So I am a statistical outlier on this on SO MANY levels, but I think my experience may be worth adding to the debate nonetheless. I was an auto didactic homeschooler for most of elementary school and rule was that I had to do some school reading (i.e., not fantasy novels), some writing, and some math everyday. I wasn't allowed to hang out with friends or do things that were clearly play activities until I had done those things, but other than that it was a fairly un-schooling kind of environment. I started taking college classes part-time at the local community college when very young, which was my first experience with homework, but as other people have previously noted, college homework is very different and way more clearly helpful than most of what I saw my friends doing in high school. When I shadowed a friend at a local high school for a day I was amazed and appalled at the amount busywork they were given to do in a day, things that clearly did not feel like learning to me. this was coupled with an environment where I was dancing intensively all through high school, up to 30 hours a week. Between my college classes and my dancing I was pretty much never bored. Another factor here, and I think this was pretty crucial, was that my mother insisted I not get a job during high school. She said to me, on many occasions "you are a kid and your job right now is to learn and grow. I will take care of the making of money. If you want to earn a little extra doing babysitting on occasion that's fine, but you are not going to waste your time flipping burgers or working retail because making money is not the most important thing for you to do right now." so I was busy, but I was constantly stimulated and my homework never put me in the place that the article describes, where the kids mantra was "memorization, not rationalization." And in the end this led to both a really clear and well developed work ethic, an ability to do lots of executive functioning stuff without almost any parental oversight, and a love of learning that was maintained throughout my entire educational experience. When I become a parent, this is what I want for my kid(s): a sense that there are things in life that are important outside of school, a genuine engagement with their schoolwork, an ability to do their own time management, and the knowledge that I will prioritize their well-being and help them manage various competing demands. I want my kid to get through high school not already feeling burned out and like they don't have the energy for college, which is something I see a lot of my college kids struggling with. How I will do this I have absolutely NO idea, but I'm pretty confident I will be able to figure it out when the time comes. /rant
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
zaluzianskya and ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
skylark_photos
no subject
Date: 2013-09-20 01:13 pm (UTC)I was an auto didactic homeschooler for most of elementary school and rule was that I had to do some school reading (i.e., not fantasy novels), some writing, and some math everyday. I wasn't allowed to hang out with friends or do things that were clearly play activities until I had done those things, but other than that it was a fairly un-schooling kind of environment. I started taking college classes part-time at the local community college when very young, which was my first experience with homework, but as other people have previously noted, college homework is very different and way more clearly helpful than most of what I saw my friends doing in high school. When I shadowed a friend at a local high school for a day I was amazed and appalled at the amount busywork they were given to do in a day, things that clearly did not feel like learning to me.
this was coupled with an environment where I was dancing intensively all through high school, up to 30 hours a week. Between my college classes and my dancing I was pretty much never bored. Another factor here, and I think this was pretty crucial, was that my mother insisted I not get a job during high school. She said to me, on many occasions "you are a kid and your job right now is to learn and grow. I will take care of the making of money. If you want to earn a little extra doing babysitting on occasion that's fine, but you are not going to waste your time flipping burgers or working retail because making money is not the most important thing for you to do right now."
so I was busy, but I was constantly stimulated and my homework never put me in the place that the article describes, where the kids mantra was "memorization, not rationalization." And in the end this led to both a really clear and well developed work ethic, an ability to do lots of executive functioning stuff without almost any parental oversight, and a love of learning that was maintained throughout my entire educational experience. When I become a parent, this is what I want for my kid(s): a sense that there are things in life that are important outside of school, a genuine engagement with their schoolwork, an ability to do their own time management, and the knowledge that I will prioritize their well-being and help them manage various competing demands. I want my kid to get through high school not already feeling burned out and like they don't have the energy for college, which is something I see a lot of my college kids struggling with.
How I will do this I have absolutely NO idea, but I'm pretty confident I will be able to figure it out when the time comes.
/rant