Food For Throught

[monander]

"Why do so many public school classrooms resemble therapeutic day care programs with kids roaming around and doing little that amounts to learning?"
-- Martin A. Kozloff, Ph.D.

 

[Mrs C]

It Varies

I had a smiliar thought just the other day. Working in more than one district, you tend to compare what's being done at the same grade level. I was truly amazed at the small amount of work the students had in a 2nd grade classroom in one district as opposed to a 2nd grade classroom in another. Even their guided reading group time was much shorter & covered less. At the end of the day I felt they had honestly done not much of anything.

 

[tchr]

I haven't really seen that

In the districts I've worked in, kids (even Kindergartners and 1st graders) are always doing meaningful work. In fact, in the district I'm currently in, the Kinders' day is so jam-packed with academics that the choice time is down to about 30 minutes in the full-day program, I think.

I would be interested to know which districts Dr. Kozloff has visited. Perhaps he visited a lot of inner city classrooms with low expectations?

 

[Tounces]

where?

I haven't seen this yet. With the requirements of NCLB, I don't think anyone would allow this. My students' day is full of learning. They have no down time at all. They do not roam around either. In fact, I've seen the opposite with classrooms as young as Kindergarten working on prereading and math plus homework every night.

 

[twin2]

Nclb

NCLB works two ways. We are to push each child to learn, giving them evey opportunity to do so. We also have to accept whatever they dish out, because we also can't discrimminate against them.

I guess it depends on how our school system interprets this.

 

[Augustus]

different schools

some of the schools I am in have students wandering around all day. Other schools the halls are pretty much deserted. It is just the way they are run. Some of these schools really are run by the kids, I think.