What is busywork?

[ebunny]

Over the past 6 years I've seen the word 'busywork' often enough on the boards, and still haven't managed to get a clear understanding of what it means. Is it an American culture specific word?

 

IMhO, It doesn't seem to have an Asian context because any academic pursuit (at least in India) is seen either as a 'new lesson' or 'practice' or 'revision' or 'studying'. 

 

I've also seen this word crop up more frequently wrt accelerated/gifted/advanced learners.

 

So what is your interpretation of busywork? What is the difference between busywork and practice? (especially in math). How do you determine if something is busywork or not?

[Arcadia]

Is it an American culture specific word?

 

IMhO, It doesn't seem to have an Asian context because any academic pursuit (at least in India) is seen either as a 'new lesson' or 'practice' or 'revision' or 'studying'.

I have heard the term busywork being used in Asia when I was a kid in the 70s and my older cousins have heard that term too.

 

For a child with beautiful handwriting and great spelling, copywork of spelling words in public school does feel like busywork.

 

For a child who can do 12x12 multiplication as fast as a normal calculator, math drills worksheets in public school does feel like busywork.

 

My oldest is a natural speller. A spelling curriculum would have been busywork to him. My younger boy on the other hand needed hand holding for spelling.

 

For example as a public school kid, I finished my entire year's math textbook exercises in the Nov/Dec end of year school break. To me they are busywork that had to be completed since my teacher does grade them for working. There was no harder textbooks available that were approved by my country's ministry of education. They didn't have elementary school math olympiad then or I could probably have done those during class time. Instead I did my chinese and music theory homework in math class for 1st-6th grade.

[ebunny]

I have heard the term busywork being used in Asia when I was a kid in the 70s and my older cousins have heard that term too.

 

For a child with beautiful handwriting and great spelling, copywork of spelling words in public school does feel like busywork.

 

For a child who can do 12x12 multiplication as fast as a normal calculator, math drills worksheets in public school does feel like busywork.

 

My oldest is a natural speller. A spelling curriculum would have been busywork to him. My younger boy on the other hand needed hand holding for spelling.

 

For example as a public school kid, I finished my entire year's math textbook exercises in the Nov/Dec end of year school break. To me they are busywork that had to be completed since my teacher does grade them for working. There was no harder textbooks available that were approved by my country's ministry of education. They didn't have elementary school math olympiad then or I could probably have done those during class time. Instead I did my chinese and music theory homework in math class for 1st-6th grade.

 

In the 70s in Sg? That's interesting. I don't hear of it in India at all. Its all grouped under 'studying'. :laugh:

 

FWIW, handwriting may not stay beautiful forever, unless one writes copiously (Ask me how I know! :tongue_smilie: ).

Math computation too. If a child can do 12x 13 in 1 second now, can s/he do it in 1 second a year from now without any multiplication tables practice?

 

For eg: arithmetic computation: can speed remain high without any specific computation practice?

For writing: can writing speed increase without...writing huge amounts?

 

[Arcadia]

For eg: arithmetic computation: can speed remain high without any specific computation practice?

For writing: can writing speed increase without...writing huge amounts?

Computation practice doesn't need to be in the form of the 2 minute math drills worksheets which is what they give here for classwork and/or homework depending on the 2nd and 3rd grade teacher.

 

Writing speed can increase by writing huge amounts in essays without it being spelling and dictation copy work.

 

There is drill for perfection but that doesn't mean that it won't feel like busywork to some students and parents. In SG we coined the word "kiasuism".

[Farrar]

I would define it as superfluous work, particularly mind numbing, drudgery work. Work for the sake of giving students work. Work that's given without a thought about the real purpose. Work that isn't needed for learning.

 

There is a much lesser used definition that you'll see very rarely though. That is work that keeps a child engaged and busy during a time when they need to be engaged and busy instead of disruptive or bored. So this is usually things like puzzles or brain teasers or coloring pages. Depends on the age and context. This, of course, can be positive (kids can be engaged by a logic problem in a positive way, etc.) but it can also be really negative. By definition, this work is also superfluous. Ideally, it's enriching, but the reality in schools (where it's typically needed and used) is that it becomes the first sort of busywork.

 

I think one of the problems is that necessary practice for one child can be busywork for another. It's hard to deal with this in the classroom sometimes. It's generally much easier in homeschooling. If you know your kid has a skill mastered, you can choose not to drill it or choose to skip a lesson or practice on it even if it's part of the curriculum you're using.

 

I also see people using it in a blanket way that I feel uncomfortable with sometimes. Like, if you don't agree that kindergarteners should color to improve small motor skills, is coloring "busywork"? Or is it work that you simply disagree with the purpose of? It's not purposeless. Of course, for a kid who hated it and already has solid small motor skills, of course it's busywork regardless. But that doesn't necessarily mean it is for all kids. Or that the teacher is trying to punish the kids or is being neglectful.

 

Busywork is especially a problem for gifted learners. For many gifted kids in schools *everything* can turn into busywork - the work that their peers are doing is busywork because they've already mastered the skills involved and the work that the teachers give them to fill in the time is meant to be of the latter variety but, in part because it's done *all the time* it becomes more drudgery.

 

 

[ElizaG]

The term "busy work" seems to have originated in US schools around 1900. Back then, it wasn't pejorative. It was just a general term for tasks that children in the primary grades -- who weren't yet reading or writing much -- could work on unassisted while the teacher was helping another group. These tasks included copying, using manipulatives, and doing crafts that were supposed to develop fine motor skills (e.g. coloring, paper folding, clay modeling, drawing geometric borders around the paper).

 

Teachers found this sort of work very useful, especially in one-room schoolhouses, where the younger children would otherwise spend long periods twiddling their thumbs or doodling on their slates. From the beginning, though, there were complaints that much of it was dull and only slightly educational. For instance, this article from the 1890s acknowledges that at least 1/3 of the school day is spent on "busy-work," and distinguishes between types that the author considers desirable and undesirable.

