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dorsetgirl.
What is it with teachers and Posters?
So often my kids come home with “Do a Poster” for their homework. They just don’t get it, and nor do I. Posters take my kids about three hours to do, with an awful lot of agonising and frustration, and I completely fail to see the point. Why treat kids as if they’re five years old? Why not give them a chance to use - or increase – their knowledge instead? Why penalise them for not being any good at Art?
I could understand it if teachers were asking them to do wall charts. Doing a wall chart - packed with useful information, hopefully laid out in a nice clear format - would challenge students to come up with a lot of information, to select the most important parts, and present it all attractively in an easy-to-digest format.
But no. Teachers like posters. WHY???????
And "colouring in"? What’s that about?
I understand that Reception kids (aged 5) are made to do “colouring in” as practice for their fine motor skills, ready for learning to write. But why do secondary school students still have to do it?
My youngest has just started secondary school, and for his Geography homework over the weekend he had to answer various questions about where things were on a map; label various rivers and towns on a map; colour in the map.
The first two, fine. It gave him practice at using an Atlas, and the index therein; it made him think about placing the information correctly on the map, and fitting it all in neatly; perhaps he's even learnt something about his home area. But the colouring in?
I could understand it if the teacher had specified something like “mark the hill ranges and colour them in a different shade” or something. Or "draw in XXX reservoir and colour it blue."
But no. Teachers just want “colouring in”. WHY???????
My son’s view? “Just for a week, I thought I was at secondary school. Now I feel like I’m back in the Infants.”
I’ve come to the conclusion that most teachers – with the blessed exception of Science and Maths teachers – are Arty types who actually think that drawing and colouring-in are fun. *shudders*
What is it with teachers and Posters?
So often my kids come home with “Do a Poster” for their homework. They just don’t get it, and nor do I. Posters take my kids about three hours to do, with an awful lot of agonising and frustration, and I completely fail to see the point. Why treat kids as if they’re five years old? Why not give them a chance to use - or increase – their knowledge instead? Why penalise them for not being any good at Art?
I could understand it if teachers were asking them to do wall charts. Doing a wall chart - packed with useful information, hopefully laid out in a nice clear format - would challenge students to come up with a lot of information, to select the most important parts, and present it all attractively in an easy-to-digest format.
But no. Teachers like posters. WHY???????
And "colouring in"? What’s that about?
I understand that Reception kids (aged 5) are made to do “colouring in” as practice for their fine motor skills, ready for learning to write. But why do secondary school students still have to do it?
My youngest has just started secondary school, and for his Geography homework over the weekend he had to answer various questions about where things were on a map; label various rivers and towns on a map; colour in the map.
The first two, fine. It gave him practice at using an Atlas, and the index therein; it made him think about placing the information correctly on the map, and fitting it all in neatly; perhaps he's even learnt something about his home area. But the colouring in?
I could understand it if the teacher had specified something like “mark the hill ranges and colour them in a different shade” or something. Or "draw in XXX reservoir and colour it blue."
But no. Teachers just want “colouring in”. WHY???????
My son’s view? “Just for a week, I thought I was at secondary school. Now I feel like I’m back in the Infants.”
I’ve come to the conclusion that most teachers – with the blessed exception of Science and Maths teachers – are Arty types who actually think that drawing and colouring-in are fun. *shudders*
