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Oct 2007
Problem solving homework is most valuable
October 30, 2007 12:00 PM Filed in: Skill Sets
| Diagnoses
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Dear Dr. Fournier: I enjoyed reading the article “Learning math by repetition isn’t for all.” I am a 71-year-old retired chemical engineer that studied math many years ago in both high school and engineering school. To me, math was an interesting experience that taught me how to solve problems – a skill I used later in life. Math was difficult because it taught me to think, and I learned valuable skills by practicing and applying math throughout my education. I don't feel the typical student today spends enough time doing homework, especially in areas such as math. In my opinion, solving problems is the best way for students to learn, and homework gives them more opportunities for practice. |
The Assessment: Homework that includes problem solving is an excellent way for students to learn and develop critical thinking skills, but too often homework involves strict memorization and repetition. I don’t agree that more homework is necessarily a good thing, and many of our nation’s schools equate a good education with the more-is-better approach to homework. When emphasis is placed on quantity instead of quality, the consequences for students can be reprehensible.
I once counseled a student because she wanted to be prescribed Ritalin® (an amphetamine), despite being an honor student. It turned out that she was desperately looking for a lifeline, something that would allow her to stay up until 3 a.m. every night to finish her homework. While “real world” jobs and other commitments sometimes keep us working late, most people do not perform their best working until 3 a.m. each day. Employers do not expect that from their workers, and teachers should not expect that from their students. In today’s global workplace, emphasis is placed on working smarter – not longer hours.
Education prepares children for the future, turning them into life-long learners. This is impossible without teaching students to love new information and to see learning as an adventure. Homework should not be busy work, nor should its quantity be the means by which a school justifies its tuition to parents. Instead, homework is a tool that ensures children can independently perform tasks learned at school.
Once students understand the new concept, that knowledge should be utilized to solve problems and create solutions. A physician, for example, doesn’t memorize the processes of mitosis and cell respiration so that she can simply recite the information in the future. She studies those building blocks of biology so that one day she can cure disease. In the same way, homework is the means to an end. Once students understand the concept learned in school, time is better spent applying the new knowledge in exciting and creative ways.
What To Do: Quantity is not a substitute for quality. Ideally, students should be given some practice problems, but these problems should be followed by something that requires application – using the new skills in a comprehensive way. This process may take more than one night so the child can think, ask others their thoughts, and further investigate new ideas. The best education teaches students to assimilate new information creatively, and it is based on the quality – not the quantity – of tasks.
Admittedly, most students (as well as parents) prefer to mechanically answer twenty problems from memorization. It is undoubtedly simpler to mindlessly complete rote problems than it is to actively learn. Getting an education and just “getting it done” are polar opposites on the learning scale. Is it any wonder that so many college students earn their degree before deciding what they want to do with their lives? When this is the view of education, it becomes a way of life and they wonder why they receive a pink slip instead of a promotion.
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Helping a grieving child
October 23, 2007 12:00 PM Filed in: Middle
School |
Skill
Sets
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Dear Dr. Fournier: I worry
about my 7th grade daughter because she has a
hard time staying focused in school, and her
teachers are already considering testing for
attention problems. She gets frustrated easily if
she cannot understand a new concept or complete a
new task right away. She wants everything to come
easily. If it doesn't, then she gives up – unless
it's something she's really interested in. If it
captures her interest, then she stays focused
until she learns it.
I believe my daughter’s challenge is somehow related to her father’s battle with cancer. My husband was in and out of the hospital for four years. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but sometimes I wonder how deeply this has affected her. Fortunately, my husband is now cancer-free and doing great. What do you think? |
The Assessment: As owner of a business, I have more employees asking for time off to take their pets to the doctor than I do for employees asking for time to take family members. Our love for pets in this nation is growing as fast as the industry is able to come up with new food, clothes, and even hotels for them. Now, in the city of Nochigi, China, the first canine nursing home has been established at the price of $800 a month. It won’t be long before this new service hits the United States.
Why am I talking about the pet industry? Because so many of you have pets and know what I am talking about. Now replace the word “pets” with “dads.” Suddenly, that love grows even more. Love is an incredible thing, and when the one you love is at risk, the fear of loss tops all priorities.
How many students can take off school and spend the day with a parent while dad or mom gets their chemotherapy? How many of them can openly say, “My dad’s hair is falling out, and I am afraid he is going to die?” Answering questions from a social studies book on the Louisiana Purchase is impossible when you are wondering at school if your dad – the one that used to take you to the park, coached your soccer team, and liked bubblegum ice cream just like you did – is going to die. What is it about our school systems that can’t understand that grieving is a human process and not just for adults?
What To Do: When I give conferences, teachers and parents always ask me for suggestions regarding what they should read. For 27 years I have said no one should teach until they have read Death and Dying by Kubhler Ross.
Ross teaches us that grieving is a process, not a single event. The stages of grieving are anger, denial, negotiation, depression, and finally acceptance. A child whose parent has lived with cancer has lost the safety of feeling invulnerable based on the unconditional belief that the parent will always be there, that the parent’s unique and unconditional love will hug them as they solve their problems and heal their wounds.
