Let first-graders be six year olds

You hid the nail on the head.

You hid the nail on the head.  Thank you for speaking up, Annie, and giving my thoughts a voice.

Yes- Thoughtful Post by Weffie1

Kudos to you Weffie1-What excellent, articulate comments...I couldn't agree with you more!

Knee-Jerk excuses instead of action

I have read with great interest the piece by Ms. Valentine,in the interest of full disclosure,whom we know personally. In this particular piece, she described the overall frustration that we taxpayers have with all employees of the Davis School District to a "T".  Yes, there is indeed a "bully" system set up in most schools by the teachers  and "administrators")to cowardly punish the students for comments and freedom of speech offered up by their parents. Since last time I checked (today in fact) the original Bill of Rights is still intact, yet the apologists for the various schools from actual employees to PTA/O hacks feeling the "need" or "calling" to defend a terribly flawed system of education in this County.One merely has to read any newspaper(incouding this one) to see the near daily debacles involving flawed management and lack of accountability,  to the taxpayers who directly fund this entity. The cronyism and incessant incompetence on all levels in the Davis School District should not be "protected" or "defended" as others here have postulated. It should be correctly demonized for the flawed regime it has become. Instead of speaking professionally and personally with Ms. Valentine, these non-perfomers seek to demonize HER for daring to express her Constitutionally protected free speech. They merely laugh it off as the ravings of a "control freak" or use the very typically Yewtaw "cultural" fall back position of insinuation. They indeed have insinuated that she is neither "qualified" nor "educated" enough to express any "opinion" on her child's education.Such action is indeed the last refuge of incompetents who never have to be accountable for their teaching, they still get paid as long as they show up and "play the EducationGame".(In UEA-ese, it's called "You have to go along, to GET along) otherwise, you are blackballed, gossiped about, and insinuated aginst by the very entity that should be teaching our children quality learning techniques. No, instead, we must "warn" Ms. Valentine about her alleged "personal"attacks, if you think it is personal, please sue her for libel and slander. No, I don't think you will, because not only can you not prove what she said is incorrect or factually a lie, your positions are inherently indefensible at best.There is indeed a "sacred cow" culturally here in Yewtaw, that being one cannot ever say anything "bad" about anyone in education, no matter how much money they embezzle over their "career" at Davis County Schools, their inappropriate "behavior" and "contact" with students, and other "financial irregularities" that occur all to frequently from a horribly mismanaged fiefdom. No, I think Annabelle is dead-bang right on this one.Now before you think I'm flat-out defending here, she will tell you herself she and I do NOT see eye-to-eye on much of anything at all. However, we STILL like her and her family. What she said so succintly is correct, and expresses the frustration of we taxpayers who are sick and tired of seeing how our tax dollars are squandered in this District. The fact that teachers can feel it "appropriate" to tell Ms. Valentine about the "bully system" at that elementary school tells me all I need to know about the "management" and operation of that neighborhood entity. It's full of self-serving bureaucrats.They are funded from confiscatory based revenue sources.(that's taxes for you in the UEA), School District employees do not have to be productive, accountable or "profitable"(that's using the taxpayer'smoney effectively for you UEA "members") and yet they still get paid. What a great scam! Education is the best thing to not having to work and be a trust fund baby.While there are a SMALL minority of teachers who are indeed fantastic in this District, anyone snide enough to hint at "retaliation" certinaly isn't one, nor can they ever be. It's a lack of character and integrity that causes such behavior in the first place. The "fish" in the barrel at Davis County School District has rotted from the top down to our little elementary schools.It's time to REMEMBER the very public lack of management and professionalism come election time. Time to thorw out all the non-performing bums. If you choose to be "offended" by my remarks,perhaps it is because my remarks hit to close to your home. It is OUR money you are wasting and our children's time. Or you can keep "bullying" and get what comes naturally, it's called unemployment. It is time to shine the light of truth on the non-performers in the Taxpayer Trough.

I Completely Disagree

Ms. Valentine;

I’ll undoubtedly be identified as a hater on your
blog, but I don’t hate you.  I
don’t even know you.  I do,
however, disagree with your method of advocating your position.

I’ve had two kids move through 1st
grade at your same school, and another child who’ll be there soon.  Based on that experience, and those of
my friends, I think your portrayal of the situation at this school is either
misinformed or exaggerated.  For
example, I doubt every adult in the
city of Layton is bent on destroying your 6-year-old’s childhood.  But if you start the article with such
a dramatic exaggeration, how can I trust the accuracy of the rest?

