My Son Won't Do His Homework (2007)
talentism.com
My Son Won't Do His Homework (2007)
1–10 of 124 posts
Re: My Son Won't Do His Homework (2007)
#2School is only interested into that the kid submits to authority and will be scared of authority the rest of his life, because the people that make up school all are what they want the kid to be, they are more afraid even of the kid than authority.
The parent describes a fantastic kid and should trust the kid and make sure to soften the impact of that school and prepare the kid for better times after school.
In my country in Europe there are schools that care about natural curiosity and will not try to kill it, I don't know about the situation in the US where this takes place.
Re: My Son Won't Do His Homework (2007)
#3After hiring committee one day, we digressed into a discussion of the value of a high GPA from university. One of my colleagues made the point that the value of an individual with a high GPA from a four year degree is that you know the person will get done what needs to get done.
To have a high GPA, a student needs to finish term papers on subjects they have no interest in, they need to study for exams in language for which they have no intention of using again, he will read books by authors he disagrees with and toil into the night on problem sets that have little perceivable utility.
But in the end they will get it done, and if they maintained a high GPA they have shown that he will get it done year over year and always with high quality.
So a high GPA often means that they are not lazy and self centered. It often means a candidate will not sit idle because a task is beneath her, and she will not pigeonhole on a perfecting an ancillary module when there are better things to do.
A student who does not do what is required, who would fritter away on self entertainment via music or finger painting is not someone who can be relied on.
Re: My Son Won't Do His Homework (2007)
#4> “My teacher didn’t like the project, because I put it on the wrong size paper.”
> It is boring and condescending and even my son, at the age of twelve, can figure out that the rules are arbitrary, that they are enforced in a haphazard fashion
Unfortunately, and it should not be like this, life is full of situations where rules are arbitrary, and applied in a haphazard fashion, often by people who are idiots.
Your son is right. But it is important for him to learn how to deal with these people, otherwise he is himself up for a life of frustration and pain and disappointment.
When attempting homework there are 3 things he needs to do.
i) Work out what dull arbitrary rules are being enforced, and obey these.
ii) Do the homework.
iii) If possible find interest in the homework. Expand it to other subjects, understand why it's useful, where it comes from, who uses it in their day to day life, or what it's been replaced by.
You can try the Phil Beadle books - his style might be too annoying for you. (http://www.amazon.com/Phil-Beadle/e/B0034NOMOU/ref=ntt_athr_...)
School does really suck for some people. There are lots of things that education based startups could address. It'll be tricky to get any change in education because it is so heavily political.
Re: My Son Won't Do His Homework (2007)
#5Schools are still centered on producing industrial revolution outcome - factory workers. See Seth Godin and others for much more on this topic.
Re: My Son Won't Do His Homework (2007)
#6After hiring committee one day, we digressed into a discussion of the value of a high GPA from university. One of my colleagues made the point that the value of an individual with a high GPA from a four year degree is that you know the person will get done what needs to get done. To have a high GPA, a student needs to finish term papers on subjects they have no interest in, they need to study for exams in language fo…
I don't question the value of reliability and persistence, but in your frame of reference, that's the most valuable attribute of a new hire. Is that really the truth?
Re: My Son Won't Do His Homework (2007)
#7After hiring committee one day, we digressed into a discussion of the value of a high GPA from university. One of my colleagues made the point that the value of an individual with a high GPA from a four year degree is that you know the person will get done what needs to get done. To have a high GPA, a student needs to finish term papers on subjects they have no interest in, they need to study for exams in language fo…
I don't question the value of reliability and persistence, but in your frame of reference, that's the most valuable attribute of a new hire. Is that really the truth?
For a hiring committee, most likely. A committee at any corporation would be incapable of measuring or understanding anything else. :P
I joke but most managers at places at have hiring committees are more interested in underlings obeying orders than showing any form of excellence.
Re: My Son Won't Do His Homework (2007)
#8After hiring committee one day, we digressed into a discussion of the value of a high GPA from university. One of my colleagues made the point that the value of an individual with a high GPA from a four year degree is that you know the person will get done what needs to get done. To have a high GPA, a student needs to finish term papers on subjects they have no interest in, they need to study for exams in language fo…
Having a low GPA does not indicate that the person spends their time "frittering away on self entertainment via music or finger painting" - it might mean that they don't waste their time on things that aren't valuable, and focus intensely on what is important - which could be the very skills that would be useful in whatever post-university life they will have.
Granted, if you are trying to hire a drone who will mindlessly accomplish whatever they are tasked to do (and will never challenge stupid ideas), perhaps independence and creative thought are the last thing you want, but it's pretty intellectually bankrupt to conclude that anyone who doesn't get good grades is just wasting their time.
Re: My Son Won't Do His Homework (2007)
#9After hiring committee one day, we digressed into a discussion of the value of a high GPA from university. One of my colleagues made the point that the value of an individual with a high GPA from a four year degree is that you know the person will get done what needs to get done. To have a high GPA, a student needs to finish term papers on subjects they have no interest in, they need to study for exams in language fo…
I guess it depends what you are hiring for...
If you are hiring for someone that will just "do the work" and not care what it is, then it seems like this is sound logic.
However, if you're looking for someone who is creative and passionate about their work, believes in what your business is trying to do, and the work they are trying to accomplish, and will find the best way to accomplish it -- school no longer seems so representative of this, where they know the tasks they are completing serve no purpose other than a "grade."
Re: My Son Won't Do His Homework (2007)
#10After hiring committee one day, we digressed into a discussion of the value of a high GPA from university. One of my colleagues made the point that the value of an individual with a high GPA from a four year degree is that you know the person will get done what needs to get done. To have a high GPA, a student needs to finish term papers on subjects they have no interest in, they need to study for exams in language fo…
I suspect few people are reliable at all tasks, that there is a spectrum of reliability on arbitrary/tedious/unmeaningful tasks, and that where you fall on that spectrum is unrelated to how reliable you might be at meaningful work.
In other words, I think your hiring committee is fallaciously flattening out human nature. For all I know that works fine for you, so don't let me stop you.
But: your last sentence was pretty dismissive and harmed your argument.