NRR- And I thought posting in a shoe forum stirred the hornets' nest...

So I've been on a bit of an educational theory kick lately. Long story short, my professional life took a dramatic turn this year, which forced me to really evaluate public education. As part of this evaluation, which included a lot of self-evaluation, I started blogging about my thoughts on education in general.

One of the topics I talked about was homework. Specifically, why do kids today turn in so little homework? We have data that shows the amount of homework turned in is decreasing every year. Most solutions to this problem involve adding more work or trying some sort of reward and/or punishment system. Regardless of the methods tried, nothing seems to help.

Drawing on my barefoot running experiences (less is more), I started considering the possibility that teachers are assigning too much homework. I half-jokingly planned a National No Homework Week. After thinking it over and consulting the literature, I decided to make it a serious endeavor. I wrote about it here:

http://hs-survival.blogspot.com/2010/11/national-no-homework-week-revolution-to.html

Needless to say, other teachers DO NOT like to hear someone suggest that their methods may be the cause of their problems, even if it comes from one of their own. I received a warmer response when I posted about "why barefoot running is better" in the Shoes forum at RW a few years ago. I've received many really inflamatory emails from teachers, including some that bordered on scary.

Anyway, I came to a realization. I spend wayyyyy too much time communicating with barefoot/minimalist shoe runners, and we happen to be a very open, accepting group. This experience was a reminder- the rest of the world isn't nearly as cool as you guys.

:)
 
I even saw that you got

I even saw that you got negative comments about your teaching blog on your BRU page. Looks like the seek you out in order to bash you. But it's stuff that needs to be said, so keep truckin brother.
 
Have you read Alfie Kohn's

Have you read Alfie Kohn's book "Punished By Rewards"? If not it is a good read for an alternative to behaviorism. Wait you are a psych major aren't you? I'll go read your blog now.
 
Fantastic article LP,

Fantastic article LP, seriously you are definitely on to something. I'm not an educator, though a parent of an already overworked 2nd grader (who has ADD and has a hard time keeping her tendencies in check...lack of focus, hard time retaining and recalling information, hard time grasping mathematical concepts and struggles with reading so then in turn struggles with test taking because you have to be able to read the directions in order to know what to do). She has a hefty work load just to keep up with her peers including summer school, cognitive brain training---which sadly didn't work but put a huge hole in our pockets in attempts to help her focus more, after school programs, extra help in school--which I'm grateful for though just feel like we just aren't hitting the nail on the head given the amount of extra work she does and it's relative ineffectiveness).

I recently participated in an efficacy training program and got a lot of really great insight on the matter of working smarter, using failures as feedback, being more efficient, mobilizing resources in order to be successful at all of the listed. I'm not sure what is available in your area, though I think many educators and parents would benefit from the training. diversitycouncil.org/smartkids/

Sadly, in our society we focus way too much on quantity than quality in regards to everything including education.
 
Thanks SayPay.  No worries...

Thanks SayPay. No worries... I don't mind antagonizing. ;-)

Abide- I haven't read that book, but Kohn's ideas are pretty much in line with my own. Unfortunately, many consider his ideas too radical for mainstream education. That saddens me. And makes me seriously consider homeschooling.
 
 It totally applies to

It totally applies to barefoot running (maybe that's why barefoot running concepts made so much sense to me when I'd started, having had that training before hand) and pretty much every other of life's aspects.
 
 I love your writing on

I love your writing on teaching.

We get crap (when we leave our bubble) about homeschooling. I think it offends people that our children have loads of time to play and are smart and well adjusted and yet don't go to school and are not stressed.

Less is more and glad that you have friends here that have left the cave.
 
Jason, you are right on with

Jason, you are right on with your thoughts on education. My mom was a teacher and feels the same way. Kids are spending more time in school and on homework in the US than most of the countries that are ranked higher in education. Germany is only ranked a little bit higher, but my kids are home earlier and have less homework than our friends' kids back in the US.

Kids need to play. They are kids, for God's sake.

It's similar to US vacation for workers. Two weeks is a joke. People need down time. They are much more productive when their brains and bodies are balanced.

Keep hammerin' away.
 