* Neither of my 1st graders ever
received a nightly “packet” of homework. 
They did have a nightly one-page worksheet that wasn’t “busy work.”  It was a review of concepts taught that
day.  The worksheet accomplishes
two purposes.  First, it helps a
child recall those concepts at a later time to reinforce what was earlier
taught.  Research shows the
same-day worksheet review solidifies a child’s knowledge.  Secondly, it helps a parent keep in
touch with their progress.  Without
the homework, most parents wouldn’t know on a daily basis how their child is
learning.  There is also twenty
minutes of daily reading.  Please tell me you’re not objecting to
that.  There may have also been a
weekly list of spelling words to study. 
All told, the daily homework requirement should be about thirty minutes.
I don’t know a single teacher at your school who wouldn’t reduce that
requirement if the homework is burdensome.  In fact, I can describe several of my friends whose
children’s homework was reduced. 

* You set up a false premise that homework takes
the place of teaching children responsibility.  In contrast, homework is a prime method for
learning responsibility.  A child
is responsible to complete the work
and turn it in the next day.  So it
is not an either/or situation as you portray.

* 
Your child has no friends? 
What is your child doing on Fridays and Saturdays when there is no
homework?  Or are you just
exaggerating again to prove your point? 
There are many 1st graders in my neighborhood who have plenty
of time to play each day with their friends.

* To your girlfriend’s daughter doing so well in 1st
grade, you sarcastically define the teacher’s extra homework as a “treat.”  What a poor attitude you seem to have
toward teachers.  What this teacher
is trying to do is to keep this girl challenged!  She wants to help your girlfriend’s daughter continue to
advance since she is evidently beyond the standard work.  I am appalled that you would not
applaud this teacher for treating this girl as an individual and telling her
she is worth receiving higher level work! 
The greatest danger to an intelligent child in elementary school is that
they decide the work is too easy and decide to check out.  This girl’s teacher was attempting to
prevent that hazard and you deride her for it.  How sad that you can’t appreciate what a fine teacher your
girlfriend’s daughter has.

* Be very careful when comparing one country’s
education system to another.  You
took two correlating facts (later entrance in school and higher educational
outcomes) and mistakenly turned them into cause and effect.  The one does not cause the other.  They are merely two facts that occur
together.  I suspect you did a
quick Google search to find a fact that fit your agenda, rather than a serious
research of all the cultural, economic, and social elements that make up any
country’s educational outcomes.

* You’ve mastered the art of unfair
exaggeration:  “While we’re
bombarding our six-year-olds with piles of mind-numbing worksheets...”  Wow, that’s quite an image.  Not true, but emotionally riling.  If you’re going to make an argument
about academics, please stay academic in your arguments.

* I thought you were very belittling to parents
who are trying to push their kids academically (…like it’s covered in hot
fudge…).  Then you complain of
people making personal attacks on you? 
In the first place, these parents aren’t trying to make you look like a
loser parent!  I think that’s very
self-centered to assume it’s all about you.  If you want your child to do less, then fine.  Have him do less.  If I want my child to accomplish more, it isn’t about you!  And in the second place, those parents
who are pushing their kids generally believe they are capable of great things
and want to help them get the most they can out of every school year.  Thank goodness for my kids’ teachers
who support me in this.  I hate to
think you are somewhere in my kid’s classroom, silently mocking me and my
child, just as you publically did in this article.

* You listed a lot of personal stories as if they
are representative of society as a whole (known as Inductive Reasoning, which
is inevitably flawed).  Let me give
you my story.  I don’t dive onto
extra homework like it’s covered in hot fudge (I save my diving for actual hot
fudge).  But I have a junior high
student who works above the average level of his class.  What he learned to do in the early
elementary years prepared him for the more difficult work in later elementary
school, when the concepts became less “busy work” and more challenging.  But the homework wasn’t a big
deal.  He was already used to it.  The later elementary school work
prepared him for junior high.  Had
he only been doing homework since 6th grade, he would not have been
ready for what lies ahead.  What he
does in junior high will prepare him for high school.  High school will prepare him for college (because he is not
burned out and plans to attend). 
College will prepare him for life. 
Had my son been raised in your utopian education system, not only would
he be overwhelmed right now, he’d be much
further behind academically.

* Oh, and one more thing.  You could have kept this between you
and your child’s teacher.  But you didn’t.  You made it an issue for the entire
school and community, and all the readers on your blog.  My child will be in 1st grade
soon.  He will have to deal with
the ramifications of what you have done. 
I want him challenged.  I want
him to have homework.  I want him to develop those habits now
that will ensure his future educational success.  If you disagree, fine, but now I and every other 1st
grade parent in the near future are going to have to deal with this.

Ms. Valentine, homework is not a “burden” for our
children’s education, it is part of their education.  The teachers who assign it are not giving them busywork
because they are trying to suck up a child’s life.  They are trying to instill work habits in these formative
years that will serve them for the rest of their lives.  You are clearly a good mother.  You want your child to play and laugh
and be active in extracurricular work and to be successful in life.  So do I.  But if you were going to advocate your position, I think you
could have done it far more responsibly. 
You owe a lot of people at your school a lot of apologies.  I’ll take mine with hot fudge.

