on the British model and “common” schools for the children of the working class. Soon the separate school system was developed for the Protestants and Catholics. By 1967, the four original provinces had their individual school systems supported by property taxes and the trend continued as the other six provinces were created….and so it has stayed. Now Canada has 13 separate systems (one for each province and territory) and a federally controlled First Nations education, controlled by the department of Indian and Northern affairs.

One thing that I did not know about the Canadian system is that there is general consensus of what children should learn in each grade between the provinces. I thought that since each province could decide their own curriculum, they would all be unique and different. The textbook suggests that things are relatively consistent between the provinces so children can move between provinces without missing or repeating too much information. I have not yet looked at the curriculums of other provinces to know to what extent this is true but I thought it was a good thing nonetheless. I know it is a different matter when you move from one country to another. Things are even quite different between Canada’s curriculum and the United States. Well there may be many similarities between the curriculum but when you learn them are different. My nieces and nephew experienced this when they moved from the U.S to Alberta. All three of them had to repeat the grade they were in because the curriculum was different and they had not learned what they were supposed to according to Alberta’s standards. I think if that had happened to me I would have been a little mad. Why would you want to repeat a grade that you had just passed? But they appeared to handle it quite well. I guess it would be different if you had to repeat a grade and all your friends were in the older grade, but they were new to these schools and had not yet made new friends. But it made me wonder how much of a difference there is between the two curriculums and would they have missed a lot if they did not have to repeat those grades. I guess someone must have decided that they were significantly different to make them repeat the grades.