Beth in SW WA Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/gifted-ed-guru/201203/meaningful-busywork-parsing-the-oxymoron Thoughts? :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 What I've found is that Alli can handle repetition and what would seem to ME like tedious boredom when there's a purpose. For example, doing hundreds of basic math facts in a short period of time for the World Education Games was fine-but if I'd asked her to do even 20 of those problems on a worksheet,I would have had a fight on my hands because "It's boring!". She can handle being handed a SAT-10 that, for her, is tedious busywork below her level because she knows it's a requirement and it's a once a year thing. I figure as long as she can handle the tedious stuff and demonstrate proficiency when needed, even if she got there by a different route, I'm doing my job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gratia271 Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 The article mirrors my experience growing up in private schools. I have endeavored not to reproduce this in my children's education. At the same time, life requires us to be able to do rote work. One of the questions I was repeatedly asked during the course of interviews with law firms prior to graduation was whether I could handle mundane, repetitive work. It is part of life, and we need to prepare our children to function in a world that has rules and requirements they may not agree with all of the time. Some busy work some of the time is good preparation for adulthood IMO. When it defines the school day, it marginalizes our children. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runningmom80 Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 Thanks for posting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corraleno Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 "Meaningful Busywork: Parsing the Oxymoron" I'm having kind of a hard time "parsing" the article — on the one hand, the title acknowledges that "meaningful busywork" is an oxymoron, but then he goes on to say that some busywork, though boring and tedious, is meaningful and useful. To me, "busywork" means pointless work given to someone just to keep them "busy," so if it's useful or meaningful then — by definition — it's not "busywork." He says a couple of other things that I admit are kind of hot button issues for me. E.g.: "Translating a passage written in Latin, for example, is incredibly tedious." (emphasis his) Well, that's only true if you hate Latin! Translating Greek is my son's favorite part of school, he loves the challenge of puzzling out the translations and thinks that being able to read ancient Greek is the coolest thing ever. He also has an awesome Greek teacher who fans those flames. Ditto what Taibbi says about solving math problems — IMHO math is only boring and tedious if it's being taught wrong. The same attitude is expressed in the teachers' statements, paraphrased by Taibbi: "What some students don't seem to understand is that not all the stuff we do can be 'fun'." As if students who crave meaningful, challenging, engaging work are just spoiled and lazy and want everything to be fluffy and "fun." IME, the opposite is true — kids who find their school work to be boring and tedious would rather have harder work that means something than pointless work that's merely "fun." But by framing the problem as if the only alternative to "boring" work is fluffy "fun" work — instead of "challenging" or "meaningful" or "engaging" work — they can justify not meeting the child's needs by asserting that boring, tedious school work is "character building." I don't buy it. I don't think a 6 year old, or an 8, 10, or even 12 year old, needs to "practice" being bored to death in school in order to be able to function as an adult. Do these children never do chores, or wait in the dentist's office, or put up with long car rides, or ever ever do anything boring or tedious in their lives outside of school? IMO a big part of the current educational crisis stems from the fact that so much "schoolwork" is boring, pointless, and meaningless, while the rest of students' time consists of nonstop entertainment. I'd completely reverse that — why not make school the most fascinating, stimulating, engaging part of their lives? There are plenty of other things in life that are unavoidably boring and tedious that will prepare kids for adulthood. I really don't think that boring, tedious schoolwork ever has the "positive" effect people think it does — and I've seen so, so many examples of the negative effects. I do realize that's it's difficult for many classroom teachers to make the work engaging and meaningful for all students, but there are teachers who manage it, and I still think that should be the goal. If either of my kids felt their schoolwork was boring and tedious, I'd figure out how to fix that — and I have, repeatedly. The last piece of the puzzle, for me, was math for DS, but now that we've got that sorted out, I can honestly say that my kids love school, love all their subjects, and do many things in their "free" time that other kids would consider "school work" (nonfiction reading, research, writing, science experiments, etc.) Learning about the world around them really is the most interesting and exciting part of their lives, and to me that's the holy grail of education. Jackie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ester Maria Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 I'm having kind of a hard time "parsing" the article — on the one hand, the title acknowledges that "meaningful busywork" is an oxymoron, but then he goes on to say that some busywork, though boring and tedious, is meaningful and useful. To me, "busywork" means pointless work given to someone just to keep them "busy," so if it's useful or meaningful then — by definition — it's not "busywork." We agree. He says a couple of other things that I admit are kind of hot button issues for me. E.g.: "Translating a passage written in Latin, for example, is incredibly tedious." (emphasis his) Well, that's only true if you hate Latin! Translating Greek is my son's favorite part of school, he loves the challenge of puzzling out the translations and thinks that being able to read ancient Greek is the coolest thing ever. He also has an awesome Greek teacher who fans those flames. Ditto what Taibbi says about solving math problems — IMHO math is only boring and tedious if it's being taught wrong. Hopefully I am not pushing your hot buttons, but I do wish to emphasize one thing. Interest and passion can often be, especially with kids, a bit of an "intermittent" thing. A child can be really interested in a certain area, but lack perspective and understanding that some skill polishing is needed to get to the point where they can truly profit from what they like with passion, because it is a tool to get them there. My daughter who plays violin really does not like doing technical exercises, and doing over and over something she "knows" may seem like a pointless busywork - but in effects, it is skill polishing and something that pays off on the long run. Another daughter is into drawing and she has the equivalent of those "technical" exercises - she may not be excited about them every single time and may roll her eyes about being asked again to do something she "knows" how to do, but I do not find it pointless. I understand the article in that perspective: stating that some of what may pass as busy work is in reality a legitimate work on things which require a certain level of skill and automatization to be developed. I find these things liberating rather than confinining, because the better developed the skill is and the more automatic those processes are, the MORE choice our students have when dealing with things that are their passions. I am against "busywork" too, but I do not think all "technical" work is bad, even though some of that may appear as a busywork. Of course, it needs to be dosed and combined with other things, but in and of itself, I do not think it s a bad thing and I do not think the "intermittent" interest and passion is necessarily an indicator of something being done wrong - nobody can be, I think, totally excited about something literally every time they do it, especially when polishing technique and automatization is concerned. Anyhow, I digress, principally I agree with you, just wanted to emphasize this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyfaithe Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 I live on a different planet. 35 problem multiplication sets? Dictionary use? Long division practice? The article describes my childhood. It's pretty far away from nclb as practiced here. :D Yep. Sounds like school in the 70's..... I better go read the article:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terrilth Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 :DYep. Sounds like school in the 70's..... I better go read the article:D ha! I was just going to say the same thing. Thanks for posting Beth. Definitely bookmarked to read & share later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3Blessings Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 As a teacher to other people's children and to my own, busywork is not a good option. I agree that there is a difference between giving a student something that is tedious and something that is simply more of what they already know. I struggle with this issue because I will often give ds something to do- he'll breeze through it and not one word of complaint. Perhaps he is simply compliant by nature (in some ways he is), but I often think to myself that I may not have the best handle on what is appropriate for him. I want to find that "zone of proximal development" that Vygotsky wrote about. It isn't always that easy for me. Interesting article. Thanks for posting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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