And while I think that's certainly something that can happen, I think it was wholly inappropriate at the 1st grade level, because:
- It needs to be spontaneous and child-driven, not a requirement for every assignment ever day.
- At that level, there are too many things that don't get any deeper, like the aforementioned 10+10.
- It effectively shifts the responsibility for teaching and engaging my child from the responsible, paid adults to the 7yo child.
So yeah, we basically looked at the principal like she'd just uttered a four-letter word.
I know what you mean. I had asked for the teacher to give me a note every day about his behavior (good and bad) so I would know what had happened and could have better discusions about the day with my son. It didn't need to be long - just a sentence or two, the highlights. Her respose was that we want to teach the children to be responsibile for their actions so if he wants it he will have to ask for it. My thought was WTF? A 6 year old is supposed to ask for a note for his mom every day? Yeah right! Some things need to be child driven, but that is not one of them.
I think that in some assignments my child would do that if he was encouraged to, but as you point out there are assginments that would never work with. And while my child does that at home with me, he has been encouraged to ask questions and be engaged in topics. I let him use books or the internet (guided/supervised) when I don't know the answers, but he loves to study "with" me when I have the time. I think at school he has not been alowed to ask as many questions or go as deeply as he would like. So he doesn't try. He is very black and white, if he was told no before, he likely won't in the future, sometimes breaking that pattern with him can be very difficult. So not only is that not always appropriate, but you have to have a teacher that can encourage it and make the child feel like it is ok to do those kinds of things.
He is also one to hide his abilities only doing what is expected and not an ounce more. He wants to be just like his classmates, wants to fit in and be like them. I guess it will take him longer to learn that he isn't like them (speaking from experiance, it took me a long time too). We have discussed that teachers only know what you can do if you show them and if you want harder work you have to show them you can do the work you are being given, but it hasn't seemed to help much.
