[geeks] Education

[wa2egp at att.net]

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Charles Shannon Hendrix <shannon at widomaker.com>
> Mon, 26 Sep 2005 @ 22:49 -0500, Lionel Peterson said:
> 
> > >From: William Enestvedt <William.Enestvedt at jwu.edu>
> > >Date: Mon Sep 26 08:32:35 CDT 2005
> > >To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
> > >Subject: Re: [geeks] Education
> > 
> > >I gasped when I saw:
> > >>
> > >> 1. "Feel good" education.  Can't have the student tramatized.  Can't
> > >> give too much homework, can't grade with a red pen...
> > 
> > I've not seen a teacher afraid to give too much homework...
> 
> Me either, and I think that a lot of schools really do give too much
> homework.  They seem to think that throwing homework at the students
> makes them smarter, which is complete bullshit.
> 
> The majority of homework I had to do, and what I've seen recently, is
> mostly mindless, repetitive, busy work.  It's design to create assembly
> line mentality and compliant behavior rather than teach anything.
> 
> Better instruction in the classroom would eliminate the need for most
> homework, and would give the student a chance to create their own
> homework as they learn what they need extra study on.
> 
> Burying students with homework is NOT education.
> 
> The other stuff... yeah, I agree.  The whole PC and self-esteem thing is
> ridiculous, but the insane level of busywork really is a problem.
> 
> -- 
> shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["All of us get lost in the darkness,
> dreamers turn to look at the stars" -- Rush ]

What you may call busywork, I call practice.  I go over it, allow
them to make corrections, show them how to avoid making the same or
common mistakes and they can make mistakes without losing anything
as long as they correct them.  They should be allowed to make mistakes
so they can learn from them.  Busywork is just filling in the blanks 
without any feedback and that's worthless. 

Bob