 

https://books.google.com/books?id=He47AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA368

 

By the 1930s, the term had taken on the negative meaning that it has today. I can't tell whether this is because most teachers really were giving pointless and excessive tasks, or because something about the whole business -- the solitary aspect? the copying? -- didn't fit with the latest thinking on education.

 

So, it's an interesting question!

Edited March 27, 2017 by ElizaG

[ebunny]

So, from what I understand teacher intent is necessary to call an activity busywork. Literally keeping the children busy without adding to their learning- A pass their time kind of activity.

 

I wonder if low standards in terms of content coverage and commensurate output lend themselves to busywork . I mean, if a teacher has 16-20 chapters to complete annually in a math class of 25-30 students, she is unlikely to waste her own or the students time with anything that does not move them further in their learning curve.

 

 

[Guest]

So, from what I understand teacher intent is necessary to call an activity busywork. Literally keeping the children busy without adding to their learning- A pass their time kind of activity.

 

I wonder if low standards in terms of content coverage and commensurate output lend themselves to busywork . I mean, if a teacher has 16-20 chapters to complete annually in a math class of 25-30 students, she is unlikely to waste her own or the students time with anything that does not move them further in their learning curve.

 

She'd be very likely to waste her student's time if ten of them had it down cold, aren't allowed to move "ahead" of the current lesson, and ten of her students don't understand it at all. With the remainder being right on target with the current lesson. Whatever the standard is, if everyone in the room has to be on the same page (literally), inevitably some will be bored and some will be struggling to understand.

 

----------------

 

Seperate from that, both of my older boys have gone through a phase where I needed to just keep them busy. They were just in a weird headspace, but not ready to actually move on in most of their work. I embraced the workbooks, en masse! and kept them doing busywork until they got over it.

[SparklyUnicorn]

It's something to keep the kid busy that does nothing for them in the skill department. 

 

It would be like if you are being taught to cook and the instructor asked you to boil water 3 times in a row.  Just....boil water.  Fill up pot, turn on stove, wait for it to boil, and repeat.  It gives you something to do, but you probably don't need to boil water several times to get the point.

 

 

[abba12]

For me, it's when something is designed to take longer than it has to. So, doing a crossword for vocabulary that takes an hour instead of reading about words or hearing them in daily life. A math worksheet that takes half an hour due to the amount of colouring in when the kid could just circle them instead. I remember being given math puzzles in school because I'd done the class work. They weren't challenging and relevant like, say, beast academy. They were just tedious and time consuming, work out the code by doing these sums kind of things. And I remember when we did tessellations in school clearly. We all made tessellating shapes by cutting a rectangle in three, and then spent the rest of the WEEK colouring our patterns in full colour. None of these things add to learning. I also think things which check boxes but don't correspond to real learning can be busywork, like comprehension worksheets for a kid who shows no comprehension issues, or these horrid term-long literary analysis things which take all the joy out of reading. They serve a purpose for kids who struggle with full comprehension of text but not for most kids. 

[ebunny]

They were just tedious and time consuming, work out the code by doing these sums kind of things.  None of these things add to learning.

 

:o  I've had my DD do those worksheets in our past round of homeschooling. On one of those days when our energy levels were mismatched.

 

________________

 

Does some amount of busywork in a classroom build tolerance for boredom? for patience? Although, I can see it backfiring mightily if that's all a student was doing.

[Guest]

:o I've had my DD do those worksheets in our past round of homeschooling. On one of those days when our energy levels were mismatched.

 

________________

 

Does some amount of busywork in a classroom build tolerance for boredom? for patience? Although, I can see it backfiring mightily if that's all a student was doing.

That's a good point.

 

I won't offer conjecture about a class situation, but at homeschool the subtle lesson is: if you could find something non- disruptive that doesn't make a mess to do on your own, you wouldn't be asked to do these workbooks.

But, then, of course they like the workbooks. So it's not a hard sell anyway.

[Creekside5]

It's something to keep the kid busy that does nothing for them in the skill department. 

 

It would be like if you are being taught to cook and the instructor asked you to boil water 3 times in a row.  Just....boil water.  Fill up pot, turn on stove, wait for it to boil, and repeat.  It gives you something to do, but you probably don't need to boil water several times to get the point.

 

 

Yes, but don't blame the teacher or assume that she/he has bad intentions.  It is probably that half of the class really didn't master how to boil the water and so it needs to be retaught or practiced.  Many kids need repetition in order to learn skills.  What is busy work to a few students is necessary practice for others.  As often as we teachers talk about differentiation in the classroom, it is often very hard to implement with everything.  Some kids end up doing "busy work" while others get the necessary practice they need.  Avoiding busy work is a blessing that homeschoolers have because they can teach each child individually.  However, I would bet that many who homeschool a variety of ages together do use "busy work" with their littles or older in order to keep the day running smoothly.

[regentrude]

This is what I just wrote in the output thread:

 

Busywork is output for output's sake with no clear pedagogical purpose. If I cannot identify the purpose of an assignment and where it is necessary for my child within the framework of his education, the assignment is busywork.

 

Practicing a math concept until mastery - fine. Assigning pages of more problems for already thoroughly mastered concepts just because some curriculum has those assignments - busywork.

Taking notes from a text to learn notetaking, to help identify and remember key points, to clarify complicated concept - fine. Taking notes just because - busywork.

Drawing pictures of vocabulary words the student already knows=busywork.

Rewriting lists of spelling words the student can already spell = busywork.

 

 

ETA: My gifted kids attended public school for elementary, and pretty much everything was busywork for them; they were able to absorb the tiny amount of daily learning in a few minutes and did not require hours to practice skills that they had already mastered. It was painful, and ultimately lead us to homeschool.

