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10 Jun 2006 - 17:54
I think our household stumbled onto a plan for managing middle school this year. Christopher continues to be in almost bizarrely good shape. He brought home another couple of As this week — a 92 and a 98 — both in English. One of the tests had essay questions on which he lost just one point. This is the teacher who had been giving him grades of C on his writing. It’s not just the sudden appearance of high grades that’s so good to see. It’s the attitude. Christopher today is the kid we’ve been trying to grow. He’s serious, friendly, cheerful, and above all non-cool. Ed is funny on the subject of cool. We were talking about Christopher not being cool one night, and Ed said, “You never want a boy to be cool.” I suspect you don’t want a girl to be cool, either. Of course, he’s young yet, so I shouldn’t count my chickens. Coolness may yet emerge. For the moment, though, Christopher has no sardonic humor (middle-school quippiness, yes; sardonic humor, no), his hair is short, and his pants aren’t hanging off his bottom. I’ll take it. I have an idea how this happened – and I think this may be a workable approach for other kids in other schools.
Toru Kumon was right Christopher’s afterschooling is pretty minimalist at this point. At least 5 days a week he does:
Christopher does this work on his own. He takes his materials down to the basement and works alongside his dad, who has set up a desk for him there. I’m going to add grammar (sentence diagramming in particular), writing, and possibly some extra work in Spanish to the mix. But when I do I’ll follow the same formula. One page a day in each subject, assigned from the same book each day, which lives in the same place on his desk upstairs. A book he can manage on his own. When I first went to KUMON, part of the pitch was that KUMON's daily worksheets turn children into “self-learners.” The American website seems to have dropped that language now, but you can still find it on other sites:
When I read this passage last fall, I didn’t get it. It made sense that KUMON would increase a student’s self-confidence, but I didn’t see why “succeeding” at worksheets would produce a “self-learner.” When you talk about self-learning you're talking about executive function, and I didn’t see how filling out 5 math worksheets a day had anything to do with frontal lobe development. Now I think Toru Kumon was right, though I still don’t quite understand it. “Drill and kill” doesn’t just lead to procedural mastery and confidence. Somehow drill and kill also helps develop independence, motivation, and a responsible nature. Is it the same principle that’s at work in military training? It’s probably fair to say that military training is literally “drill and kill.” I don't know anything about the military, but as far as I can tell the result of military training is a young man who can follow commands or give them, and keep his wits about him in the midst of battle. All good things. I don't know how it works, but I do think "the KUMON principle" has proved itself around here. I also think that, in terms of Christopher's grades, the psychology of this year's "hands-off" afterschooling has been more important than the actual content Christopher learned. His afterschool books have little to do with his present school work. He's still in Level D - 4th grade - in KUMON Math, and vocabulary and spelling will pay off in the long run, not the near term.
who's in charge I've mentioned more than once that, before Christopher entered middle school, I had decided I needed to "own" math. I figured Phase 4 was going to be brutal, and I needed to "own" math to limit the damage. Then it turned out we needed to own more than math; we needed to own the whole academic enterprise. Christopher has had at least 2 — maybe 3 — good teachers this year in his core subjects, but the school is a dark place. Yesterday a friend of mine captured the unspoken school motto in 5 words: Do this or you're f*****. That's it. That's what our kids are up against. Label your graph, or 50% off. Show your work the way I want it showed, not the way you thought I wanted it showed, or 20 points off. Use complete sentences on the science test or points off. (That's coming up next year.) Have your mom sign your test tonight or it's points off-off-off! I think Tracy once used the expression gale of negativity. That's what it's been. Setting up an "afterschooling household" strips power and authority from the school in a good way. The message to a 6th grade child is: your job is to learn stuff. Doesn't matter what grade you got. Doesn't matter if the other kids think you're dumb. (Christopher says the other kids think he's dumb.) Doesn't matter that you spent 4 hours on your scale drawing and Ms. K. deducted 20 points because you showed your work the wrong way and you still don't know what the right way was. Go get your books and learn something. Remember when Mr. Liu said that the Asian way is to be persistent and patient? I didn't set out trying to create our own Personal KUMON. It evolved. But I think we ended up teaching persistence and patience. I hope so.
NEXT: LEMONS & LEMONADE, WINDS OF WAR, AND REACTIVE TEACHING REDUX
-- CatherineJohnson - 10 Jun 2006 Back to main page.
Please consider registering as a regular user.
