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I have to second this. For instance, everyone in education and policy circles these days is talking about Finnish education. Besides the fact that Finnish schoo

by kaitai 13y ago

I have to second this. For instance, everyone in education and policy circles these days is talking about Finnish education. Besides the fact that Finnish schools make sure every student eats enough and teachers have a lot of autonomy to shape lessons to student needs, students get something like 50 minutes of recess at lunch and less formal breaks every hour or so during the day. The school days are often shorter, too. (How I envied my Finnish cousins when I saw that they got to take an hour or two of nature class every week and sometimes they went home at 1 pm and sometimes they went home at 2:30... depending on the class schedule, which repeated weekly but was different every day!) The article's suggestions for instructional activities that benefit boys outline projects that also benefit girls. The reason boys are disciplined more than girls when both are bored half to death is that many boys hit each other and run around while many girls are "nice" and just write notes, doodle, or sleep, staying in their seats as required. I say this as a woman who brought a pillow to class in high school and was seen as a stellar student.

PebblesRox 13y ago
Your point at the end is so true. I was reading that list of examples and thinking "Why are they putting the emphasis on boys? Every single one of these looks like something I'd have enjoyed in school." A good example of bored boy behavior vs. bored girl behavior: one time in a personal finance management class, we played BINGO with elbow macaroni as markers. (The questions were really simple so the game was neither fun nor educational.) Quite a few guys in the class took to stomping on their macaroni and finding other creative ways to crush it. I was busy getting them all to stand up as little arches and looking for interesting ways to arrange them. I was just as bored but less disruptive.
unmei 13y ago
I don't know how familiar you all are with the Montessori method, but I spent Preschool through 5th grade in one and it worked out quite well for me. Basically I had a list of things that needed to get done every week, so I would get them done on Monday and spend the rest of the week researching lasers, learning BASIC in the computer lab, etc. I think unstructured learning time is hugely lacking in the traditional school setting.

by kaitai 13y ago

PebblesRox 13y ago

Your point at the end is so true. I was reading that list of examples and thinking "Why are they putting the emphasis on boys? Every single one of these looks like something I'd have enjoyed in school." A good example of bored boy behavior vs. bored girl behavior: one time in a personal finance management class, we played BINGO with elbow macaroni as markers. (The questions were really simple so the game was neither fun nor educational.) Quite a few guys in the class took to stomping on their macaroni and finding other creative ways to crush it. I was busy getting them all to stand up as little arches and looking for interesting ways to arrange them. I was just as bored but less disruptive.

unmei 13y ago

I don't know how familiar you all are with the Montessori method, but I spent Preschool through 5th grade in one and it worked out quite well for me. Basically I had a list of things that needed to get done every week, so I would get them done on Monday and spend the rest of the week researching lasers, learning BASIC in the computer lab, etc. I think unstructured learning time is hugely lacking in the traditional school setting.