 

Edited March 27, 2017 by regentrude

[regentrude]

I wonder if low standards in terms of content coverage and commensurate output lend themselves to busywork . I mean, if a teacher has 16-20 chapters to complete annually in a math class of 25-30 students, she is unlikely to waste her own or the students time with anything that does not move them further in their learning curve.

 

She will waste the time of those students who have mastered the concept already and are waiting for the slowest learners to catch up so the class can learn in lockstep.

Without differentiation, the top students spend their days doing basically only busywork. Ask me how I know.  (Unless  they are given permission to do something completely different. My DD spent five years in school reading fiction with teachers' permission - they were just glad that she did not disrupt the class. That was not busywork, but it was also not an education.)

Edited March 27, 2017 by regentrude

[Farrar]

So, from what I understand teacher intent is necessary to call an activity busywork. Literally keeping the children busy without adding to their learning- A pass their time kind of activity.

 

I don't think intent is really necessary. I think if a teacher has 30 students in his class and 20 of them have just started to understand how to add and subtract fractions, 5 of them have completely mastered it, and 5 of them are so behind they don't get basic fraction concepts, then assigning a page of practice adding fractions is probably expedient for that teacher and it *isn't* busywork for 2/3 of the class. And the intention is probably positive. And has a purpose.

 

In that example, differentiating would be easy - the five kids who've mastered it should get some really hard word problems with it or should get the next topic to see if they can master that. The five kids who are behind should get a more basic page of practice with fraction concepts. Most of the time, it's not that clear. And the teacher, with 30 kids and maybe several subjects, may not completely know who has mastered it and who's behind and who needs more practice.

 

Of course, some work *is* busy work by intention. Worksheets left to do whenever there's a sub. Word searches when what kids need are practice with the definitions. A coloring page when kids need to learn dates for history class. A project building a crafty model when the goal is to learn about science. Things that weren't well thought out and are disconnected from their learning goals or that represent older ideas of what works.

[ebunny]

Yes, but don't blame the teacher or assume that she/he has bad intentions.  It is probably that half of the class really didn't master how to boil the water and so it needs to be retaught or practiced.  Many kids need repetition in order to learn skills.  What is busy work to a few students is necessary practice for others.  As often as we teachers talk about differentiation in the classroom, it is often very hard to implement with everything.  Some kids end up doing "busy work" while others get the necessary practice they need.  Avoiding busy work is a blessing that homeschoolers have because they can teach each child individually.  However, I would bet that many who homeschool a variety of ages together do use "busy work" with their littles or older in order to keep the day running smoothly.

 

Agreed, especially with the bolded. Okbud and Farrar have mentioned the same upthread.

 

 

This is what I just wrote in the output thread:

 

Busywork is output for output's sake with no clear pedagogical purpose. If I cannot identify the purpose of an assignment and where it is necessary for my child within the framework of his education, the assignment is busywork.

 

Practicing a math concept until mastery - fine. Assigning pages of more problems for already thoroughly mastered concepts just because some curriculum has those assignments - busywork.

Taking notes from a text to learn notetaking, to help identify and remember key points, to clarify complicated concept - fine. Taking notes just because - busywork.

Drawing pictures of vocabulary words the student already knows=busywork.

Rewriting lists of spelling words the student can already spell = busywork.

 

 

ETA: My gifted kids attended public school for elementary, and pretty much everything was busywork for them; they were able to absorb the tiny amount of daily learning in a few minutes and did not require hours to practice skills that they had already mastered. It was painful, and ultimately lead us to homeschool.

 

 

She will waste the time of those students who have mastered the concept already and are waiting for the slowest learners to catch up so the class can learn in lockstep.

Without differentiation, the top students spend their days doing basically only busywork. Ask me how I know.  (Unless  they are given permission to do something completely different. My DD spent five years in school reading fiction with teachers' permission - they were just glad that she did not disrupt the class. That was not busywork, but it was also not an education.)

 

I've taught a classroom of diverse ability (math) kids in the past. A few couldn't grasp the concept of a number line, the middle group could mark negative and positive numbers on a number line and the highest ability group were adding and subtracting integers without a number line. Although I had 3 different levels of worksheets, I'm fairly certain now some of the high ability kids thought my worksheets were busywork. :o   But that's the pitfall of an inclusive and diverse classroom. Thankfully, the next time I went in that class, I had more resources and my wits about me.

Can busywork be eliminated completely? I don't know...

[SparklyUnicorn]

Yes, but don't blame the teacher or assume that she/he has bad intentions.  It is probably that half of the class really didn't master how to boil the water and so it needs to be retaught or practiced.  Many kids need repetition in order to learn skills.  What is busy work to a few students is necessary practice for others.  As often as we teachers talk about differentiation in the classroom, it is often very hard to implement with everything.  Some kids end up doing "busy work" while others get the necessary practice they need.  Avoiding busy work is a blessing that homeschoolers have because they can teach each child individually.  However, I would bet that many who homeschool a variety of ages together do use "busy work" with their littles or older in order to keep the day running smoothly.

 

I don't deny any of that.

 

I didn't blame anything on anyone. 

 

[Arcadia]

Does some amount of busywork in a classroom build tolerance for boredom? for patience? Although, I can see it backfiring mightily if that's all a student was doing.

There were lots of reading under the desk :) Or putting a personal book on top of a textbook and pretending to be listening to the teacher.

In a class of 45 kids,

you have "rebellious" kids who would do what they rather do in an obvious manner as long as it does not disturb their classmates e.g. folding tissue paper carnations at the back of the class.

The "sneaky" kids who are more discreet in whatever they are doing.

The kids who slept literally. One high school classmate was so bored in calculus class he fell asleep in his seat. He ace the Cambridge exam for both maths (further math and math).

The kids who doodle. Somehow my high school math class has plenty who could be illustrators and animators out of a class of more than 400 in a lecture hall. One of the doodler is still working as an accountant.

