Skipping Baths...

It has been quite a while since I last was able to sit and write a little. It is only at the urging of the baby of the family that I take the time now to hack out a few lines. As the end of the girls' first six weeks rapidly approaches, I find myself wondering who made up this wacky schedule for school. I know I am not alone in feeling the crushing pressure to complete assignments sent home for the kids to complete by the next school day; I just this past weekend witnessed my nephew, Jeffrey, spending every available moment working on school work (all the while I was thinking...IT'S the weekend!) Tonight we had to skip the bath to finish the reading and writing assignments for Maggie (a first grader), and we finally called it quits at 10pm as she began to cry about reading about the ducks! It is hard to keep from sending the message that this is fairly ridiculous, as I attempt to not scar her view of education forever, but come on...is all of this work really necessary? These kids spend so many hours of the day learning, do they really need so much homework. I remember when I was teaching, the rule of thumb was to assign about 30 minutes of self-study homework each night and we all had projects for the six weeks that the students would be working on at the same time. Most students were involved in at least one activity or another at school and/or in the community or in their churches. I'm thinking maybe we, as teachers, need to use OUR math skills. Thirty minutes each night times seven classes, plus time spent practicing sports, music, etc., must equal an insanely tiny amount of time spent with family and an extremely stressed out student. And I am certain, judging by my experience, that stressed students do not perform to their potential.

What amazes me is that we are not all geniuses. If our public education doesn't start making more sense to me, I can't help but to think...I could possibly join a group devoted to changing this crazy, chaotic system we painfully accept as education.

Well, it's really late and now that I have assisted Maggie in learning all about bird's nests, ducks and dogs...it's time to go conjure up the agency schedule and do my homework!