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. . . and is on full display in a school in New Jersey.
The parents of Damion Frye’s ninth-grade students are spending their evenings this fall doing something they thought they had left behind long ago: homework.
So far, Mr. Frye, an English teacher at Montclair High School, has asked the parents to read and comment on a Franz Kafka story, Section 1 of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” and a speech given by Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. Their newest assignment is a poem by Saul Williams, a poet, musician and rapper who lives in Los Angeles. The ninth graders complete their assignments during class; the parents are supposed to write their responses on a blog Mr. Frye started online.
If the parents do not comply, Mr. Frye tells them, their child’s grade may suffer — a threat on which he has made good only once in the three years he has been making such assignments.
I don’t even know what to say. Except, most parents have meekly accepted this. BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID.
The voice of reason:
“Common educational wisdom is that you don’t assign homework that kids can’t do on their own,” she said.
Catherine here, diving into Tex's post.
Tex has just inspired my first full-length Irvington Parents Forum op-ed of the school year.
And, let me just add that Mr. Frye is extremely lucky he does not work in Irvington.
We'd make short work of Mr. Frye.
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33 comments:
Oh, I'd comment all right. And since it's an official, government-sponsored forum, first amendment guarantees of free speech apply. I'm not sure that Mr. Frye would much care for the comments he would get from me.
What arrogance to assume that the parents have nothing better to do with their time than to respond to this teacher's request/demand!
"What arrogance ..."
That's the first word that came to my mind. Then, I thought he might be sincere, so ignorant came to mind.
It reminds me of the open house I went to when my son was in first grade. We parents got to sit in little chairs while the first grade teacher lectured us (in her first grade voice) on good it was for little Johnnie and Suzie to explain why 5 + 5 = 10 in MathLand.
Steve--you are probably right about the ignorance part. If the teacher doesn't have children of his own, he may not have a basis for understanding what family life entails.
Let's see if I understand this correctly...
If you homeschool, you're destroying public education.
If you do your teacher's job for him while he continues to draw a full salary, then you're engaging your child's education.
Oh, I'd comment all right.
Mr. Frye definitely does not want your child in his class.
Next week, the NYT will be bashing helicopter parents.
Wow. That's high school, too, so the grade's going to count.
And if your parent can't read or doesn't speak English? I assume he'll have some exemptions to pass out which should set off the single parent's ire, or the parents working 2 or 3 jobs.
Next week, the NYT will be bashing helicopter parents.
Mr. Frye may get a little Black Hawk action with that assignment.
Let's hope so.
Carol Jago, the incoming vice president of the National Council of Teachers of English, said, “This is one of those really good ideas that has the potential to do what we really want in society.
I find it frightening that this woman is in a national leadership role.
“I take it as giving back to the teacher what he is apparently giving to our kids, a lot of attention and a lot of requirements.” Um, wouldn't that be called "doing his job"?
And what if you don't have a computer in your house?
But I digress. What I really wanted to complain about is the community service hours assigned to my 5th grade daughter.
She has to do 10 community service hours to be on the Student Council (funny, I thought serving on Student Council was community service.) Anyway, if a 10 year old has to do community service then the parent has to do community service also. What can you allow them to do that doesn't require supervision?
Which is exactly what I am going to tell them when I meet with them on Friday.
Oh, and if you don't do the community service, your child can be 'replaced'. That is exactly the word that they used.
I asked them to show me the school policy that allows a student to be excluded from a school activity because the parent won't cooperate. We'll see if they produce it.
Anne Dwyer
I recommend that you spend 10 hours cleaning up at your local shooting range. It's useful, it serves the community, and it serves to educate the child about civil rights. And it would probably make the principal's head explode.
Win/win.
this will not stand.
I recommend that you spend 10 hours cleaning up at your local shooting range.
LOL!! That was great!
I wonder what would happen if Mr. Frye received a bill for "billable hours" from a parent.
That parent could then turn him over to a collections agency to collect on the bill. While legally he could get out of paying the collections agency he'd have to do a bit of legal research and letter writing which would take up at least as much time as the parent reading the novel. Or it could just end up on his credit rating (if he never figures out how to appeal)
You could send him a contract with your billable rate at the start of term and ask him to sign it.
Kind of like all those home-school contracts they are asking us to sign all the time.
This is insane. Absolutely, completely bonkers. But so interesting to me to see the enormous disparity between the mindsets of people who want the profession to be professional, and those who want to come up with the next neato educational idea. If he's not already optioning the movie rights to the book he's been writing at night when he only has 65 papers to grade, then he will be soon.
"The ninth graders complete their assignments during class; the parents are supposed to write their responses on a blog Mr. Frye started online."