 

There are "busywork" that we used for road trips and for when my husband and I are both sick. We use things like logic puzzles and math circles materials. However, it is basically a "no school" day so it is not like busywork in the context of a school classroom when kids are just passing time waiting for the bell. My kids can opt to do something other than the "busywork" that I have in case kids say "I'm bored."

[Guest]

Busywork can actually be useful,as students figure out shortcuts. How to color in large spaces quickly, most efficient way to word search,how to skim, how to check one's arithmetic and algebra, notice paterns and properties, etc. I forget, who was the physicist that used 'rainbow addition' as a lad to short cut a busywork assignment? The busywork that is hard is using the crutches that were long ago mastered..the nines finger trick for example, count up by one with manipulatives instead of make a ten,etc.

Edited March 27, 2017 by Heigh Ho

[SparklyUnicorn]

I think busywork might have a place IN school.  IMO it has no place as homework.  Now I understand that what is busywork for one might not be for another.  That issue aside, nope, no place as homework. 

[MeaganS]

________________

 

Does some amount of busywork in a classroom build tolerance for boredom? for patience? Although, I can see it backfiring mightily if that's all a student was doing.

I don't know about the classroom, but I can think of lots of more useful tedious and boring work kids can do to learn these skills in homeschooling. Cleaning and weeding come to mind, among many other things. No need to use schoolwork to teach that.

 

For patience I'd rather have them do something like practice the piano or do harder/deeper work like beast academy and push them to the extent of their abilities.

Edited March 27, 2017 by Meagan S

[regentrude]

Does some amount of busywork in a classroom build tolerance for boredom? for patience? Although, I can see it backfiring mightily if that's all a student was doing.

 

There are better ways to develop patience and perseverance. Meaningful learning often has boring tasks. Practicing an instrument, for example, is fantastic for that. Studying foreign language vocabulary or grammar are pretty boring without being busywork.

[Garga]

Busywork depends on the kid. I've heard some people say that all the review in CLE math is "busywork." Yet, when my son first started the program, he was weak in math and all that review was vital for him.

 

But just today in CLE language arts, he was supposed to decide whether to add apostrophe S to a word or just the apostrophe (for possession.). The instructions were to copy the word and then add the appropriate ending. I told him not to copy the word, but just to add the ending to the word already printed on the page. Re-writing the word would be busy work for this student. However, for another student, the copying might be vital for some reason I don't know.

[goldenecho]

So, from what I understand teacher intent is necessary to call an activity busywork. Literally keeping the children busy without adding to their learning- A pass their time kind of activity.

 

I wonder if low standards in terms of content coverage and commensurate output lend themselves to busywork . I mean, if a teacher has 16-20 chapters to complete annually in a math class of 25-30 students, she is unlikely to waste her own or the students time with anything that does not move them further in their learning curve.

 

From what I know, most teachers are held to very high standards as far as what they are doing in class contributing to goals.  Recently on a  teacher board I was asking advice on an idea I had as a substitute teacher to make pre-made multi-grade theme based lesson plans (on things like volcanoes or sign language), so that teachers could call me up and not have to lesson plan and I could get to teach something I loved.  While many teachers said they'd love that, others said that even on a random day that they were out their lessons had to contribute towards their class goals, so they wouldn't be allowed to do something like that...which seemed a little CRAZY to me to be that tightly focused that your year could not contain A SINGLE DAY that was off task...even for interest based learning. 

 

But, what teachers do face is situations where a portion of the class is ready to move on but the rest are not ready, and in that case those don't need to work/review usually gets it anyways because if they aren't working they'll often be a distraction to other students.  Sometimes teachers can give them some sort of extension work but generally it's hard to do that every time.

 

It's part of the reason homeschool takes so much less time...less re-teaching!

Edited March 27, 2017 by goldenecho

[fralala]

For me, it's when something is designed to take longer than it has to. So, doing a crossword for vocabulary that takes an hour instead of reading about words or hearing them in daily life. A math worksheet that takes half an hour due to the amount of colouring in when the kid could just circle them instead. I remember being given math puzzles in school because I'd done the class work. They weren't challenging and relevant like, say, beast academy. They were just tedious and time consuming, work out the code by doing these sums kind of things. And I remember when we did tessellations in school clearly. We all made tessellating shapes by cutting a rectangle in three, and then spent the rest of the WEEK colouring our patterns in full colour. None of these things add to learning. I also think things which check boxes but don't correspond to real learning can be busywork, like comprehension worksheets for a kid who shows no comprehension issues, or these horrid term-long literary analysis things which take all the joy out of reading. They serve a purpose for kids who struggle with full comprehension of text but not for most kids. 

 

This is what I thought of. I immediately thought of those pages in the Singapore Math book that are SUPPOSED to be fun-- color in all the sums that equal 10!-- but my child cries, "Mom, can't I just TELL you? Do I HAVE to color?"

 

In a way, I think busywork can be adults' attempts to make learning fun for kids. It is also a response to the length of the current school day. Sometimes we succeed (as with a lot of those educational computer games) and these activities can be useful for learning. But in my house, the kids seem to prefer to-the-point Work Work and then they get to choose how to spend their leisure time. (Coloring equations, Reflex Math, Brainpop-- none of these things can compete with running around outside and dreaming up their OWN busywork.)

[ElizaG]

I agree with the PP who said that "busywork" can have a legitimate place in homeschooling, especially with younger children and some SN situations. There are times when the children are going to be at loose ends, and the parent won't be able to work with them one on one. Sometimes -- not always! -- it's okay to assign some work that serves mainly to keep them occupied, while also developing core skills such as neatness, sitting reasonably quietly, and thinking through difficulties on their own.

 

Education isn't all about academics. In the early years, it seems to me to be mostly about the formation of habits. Maybe there are other ways to practice school habits, but in my experience, they're hard to find. Most of the suggestions on this thread, such as grammar and music practice, seem to me to be more suitable for older children. And assigned yard work, while a good thing, doesn't develop all of the same habits as assigned seat work.

