Ana has gotten better about writing her journal lately.

[conuly]

This is due to two things: First, I showed her how to do an outline and made her do one with me before writing her journal, and second, I made a rule about fixing mistakes AFTER we write, and made her sit down with me to edit her journal every day.

Now, the outline concept was a big help, first because it helps Ana organize her thoughts, and also because Ana HATES writing an outline and will jump right into journal time if it lets her avoid it.

The editing was also a big help, first because otherwise Ana would get hung up with paralyzing fear that she was about to make a mistake, and secondly because once she's done (warts and all) she realizes she just doesn't care. (The fact that she doesn't care is probably helped by the fact that I only know one way to edit, and it's not very nice. So once she remembers that - wow, look, time has flown, she wants to go out and play! Truthfully, I don't want to edit her journal EITHER, so whatever.)

So lately I haven't had to stand over her as she writes her journal entries, and boy, how refreshing that is! But maybe I need to pay a bit more attention.

See, she's SUPPOSED to write about her day. Every day. (Actually, she's supposed to write about school. After thinking it over, Ana's come to the conclusion that this is because her principal is a mean meaniepants, but she tries not to hold it against the woman.) Now, she's tried writing about how she hates writing about her day, and she's tried ignoring this rule and making up stories instead, and I guess today she decided to try the passive-aggressive approach:

I whet to the stor after I cam came out of the skool and my sister. after that wegot mulberries. when we got home I did my journal. I rote about mulberries. here it is. we got home befor it raid. after I finish I will go out and dants.

She also drew a carefully labeled picture with tunder, a clawd, raie (rain), linke (lightning), her huse (itself with a labeled windoe, Eva, and dor), and of course "Me"... a child standing directly under two bolts of linke.

I'm not sure where she gets the linke spelling for lightning. Even raie makes sense, she just forgot about the "n" in there, but... linke?

Comments

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

What's this journal supposed to be in aid of? If the intention here is to foster a love of writing and/or an interest in journaling, it's pretty obvious it isn't working for Ana. She has to write an outline for it, which she HATES; she gets stuck in paralyzing fear of making a mistake; she's learning to loathe your editing process because it isn't very nice and you don't like doing it... and all for what, exactly? What is this meant to be teaching her, and are there any signs that she is actually learning that?

As a teacher who has had to comply with a whole lot of counter-productive notions from administrators who gave more weight to abstract theory than to observation of the actual living children we were attempting to educate, I agree with Ana's evaluation: her principle is a mean meaniepants.

It's a shuck and a sham to call it 'journaling' when it has to be outlined, edited and graded by someone else. Of all the thousands of avid journalers we all know, how many would continue journaling if they had to do it under those conditions? Damn few, I'm betting. I surely would not, and I've kept a journal since 1964.

So, perhaps it would help to explain to Ana that even though they're calling it a journal, it isn't really a journal. What it actually is (from your description,) is a log-book, which is quite another thing. A journal is personal; a log is not.

Probably she can get by with making just one outline, the focus of which is "What My Teacher Wants Me To Write About". So... what does her teacher want? Is the primary purpose of the exercise to find out which parts of the program are memorable or interesting to the students, or to find out which children are able to think about time in a linear, compartmentalized way, or is the idea merely that they ought to be writing, and this is a convenient thing-to-write-about, or what?

She may be old enough now to be told the truth about school: that she has at least a decade of it ahead of her (probably a lot more, smart as she is,) and whether those ten years are full of trouble and punishment, or praise and prizes, is going to depend on her ability to comply with often-unreasonable expectations.

It doesn't matter whether or not she likes the assignments, or finds any value in them. Hopefully she will find something to value or enjoy in most of them, but that's 'gravy', and can't be counted on. What matters is that she does them promptly without fussing or weaseling, works hard to do them as excellently as she can, and turns them in on time with a smile, because that will best please her teachers, and pleasing the teachers is what school is really About.

One might think it's subversive to tell this to children, and so perhaps it is. I've told it to all the ones I look after, though, and they have seemed to find it helpful and reassuring. I think it kind of gets them off the hook of *having* to have a power-struggle over school, to be told flat-out, "Look, you're right; school does not primarily exist to serve your needs, and much of it is, indeed, as bogus as you think it, but if you don't play the game their way, they'll make you suffer for it the rest of your life, so get smart young and save yourself a world of trouble."

Ever consider, children are the only oppressed class whose members automatically become members of the oppressing class after a certain length of time? There'll never be a successful Childrens' Revolution, because by the time they're old enough to be revolting, they're already on the brink of switching sides.

