I find it amazing…how parents suddenly have an opinion when it comes to technology and teens when it actually causes them to have to think outside the box!
Our local high school held, for one day, what they call OLD School – (Online Learning Day) for freshman and sophomore. The junior class was taking ACT tests and senior classes were on various trips and college visits. Now, with all of the rules about having to have chaperones and so many hours in the classroom; I think this was smart. I was sort of excited for my child, I wanted to see how well he would do. I had a few thoughts before it happened….
- The format was for kids to login from 1-4pm. A previous survey indicated how many kids had computers but there were options for kids to go to any location (i.e. library or friends house) or drop into the school library on campus. My thought: If this can be done in a 3 hour window – what does that say about the overall school day!?
- Snow day hampered the prep for many. Kentucky weather showed its ugly face and gave them a snow day the Monday before. Which meant, teachers who planned to give out instructions/work that day, were hard pressed to actually get the work online. My thought: Shouldn’t it ALL be done online ANYWAY?? Come on people – we are the age of iPads in teachers hands and Facebook in your face…you cannot tell me you found it THAT hard to get the work posted online?
- Kids don’t have good study/work habits today…how can you expect them to actually login and be productive in a 3-hour window? My thought: Give these kids books to carry, papers to write, HOMEWORK for Christ sake!!! Quit letting them “redo tests/quizzes” and push these kids. Kids today are just plain out right LAZY…I know I have issues getting my own son to actually push himself.
I think this concept needs to be practiced MORE. My son has YET to use a computer in the high school – not counting his class for one semester which as a major flop in engineering. Don’t ya think it would be wise to have kids actually using, seeing and practicing the ins and outs of this system while in school?
There’s talk of some grants out there to put iPads in kids hands. Great! Wonderful news! Where’s the grants to get actual BOOKS in their hands? I understand books cost money. But, as we did in school..you charge fees for book rental at the beginning of the year. The books get lost or damaged, they pay full price. Hey…what about this…let’s also use those books and give them some homework!! I have been told by teachers for 2 years now – “no, we don’t assign homework, we find kids don’t do it anyway”. WHAT THE CRAP!!? If I had known that, I would have totally not done mine in high school or college – wait, what about when a boss sends me to do a project and I just don’t do it…oops, can’t do that…I would actually get fired!!!!
I digressed – but..the funny thing about this whole OLD school day – I saw more complaints from parents who actually had to be inconvenienced to make sure their child got onto a computer or had access. Some even said they don’t leave their kid at home alone so they had to find a ‘sitter’ – REMEMBER: this is a 9th or 10th grader!! Or how about the one saying that their kid didn’t have sufficient knowledge? Yeah..right!!! They know how to get around facebook! Kids today are pretty smart – but lazy!! Parents – you need to think – if you were as lazy and argumentative as kids are today – how many teeth would you have in your head??
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