Talk About Pressure...sheesh.

So, I decided it was time to step up to the plate and actually volunteer at my son's school. (this is what "good" parents who "care" about their kids do, right?). And, I'll admit, Harrison thinks it's just fantastic that I come now once a week for an hour. I remember when I was in elementary school and I was always jealous of the kids whose parents came all the time.

Anyway, for me, while it has been good, it also makes me irritated because I become more aware of the current trends in teaching. The latest trend, I guess you could say, is speed. Everything has to be fast fast fast! Everything is timed! Must be faster! Who can be the fastest!

This irritates me because repetition doesn't cure everything. Doing something FAST isn't always the best, and especially with math and reading, some kids just take longer. Is that such a bad thing?

I remember when I was in 3rd grade and we learned our multiplication tables. I HATED it! I hated being timed and racing, it really irrtated me. If anything, it made me stop trying. I keep thinking of that every time I go volunteer, because what the teacher has me doing is timing kids while they read small stories from a page. The goal is to see how many words they can read correctly in under a minute.

I see the point. I mean, really, it's repetition, but then I think of the stress! Different kids learn differently. Tests never bothered me even though they are timed, but some kids love being timed, and some kids it totally stresses them out. It's like being timed for a sprint race versus a long distance one (which ironically I always did better at the long distance races because I was good at pacing).

I did okay when I was timed because it was just one thing that I really remember being timed on, but I just sit there and think how glad I am that I'm not in school right now or I probably would have had a nervous breakdown before I was 10!

I told Shane that having kids be timed on everything makes me feel like they're training everyone to be excellent at production work and fast food jobs. Grrr. It's not all about speed.