[conuly]

The school doesn't ask that it be outlined. I started doing that because otherwise she couldn't think of ANYthing to write, and she'd sit there doing nothing. At all. So I started sitting with her and planning the basics of what she'd say in each sentence, but she had to fill in the details herself (and decipher my shorthand, really, not a fun task even for me). And now that she's decided she can't stand outlining, we don't do it unless she's struggling. I'm more than happy to help her LESS, not more - I think the only benefit of homework at this age is that it helps kids work on their own. (Dubiously.)

She also doesn't have to edit, I just did that with her until she realized she hates editing more than she hates having mistakes in her work. Her perfectionist "I'll erase and erase and erase and erase!" problems aren't the school's fault. I'd love to blame the school, but this is longstanding.

Surprisingly, even though she dislikes both editing and outlines, putting them in place for a few weeks did help her just get down and start writing her work without all the tantrums about mistakes and "I can't think of anything!" and all.

They're supposed to reflect on their day and write about their day. Every day. I agree that writing about the same thing every day is the stupidest thing ever. Unfortunately, no progress has been made on that front, so we quietly don't make her do it. "This way you get to learn about their day at school!" I don't give a flying fuck about Ana's day at school, truthfully. It's not worth the major hassle of trying to get her to tell me about it, much less WRITE about it. (You know what really bugs me? They don't even check their journals every day, just randomly. So if she decides not to do it because "they don't even check", she's right. They make a big deal about it, but they only spot-check.)

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Outlining and editing are both essential skills, and it's very excellent that you got the opportunity to teach them to her in the context of this assignment. That's pretty-much what I did with my daughter - whatever she learned in school or from her school assignments, or whatever use could be gotten from them, was great, but school was never her primary source of education. A good thing, too, judging by what was being passed off as 'education'.

I think it's a lot better for kids to hear "Yes, this is stupid, and if it was up to me, you wouldn't have to do it, but unfortunately it's not, so just bite the bullet and get the thing done" than the sort of mealy-mouthed for-your-own-good cant they often get from grown-ups. True that children aren't always the best judges of what's in their best interests, and will invariably choose short-term pleasure over long-term advantage. Still, I think it's fair to say that anything that causes them notable distress or resentment without serious cause is not "for their good". I would define serious cause as something affecting their well-being in a major or permanent way: going to the dentist is essential no matter how much they hate it. Most things they hate are not essential, and they're subjected to them for someone else's convenience, not their own good.

If I were Supersecretary of Education, there would be no homework at all in the lower grades, and a maximum of two hours' total in High School. The little girls I look after were delighted to hear this, until they heard that I would also eliminate all these half-days, conference-days, early dismissals and Hallmark holidays, so that they would be in school from 9:00 AM to 2:30 PM every Monday through Friday from Labor Day to Memorial Day except for national holidays and their two-week Winter and Spring Breaks.

[conuly]

If I were Supersecretary of Education, there would be no homework at all in the lower grades, and a maximum of two hours' total in High School. The little girls I look after were delighted to hear this, until they heard that I would also eliminate all these half-days, conference-days, early dismissals and Hallmark holidays, so that they would be in school from 9:00 AM to 2:30 PM every Monday through Friday from Labor Day to Memorial Day except for national holidays and their two-week Winter and Spring Breaks.

That's largely my thought too. A week or two off for each season, and maybe a three day weekend every month (which we largely have anyway) and be done with it, but I'd probably have a longer school day - the nieces go from 8:30 to 2:50 every day, I'd want it longer to make SURE they got gym and two recesses every day, especially as so many kids have babysitters or aftercare daily anyway.

The point of days off in the school calendar isn't so kids can rest, it's so the school can save money by not being open on days parents keep their kids home anyway, for holidays or for farmwork or whatever. But if you do NOT keep your kids home to do chores all summer it's just an added hassle when the kids are young.

[gingembre.livejournal.com]

I agree wholeheartedly with your "tell it like it is" approach. I also agree about school not being the primary source of education!

My approach with Ana and her school/teacher has been to argue a bit about the "must reflect on her day" topic rule, and when I explained that Ana DID NOT want to write about this topic, but was *pretty happy* to write about other topics, and the teacher still insisted...I quietly let it drop. And then largely don't enforce it with Ana. Because in MY mind the goal is to get her writing more. Period. Why make writing a distasteful chore, whose bright idea was THAT??