 

It also seems to me that our attitudes on this subject tend to be inconsistent and subjective. For instance, in all the threads about "what to do with toddlers and preschoolers???," I've never seen anyone suggest that handing them a tub of manipulatives, or a Do-a-Dot book, is busywork and should be avoided. We seem to take it for granted that it's fine, even necessary. Hmm. Are we so sure that this is an optimal way for them to spend 20 minutes, providing a very appropriate level of challenge and guidance for their current stage of development? Probably not. And nobody seems to care that much, likely because they're little, and can't do a whole lot. But they're people too. Surely a two year old's time is as valuable as a six year old's.

 

NB, I'm not saying that we need to dump the Do-a-Dots and turn ourselves into 24/7 toddler facilitators, a la Montessori (or whatever). BTDT, and it's pretty ridiculous, not to mention impossible with more than one child. But depending on the family, the same could be said of trying to follow a zero-busywork policy in the primary grades.

 

In upper elementary and beyond, I think most of us would be much more careful about limiting busywork, at least in principle. I tend to wonder, though, if some of the popular approaches to language arts for that age group -- such as "read, then narrate" or "read, then outline" -- could fall into this category, when they're assigned in a formulaic way (as often seems to be the case). It seems important to recognize that we can slide into this, even if we are't using textbooks or workbooks.

 

There's an excerpt here from 1899, titled "Busy Work":

 

https://books.google.com/books?id=6QICAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA412

 

which criticizes what the author calls "lightning reproductions" -- which I take to mean "narrations done right after reading." He says that Americans in particular tend to over-emphasize written output, and advises teachers to give the children plenty of time to reflect on the material. So this gets back to what Regentrude was saying.

 

A few years ago, my own panic over lack of output led to our one attempt at using a packaged curriculum. We ended up reading most of the books, but skipping most of the assignments. This thread has me realizing that it was very heavy on busywork, both in obvious ways such as puzzle pages, and more insidiously in the constant repetition of the copywork/narration/dictation cycle, regardless of the nature of the book being read. Thud, thud, thud.

 

Thinking this over... if we set aside the issues that are specific to graded classrooms, there seem to be two major area of weakness that can cause parents and teachers to resort to busywork, in the negative sense.

 

1) Need/desire to have younger or less able children working without assistance, for some length of time.

 

2) Need/desire for tangible output.

 

My sense is that neither of these is wrong in itself, but they can certainly both be done to excess, and in inferior ways.

 

Food for thought!

Edited March 27, 2017 by ElizaG

[Tanaqui]

Busywork is work that isn't teaching the child.

 

For example, the OP mentioned reviewing times tables drills. Yes, you need to keep reviewing even once they're mastered - but the appropriate practice is to do 2 by 2 and 2 by 3 multiplication, not page after page of memorized times tables.

 

Some examples from my own life: For many years as a student, I was expected, weekly, to write out a list of vocabulary words (usually ten words), look them up, copy the definitions, and then use each word in a sentence. Which I didn't do, because I never once encountered a word I didn't already know. (Like a student mentioned upthread, I spent most of my time in school reading under my desk with the tacit approval of the teachers.) It would've been better for the teachers to give a pre-test and allow those of us who got a passing score on the pre-test to only do the copying out and all for those words we didn't already know. If they were bound and determined to still make us learn new vocabulary words, they could've given an extension assignment using actually rare words, albeit ones that weren't going to show up in our reading. (Interestingly, the one word I did encounter that I didn't know any meaning of was "horny", as in "his horny hands". The teacher stopped to explain in class that it just meant "large", and it took me a while to work out why everybody laughed! In retrospect, it's obvious why she didn't assign this word as homework.)

 

I somehow managed to make it to high school without internalizing the rule for when you write "its" and when you write "it's". (Probably I missed that lesson while I was reading under my desk!) Instead of simply explaining the rule to me, the teacher who caught this gave me a sheaf of worksheets on the possessive and on contractions. I didn't need to do worksheets on can't vs cant, or lets vs let's. I just needed a single rule explained for a single pair of homonyms. Perhaps one worksheet on those two words would've been fine, but all this? This was a teacher who didn't want to teach, and who liked to hand out worksheets to everybody so he wouldn't have to.

 

Here's something not from my life, but from the life of many children in my neighborhood now. Some of them go to a school that uses a very constructivist approach to arithmetic - lots of drawing circles to demonstrate addition and multiplication and whatever. I'm okay with this in principle - but this particular curriculum makes them keep on doing it even after they've mastered doing the math with numerals. Why should a child who knows how to multiply longhand, and understands the basic concept behind it, have to draw 72 flowers, every day for a week, to prove that 72 = 12 x 6?

 

When it's being done to teach, it's fine. When it's being done after the kid already comprehends the material, it starts to look like busywork... especially when they use larger and larger numbers.

[Tanaqui]

This is what I thought of. I immediately thought of those pages in the Singapore Math book that are SUPPOSED to be fun-- color in all the sums that equal 10!-- but my child cries, "Mom, can't I just TELL you? Do I HAVE to color?"

 

Oh, god. Color-in-the-page was the bane of my existence in the first grade. Inevitably the kid would take out the worksheet and start coloring before I helped her read the instructions, and then throw a fit because of course, it was all colored in WRONG and she got it WRONG and it was WRONG - and with crayons, you can't fix that!

 

And I never knew when we'd get one of the darn things, so I couldn't easily hide it from her!

 

(Actually, no. The bane of my existence was the dratted journals. Every day, the same assignment for every child in the school - write about what you did at school. No creative writing. No writing about what they did at home. No writing about what they wanted to do later. No writing about the news, or about what they were going to do that weekend, or about the book they were reading. Write about what you did at school. For crying out loud, it's elementary school!