Homework for the sake of

Homework for the sake of homework isn't a good thing, but I would have gained much more from middle and high school if I had had more. The only three teachers that taught me anything about not only the subject, but how college would be, and how life for that matter would be were very heavy homework assigners. The homework was always useful and contributed to class, never busywork. I am a HUGE proponent of homework in middle and high school especially for students who are going to go into math and science fields. You cannot learn either of those well until you do about a million practice problems and you don't have time to do that in class. Sure for psych, history ect... less might be more because you can get alot from just talking and thinking about it, that philosophy only goes so far with introductory (which I consider middle school up until the end of undergraduate) math and science. There is no other way to get good at algebra, calculus and chemistry problems than sitting down doing them all and then starting back over and doing them again. I wish my college students would figure this out since they aren't required to do homework and then complain that they don't know what they are doing on tests. I'm willing to go out on a limb and bet that a lot of the people dead set against this no homework idea were math and science teachers.

Now homework in kindergarden wtf?
 
Angie Bee wrote:I love your

Angie Bee said:
I love your writing on teaching.We get crap (when we leave our bubble) about homeschooling. I think it offends people that our children have loads of time to play and are smart and well adjusted and yet don't go to school and are not stressed. Less is more and glad that you have friends here that have left the cave.

I didn't know you were a home schooling family. Do you follow a curriculum? We really dig the unschooling philosophy.
 
I hate homework, my kids hate

I hate homework, my kids hate it, so way do we do it. They spend 6 hrs in school 5 days a week that is enough.

I talked to a guy at work who home schools. 2 hrs a day that is it.
 
pbarker wrote: I talked to a

pbarker said:
I talked to a guy at work who home schools. 2 hrs a day that is it.

And here is the reason why people have a negative view on homeschooling. I feel terrible for those kids, they'll never be able to catch up because the older you get the harder it is for your brain to make new connections and the slower you learn. Those kids will never be able to compete with someone who spent 4 times that on school. Even if natural talent allows them to compete with others, they will never reach their full potential on that much work a day. The few times I've seen homeschooling really work the kids spent nearly as much time on school as what I did going to a public school, but managed to learn more because they weren't slowed down by other students. True you don't have to spend 10 hours a day on schooling if you are more efficient but two hours a day is just laziness.
 
2 hours a day could just mean

2 hours a day could just mean he has really smart kids, that can finish all their tasks quickly... Calling it laziness seems like jumping to conclusions to me.
 
 If they are that smart than

If they are that smart than the wonder of homeschooling is that you should be teaching them more while they can suck it all up. One family I know had their kid doing college chemistry, physics and calculus when he's high school aged. He was too smart for public schools so they decided to do it on their own. If my kids are significantly above average in school I could easily see pulling them to homeschool them, but not so that they can only work two hours a day, but so that they have a chance to achieve more.



edited to add: this is what I meant by "achieving their full potential"
 
Im not trying to argue a

Im not trying to argue a subject im not qualified to argue, or annoy anyone. Just thought the laziness comment was a bit harsh... Heck we don't even know how old that man's children are. Just sayin'.
 
OK. My two cents:I think

OK. My two cents:

I think kids are overscheduled and overwhelmed these days and it begins in preschool or even before that. Parents are afraid their kids won't be "ready" for school and so they bombard them with academics at a very early age. While parents are so worried about whether their children will be high achievers they ignore the advice from The American Academy of Pediatrics that supports that free and unstructured play is necessary for for children to achieve those important emotional, social as well as cognitive milestones.

I belong to a parent education program which is also the co-op preschool I put both my children in. The program serves to educate parents about early childhood education (the preschool is actually the "lab" part) and supports a very play-based philosophy. We have speakers come in and speak about different issues ranging from the importance of sensory integration to public school issues like homework and standardized testing. We use a lot of Alfie Kohn's articles as reference.

The cool thing is: our teachers are educating parents about how children learn through experience/play, how we can create intrinsic learners, and how we as parents can be their best advocates. The best part is: they are educating parents who would not normally question the current system. The frustrating part is: as parents most of us (even armed with this information) feel hopeless to change an educational system that seems to have lost its way.

A lot of parents choose to keep their kids out of the public school system because of what they learned from our parent education program, but I believe the best way to change the system is within the system. Not sure if its possible. I was lucky to find a great public school that, so far, has not plagued my kid with a ton of homework. But this, along with standardized testing, has really gotten out of hand in a lot of schools. It also seems that the teachers have their hands tied with the bureaucracy of it all.

I totally respect your ideas, Jason. Hold your ground. Change needs to come from somewhere. There will always be naysayers (as you know with barefoot running). We NEED more teachers (and parents alike) who aren't afraid to swim against the tide, confront and question what is really best for our children. As parents, we often feel helpless without the teachers by our side because if often feels like they hold the golden key for change.

BTW- I'm reposting the link to your blog and passing it on. This issue is so important. Its nice to know there are others out there besides our small community that believe that change needs to happen and soon. Thank you.
 
