Topic: And we wonder whats wrong with children these days.....

[ruthcatrin]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/17/AR2010101702798.html


Quote: "Students could not use anything they found on the Internet. They were not permitted even to discuss their assignments with friends, classmates, neighbors, parents, relatives or siblings....Any violations, they said, would mean a zero on the assignment and an honor code referral."

So, by written rule, the students cannot even tell their parents about the assignment, or ask a parent or older sibling for explanation of a confusing item. A student could, by the written rule as stated, be given a 0 on the assignment just for walking down the hall at school and telling a fellow student what the homework assignment was.

[Cholly]

Prime example of the type of hide-bound teachers that need to be removed from the system. Take off your blinders, it's not about YOUR convenience, it's about kids learning to think critically. Just because your own capacity for critical thinking is damaged does NOT give you the right OR authority to damage our children's. If my daughter's school tried to implement something like this I would be down the principal's  and administrators' throats. I am actively involved in my daughter's school, we've got a pretty good bunch. I've had to butt heads a couple times though. They found out my head was harder.

[jbmathwiz]

Our school system is a jokeeeee. Thats all I'm gonna contribute to this right now. hahaha.

[gemini]

whoa!  I would not only be down the teacher/principal/administrator's throats but the entire school board.  that is flat out ridiculous!

How does one learn without searching, discussing and asking questions?

[bulrush]

whoa!  I would not only be down the teacher/principal/administrator's throats but the entire school board.  that is flat out ridiculous!

Be careful, Gemini. Over-reacting parents are why many teachers do not try new things or take risks. Over-reacting parents cause the teachers to think like this: "Comply. Do not act different. Do not stand out. Do not innovate."

[gemini]

Be careful, Gemini. Over-reacting parents are why many teachers do not try new things or take risks. Over-reacting parents cause the teachers to think like this: "Comply. Do not act different. Do not stand out. Do not innovate."

I'm not an over-reacting parent. But I will speak up when a situation truly calls for it.  In this case, it would be called for. This situation discourages searching for answers and therefore cripples the learning process. The exact opposite of what we send our kids to school for.

For the record, I am single parent of 2 boys (17 & 12) and have only one time been at the school to complain about anything (my son was being bullied and the vice principal thought the situation was funny..actually laughed at me on the phone)

[bulrush]

Gemini, I'm glad you're not over-reacting. I wasn't talking ABOUT you, but more talking out loud TO you.

This particular case is a weird one. I don't think ALL assignments should be done this way, but I do think students should learn to think on their own.

At my work I do some fairly uncommon tasks, so I cannot even use Google to look for an answer, because what I'm doing has never been done before! So I need to think for myself, try different things, and reason out a solution. (I'm a computer programmer.)

[gemini]

understood.

I agree that outside the box thinking is a critical thing to learn and I'm all for unconventional teaching methods.
In your job, you are doing things that have never been done before. Are you not allowed to "think outloud"/discuss with other programmers for ideas? The difference is that you are doing a job that you have been trained for and are getting paid to do based on your schooling/training. These kids are in school and still learning. This isn't a confidentiality issue in any way, shape or form. Therefore, don't tell my kid who he can or can't talk to about something.  

I think my biggest issue with this is, on a personal basis and as a parent in general, is that I feel that to tell a child they are not allowed to discuss something with their parents or others is wrong regardless of what the subject is or the age of the child. I've always taught my kids that they can tell me anything. For a teacher, or any other authority-type of person, to tell my child otherwise would send me into the red zone.

[bulrush]

Gemini,
I am the only programmer in my department. There are other programmers in the company but they have no idea what we do in my department, so they cannot help me. And the sales people (with many years' experience) keep telling me there is literally NO ONE in my whole industry that does what I do. So there is no one to talk to when I'm really stuck. Although my boss is learning to think logically and is able to sometimes offer alternative ways of doing things.

I wouldn't be too upset if my son (now in high school) were given this assignment once a year. I don't know how helpful it would be to do it more than that.

I want to mention that in all my programming classes I NEEDED to talk to other classmates about these new problems we were given. I wouldn't have passed without help from my classmates. And sometimes, no students knew what was going on so I had to think on my own, and just try different solutions.

[Cholly]

I have to say I'm 100% behind Gemini on this, any authority that will tell my kid they can't talk to mom or dad about anything is going to have me down their throat. If they want to discuss with me anything that they particularly don't want me telling them, they can discuss it with me either privately or in a forum with other parents.
This was utter BS for the convenience of some lazy and hidebound teachers. This wasn't innovative or even a one time deal to get a point across, they literally wanted them to use one text book and one only for the entire class. They couldn't even discuss it among themselves. Did you actually read the entire article? I read and re-read it 3 times to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding. As a parent and an educated individual, it truly infuriated me. Whether it was done consciously or not, this was done for the convenience of some extremely lazy teachers that were arrogant in their authority, more bureaucrat than teacher.