- try to take over the world practice addition and subtraction and then go to lunch!) Edited March 27, 2017 by Tanaqui

[regentrude]

It also seems to me that our attitudes on this subject tend to be inconsistent and subjective. For instance, in all the threads about "what to do with toddlers and preschoolers???," I've never seen anyone suggest that handing them a tub of manipulatives, or a Do-a-Dot book, is busywork and should be avoided. We seem to take it for granted that it's fine, even necessary. Hmm. Are we so sure that this is an optimal way for them to spend 20 minutes, providing a very appropriate level of challenge and guidance for their current stage of development? Probably not. And nobody seems to care that much, likely because they're little, and can't do a whole lot. But they're people too. Surely a two year old's time is as valuable as a six year old's.

 

I don't follow your argument.

Busywork is assigning the child a task that does not have pedagogical value for this child. 

Handing a toddler something to play with is not the same. Nor is sending the 6 y/o off to occupy herself with a chosen activity while mom is working with another child.

 

I see no need for busywork even in the scenario you describe. Either the mandatory activity serves a purpose (in which case it would no longer be busywork), or the child should be free to substitute another activity instead, as long as certain boundary conditions are fulfilled (for example not requiring the assistance of a parent who is working with a sibling).

 

 

Edited March 27, 2017 by regentrude

[regentrude]

This is what I thought of. I immediately thought of those pages in the Singapore Math book that are SUPPOSED to be fun-- color in all the sums that equal 10!-- but my child cries, "Mom, can't I just TELL you? Do I HAVE to color?"

 

In a way, I think busywork can be adults' attempts to make learning fun for kids. It is also a response to the length of the current school day. Sometimes we succeed (as with a lot of those educational computer games) and these activities can be useful for learning. But in my house, the kids seem to prefer to-the-point Work Work and then they get to choose how to spend their leisure time. (Coloring equations, Reflex Math, Brainpop-- none of these things can compete with running around outside and dreaming up their OWN busywork.)

 

Coloring!

Shortly before I had absolutely enough and withdrew my kid from 6th grade, they had a worksheet. There were several problems. 20 mice, and the direction "Color a fourth of the mice". Twelve flowers and the direction "Color a 6th of the flowers".

In 6th grade! The kids asked whether they'd be allowed to write the number, but no, they had to color.

That was DD's last week in school.

 

Who comes up with this crap and thinks this is even remotely age appropriate?

Edited March 27, 2017 by regentrude

[ElizaG]

I don't follow your argument.

Busywork is assigning the child a task that does not have pedagogical value for this child. 

Handing a toddler something to play with is not the same. Nor is sending the 6 y/o off to occupy herself with a chosen activity while mom is working with another child.

Why is it not the same? Because of the age of the child? Or because the activity is supposed to be fun, as well as (quasi-)educational?

 

If I sit a small child at the table with, say, a tub of Cuisenaire rods, and tell him to make some pictures, then that's what he's supposed to be doing for at least a little while. Obviously, I won't set this up unless I think it's a reasonable expectation for him, and I'll be sensitive to signs that he's getting bored. But, yes, you could say I'm assigning these tasks, and frankly, I usually wouldn't stake too much on their pedagogical value. It's pretty much equivalent to setting him up at the sink with some plastic dishes to "wash." If I'm not there to observe and guide him, it's going to be hit and miss.

 

I brought up this common homeschool scenario because it's pretty much identical to the original (circa 1900) "busy work," which was a way to occupy the younger children in a multi-age setting, and was often manipulative-based or crafty. The only difference is that the children in the schools weren't quite so young (though there might have been 3 or 4 year olds, in some places).

 

So it does seems like very much the same thing to me. But then, I don't tend to see a clear dividing line between children's "work" and "play" -- or, perhaps more relevantly, between "children I'm teaching" and "children in my care." Maybe I have drunk too deeply of the Montessori Kool-aid. ;-D

Edited March 27, 2017 by ElizaG

[Arcadia]

Most of the suggestions on this thread, such as grammar and music practice, seem to me to be more suitable for older children.

 

It also seems to me that our attitudes on this subject tend to be inconsistent and subjective. For instance, in all the threads about "what to do with toddlers and preschoolers???," I've never seen anyone suggest that handing them a tub of manipulatives, or a Do-a-Dot book, is busywork and should be avoided. We seem to take it for granted that it's fine, even necessary.

Music starts at 3 for Suzuki method. My kids prefer other methods for music instruction

 

Where I am from, formal schooling starts at 1st grade. Here it is kindergarten. So I won't have recommended academics anyway to anyone since I go by child led for anything before public school age. I only know what works for my kids.

 

A tub of manipulatives would become building blocks for catapult/trebuchet building in my home so I would not have suggested those for toddlers and preschoolers. My kids does not like manipulatives and their public school teachers let them skip the math manipulatives sections.

 

My kids happen to like dot to dot at those age but they like the ones that are more complicated. For them, those were pastime and unassigned. I do know parents who bought Kumon style dot to dot workbooks and also know friends' kids who enjoy and learn their numbers and A to Z from those.

 

What is busywork for one of my boys could be needed practice for my other boy. We have looked at Montessori preschools when my oldest was two. Don't they cater to each child as learning activities are more individual based than group based?

[regentrude]

Why is it not the same? Because of the age of the child? Or because the activity is supposed to be fun, as well as (quasi-)educational?

 

If I sit a small child at the table with, say, a tub of Cuisenaire rods, and tell him to make some pictures, then that's what he's supposed to be doing for at least a little while. Obviously, I won't set this up unless I think it's a reasonable expectation for him, and I'll be sensitive to signs that he's getting bored. But, yes, you could say I'm assigning these tasks, and frankly, I usually wouldn't stake too much on their pedagogical value. It's pretty much equivalent to setting him up at the sink with some plastic dishes to "wash." If I'm not there to observe and guide him, it's going to be hit and miss.