Balance

Let's not shoot the messenger here.  Having sent 2 boys through school and having them both successfully graduate from HS, I have seen this recent trend of homework coming home with my sister's kids.  (shock)  It's true!  My boys were able to graduate WITH HONORS without homework sheets.  They went to scouts, they played sports and they did chores.  It's called BALANCE.  Everyone needs a balanced life in order not to be burned out.  Children included!  I love the conclusions that are being jumped to here, that Annie is uneducated because she doesn't want her child to do homework sheets in the first grade. Or that the homework sheets are cutting into her "me" time.  I am the daughter of a teacher.  I get the hard work that goes into preparing a lesson schedule.  I understand that.  I also understand that we CANNOT raise one dimensional children.  Schooling is so important.  Being responsible for household responsibilities is also very important.  Unwinding at the end of the day and having a hobby is just as important.  We need to stop and listen instead of insult.  What kind of example is that to our children?

First Grade Teachers

Annie, I remember my first grade classroom, also.  I had a teacher who wasn't warm or loving, who accused me of cheating on an art project!  Apparently, I made my holly leaves incorrectly and so did another student!  How awful of me!  My teacher didn't know my favorite color, what things I was good at, what made me worried, or what books I liked to read.  I don't even think my first grade teacher knew that I was afraid of her.  Thankfully, I now know that not all first grade teachers are that way.I can clearly state that the first grade teachers at your son's school know their students.  They care about them and want them to succeed.  They want them to develop a lifelong love of learning.  Those same teachers probably know your son's favorite color, what he is good at, what he worries about and I would dare to suggest he is not afraid of his teacher. That teacher probably comes in early, stays late, and even spends her weekends preparing lessons to enrich your child's education.Along with this personal attention teachers are required to assess your son's ability in the areas of letter recognition, phoneme segmentation, reading fluency, comprehension, concepts of print, and the list goes on and on.  All of these skills are necessary for your child to read.  Then there is a list of skills in mathematics that need to be assessed.  Number recognition, problem solving, computation, etc.  Along with that they need to ensure that your child learns to write legibly, write a complete sentence with correct punctuation and capitalization, learn to spell words correctly, develop a sense of the world around him,  make observations, learn about healthy lifestyles, and oh yeah - communities, families, and why we have rules and laws.  And they have the audacity to teach your child responsibility?  Shame on them! While teaching all of these first grade concepts at school, there is not always enough time for a student to practice those concepts.  Anyone who has attempted a new task knows that practice does improve the outcome.  That is where Home Learning comes into play.  It should not be work, it should be learning.  Home Learning should be a review of the skills your child is learning in class.  It should be short, and provide the additional practice he needs to master that skill.  It should NOT be busy work.  If your child is taking an extremely long time to complete his home learning, you should talk to his teacher about it.  The amount, difficulty, etc. can be modified to meet your child's needs.  Remember you and the teacher should be a TEAM working toether to help your child have a positive successful experience. The 20 minutes a day of reading that teachers require in first grade is backed by research as some of the most important 20 minutes you can spend with your child.  Children who have been read aloud to, given exposure with books, and who read aloud daily consistently have better fluency, expression, and comprehension than those who don't. There is a fine balance that we are all trying to achieve in this life.  We are all faced with many opportunities and choices.  Some are good, others are better, and some are best.  We have to prioritize our values and choose accordingly.  Sometimes our children are too busy with sports, dance, music, scouts, etc. to be able to invest the time needed in their education.  Sometimes we as parents are so overwhelmed with our own extra curricular activities that we cannot invest the amount of time our children need.  Each of us has a choice.  We tend to pay attention and give our time to what is most important to us.  Frankly, a good education is one of the best investments a parent can make. So, all of you first grade teachers out there take heart!  You are doing a remarkable job!  You are making a difference in the lives of the children you teach!  They not only know that you care about them, but you care enough to see their potential and help them achieve it.  Keep up the good work!  Many students are depending on you!

That's Right, Aim to Fail

Annie, I am so sorry that your child's homework has cut into your "Me" time.  Not only do you not want your kids to succeed, you belittle those parents who do make an effort to be involved in their child's education.  Fortunately, having read your other columns, I recognize what a sad education you yourself must have received.  If Utah and America is to be competitive, we have to focus on learning, and a twenty minute homework assignment helps the teacher reinforce what is taught in a very crowded class room.  President Obama stated in his September 8th address, "The truth is, being successful is hard. You won't love every subject that you study. You won't click with every teacher that you have. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right at this minute. And you won't necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try." You stated in your column that your attitude and comments make you look like an un-motivated, loser parent.  Sometimes looks are deceiving, and sometimes they are not.