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strips power and authority from the school in a good way This is a great manifesto, Catherine... Doesn't matter what grade you got. Doesn't matter whether the other kids think you're smart. Yeah! We were forced by circumstances this year to sit down with our boys and explain that we knew they had done a fantastic job with their writing for a history project. We knew they had worked hard, and the quality of the content of their writing was superb: they had ideas and they organized their ideas well. Even though they got poor grades from their respective teachers for the quantity of paragraphs. The quantity of paragraphs was not a quantitative measure of the actual ideas presented, let alone a qualitative measure of the content our boy had learned. As for Christopher, this has been an opportunity for our boys to cut the ties that bind them to merely pleasing their teachers, and begin instead to focus on other measures of ... truth? of quality. It's a big world out there. I'm glad we're not sitting around waiting for a teacher to "reach them" next year. I know so many parents who are waiting around for better instruction to occur (note passive voice) next year, or maybe the year after that. No way! -- BeckyC - 10 Jun 2006
Congratulations on such a good year. -- TracyW - 11 Jun 2006
"Is it the same principle that’s at work in military training?" Military training is intended to acheive several goals. First, it's intended to identify and eliminate the people who can't handle either military life or the rigors and chaos of combat. It's intended to instill the technical skills necessary for the job (vehicle repair, typing shooting, whatever) and train the soldier (marine/sailor/airman) to the point that they are automatic. For the combat branches, it's intended to provide an atmosphere of stress and chaos intense enough to reduce the psychological shock of the stress and chaos inherent in combat. Finally, it's intended to provide a shared difficult experience, which tends to increase teamwork and confidence. I think there are some similarities to what you are talking about, but the military is very conscious of exactly what they are trying to obtain. While many recruits don't understand the goals and methods, the details are well understood by most of the rest of the force. There's a well-understood process with well-defined goals. And there are consequences for failure to achieve those goals (for both recruits and trainers). It's sort of the diametric opposite of middle school. -- DougSundseth - 11 Jun 2006
GREAT COMMENTS YOU GUYS - THANK YOU! Doug, of course you're right - absolutely. I still have a follow-up post to write about our middle school, but basically it all comes down to making lemons out of lemonade, which is the antithesis of what the military is doing. Our middle school is dysfunctional and dark - without anyone's actually intending it to be so. It's a school filled with competent, well-intentioned people that is doing a number on the kids and their families to put it mildly. I'm pretty convinced that we unconsciously figured out a way to make this work to Christopher's advantage. After a couple of further conversations with other parents, I'm more than convinced, actually. I can tell you that the parents who "turned" on the school have kids in far better emotional shape than the parents who continued to work with the school and to believe that their children "share responsibility" with the school for their learning. -- CatherineJohnson - 29 Jun 2006
We were forced by circumstances this year to sit down with our boys and explain that we knew they had done a fantastic job with their writing for a history project. We knew they had worked hard, and the quality of the content of their writing was superb: they had ideas and they organized their ideas well. Even though they got poor grades from their respective teachers for the quantity of paragraphs. The quantity of paragraphs was not a quantitative measure of the actual ideas presented, let alone a qualitative measure of the content our boy had learned. yup There's something astonishingly liberating about this. I don't quite understand it.....and yet, in a way, this talke, from the parents, fulfills the school's stated goal of "teaching responsibility." 9 months of punitive grading doesn't teach an 11-year old to be "responsible for his learning," that's for sure. -- CatherineJohnson - 29 Jun 2006
Becky As for Christopher, this has been an opportunity for our boys to cut the ties that bind them to merely pleasing their teachers, and begin instead to focus on other measures of ... truth? of quality. It's a big world out there. I'm glad we're not sitting around waiting for a teacher to "reach them" next year. I know so many parents who are waiting around for better instruction to occur (note passive voice) next year, or maybe the year after that. you know, that's a good point, too it's active voice Christopher sees, constantly, that while we're intensely frustrated with and hamstrung by our school, we're not waiting for it to get better We're making sure he learns what he needs to, and we're somewhat engaged politically....(that is, we spend a fair amount of time trying to change the school) that's it, really we're not getting what we need, so we'll figure it out ourselves I think this school year has had a good effect on Christian, too It looks like he really is going to get himself into college He's spent an entire school year now watching affluent white folks fight (and lose!) the same battles with the school his own mom fought and lost for YEARS.... I think "Irvington culture" is starting to absorb him. He's got the image that you have a miserable time with your school, you fight every day, your kid gets clobbered by punitive grading, blah-blah-blah and at the end of it you go to college. -- CatherineJohnson - 29 Jun 2006
how to succeed in middle school without really trying
I think our household stumbled onto a plan for managing middle school this year. Christopher continues to be in almost bizarrely good shape. He brought home another couple of As this week — a 92 and a 98 — both in English. One of the tests had essay questions on which he lost just one point. This is the teacher who had been giving him grades of C on his writing. It’s not just the sudden appearance of high grades that’s so good to see. It’s the attitude. Christopher today is the kid we’ve been trying to grow. He’s serious, friendly, cheerful, and above all non-cool. Ed is funny on the subject of cool. We were talking about Christopher not being cool one night, and Ed said, “You never want a boy to be cool.” I suspect you don’t want a girl to be cool, either. Of course, he’s young yet, so I shouldn’t count my chickens. Coolness may yet emerge. For the moment, though, Christopher has no sardonic humor (middle-school quippiness, yes; sardonic humor, no), his hair is short, and his pants aren’t hanging off his bottom. I’ll take it. I have an idea how this happened – and I think this may be a workable approach for other kids in other schools.
