sweet revenge
Ella has to make a model of an Australian icon for her class this week. About a year ago I read a book called The Homework Myth that basically shows how homework hardly contributes anything to a child’s learning and that most homework tasks are a monumental waste of time. It specifically calls on teachers to stop assigning tasks that require the child to make a scale model of anything, because these end up being an expensive, time-sucking activity that basically make the parents very, very angry.
This morning when I dropped her at school Ella reminded me that I needed to go out and get all the stuff she was going to need in order to build a model of Uluru. I asked her what she was planning to make it out of, and she shrugged her shoulders. This is why these tasks are a complete waste of time – the ten year olds don’t know the first thing about how to make the kind of models they think their teacher wants them to make. And the teachers are actually hoping that the mums and dads will do the homework for them, because that’s the ugly truth of it – the better the model, the better the classroom display of models will look, so the better the teacher looks. Ella’s teacher is hoping to bask in the reflected glory and magnificence of a scale model of Uluru that he knows full well will be made by her parents.
I am going to make a large chocolate cake, and I am going to give Ella a short, serrated knife and a big bowl of chocolate frosting, and I am going to invite her to carve Uluru from the chocolate cake, then cover the cake in rich, ochre-coloured sugary frosted goodness, then I am going to suggest she take it to school and insist on allowing everyone to have a slice of Uluru. The combined hysteria of 25 kids suffering a massive sugar hit ought to keep the teacher’s head spinning for a solid hour one afternoon this week.
Is the teacher in to marks?? So what did it prove to him?/to Ella?/to the class? – I think we know your view!!
Ella’s class loved the cake, and her teacher thought it was a very “innovative” way to build a model. And then he made some wise crack about how the sugar rush was wreaking havoc on the kids so he took them outside to run around for the last half hour of school, and I couldn’t help wondering if he’s secretly reading my blog.Sorry Mr M
PS I took a picture with my iPhone but it was crap. Never mind, it wasn’t that awesome. Just a large brown lump on a plate. Awesome fodder for 5th grade toilet humour.
I want an update!!
mwahaha brilliant idea
Oh this is brilliant. Will definately be stealing this idea in 5 years or so.
Oh-oh – you’re on my bandwagon!! If the teacher wants them to “design, make, appraise” some object so he/she can tick off that they’ve covered that aspect of technology, then it should be done as a class exercise at school so he/she can be sure the kids are taught/learn/and put in to practise the important points in the exercise. Can’t see the point of assessiing the parent’s work!! Same with any project the kids do, it should be done at school because the teacher needs to assess the whole information literacy process and not just a finished project that the kid may not have had much input into producing. How does the teacher know if the KID can locate the info, select the important bits and organise them in to something presentable (not just a cut and paste of someone else’s words or something put together by a parent) if it’s done at home? Sorry to go on BUT …- Told you it was my bandwagon!!
You are very devious and I love it!
love the way you think!
Perfect Trish!
BRILLIANT!! I love that idea! Educational AND useful. I think you’ve stumbled onto the greatest invention in parenting history…making scale models edible…there’s a newspapar article just waiting to be printed RIGHT here about how you single handedly saved the nerves of frazzled mums all over the world.
Love, love, love it! And may well steal that idea at some undetermined point in the future
Don’t forget to post pics of Ella’s finished project…
lmao I love it!
Ha ha ha ha!! Love it!!