3 ms·

Maybe just schedule the not-intellectually-heavy stuff earlier in the day, if we can't screw up the parents' schedules with a later start time. For example, st

by Zetice 4y ago

Maybe just schedule the not-intellectually-heavy stuff earlier in the day, if we can't screw up the parents' schedules with a later start time. For example, start school with a study hall (that you can miss if you're so able e.g. if you can drive yourself to school), and let the kids nap. Honestly that would have been a game changer for me, as I never did my homework until the last second.

trgn 4y ago
Yeah, a few hours of optional study hall before or after school would be so good. It gives some buffer for the studious kids. Plus, 50% of class time is wasted anyway. Just teach essentials. Getting on my soap box: most important buildings in an educational institution are the library and the sports hall. Healthy mind in healthy body. Dial in formal instruction tactfully. That's really it.
syntheweave 4y ago
There are definitely tons of ways to satisfy this issue that we seem to be predisposed against because it would introduce slack in the system, and at multiple layers, the school system is designed to be a "precision engineered watch" - the staff never has time, the parents never have time, the kids never have time, and the measures of success are built around bureaucratic elements and adversarial dynamics. Thus every homework assignment I had came with a pit of anxiety about formal structure: "Am I following the exact format? Or will it come back with a zero because I didn't correctly read the teacher's mind about what's being asked for?" That kind of thing is resolved if there's slack, but in many schools it isn't there: it's just pushed downwards until it hits the students and they get marked late, absent, failing on their work, and blamed for being irresponsible. I once had a band teacher in high school that wanted us to do an "optional" practice session after school. I did not show up, and the next day she gave me an earful in front of the class because by optional, she meant you had to attend unless you were excused. I explained that that is not the definition of optional, and she should find a different word for it, but she was uninterested in using correct nomenclature.

by Zetice 4y ago

trgn 4y ago

Yeah, a few hours of optional study hall before or after school would be so good. It gives some buffer for the studious kids. Plus, 50% of class time is wasted anyway. Just teach essentials. Getting on my soap box: most important buildings in an educational institution are the library and the sports hall. Healthy mind in healthy body. Dial in formal instruction tactfully. That's really it.

syntheweave 4y ago

There are definitely tons of ways to satisfy this issue that we seem to be predisposed against because it would introduce slack in the system, and at multiple layers, the school system is designed to be a "precision engineered watch" - the staff never has time, the parents never have time, the kids never have time, and the measures of success are built around bureaucratic elements and adversarial dynamics. Thus every homework assignment I had came with a pit of anxiety about formal structure: "Am I following the exact format? Or will it come back with a zero because I didn't correctly read the teacher's mind about what's being asked for?" That kind of thing is resolved if there's slack, but in many schools it isn't there: it's just pushed downwards until it hits the students and they get marked late, absent, failing on their work, and blamed for being irresponsible. I once had a band teacher in high school that wanted us to do an "optional" practice session after school. I did not show up, and the next day she gave me an earful in front of the class because by optional, she meant you had to attend unless you were excused. I explained that that is not the definition of optional, and she should find a different word for it, but she was uninterested in using correct nomenclature.