Can I ever survive being a public school parent?

[SKL]

No, typing isn't bad at all and I think proper keyboarding is necessary since everyone needs to know it.  But, pushing keyboarding at a young age for the sake of scoring well on high-stakes standardized tests at the expense of other things (art, music, P.E., recess) is wrong.  I have seen kids in third and fourth grade stressed and crying over being pressured to type faster than they are able to.

 

I agree that too much focus on standardized tests at the expense of arts, exercise, and age-appropriate rest is wrong.

That said, I've seen kids cry over having to hurry up and fill in the bubbles with a pencil, or finish that timed essay, as well.

 

I also don't think those pencil tests are particularly accurate.  It is way too easy to misalign the paper and fill whole sections in wrong.

 

Tests are going to be a fact of school life, and I believe most educators are working hard trying to find an appropriate balance.  In my state, I've seen testing requirements decrease.  Also my kids had their first computerized standardized tests this year, and they didn't seem any more affected than in prior years with the pencil tests.  I haven't seen the results yet.

[Bluegoat]

Nope.  There is a string of computers in each classroom.  It was specifically pointed out on the tour as if I should be very impressed.  Maybe they use computers the same way I do - for math drills or looking at pictures of cool things dd wanted to see.  I'm more OK with her using computers more as she is in 4th grade.  I just don't think it should be a source of pride that there are so many computers in those younger grades.  I remember being distressed the first call that I made where they told me dd would have placement testing on a computer of which she was mostly ignorant about.  I actually said, "We used books for school..."All I know is that dd loves to learn.  She begged me to not sell the k-3rd grade history books because she loved them and reads them constantly.  We shall see what a year of this does for her love of learning.  I shall also see if having her taught by someone else is worth all the nonsense I'm sure to find.  

 

Yeah, what bothers me about this attitude when I see it is that I don't feel encouradged that they will make good choices about how to implement use of computers in education. 

 

Often they just seem to think they need to keep up with the latest tech, as if somehow it really changes learning.

 

And it seems like such a waste of money too.

 

My dd12 has computer time in a lab, and some of it has been fine - they type stories they are working on, or they learn about computer safety.  Fine things to do in grade 6. But, it seems like a lot of times they are playing games.

[Bluegoat]

I've kind of split my personality with this.  I realize my child's classroom teacher doesn't have a lot of control of certain things, and has bigger worries than my daughter, and probably a lot of pressure from parents.  So - I'm really only going to go to ere with pretty serious or concrete concerns, or things that really affect my life.  Other things I will not sweat.  There have been things I thought were poorly done or silly.  Even controversial - the class library bought a book this year about a controversial social issue, with a perspective I really disagree with.  Ultimately though, I don't restrict my child's reading, so there is no practical issue.  It affects what I think about how the school is being influenced on social issues.

 

OTOH - I do try to support the school on a community level, and I will try and influence things on a community and political level.  I think education is important, and it should be good for all children.  I want the school to be a good place.  The parent groups do some worthwhile things - they've had gardens built at the schools for example, which I think is very positive.  And I sure as heck will let the board know, and even the teachers/admin in a non-confrontational way, what I think about the increase in hours for younger students or adding pre-K levels.

 

As far as the women who thought global competitiveness was going to come from computers, I think I could not have resisted - I'd have said getting a job was a degraded view of what education is for, and that the research didn't support computers in the elementary classroom as achieving that anyway.

[vonfirmath]

No, typing isn't bad at all and I think proper keyboarding is necessary since everyone needs to know it.  But, pushing keyboarding at a young age for the sake of scoring well on high-stakes standardized tests at the expense of other things (art, music, P.E., recess) is wrong.  I have seen kids in third and fourth grade stressed and crying over being pressured to type faster than they are able to.

 

I had a 4th grader this year crying over handwriting. Tears are not always indicative of its a bad thing to do. His handwriting is slow and atrocious. He really has trouble thinking while he's focusing on writing by hand. To the point we've had to work around this so he doesn't have to do both at once. And it has definitely affected his ability to communicate what he knows.

 

For us, him writing the paper out to an extent once, then moving to the computer has made for a much better paper in the end.  He can make his changes without having to rewrite the entire paper.  So he is more likely to be willing to find and make changes and make the best paper he can.

 

[Bluegoat]

I had a 4th grader this year crying over handwriting. Tears are not always indicative of its a bad thing to do. His handwriting is slow and atrocious. He really has trouble thinking while he's focusing on writing by hand. To the point we've had to work around this so he doesn't have to do both at once. And it has definitely affected his ability to communicate what he knows.

