So far I'm a star pupil.
Eitan is presently in the fourth grade, and he's received numerous homework assignments that require him to research a topic and then present what he's learned as an impressive word-processed document. So far his teacher has been very pleased with the work Eitan has presented her. In all modesty I can note that she has lavished praised on the assignments he's turned in. I have to concur - they're actually quite well done, both the research and the formatting. And of course they should be - I'm a little old to be in the fourth grade and when required to perform on a fourth grade level, even if there are elements of slumming involved, I do quite a good job. My guess is that "our" teacher knows that these assignments demand a great deal of parental intervention, though I'm at a loss to understand just what their value is to a fourth grader. Working on them gives me some quality time with my son, and I get to try and explain to him what I think the important elements of a research paper should be. But I don't know whether this parent-child interaction is what our teacher envisioned as the positive outcome of assignments of this sort. Perhaps, but perhaps she thinks that they should learn to set their sites high. Or perhaps she thinks that they're really doing this work by themselves.
Go to: Get a Life!