Forget bailouts, healthcare, and other political issues. The biggest threat to our national
Scrapbooks in Schools.
Gone are the days of turning in neatly copied sentences on crisp notebook paper or typed/computer-printed reports, bound together in a bradded folder or a clear presentation cover with the slide-on bar for the spine.
Now they want scrapbooks.
Oh, some of them pretend otherwise. In one class, they called it a Foldable Flip Book, where each page stuck out a little farther than the previous one. But the samples the teacher showed the class at Parent Night? A scrapbook by any other name
But now it's back, this time in Espanol!
I really don't see how cute paper and ribbons and scalloped scissor-edges and stickers are going to help my girl learn the twelve or so vocabulary words that go in this book. It just seems like busy work for a high school freshman that is already spending almost all of her time on homework, in addition to two fall concerts this week and furiously practicing for All-State Orchestra auditions. (Yes, Sara, she made Region on Saturday! Thanks for your prayers!) Oh, and constructing one of these 3D cells for Biology!(My girl said the Spanish teacher -- a long-term sub for the one on maternity leave -- showed the class a scrapbook that "my son and I did for his class". Ahem. My kids do their own projects, lady! This is high school, after all!)
(Except for cutting the solid foam ball for the aforementioned cell project. That took my man about 30 minutes, and I lost count how many times he sharpened the knife!)
Could we at least give kids a choice? Not everyone got the glue-gun-gene.
It's a vast craft-aisle conspiracy.
Either that, or some teachers don't have a scrap of sense!
I am a teacher -- I understand the need to make projects fun to get the kids involved at all, but not everybody needs the soft soap sell, and some people are very intimidated by art projects. Several options should have been given.
ReplyDeletethis was so funny!!! Mainly b/c I would chose these crafty options over a paper any day!!! Just looking at that ball of foam a myriad of ideas were popping into my head!!
ReplyDeleteHowever, my kids are not me and not all of them got my "glue gun gene" (loved that btw) and I don't do my kids projects either.....there should be a choice!
Congrats to your girl! That is awesome!!!
It was a great Saturday as Jared made the youth symphony too!!! :)
I agree!! I love to scrapbook, but not for school. And otherwise, I'm not real crafty. And as you said it's the kids projects. I always dread that kind of stuff. Fortunately my oldest is really good at that and she helps the youngest.
ReplyDeleteOh, girlfriend, I feel your pain! We didn't have to make a scrapbook but my son had another such "creative" project earlier this year, something about a decorating a bag and filling it with items representing each character of the novel and another project involving making a cd of songs and writing a paragraph about why each song describes a particular character. Oh yeah, and he had to decorate the cd case! What ever happened to three page reports?! :-)
ReplyDeletePS Scrapbooking IS evil or, at the very least, a unique form of cruel and unusual punishment!!! :-)
I wake up at night in a cold sweat when it is project time for my kidlets as I do not possess the crafty, glue gun type of gene!!!
ReplyDeletei think the latter is the more correct...we go through the same thing here, too!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a lot of work! I'm sure some kids enjoy it but probably isn't all needed to get the point of the lesson across with all the other things kids have to keep them busy!
ReplyDeleteSpanish and Biology...I am dealing with that same learning combination x2. So far, all we're having to do are "optional" experiments for the lab notebook! Whew! No glue-gun genes here either!
ReplyDeleteAnd Scrap-books? Not!
YES!!!! I feel your pain, sister!
ReplyDeleteFavoriteSon had to do a scrapbook TONIGHT! For English. It was a "biography book report." He had to take TWENTY photographs of items around the house which represented events in the life of - in this case, Warrick Dunn.
I had to buy new print cartridges (for 50 bucks) because you know we didn't get the photos taken early enough to have them printed professionally.
And what will happen to this gem after it's graded? What a waste.
And you and I think alike yet again. I often say that "crafting gives me hives."
I know I'm chiming in late on this, but thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I slaved with two of my boys who had to do a science notebook for third and fourth grade. All those little extra doodads cost a fortune, it took forever to do, and both boys got three extra measly points for creativity. Never again!
ReplyDeleteOuch! You have hurt the very core of my scrapbooking soul with your post! I love pulling out all the colored papers, stickers, ribbons and adhesive products for even the most mundane projects. The kids love sorting through the stuff to find what they want for the project (up to this point mostly posters and the like),and then go at it with paintbrushes, glue and glitter.
ReplyDeleteIf you have the glue gun gene, school projects are fun! Although I do have to agree that scrapbooking (or any other project that doesn't actually help to teach the subject at hand) is a little over the top for high school students. They would be better served if they were required to write a paper or something. There is a time and a place for arts and crafts....I guess just not in your case! LOL!
Xandra