Toru Kumon was right Christopher’s afterschooling is pretty minimalist at this point. At least 5 days a week he does:
- Megawords, 1 page
- Vocabulary Workshop Level A, 1 page
- KUMON Math, 1 to 2 pages
Christopher does this work on his own. He takes his materials down to the basement and works alongside his dad, who has set up a desk for him there. I’m going to add grammar (sentence diagramming in particular), writing, and possibly some extra work in Spanish to the mix. But when I do I’ll follow the same formula. One page a day in each subject, assigned from the same book each day, which lives in the same place on his desk upstairs. A book he can manage on his own. When I first went to KUMON, part of the pitch was that KUMON's daily worksheets turn children into “self-learners.” The American website seems to have dropped that language now, but you can still find it on other sites:
Self learning and Self motivation Kumon students study independently at both Kumon Centers and at home. The role of instructors within the Kumon Method is focused almost entirely on the development of a student's ability to learn on their own. Kumon refers to the ability to set goals and solve unfamiliar and challenging tasks independently as "self-learning" ability. Instructors foster this "self-learning" ability in students by using worksheets that allow students to learn at one's own pace, moving forward when they are ready. The students' enthusiasm for learning is aroused in this process, as the goals they set are their own goals. In addition, this process awakens a desire in the students to take on new challenges. Instructors ensure that students can, without any hindrances, experience over and over a sense of accomplishment, thereby boosting confidence in their own abilities. Problem solving abilities are enhanced, and independent methods of solving problems are encouraged.
When I read this passage last fall, I didn’t get it. It made sense that KUMON would increase a student’s self-confidence, but I didn’t see why “succeeding” at worksheets would produce a “self-learner.” When you talk about self-learning you're talking about executive function, and I didn’t see how filling out 5 math worksheets a day had anything to do with frontal lobe development. Now I think Toru Kumon was right, though I still don’t quite understand it. “Drill and kill” doesn’t just lead to procedural mastery and confidence. Somehow drill and kill also helps develop independence, motivation, and a responsible nature. Is it the same principle that’s at work in military training? It’s probably fair to say that military training is literally “drill and kill.” I don't know anything about the military, but as far as I can tell the result of military training is a young man who can follow commands or give them, and keep his wits about him in the midst of battle. All good things. I don't know how it works, but I do think "the KUMON principle" has proved itself around here. I also think that, in terms of Christopher's grades, the psychology of this year's "hands-off" afterschooling has been more important than the actual content Christopher learned. His afterschool books have little to do with his present school work. He's still in Level D - 4th grade - in KUMON Math, and vocabulary and spelling will pay off in the long run, not the near term.
who's in charge I've mentioned more than once that, before Christopher entered middle school, I had decided I needed to "own" math. I figured Phase 4 was going to be brutal, and I needed to "own" math to limit the damage. Then it turned out we needed to own more than math; we needed to own the whole academic enterprise. Christopher has had at least 2 — maybe 3 — good teachers this year in his core subjects, but the school is a dark place. Yesterday a friend of mine captured the unspoken school motto in 5 words: Do this or you're f*****. That's it. That's what our kids are up against. Label your graph, or 50% off. Show your work the way I want it showed, not the way you thought I wanted it showed, or 20 points off. Use complete sentences on the science test or points off. (That's coming up next year.) Have your mom sign your test tonight or it's points off-off-off! I think Tracy once used the expression gale of negativity. That's what it's been. Setting up an "afterschooling household" strips power and authority from the school in a good way. The message to a 6th grade child is: your job is to learn stuff. Doesn't matter what grade you got. Doesn't matter if the other kids think you're dumb. (Christopher says the other kids think he's dumb.) Doesn't matter that you spent 4 hours on your scale drawing and Ms. K. deducted 20 points because you showed your work the wrong way and you still don't know what the right way was. Go get your books and learn something. Remember when Mr. Liu said that the Asian way is to be persistent and patient? I didn't set out trying to create our own Personal KUMON. It evolved. But I think we ended up teaching persistence and patience. I hope so.
NEXT: LEMONS & LEMONADE, WINDS OF WAR, AND REACTIVE TEACHING REDUX
-- CatherineJohnson - 10 Jun 2006 Back to main page.
Comments
After entering a comment, users can login anonymously as KtmGuest (password: guest) when prompted.Please consider registering as a regular user.