In my practice, I have honestly seen more attention given to someone who has lost a pet than to a child who has lost a parent. We need a national program for all teachers to learn how to teach a grieving child. The grieving process doesn’t always happen in that order, yet it is not difficult to identify where a child is in the stages of grieving. Knowing how to care for the heart – as you teach the mind – could help our children learn that love will take them through the process toward acceptance and growth. As we teach our children that we care we may also be creating a society that understands that caring is a better solution when they are adults which is more effective than labels and criticism.
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The pros and cons of memorization
October 18, 2007 12:00 PM Filed in: Skill Sets
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Dear Dr. Fournier: In a recent newspaper article, you said that students should focus less on strict memorization, emphasizing more comprehensive strategies that promote learning. But before students can become independent thinkers, don't they need to learn basic facts that unfortunately can only be acquired through memorization? Doesn't memorization, as well as the different ways to organize information, make it easier to retrieve information from the brain? Wouldn't these be considered learning strategies? |
The Assessment: Indeed, students must simply memorize a certain amount of information so they can retrieve it when they need to use it. For example, "A" is the first letter of the alphabet, and a chair is called a chair -- not a box or a table. These are facts that a student must simply remember, and most of this basic data is obtained at an early age.
Unfortunately, the same approach used for memorization is often applied to concepts for which more intricate thought should be applied. Memorization is an approach conducive neither to learning nor to creating independent thinkers. Instead, memorizing information is like receiving money as a gift and hoarding that money in a safety deposit box. While the money may be safe, it doesn't grow or gain interest, and it can't be used to improve the quality of your life.
Memorization is neither a learning strategy nor a means through which a student can become an independent thinker. Think about it: how long would any of us remembered the alphabet had it simply been taught and never used again? We remember the alphabet because we began to use it almost immediately by writing letters to create words. Likewise, we used the sounds each letter represents in order to read words.
The same applies to all data that is simply memorized and not used. Students who memorize a poem can recite it for a short while, but have they learned anything? However, if students "see" the words of a poem as a picture created for the mind, then the essence and message of the poem will be remembered. Though students may not be able to recite the words exactly, they understand what the poet intended. Memorization views the poem as a group of words; the second approach understands it as a picture rich with details. Which learning strategy encourages students to write poetry in the future?
What To Do: Encourage your child to think. Ask your child about his/her schoolwork whether they are reading a story, studying for a test, or completing math homework in class.
Teachers' study guides are one of modern education's greatest enemies. Every night parents across this nation help their children "study" by reading questions from study guides to their children. In response, the students regurgitate previously provided answers -- the "right answers" already approved by teachers. This is nothing more than rote memorization, quickly forgotten once the test is over.
Start off learning time by asking your child what the test is to cover. The child should be able to summarize the information for you. If your child cannot summarize the information and provide answers to obviously basic questions, a study guide is useless. If he/she can participate in a meaningful discussion concerning the information, a study guide becomes a tool to assess the depths of the student's comprehension.
While this distinction may seem small, the effect on future learning and thinking is immeasurable. Students who memorize data don't learn to create information from their own vision. Even if they can recall the data over time, they may not be able to apply it to new and novel situations. The retained information may make them great partners at trivia games, but it will not help educate insightful visionaries capable of creating desperately needed new knowledge.
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When a 16-year-old starts to drive
October 11, 2007 12:00 PM Filed in: High School
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Dear Dr. Fournier: The day
has finally arrived – my 16-year-old daughter is
driving. Talking with other parents, I hear mixed
comments ranging from “What a relief” to “I trust
my child” to “How do I know everything will be
alright?” My daughter is a good kid, a mostly
A-and-B student, but this time in her life
concerns me.
My husband and I are involved parents. We go to school meetings and her extra-curricular activities, and we know her friends and their parents. We also taught her our moral values and beliefs. Now we feel it is time to start letting go and to trust her in making some decisions on her own. But we also wonder if this is the time for us to expand our rules and our vigilance? We truly have a good daughter, and we have weathered problems such as turning homework in on time. What do you think we should do? Please give us something to hold on to. |
The Assessment: “How did this get here so fast?” is the thought that repeated itself over and over again when we handed our only son the keys to his new car on his 16th birthday. All I could think was that this moment came too soon. When he was a small child, I remembered holding him in my arms the moment I came home from work, only to hurry dinner to make sure we had time to play. I remembered reading his favorite book to him, enjoying every minute even if it seemed like a million times. Sixteen years had passed in an instant, and there we were with my son as he joyously reached for the keys to his first car. Even though this was an important milestone in my son’s life, I told myself something very important – I had much more work to do. Regardless of what I had taught him until then, the journey was not over and neither was my job. This is a gripping realization if there ever was one.