 

For us, him writing the paper out to an extent once, then moving to the computer has made for a much better paper in the end.  He can make his changes without having to rewrite the entire paper.  So he is more likely to be willing to find and make changes and make the best paper he can.

 

 

It's one thing to be frustrated about learning to type, if you are actually ready to learn.

 

It's rather different to be needing to type at a certain rate to be able to do a test in, say, English, and not be able to manage because your typing speed is too slow.  Which, as a beginner, it is likely to be.

[Kassia]

It's one thing to be frustrated about learning to type, if you are actually ready to learn.

 

It's rather different to be needing to type at a certain rate to be able to do a test in, say, English, and not be able to manage because your typing speed is too slow.  Which, as a beginner, it is likely to be.

 

And, because of the nature of high-stakes testing, being pressured by teachers to type faster than you are able to.  Test scores are used heavily for teacher evaluations and school ratings here.  

[vonfirmath]

And, because of the nature of high-stakes testing, being pressured by teachers to type faster than you are able to.  Test scores are used heavily for teacher evaluations and school ratings here.  

 

That's a problem with the test, in general.

 

They do not do the essay part of the English test here on the computer. But I think it is still unrealistic expectations.

[bethben]

It's not just the public schools that have testing pressure.  We have a classical christian school here that we briefly (very) considered at the price of $7K per year.  They are heavy handed on the homework so that their students can test well.  Then the school can speak of it's superior education model.  I couldn't see where the classical part entered into the equation since they did a lot of Bob Jones and Abeka textbooks.  

[Mergath]

DH, my kids, and I all had similar experiences with writing cursive.  But there is research showing a connection between cursive and brain development.  https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/memory-medic/201303/why-writing-hand-could-make-you-smarter   I am skeptical and do think proper keyboarding is more important than cursive handwriting, but I don't like seeing kids who aren't ready for it pushed to do it because of high stakes testing.  IMO, it's like toilet training - you can push to get it done early, but it will take a lot less time if you just wait until the child is developmentally ready.  And it's not fair to the kids to make them feel bad at school because they can't type fast enough when they aren't ready to do so.  

 

I don't think any of those studies cited in the article are about cursive specifically, but about handwriting in general. And to my knowledge, no one is talking about getting rid of handwriting completely.

 

Cursive is a nice thing to know, but I don't think it's vital to proper brain development. (I did teach dd cursive when she wanted to learn it, ftr, so I'm not saying this because I didn't bother teaching my own child. ;) ) And public school certainly has its issues, but I don't think kids learning to type is one of them. Whether we like it or not, typing is going to be a vital skill for today's kids to learn. Much more vital than cursive.

 

[Bluegoat]

It's not just the public schools that have testing pressure.  We have a classical christian school here that we briefly (very) considered at the price of $7K per year.  They are heavy handed on the homework so that their students can test well.  Then the school can speak of it's superior education model.  I couldn't see where the classical part entered into the equation since they did a lot of Bob Jones and Abeka textbooks.  

 

Some people seem to think classical means doing a lot of rote memory work in elementary school.

[Bluegoat]

I don't think any of those studies cited in the article are about cursive specifically, but about handwriting in general. And to my knowledge, no one is talking about getting rid of handwriting completely.

 

Cursive is a nice thing to know, but I don't think it's vital to proper brain development. (I did teach dd cursive when she wanted to learn it, ftr, so I'm not saying this because I didn't bother teaching my own child. ;) ) And public school certainly has its issues, but I don't think kids learning to type is one of them. Whether we like it or not, typing is going to be a vital skill for today's kids to learn. Much more vital than cursive.

 

 

I think the idea is that writing by hand affects the engagement of material differently than typing on a screen, so their are advantages to using hand-writing more often.  That is more likely to happen if the students write quickly and smoothly, and speaking very generally, cursive is more effective at that than printing is.

 

As far as typing - I think its vital too, in terms of whole education, but the age for introducing extensive computer use remains.  Just from the perspective of typing most kids aren't ready until about age 9 or 10, and for a subject they all need to learn at the same time it might be necessary to be a little conservative, or slow developing or younger kids will be disadvantaged.

[bethben]

I have nothing against typing either.  It's just that under 4th grade, they are learning so many other things that are foundations for learning - math facts, handwriting, spelling, sentence/paragraph structure, and reading that learning how to type and how to run a computer should really be low on the totem pole.  I do also have a problem with reading on a computer or an iPad.  I personally feel like it teaches people to skim information which is not so horrible as an adult/ late teen, but can really hamper an elementary student.  Also, there are enough studies out there that show taking notes on a computer is inferior to writing them down.  Again, I know too much.  I had to justify my crazy homeschool decision, so I read academic studies on education.