 

For me, it is not the same thing because the activity is supposed to be fun.

I would not expect a toddler to quietly occupy himself with a task that he did not find fun.  At that age, my kids age would not pursue activities they did not like just because I told them to; I saved enforcing for important things like brushing teeth. If they did not want to color, they would not color and I could not make them. 

 

Anytime a child finds an activity fun, to me, it ceases to be busywork. For a child who loves filling out worksheets or coloring, these are enjoyable activities, not busywork. 

Does that make sense?

 

ETA: Setting the kid at the sink to wash plastic dishes is a good example. It would not be busywork, unless I enforced that the child, who is capable of washing dishes, washed clean dishes when there was no need for either the child to learn or the dishes to get clean. If the kid enjoys messing with water in the sink, it is play. And may actually be a good way to learn something about dishes and water etc. I agree that there is no clear separation between work/learning and play - play IS work for little ones.

Edited March 27, 2017 by regentrude

[Ausmumof3]

For me it means a task that isn't engaging and doesn't serve a specific learning objective. What's difficult is that this differs by the child. For a child who loves colouring in adding colouring to maths might make the math stick and be more engaging. For a child who hates colouring and loves maths it's busywork.

 

It's interesting to read the history of it - thanks Elizag.

[ElizaG]

Anytime a child finds an activity fun, to me, it ceases to be busywork. For a child who loves filling out worksheets or coloring, these are enjoyable activities, not busywork. 

Does that make sense?

That does help me understand your perspective - thanks. It never occurred to me that some people defined "busywork" in a way that excluded anything a particular child happened to find enjoyable.

 

(Perhaps this is because I remember enjoying filling out various worksheets that, in hindsight, I'd definitely call busywork. Some of my children seem to have inherited this odd tendency. :-) )

 

Does this mean that you would have been willing to leave your DD in the public school, if she had enjoyed the activities you described?

[ebunny]

Thanks for sharing its history, ElizaG

Reading over the replies, I have this sinking feeling that a significant % of what DD does in academics at home might be busywork. She's an advanced student who was brought home late last year after spending 3 years spinning wheels in mainstream and alternative schools.

Maybe its the curricula..maybe its my insistence on output. :mellow:

 

ETA: I don't recall doing much busywork as its been interpreted here in school. I was an above average student in a school affiliated to a Board of Education know for its rigor. Standards have changed(lowered) now, and mixed grouping is encouraged. I guess its how busywork crept into classrooms.

Edited March 28, 2017 by Ebunny

[Arcadia]

Reading over the replies, I have this sinking feeling that a significant % of what DD does in academics at home might be busywork.

Maybe its the curricula..maybe its my insistence on output. :mellow:

My DS11 would need to do the same vocabulary workbook that would have been busywork for my DS12. Same exact workbook but different kid even though siblings. My DS12 could have skip SM and absorb from just living math but my DS11 would not have been able to do that.

 

Both my kids need to do music theory workbooks to remember while there are kids out there who would consider those workbooks as busy work.

 

It takes time to figure out what works for which child so don't fret yet.

[regentrude]

That does help me understand your perspective - thanks. It never occurred to me that some people defined "busywork" in a way that excluded anything a particular child happened to find enjoyable.

 

(Perhaps this is because I remember enjoying filling out various worksheets that, in hindsight, I'd definitely call busywork. Some of my children seem to have inherited this odd tendency. :-) )

 

Does this mean that you would have been willing to leave your DD in the public school, if she had enjoyed the activities you described?

 

Sometimes a child spends endless time repeating similar tasks: stacking blocks, pouring water from one cup into another, coloring. I believe that as long as the child is happily occupied with the task, the task still fulfills a role for the child. When they have learned all they can from the activity, they will move on to something else. 

I spent countless afternoons with my kids at the park while they played with sand toys. As long as they are still engaged, they are still learning something from it. I firmly believe that young children learn first and foremost through play, and that they will learn what they need if I offer tasks and materials. And for a child who enjoys filling out worksheets, the worksheets apparently fill a need.

 

The bolded is a difficult question. My DD would have only enjoyed school if she had actually learned anything there (and would not have been bullied). I cannot imagine my kids enjoying mindless busywork and being content with not learning; I don't know what I would have done if I had different kids (I only know how to parent my own).

Since I come from a background where homeschooling is unknown (illegal in my home country), I would probably have left them in ps if ps had worked for them, i.e. if they had been happy and balanced. I would have augmented their education through afterschooling.

As it was, DD was unhappy to the point that it manifested in a physical way, was not learning, and was being bullied. There was not a single reason to leave DD in school. 

Edited March 28, 2017 by regentrude

[ebunny]

My DS11 would need to do the same vocabulary workbook that would have been busywork for my DS12. Same exact workbook but different kid even though siblings. My DS12 could have skip SM and absorb from just living math but my DS11 would not have been able to do that.

 

Both my kids need to do music theory workbooks to remember while there are kids out there who would consider those workbooks as busy work.

 

It takes time to figure out what works for which child so don't fret yet.

 

Absolutely.

To add; the problem is also that what would count as not-busywork can become busywork the moment a student takes a developmental leap. I suspect that's happening in our home.

 

 

[ElizaG]

Sometimes a child spends endless time repeating similar tasks: stacking blocks, pouring water from one cup into another, coloring. I believe that as long as the child is happily occupied with the task, the task still fulfills a role for the child. When they have learned all they can from the activity, they will move on to something else. 

I spent countless afternoons with my kids at the park while they played with sand toys. As long as they are still engaged, they are still learning something from it. I firmly believe that young children learn first and foremost through play, and that they will learn what they need if I offer tasks and materials. And for a child who enjoys filling out worksheets, the worksheets apparently fill a need.

