My eldest is in 8th grade. He's had a lot of busy work so far this year. Example: a large, intricately done 4-hour coloring sheet that teaches about primary and secondary colors. It's a simple coloring job: use primary colors in quadrant 1. Use secondaries in quadrant 2. Mix them to see what happens in quadrant 3. Etc. This assignment requires nothing more challenging than choosing a colored pencil. But there are so many sections to color, it is literally a four-hour job.
He had a math assignment that required him to write essays about "math myths." He had to pick three; one myth was that there's no such thing as a "mathy mind." DH snorted and said, "This isn't math!" But it shows pretty clearly that the teacher doesn't understand about math talent.
They started preparing for standardized tests today. The tests are given in May.
I don't really know what can be done about this kind of thing in the short term. Given that it's just a single component of a basically broken education system, it's hard to see a way to fix it without re-evaluating the overall goals of our school system and how to achieve them. For some schools, the goal is to get the kids to pass the tests. For others, it's to get the kids into IVY LEAGUE SCHOOLS. Either way, the game they have to play is awful in some ways.
Hard work is important. Persistence is important. But by manufacturing goals that lack substance and greater meaning, I fear that we're maximizing the hard work without really teaching the whole point of persistence.