The whole experience with BFR

The whole experience with BFR has shown the experts can be completely wrong. We are pulling one of our kids out for one on one teaching for half days. The school is a accommodating but not fully supportive which tells me we are moving away from the standard which is OK with me.
 
ajb... you sound exactly like

ajb... you sound exactly like me... three years ago. I used to teach psychology, which was a college prep class. Kids came in my class, I lectured, they took notes. We had wonderfully-enlightening conversations about anything and everything. I learned as much from them as they did from me. As a teacher, I was given more or less complete freedom do design curriculum and lessons. I taught the class at a higher level than most intro clesses in college and had great success. It was my educational utopia.

I never had to deal with or interact with the rest of the student population.

This year, I was forced to teach freshman world history. Man, what an eye-opener. I am forced to teach the exact state standards to prepare kids to take our stse's standardized test. We need to improve each year (as a school) or face puntative sanctions from No Child Left Behind. The result- our school is a kiddie mill- we just pump out cookie-cutter kids. The bright kids have a bunch of knowledhe, but no ability to apply it. The not-so-bright kids are rubber-stamped to avoid puntative actions. To make matters worse, our school budget is cut every year. As time goes on, our school has less money. It's been that way for a decade.

There are a ton of smart, caring people involved in education. Tey have great ideas. Unfortunately they are reined in by a system that simply does not work (or works exactly like planned depending on your perspective). This experience is more or less the same everywhere.

Schools are like shoes. Some "experts" claim they have the anwers to school reform, but it's just more of the same- glitzy crap that makes the public think schools aregetting better. Shoe "experts" add aesthetic crap, padded insoles, motion control, etc. to make us think the shoes are more effective. It's a near-perfect anaology.

As far as home-schooling, I used to have a pretty strong bias. After all, homeschoolers directly threaten my livelihood. Early in my career, I had a student in class that was homeschooled. Think of every negative stereotype you can imagine- socially inept, was great at drawing but nothing else, whatever. That sealed my stereotype.

Over the years, I've had about two or three formerly homeschooled kids in eac class each year. I more or less ignored the fact that they were inquisitive, smart, mature, responsible, socially-savvy, and lacked the jaded exterior most of my other students had.

When I had to switch from psychology to world history and really opened my eyes to the overall environment in our school, I decided to do what I could to stimulate change. It's clear the "reforms" we try again and again do not work. So I looked for outside-the-box solutions. So far, my ideas include a new way to look at learning and bringing the open source model to the classroom.

Part of my research included brainstorming ways to improve standardized test scores. I was shocked to find that homeschooled kids did significantly better than their public school counterparts. Hmmmm... interesting. Being a data person (research background), I couldn't ignore the results. Even when accounting for research methodology errors, the results are pretty clear. Homeschooled kids do better academically across the board. When anecdotal evidence matches emerical research, I listen.

When looking at the homeschool model, it suddenly became obvious. Homeschooled kids spend very little time actually studying. I always assumed it was a lack of rigor. Turns out they don't spend time studying because they don't need to. Their learning is MUCH more efficient because it derives from their own curiosity versus teacher-initiated lessons. That's where I derived the concept of "organic learning". I credit Tim Ferriss' "The Four Hour Work Week" for that epiphany... in schools we work for the sake of work. We fill time. In a homeschooling environment, kids generally learn whan they want to learn, hence dramatically-increased motivation.

The error most people make, and I used to make, is the assumption that kids wouldn't want to learn the difficult concepts we teach in high school. I credit my own six year old daughter with this epiphany: kids have far greater capacity to learn than we give them credit for. I like science, so I tend to give full explanations when my kids ask questions. I assume they really don't understand. I was shocked to hear her recounting my explanation of why the sky was blue to my son when he asked her.

Another assumption people have- you need to be an expert in subject matter to teach. I learned this lesson in my own class. Teachers are most effective when they abandon the role of "the source of all knowledge", i.e.- the focal point, and take on a role of facilitator. The teacher becomes a guide of sorts (see problem-based learning and constructivism). This is a role anyone can play; having knowledge of the subject matter isn't a prerequisite.

To sum up the overly-long story- we (professional educators) can learn a lot from homeschoolers and the free schoolers if we get past our biases and stereotypes. Most of my colleagues would prefer to stay in a fog of ignorant bliss without realizing the education system is crumbling around them. The victims of this indifference- the kids. Sadly, too many parents trust that educators have all the answers... much like most people trust podiatrists are engaging in best practices by prescribing orthotics. The truth is our perceived "expertise" isn't based on data or even logic, it's based on a "this is how we've always done it, therefore it is the right way" point of view.