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Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School

theatlantic.com

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Re: Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School

#61

Post by VLM »

joonix wrote: post #40

Are there any private all-boys[1] schools that embrace this side of childhood? Look at tiger cubs and what not: they play, they bounce around, they fight, they figure out the world around them through investigation and exploration. I spent so much of my time outside as a kid, but I also spent a lot of time inside on the computer. Both were amazing worlds where your imagination could run wild; especially in the early…

"Look at tiger cubs"

LOL I read that the first time as a Cub Scouts reference and agreed completely.

You might be surprised just how much of your "thought experiment" vaguely resembles the many Cub Scout pack meetings I've attended, other than the pack meetings only being about 2 hours every other week rather than 8 hours every weekday.

Like most organizations, the Scouts get many things right and a couple things wrong, and it improves the level of discourse to stay on track. So bringing up their very peculiar unamerican ideas about religion or sex is not terribly relevant to the discussion of "educating boys", which is kind of the point of the controversy about them, but I digress...

On the other hand, from what I've seen of my daughters girl scout troop meetings, its mostly craft time and snack/gossip time.

There's a heck of a big difference between the two scout orgs beyond one group's parents sell cookies (just tellin' it like it is...).

Re: Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School

#62

Post by chez17 »

Puer wrote: post #50
sarchertech wrote: post #23

School is half education and half babysitting. The problem is that schools aren't aware of that, and they try to cram too much learning/work into a day at school. Kids just don't have the attention span. College isn't taught this way. Colleges realize that even young adults can't handle 40 hours a week of continual instruction, why do we do this kids can? I think the reason, is that we're always behind other countrie…

How come they don't seem to have this problem in China, India or Germany? It isn't that kids can't handle the workload, the problem is the boring curriculum.

One issue is that people think that there is "the problem". It is a multitude of problems ranging from economic to cultural to institutional. There are many things wrong with our education system and trying to wrap it up in a talking point only prolongs the real discussion that needs to be had.

Re: Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School

#63

Post by Groxx »

altcognito wrote: post #21
tocomment wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any tips on getting started? It sounds interesting but I wouldn't know where to start.

Google homeschooling resources, and begin talking to the homeschooling groups in your local area. Homeschooling has a network of families that support each other generally. It's the easiest and best way to get started. Plus, you'll get a lot of guidance on what resources are good and which are a waste of time.

Having been homeschooled, this is a great suggestion. It's pretty easy to get too isolated, and homeschooling groups help a lot. Also check with your local schools - I was able to take 2 classes while still being classified as 'homeschooled', for free (since it's part of taxes already), which can give access to tools that are otherwise way too expensive.

Re: Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School

#64

Post by derleth »

pessimizer wrote: post #41
pekk wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Historically many, many children have sat still at school and behaved themselves. That doesn't mean that others should be stigmatized, but it's not like this is impossible and unprecedented.

Also historically, many, many children have been thrown out of school or deemed ineducable because they couldn't sit still in school and behave themselves.

Or they never went to school in the first place.

Similarly, the average high schooler was better back then because the average person stopped their education at the eighth grade, if not sooner.

(Note to non-Americans: In the US, high school runs from ninth to twelfth grade, usually named freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years.)

Re: Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School

#65

Post by Alex3917 »

sarchertech wrote: post #23

School is half education and half babysitting. The problem is that schools aren't aware of that, and they try to cram too much learning/work into a day at school. Kids just don't have the attention span. College isn't taught this way. Colleges realize that even young adults can't handle 40 hours a week of continual instruction, why do we do this kids can? I think the reason, is that we're always behind other countrie…

"School is half education and half babysitting."

As currently designed, the five basic functions of public school are sorting, socialization, warehousing, training, and FRPL. They tend to be pretty aware of all of these.

Re: Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School

#66

Post by freehunter »

ceejayoz wrote: post #32
embolism wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But yet it may have been what he needed at that stage in his cognitive and social development. It's only disruptive to a disciplinarian, industrial age approach to education.

And what of the needs of the other kids in the room, who might need to be able to hear what the teacher is saying? A whispered request for clarification on something the teacher just said is one thing. 15 separate conversations about the latest Call of Duty and who made out with whom while the teacher tries to explain material is disruptive.

What's also a good thing is social time with your peers. We separate kids based on age, based on which random class they're thrown in, and in bigger schools, which random lunch time they are assigned. None of these may match up with their friends outside of class time. Perhaps there would be less classroom disruption if friends could have time together outside of the one class they took together knowing that would be the only time they could be together?

Re: Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School

#67

Post by joelhooks »

sanarothe wrote: post #43
joelhooks wrote: post #12

At least one of my three boys would have an incredibly hard time with this. He's definitely "aspie" in a lot of respects. The decision to home educate our 4 children is hands down the best decision we've ever made. Highly recommend it, if you are able to pull it off logistically. Very rewarding experience so far.

I just want to say that you might want to consider public high school. There's a lot of social development going on there, even if most people come out of the entire system bitter.

My oldest is 15 and the decision is his to make. There are lots of avenues for social development and we talk about it as a family. He chose not to this year. I've offered both public and private options.

Re: Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School

#68

Post by Houshalter »

I got in trouble a lot for fidgeting at school all the time. I got diagnosed with ADHD and had to take medicine for it, mostly because of the fidgeting. One teacher made me put a giant a big inflatable cushion on my seat everyday and it was humiliating and didn't help at all.

Re: Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School

#69

Post by tokenadult »

pekk wrote: post #37
tokenadult wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My personal goal is to figure out how to make enough money to keep my children out of the insanity of public schools. It doesn't necessarily take a lot of money to homeschool children. (Been there, still doing that.) It does take agreement among the parents about what lifestyle adjustments each parent is willing to make so that children have flexibility in their learning. My oldest son, now a programmer working for a…

I find it peculiar that you regularly cite scientific studies of this and that, and yet you are using this terribly misleading, n-of-1 implication that home schooling is why your oldest son has the success he has. Do you really think that children cannot do exactly the same thing coming out of a public school, and if so, why?

My son has taken up my thinking about the difference between anecdotes and research studies, and he actually mentioned the issue of successful co-workers he has who are public school alumni in another part of his email to me. But I shouldn't have to quote his whole personal email to make the point for onlookers that OF COURSE some alumni of public schools turn out to be very successful, and they are much more numerous than people who have been homeschooled. But there may still be an advantage for homeschooling at the margin, simply because it is generally more flexible and responsive to individual learner needs than mass classroom education.

Re: Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School

#70

Post by joezydeco »

sp332 wrote: post #15
joezydeco wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My son's classroom has employed smaller versions of exercise balls to keep some of the kids focused (including my own). It's interesting to observe. The kids are fidgety and restless while sitting, but when you sit them on one of these the subconscious motor control going on seems to quell the foreground restlessness.

Maybe it's a metabolism thing? If they're used to burning calories a a certain rate, homeostasis will cause their bodies to seek to maintain that rate. Fidgeting burns a lot of calories. Maybe tensing up core muscles for balance fills that need?

I think it's more about the level of background "noise" in the brains of young kids. When unchecked/unfiltered in some kids it will start to trickle into the motor/cognitive areas of the brain and that's how you get fidgeting, twitchiness, those kinds of things.

Balancing on an exercise ball seems to engage those involuntary areas while not interfering with high-level processing.

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