 

The bolded is a difficult question. My DD would have only enjoyed school if she had actually learned anything there (and would not have been bullied). I cannot imagine my kids enjoying mindless busywork and being content with not learning; I don't know what I would have done if I had different kids (I only know how to parent my own).

Since I come from a background where homeschooling is unknown (illegal in my home country), I would probably have left them in ps if ps had worked for them, i.e. if they had been happy and balanced. I would have augmented their education through afterschooling.

As it was, DD was unhappy to the point that it manifested in a physical way, was not learning, and was being bullied. There was not a single reason to leave DD in school.

Hmm. My sense is that some (perhaps many) children will quite happily go along with activities that don't really fill a personal need, as long as they enjoy being part of the group, and don't find the activity particularly unpleasant. But this might depend a lot on temperament and family culture.

 

I'm sorry to hear that your DD wasn't learning anything at school. I'm pretty sure I learned some things, including math and a foreign language. It just all went very slowly, relative to my abilities, and with lots of "down time" in between the new bits. And I enjoyed it -- at least until middle school -- because the people were friendly, and we had some good times, and TBH the pace at home was even slower. (My immediate family members are intelligent, but not particularly ambitious. :-D )

 

One day, in 5th grade or so, we watched a film about homesteaders in Alaska. In one scene, their child was doing work for his correspondence school. It was all workbooks, but he could fill them in **as fast as he wanted**, then mail them in and get more. This was a great revelation to me. I had no idea that such things were allowed anywhere, LOL. Thus began my awareness of homeschooling!

 

Junior high started to feel much more frustrating, even after I was admitted to a full-time gifted program in a good school district. I believe that the work should have been ramped up by that point -- ideally, through a personalized approach with mentoring -- but I'm not convinced that the slow start in elementary school harmed me at all. In fact, I think it might have helped. For starters, it allowed me to pretty much avoid the whole stress of asynchrony and uneven development, which has been a big challenge when homeschooling my own children. (I've pretty much given up on acceleration in the elementary grades, for this reason.) I think it also helped to develop my contemplative nature and habit of lateral thinking.

 

What I'm starting to realize, as I get older, is that I'm the sort of person whose innovation and creativity really shine when I'm working within constraints. This turns out to be a very good thing, since as a homeschooling mother of a bunch, my life has plenty of constraints. (Now I'm wondering if the laundry is God's way of giving me the grown-up version of "busywork." ;-) )

[regentrude]

Hmm. My sense is that some (perhaps many) children will quite happily go along with activities that don't really fill a personal need, as long as they enjoy being part of the group, and don't find the activity particularly unpleasant. But this might depend a lot on temperament and family culture.

 

I'm sorry to hear that your DD wasn't learning anything at school. I'm pretty sure I learned some things, including math and a foreign language. It just all went very slowly, relative to my abilities, and with lots of "down time" in between the new bits. And I enjoyed it -- at least until middle school -- because the people were friendly, and we had some good times, and TBH the pace at home was even slower. (My immediate family members are intelligent, but not particularly ambitious. :-D )

 

One day, in 5th grade or so, we watched a film about homesteaders in Alaska. In one scene, their child was doing work for his correspondence school. It was all workbooks, but he could fill them in **as fast as he wanted**, then mail them in and get more. This was a great revelation to me. I had no idea that such things were allowed anywhere, LOL. Thus began my awareness of homeschooling!

 

Junior high started to feel much more frustrating, even after I was admitted to a full-time gifted program in a good school district. I believe that the work should have been ramped up by that point -- ideally, through a personalized approach with mentoring -- but I'm not convinced that the slow start in elementary school harmed me at all. In fact, I think it might have helped. For starters, it allowed me to pretty much avoid the whole stress of asynchrony and uneven development, which has been a big challenge when homeschooling my own children. (I've pretty much given up on acceleration in the elementary grades, for this reason.) I think it also helped to develop my contemplative nature and habit of lateral thinking.

 

What I'm starting to realize, as I get older, is that I'm the sort of person whose innovation and creativity really shine when I'm working within constraints. This turns out to be a very good thing, since as a homeschooling mother of a bunch, my life has plenty of constraints. (Now I'm wondering if the laundry is God's way of giving me the grown-up version of "busywork." ;-) )

 

I am glad that you had a good experience.

DD read for five years in school, with teachers' permission. They were just glad she did not cause any problems. She enjoyed school during the six months we lived in Germany, because for the first time, she had to make an effort and experienced how good it feels to succeed after having worked hard. She is a driven ambitious overachiever and has been like this since she was very little, so it's not something I caused (this kid refused being fed with a spoon at 6 mos because she wanted to do it herself, and refused all baby foods until she was able of feeding herself)

The first day after I had withdrawn DD from school, she said "I am glad I don't have to go to school anymore; now I can finally learn something!".

 

Now my DS is a minimalist; in elementary, he would have happily floated along without making an effort, would grumble a bit about busywork, but essentially be fine without challenge. For him, homeschooling was important for slightly different reasons. 

 

Interesting what you write about constraints. I find that I am much more productive and efficient when I have constraints; paradoxically, I get a lot more done if I have limited time. 

 

Btw, I personally don't find laundry busywork. It is not a particularly exciting task, but a necessary one, and it feels good to have it done ;) It's much better than grading exams.

Edited March 28, 2017 by regentrude

[tori729]

I think, on the subject of school, busywork is going to happen, in a classroom setting with 20-30 kids, all at different levels, some of them will be doing busywork at some point. And I talk to my kids about this all the time.

 

I remember writing pages and pages of grammar and math, even though I already knew it. My oldest hates writing and the lessons in FLL are plenty for him. He understands, writes a few sentences, and is done. No more. I would never make him just sit and write sentences if he already knows the concept. That's busywork.

 

On the other hand, my second loves writing. In WWE, she will write BOTH sentences and I will always give her the longest writing assignment - because she likes it. It's not busywork to her; it's fun.