Before
After
The bane of the elementary school boy is The School Project (and consequently, The School Project is also the bane of the elementary school boy's mom because she is the one that will provide succor when the elementary school boy announces-- at 9 PM-- that he forgot about his School Project; at this point, the elementary school boy's father, otherwise known as Dad, who has had a long afternoon coaching soccer, advises his son to hand in a piece of crap, take the bad grade like a man, then-- after dispensing this wisdom-- the elementary school dad goes to bed . . . but as evidenced by the "Before" and "After" pics that my wife e-mailed me the next day, this is NOT the proper course and when there is a project, you should take a careful look at "the scoring rubric" so you can advise your son or daughter on what to prioritize and how to make a plan of action and a rough-draft or sketch (or you take the easy way out and just do it for them-- but my wife is too principled for that).
Not that your wife did this, but it makes me think...
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see some graphics that depict what percentage of elementary school projects get done by the parents, as broken down by the percentage of the work from concept to completion the parent (or grandparent, or other adult) performs.
My mother-in-law does my stepdaughter's homework for her, and I gave up long ago insisting that it won't help her in the long run. At this point, I am waiting for a chuckle when she gets to algebra.
even in high school, there are times when you know you're grading a parent's essay.
ReplyDeleteafter i told this story, my students were all reminiscing about how their parents did all their projects for them. cat is actually very good about getting the kids to do their own work, but the right way. i don't have patience.