In class?
Mr. Frye gets to sit around on the job while the kids work. Then he makes parents, who work all day, do extra work at home?
redkudu said:
"If he's not already optioning the movie rights to the book he's been writing at night when he only has 65 papers to grade, then he will be soon."
He is doing it in class while the students are doing their homework in class. When I was growing up, we never did homework in class.
[Aside: I have asked my son many, many times what his teachers are doing while the kids do all of this solo or group work in class. He says: "They're doing what they always do; sitting at their desk doing paperwork or something on the computer." I ask him whether the teachers are going around the room helping students. He looks at me half-crazy-like and says: "Are you kidding?"]
But the parent homework is not to review their child's writing. The homework is to do the same reading and respond on a class blog. Where do the parent and child overlap here? If this is a literature class, then what are they learning? How to express an opinion even if they have absolutely no content to back it up? If they discuss the literature in class or with their parents, are they arguing over opinion or are they developing reading and writing skills? If it's a poem by Saul Williams, are they discussing literary style or are they discussing how they can't understand a single word he says?
If this is some sort of sociological experiment [“This is one of those really good ideas that has the potential to do what we really want in society."] to get parents and kids to talk, then please make it an "opt-in" project. We parents get enough spam during the day.
"It began to dawn on me that if I wanted students to achieve the deep literacy I wrote about in Chapter 1, I was going to have to experiment with a dangerous practice, 'direct instruction.'"
-Carol Jago, "With Rigor For All," Heinemann, 2000.
Did she really say tht in 2000?
This is what she says now:
“... adding that in her 32 years of teaching, she has often asked parents to forgo hiring tutors and instead just read the books their children were reading."
So, teachers get to sit around while students do the work in class and she tells parents not to hire tutors to give the kids "deep literacy" using direct instruction. Parents just need to read the books. And then, ... what? Write on a blog back to the teacher?
Like direct instruction, if there are certain goals you wish to achieve, you have to attack them directly. Someone has to be in charge. It doesn't look like schools want to do that.
Mr. Frye definitely does not want your child in his class.
nor mine
community service!
ho ho
more, more, more parallel lives
went to the site committee meeting (which is now acknowledged to be open to the public, for the first time in Irvington history) where the teacher members (terrific teacher, btw) tried to sell the parent members on adopting a "service to the community" agenda for the committee's work this year.
One of the parent members said, hesitantly, that when you require kids to do community service it's not really from the heart, it's homework, it's something that has to go on their transcript, etc....
the teacher member agreed vigorously and then said, "This is a really good time for them to stop thinking about themselves so much."
It was an interesting moment, because the parent member had clearly said "no" but the teacher member had apparently heard "yes" (or something like yes)
AGAIN: in case anyone from Irvington is reading, C. has had this teacher and she is TERRIFIC (and we've said so many times; I have the emails to prove it)
The point of this comment is that school and parents aren't communicating well AT ALL
I asked them to show me the school policy that allows a student to be excluded from a school activity because the parent won't cooperate. We'll see if they produce it.
I need to get the law nailed down on this.
So far, it appears to me that schools "aren't supposed to" invent policy on the fly; it has to be written down.
I say this entirely because of the little girl who was banned from the dance here. Her dad demanded to see a written policy, and the district came back with the explanation that they didn't have a policy, but, rather, a "longstanding practice."
At the time I assumed their attorneys had given them that language, but in light of recent events I don't know.
(Recent events meaning two cases in which I assumed the district had sought legal wording and then discovered, when I talked to an attorney, that they had not.)
If he's not already optioning the movie rights to the book he's been writing at night when he only has 65 papers to grade, then he will be soon.
shoot me
this will not stand
oh sure it will
it will stand, hop, leap, fly and SOAR!!!!
and then some
if Mr. Frye's got enough grade inflation happening....and I'm going to guess he has a LOT of grade inflation happening, because he has disadvantaged kids in his class...parents will probably keep "cooperating"
speaking of which, I REALLY don't want another district letter to come home in the backpack thanking me for my ongoing support and cooperation
really, really
People cooperate with authorities.
Enough with the cooperation, and the ongoing support.
"Doug!"
<Lurch>
You Rang?
<\Lurch>
8-)
If you don't like cleaning up the shooting range, how about picketing the school for a better curriculum? That should certainly qualify as community service.
ha!
I'm way ahead of you
I've started telling people that my volunteer work, and my way of supporting the school, is to engage in political work.
Believe it or not, "things" are at a point now where the idea of volunteer work being political is starting to be on the menu
"Mr. Frye definitely does not want your child in his class."
"nor mine"
I'd give him homework and a test.
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