Why is it the entire adult population of Layton seems intent upon robbing my six-year-old of his childhood?
My son started first-grade this year. I don't know about you, but I remember first-grade rather well. It consisted of recess, singing time, recess, letters, lunch, recess, numbers, more singing, recess, and a jolly bus ride home.
But first-grade today? Not so simple.
My kid brings an entire folder of busy work home with him each night. Why? Because obviously, we're not pushing them hard enough. Obviously, filling their after school time with more school is going to produce smarter, more balanced adults.
Obviously.
My question is, what about my curriculum as his mother? When I was a kid, we were greeted at the door with a quick snack and a hefty list of to do's, designed by mother to cultivate responsible, hardworking habits.
(I'm sure our chore lists had nothing to do with the wood-burning stove that demanded constant attention, or the cattle bawling out in the field. It was all for our personal growth and development. Thank goodness our teachers didn't think we needed any additional after school stimulation, or those cows would have been dead meat.)
Personally, I didn't start bringing schoolwork home until I was in the sixth grade. Man, just think of how much smarter I'd be if I hadn't wasted all those years doing farm work and playing with friends after school.
The fact of the matter is this. Since the school year began, I've bumped into nearly a dozen first-grade mothers from my son's school, and almost every one of them says the same thing. What in the heck is going on here?
My girlfriend's daughter is doing so well in first grade, her teacher decided to treat her with additional homework sheets on top of her usual packet, just to encourage her. Because we all know nothing makes a kid love school more than extra homework.
Unfortunately, all this over the top scholastic encouragement doesn't always produce smarter, more driven children. On the contrary, one of my fellow mothers is dealing with a little boy who hates first-grade and cries every night over his after school worksheets.
Another friend of mine up in Washington state has an off-the-charts brilliant fourth-grader. "Mom," he says the other day, "I hate to tell you this, but I won't be going to college."
"What?" she asks, "Why not?"
"To be honest," he says, "I'm sick of school work. I spend so much time doing homework and projects, I can't wait until I'm 18 and can finally get out of school. In fact, I'm thinking about working on cars for a living."
That's what happens when we burn our children out before they've even heard the word ASVAB.
I've had a number of teachers suggest that this scholastic generational push comes from our country's goals to score higher in world wide testing. If that's the case, why don't we consider emulating countries that are getting it right?
Take Finland, for instance. For years, Finland has impressed the world with its phenomenal math and literacy levels, yet their kids don't even enter primary education until they're seven. The preschool and kindergarten programs so many of their children attend focus not on letters and numbers, but on material-based programs centered around nature and social interactions.
While we're bombarding our six-year-olds with piles of mind-numbing worksheets, their primary age children are chasing butterflies and playing with friends. Between after school piano lessons, spelling words and math worksheets, my kid doesn't even have friends anymore.
And to make matters worse, there's always that parent in every classroom who is so intent on making sure their child is the brightest and the best, that they gobble up the added school work like it's covered in hot fudge, making the rest of us look like unmotivated loser parents.
The facts are simple. As far as early elementary age children go, if a kid doesn't finish schoolwork at school, they should take it home. And after school reading? Absolutely. We read at least twenty minutes a day in my house because it's important family time, and encourages our kids to love books (which I'm all for).
But giving first-graders homework so they can "learn responsibility"? Kids should be kids. They should be out in the fresh fall air, playing and doing chores. And frankly, I'd rather see my kid be responsible for the kitchen trash then a two-sided worksheet any day.
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