No Homework Overload; Self-centered Social Studies; The Boy Code; Codswallop; College 101: Don't Jump Out of Your Bunk Bed

http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | American students aren't overworked, says a report from the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings . The typical student spends an hour a day -- or less -- on homework, about the same as in the 1980s. Researcher Tom Loveless cites a UCLA study that asked college freshmen how much they worked in high school the year before.

In 1987, the first year the question was asked, 47 percent of kids said they spent more than five hours a week on homework as high school seniors. But the figure has shrunk every year since, and hit a record low of 34 percent in 2002.

"These are our top students, and two-thirds say they spent no more than five hours a week on homework in high school,'' Loveless said. "I think that's troubling. ... It leads me to question if they are being adequately prepared for college.''

In an international study, U.S. 12th graders tied for second-to-last in study time among 20 countries. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, 39 percent of 17-year-olds said they’d done no homework the previous night; another 26 percent did less than an hour of homework. A study called "A Nation at Rest,'' concludes that only about 10 percent of high school students spend more than two hours a day on homework.

In this story, a fourth grade math teacher doesn't assign homework for fear parents will encourage children to memorize the multiplication table.

June Shoemaker, a fourth-grade teacher in Twin Lakes, Wis., tries not to assign any homework. She'd rather contain her math lessons to class, where she can teach students to think about the concepts, than assign work at home, where memorization drills may be encouraged by parents.

"Many of our families have two people working, and the kids go home to empty homes or to day care, so there's just not a lot of support for homework," Shoemaker said. "That's not fair to the kids."

If it's bad to have parents drilling the kids on 6 x 7, why is it unfair that some kids don't have such parents? Aren't they the lucky ones?

Self-centered Social Studies

Social studies curricula shouldn't be about me, me, me, writes Brendan Miniter in Opinion Journal.

The new social studies often rests on "student-centered instruction," which allows students to be their own learning guides. The starting premise is that students can learn only what is familiar and directly relevant to them. Thus social studies in kindergarten through the third grade teaches students first about family, then local public servants like firemen and policemen. It also holds that members of a racial minority aren't immediately capable of learning about people who are of a different race, so black kids read about the Great Zimbabwe kingdom, not Columbus. This concentric-circle approach leaves students unprepared for serious analysis. But mostly, students find it boring.

Students learn that facts are a matter of opinion, so why bother to learn any? Yet, many young people don't have strongly held opinions either. They just don't care.

The percentage of 18- to 24-year-olds who voted fell to 32 percent in 1996 and 2000, from 50 percent in 1972. A study in 2000 found that only 28.1 percent of college freshman kept up to date with politics, a record low and down from 60.3 percent in 1966.

Students do well with a knowledge-based curriculum, advises the Fordham Foundation, which is focusing on history and civics curricula.

The Boy Code

What do schoolboys need ? Across the developed world, boys are doing much worse in school than girls, writes Ted Byfield in the Edmonton Sun. As a former teacher in a boys' school, he doesn't think boys should be encouraged to abandon the stoic "boy code" and have a good cry.

(The boy code) requires boys to be brave, show little emotion, not to tattletale, never to cry. It has other stipulations -- that they shouldn't pick on little kids, never hit girls, never kick a guy when he's down, help people who aren't able to help themselves, that kind of thing.

It also has higher, more distant requirements -- that they be prepared to die for their country, and that they have a responsibility to their family. (Meaning, that if anybody picks a fight with your brother, he has picked a fight with you.) And (if they're Christian) that they never "deny Christ."

Instead of feminizing boys, Byfield suggests giving boys schools with mostly male teachers, "a highly structured environment with objective examinations and a clear pass-fail grading system in every subject and at frequent intervals."

Codswallop

A British headmaster is on trial, charged with assaulting an 11-year-old student with a fish. The Telegraph reports:

David Watkins allegedly put an ill-behaved pupil in a headlock and tried to stuff a 10-inch cod into his mouth.

The incident occurred in the playground of a middle school in Norwich last November after the boy, who has since been expelled and excluded from another school, brought the fish to the playground.

Watkins, 51, who denies assault, went into the playground to investigate after pupils had complained about the boy's behaviour because he had been chasing girls, brandishing the fish.

I sympathize with the headmaster. The boy was a flagrant fish brandisher; he was asking for a codding.

College 101: Don't Jump Out of Your Bunk Bed

With no guard rails to keep them safe, University of Buffalo students are jumping or falling out of upper bunks, and Kimberly Swygert is laughing at them. Read the comments for classic falling-out-of-bed stories. Warning: Some involve alcohol.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Joanne Jacobs, a former Knight-Ridder columnist and San Jose Mercury News editorial writer, blogs daily at ReadJacobs.com. She is currently finishing a book, Start-Up High, about a San Jose charter school. Comment by clicking here.

09/29/03:Flunking mom; classroom classics; ritalin gag rule; lousy children
09/22/03: Order, disorder
09/08/03: No Child Left Behind: A Primer
08/29/03: The Decline and Fall of Social Studies
08/18/03: F is for valedictorian
08/14/03: Start-up success
08/11/03: Subliterate Superintendent
08/04/03: Alternative High School
07/28/03: Out of the System
07/21/03: Too Snobby for Shop
07/14/03: Be very afraid
07/09/03: Know-nothing nonsense
06/30/03: Affirmative action reactions
06/23/03: Overdressed Students, Underdressed Teachers, Dressed-down Exams
06/16/03: Paper 'Is-ness,' Excluding Awards, New Racial Consciousness and Politics
06/09/03: Racist math, red tape for charters, potty reading
06/02/03: Teacher Pay, Illiteracy , No Republicans Allowed
05/27/03: Research papers, athletics, reading
05/19/03: Soft America, plagiarism, Minutemen and Jets
05/12/03: Demographics, nerves, valedictorian, vouchers
05/05/03: Gender Bias, Banned Words, Helen of Troy
04/28/03: Tests, home-schooling, self-esteem
04/25/03: Lessons, American Pride, Iraqi Schools
04/14/03: Iraqi Textbooks and the English language
03/31/03:Teachers, hugging, text messaging
04/07/03: War talk at school
03/24/03: Watching the war
03/10/03: Classroom chaos
03/03/03: Teaching tales
02/24/03: Segregation stories
02/18/03: Writing Essays, America, Beyond Bert and Ernie
02/13/03: Size matters
02/10/03: Parental homework, cheaters and memoirs
02/03/03: Diplomas, academics, preschools and Ritalin
01/27/03: Head Start, Social Studies, Marx, Africa and Math
01/22/03: Teachers as targets
01/13/03: Big Bully's Feelings
01/06/03: School of 60's Whining and Communal Destruction
12/23/02: Teaching in
12/16/02: Chocolate city?
12/10/02: Mandatory Victimhood --- and when cleaning up a school is 'racist'
11/25/02: Multi-colored math, sensitive science
11/20/02: How to leave no child behind
11/18/02: The tummy track
11/11/02: Dysfunctional documents?
11/04/02: Why go to college? Why test schools?
10/28/02: Pride goeth before an F
10/21/02: Diversity adversity
10/14/02: Bad hat day
10/07/02: Inflated sense of worth
09/30/02: The Royal road to knowledge
09/24/02: Sierra's Club
09/20/02: Stupidity Watch
09/03/02: First, win the war
08/26/02: Out of their field, out of their minds?
08/20/02: Fun with failure