What To Do: This is the time when parents must help their children fully comprehend the golden rule of relationships. This idea is embodied in a Spanish proverb I learned as a child: "Dime con quién andas, y te diré quién eres" (Tell me whom you walk with, and I will tell you who you are). Growing up in New York City, where I walked to school, my parents taught it to me early in life. Those words of wisdom still resonate with me to this day.
If you walk with kids that take drugs, cheat, lie and go to unseemly places, then you walk with people who probably will not rewrite history to benefit mankind. But if you walk with someone who wants to go to a movie instead of a party with drinking and drugs, then you may find the next movie director who you will be proud to call a friend. If you walk with someone who is interested in excelling at school projects, you may be walking with the person who will make a significant contribution to end cancer.
Allowing our children to drive is giving them the privilege to make choices. It means that you must become much more vigilant of whom your child is, not just where she goes. If she understands the importance of good character and relationships, then you will have little to worry about. This challenge is a great one, and it is part of the new journey. Your job is not over – you are needed now more than ever.
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Perpetuation of the underachiever
October 02, 2007 12:00 PM Filed in: Middle
School
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Dear Dr. Fournier: I brought
my son, to see you earlier this year and you
guided me away from an enormous public school
known as the best in the city to a smaller middle
school I would have never thought of. He was not
a high achiever but I thought that a school with
an extraordinary reputation would know how to
work with my underachiever.
Jalen began school last Monday and to our surprise he took to the program like a duck takes to water. He wears his dress shirt, pants, and tie with no complaints and he actually leaves school looking the same way he arrived – neat and clean. As for schoolwork, he created his own homework schedule (just as you taught him) and sticks to it. He begins his homework around 4 pm and moves through every subject without a concern for TV shows…even doing homework up to bedtime with no complaints. For years, my family and I had to prompt him to read his assigned books but even this changed. The English teacher assigned an outside reading assignment that requires him to read 20 minutes each day under parent supervision. Jalen immediately chose a book and now even reminds me when its time for me to listen. His confidence is up and he has even contemplated running for class president. WOW! Thank you for always believing there was a right place for my son. I must tell you…that when I heard say say, “I am so glad that I am at this school” I received confirmation that God does place us in situations for a reason. |
The Assessment: Your son had been in a big school al the way up through the sixth grade. Yet the day I met him one thing was obvious above all. His strength was his incredible desire to learn, his extraordinary embarrassment when he did not know how to carry out a task, and once convinced that he could ask questions without retaliation, smiled and asked at every point he truly did not know what a sixth grader should know. This child was not underachieving. The school was undermining his curiosity and desire to be as successful as any one else. Yet how can teachers in this country be expected to prepare and teach four, five six and even seven subjects with 20 to 28 or more students in their class. First of all some of these teachers have no previous preparation for and worse yet never were interested in every one of these subjects. They never experienced the passion for some of the subjects they are told to teach our young children.
This child was not an underachiever. He was scared. He had learned that all too often, given the pressure his teacher(s) were feeling, not only teaching the children but doing all the paper work the educational throws at them to prove that they taught the children that he would get responses such as:
“You would know the answer if you were paying attention.”
“You should know that by now, so look it up.”
“I said it once and I am not repeating it.”
“Look it up in your book and if you still don’t understand it do it for homework.”
“Did you even try.”
“I told everyone to work quietly and that includes you.”
“If you don’t know it go to the next one.”
Slowly but surely, this child learned the lesson he least needed. Asking to learn is a sure way to humiliation.
What To Do: This message is not intended to offend a system of teachers with a union that allows the school system to arrive at ridiculous numbers of students in their classes. It is not intended for those who do try to answer the questions children ask, yet are unable to do so because the same unions allow politicians to allow certification experts to tell teachers how much they have to cover rather than how much a child has to learn. This article is intended for teachers caught between the proverbial rock and hard place. The ones that went to college to be the educators of the next generation and instead have been forced to be the rote followers of curriculums written by textbook companies that have no regulations in this country and require no certification. Whatever they put into a book and whatever grade they put into it, once picked by a school becomes a bible no teacher in this country ever thought would be considered more important than their own originality and love for their subject matter.
Parents must talk with their children and more than anything believe them. This child had said he was afraid to ask questions yet instead of solving the problem by having him write on his paper what he did not understand so when it was graded the teacher could see if it was only he or many students feeling lost, his mother was told to have him tested for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Desperate the mother followed the instruction. Why would he not be considered on a test he did not need to be lacking attention when instead he was an expert at being fearful of a question and even more so of being wrong if he answered one.
Today he is in a school that was told prior to registration that this child’s only problem was fear of asking a question. The school was advised to allow him to have a paper on his desk where he could write his questions and hand them in with his work. Slowly he realized he was getting answers, that he could learn and that the feeling of success was better than anything a TV program could ever do for him. What started out being described as child that did not care, resulted in being a case in which a child cared so much he preferred punishment to trying. When will politicians realize that it is textbook companies they need to go after and certifying experts that are certifying the page a teacher should be on and not the right to help children when they ask a question?
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