When it comes to homework, French President François Hollande said "it should be done during school hours rather than at home, in order to establish equal opportunities." The wealthy are more likely to have a good working environment at home with devoted parent helpers, he argues. His solution? A proposition to ban homework. By the same reasoning then, the French should also prohibit its wealthier citizens from owning personal libraries.
I mean, I can see his point. My daughter has a terribly unfair advantage over other science students because there are over 400 science books in our living room, basement and attic. I will ship them all to the French president tomorrow. Meanwhile, I will also make plans to have her share a room with her brother because being wealthier than the average French citizen, we have the luxury of having separate rooms from our children. They can use the refuge of a quiet room for reading and thinking.
To eliminate this other unfair edge, we will place one bedroom in a crate and have it sail over the Atlantic towards the poor land that, according to the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment, ranks 21st in reading, 22nd in math and 27th in science.
Hollande's pledge to add 60,000 teaching jobs in the next five years is another example of his genius. Creating a hiring frenzy is the best way to ensure that the most qualified and dedicated people will enter the profession, people who will magically squeeze instruction, inspiration and the necessary combination of reading, rote and thinking exercises into the nine half days a week of school in the French system.
Sarcasm aside, the one thing that I do agree with is their plan to add school time because it's not up to par with the rest of the world. But to imagine that all necessary practice and thought required in learning can occur within school walls is unrealistic. Those who despise homework and see it as drudgery and busy work are throwing out the baby with the bathwater. They forget that those who assign homework of poor quality will do likewise with classwork.
From several of the comments below I am reminded once again of the essential problems with education. The first of many issues is that everyone seems to have solutions because most have seen the problem from within. But that doesn't make everyone's solutions viable, assuming they are really committed to fixing and not just venting.
If I knew the language I would love to teach in Finland to see if it is as ideal as it's portrayed in books and articles. They have reduced homework but have not eliminated it. Setting up any top-down policy goes against their spirit of learning, which they seem to truly respect; they don't just pay lip service to it. In the educational reform of the 60s the Finns seem to have confronted the key issues: doing away with mark-obsession; raising the bar for letting people into the teaching profession; not setting up a huge government body of arm-chair textperts to stifle what happens in the classroom; and not having privately funded schools.
But for such changes to take hold in Canada and the United States, you would need a sweeping, parallel change in social structure and values. All that in a heterogeneous population spread over such a large geographical area? What has been relied upon as unifying tools: mass media, education and now social media all come with a price: they make the sense of community even more transient than it's always been.
The status quo in general education is tied to not only unions but to a huge money machine of educational supplies, expensive college education and competition in politics, sports and corporate ladder-climbing. Historically, something truly catastrophic seems to be the only thing that moves an entire society to reevaluate both its means and goals. But it would be inhuman to invite a disaster of such proportions.
Meanwhile, consider doing your homework under a tree to get fresh air, to get a glimpse of the glimmering light among the foliage.
I mean, I can see his point. My daughter has a terribly unfair advantage over other science students because there are over 400 science books in our living room, basement and attic. I will ship them all to the French president tomorrow. Meanwhile, I will also make plans to have her share a room with her brother because being wealthier than the average French citizen, we have the luxury of having separate rooms from our children. They can use the refuge of a quiet room for reading and thinking.
To eliminate this other unfair edge, we will place one bedroom in a crate and have it sail over the Atlantic towards the poor land that, according to the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment, ranks 21st in reading, 22nd in math and 27th in science.Hollande's pledge to add 60,000 teaching jobs in the next five years is another example of his genius. Creating a hiring frenzy is the best way to ensure that the most qualified and dedicated people will enter the profession, people who will magically squeeze instruction, inspiration and the necessary combination of reading, rote and thinking exercises into the nine half days a week of school in the French system.
Sarcasm aside, the one thing that I do agree with is their plan to add school time because it's not up to par with the rest of the world. But to imagine that all necessary practice and thought required in learning can occur within school walls is unrealistic. Those who despise homework and see it as drudgery and busy work are throwing out the baby with the bathwater. They forget that those who assign homework of poor quality will do likewise with classwork.
From several of the comments below I am reminded once again of the essential problems with education. The first of many issues is that everyone seems to have solutions because most have seen the problem from within. But that doesn't make everyone's solutions viable, assuming they are really committed to fixing and not just venting.
If I knew the language I would love to teach in Finland to see if it is as ideal as it's portrayed in books and articles. They have reduced homework but have not eliminated it. Setting up any top-down policy goes against their spirit of learning, which they seem to truly respect; they don't just pay lip service to it. In the educational reform of the 60s the Finns seem to have confronted the key issues: doing away with mark-obsession; raising the bar for letting people into the teaching profession; not setting up a huge government body of arm-chair textperts to stifle what happens in the classroom; and not having privately funded schools.
But for such changes to take hold in Canada and the United States, you would need a sweeping, parallel change in social structure and values. All that in a heterogeneous population spread over such a large geographical area? What has been relied upon as unifying tools: mass media, education and now social media all come with a price: they make the sense of community even more transient than it's always been.
The status quo in general education is tied to not only unions but to a huge money machine of educational supplies, expensive college education and competition in politics, sports and corporate ladder-climbing. Historically, something truly catastrophic seems to be the only thing that moves an entire society to reevaluate both its means and goals. But it would be inhuman to invite a disaster of such proportions.
Meanwhile, consider doing your homework under a tree to get fresh air, to get a glimpse of the glimmering light among the foliage.
They are pretty terrible in education already. Making it worse should not be the goal of socialists in power but policies designed to create equality by decreasing the scores of good students are going to do just that.