Look here for syntax help.
strips power and authority from the school in a good way This is a great manifesto, Catherine... Doesn't matter what grade you got. Doesn't matter whether the other kids think you're smart. Yeah! We were forced by circumstances this year to sit down with our boys and explain that we knew they had done a fantastic job with their writing for a history project. We knew they had worked hard, and the quality of the content of their writing was superb: they had ideas and they organized their ideas well. Even though they got poor grades from their respective teachers for the quantity of paragraphs. The quantity of paragraphs was not a quantitative measure of the actual ideas presented, let alone a qualitative measure of the content our boy had learned. As for Christopher, this has been an opportunity for our boys to cut the ties that bind them to merely pleasing their teachers, and begin instead to focus on other measures of ... truth? of quality. It's a big world out there. I'm glad we're not sitting around waiting for a teacher to "reach them" next year. I know so many parents who are waiting around for better instruction to occur (note passive voice) next year, or maybe the year after that. No way! -- BeckyC - 10 Jun 2006
Congratulations on such a good year. -- TracyW - 11 Jun 2006
"Is it the same principle that’s at work in military training?" Military training is intended to acheive several goals. First, it's intended to identify and eliminate the people who can't handle either military life or the rigors and chaos of combat. It's intended to instill the technical skills necessary for the job (vehicle repair, typing shooting, whatever) and train the soldier (marine/sailor/airman) to the point that they are automatic. For the combat branches, it's intended to provide an atmosphere of stress and chaos intense enough to reduce the psychological shock of the stress and chaos inherent in combat. Finally, it's intended to provide a shared difficult experience, which tends to increase teamwork and confidence. I think there are some similarities to what you are talking about, but the military is very conscious of exactly what they are trying to obtain. While many recruits don't understand the goals and methods, the details are well understood by most of the rest of the force. There's a well-understood process with well-defined goals. And there are consequences for failure to achieve those goals (for both recruits and trainers). It's sort of the diametric opposite of middle school. -- DougSundseth - 11 Jun 2006
GREAT COMMENTS YOU GUYS - THANK YOU! Doug, of course you're right - absolutely. I still have a follow-up post to write about our middle school, but basically it all comes down to making lemons out of lemonade, which is the antithesis of what the military is doing. Our middle school is dysfunctional and dark - without anyone's actually intending it to be so. It's a school filled with competent, well-intentioned people that is doing a number on the kids and their families to put it mildly. I'm pretty convinced that we unconsciously figured out a way to make this work to Christopher's advantage. After a couple of further conversations with other parents, I'm more than convinced, actually. I can tell you that the parents who "turned" on the school have kids in far better emotional shape than the parents who continued to work with the school and to believe that their children "share responsibility" with the school for their learning. -- CatherineJohnson - 29 Jun 2006
We were forced by circumstances this year to sit down with our boys and explain that we knew they had done a fantastic job with their writing for a history project. We knew they had worked hard, and the quality of the content of their writing was superb: they had ideas and they organized their ideas well. Even though they got poor grades from their respective teachers for the quantity of paragraphs. The quantity of paragraphs was not a quantitative measure of the actual ideas presented, let alone a qualitative measure of the content our boy had learned. yup There's something astonishingly liberating about this. I don't quite understand it.....and yet, in a way, this talke, from the parents, fulfills the school's stated goal of "teaching responsibility." 9 months of punitive grading doesn't teach an 11-year old to be "responsible for his learning," that's for sure. -- CatherineJohnson - 29 Jun 2006
Becky As for Christopher, this has been an opportunity for our boys to cut the ties that bind them to merely pleasing their teachers, and begin instead to focus on other measures of ... truth? of quality. It's a big world out there. I'm glad we're not sitting around waiting for a teacher to "reach them" next year. I know so many parents who are waiting around for better instruction to occur (note passive voice) next year, or maybe the year after that. you know, that's a good point, too it's active voice Christopher sees, constantly, that while we're intensely frustrated with and hamstrung by our school, we're not waiting for it to get better We're making sure he learns what he needs to, and we're somewhat engaged politically....(that is, we spend a fair amount of time trying to change the school) that's it, really we're not getting what we need, so we'll figure it out ourselves I think this school year has had a good effect on Christian, too It looks like he really is going to get himself into college He's spent an entire school year now watching affluent white folks fight (and lose!) the same battles with the school his own mom fought and lost for YEARS.... I think "Irvington culture" is starting to absorb him. He's got the image that you have a miserable time with your school, you fight every day, your kid gets clobbered by punitive grading, blah-blah-blah and at the end of it you go to college. -- CatherineJohnson - 29 Jun 2006
| WebLogForm | |
|---|---|
| Title: | how to succeed in middle school without really trying |
| TopicType: | WebLog |
| SubjectArea: | LanguageArts, MiddleSchoolMath, ParentsTeachingKids, TeachersTeachingKids |
| LogDate: | 200606101353 |