<p>Another weekend has just been ruined around our house because one of the girls had two projects due Monday. These are not just little poster board and a presentation type things, they are monsters with several parts that require computerized presentations, essays, creative maps, AND posters. My youngest's school has gone to something they call "guaranteed curriculum" under which these projects are required in all core classes (math, science, English, and Social Studies) every nine weeks and are a mandated 20% of the grade. For one of the projects, the teacher told them one Monday and it was due the next Monday, with the only weekend between being homecoming weekend where the teacher knew a parade, game, and dance were all set for different nights!!!! Maybe I am just suffering from third child burnout, but I can't help but wonder if this is what "education" is like everywhere. It seems like a lot of her grade is going to depend on how well she can draw rather than how well she can write!</p>
<p>My son's projects were always the messiest. It was a little embarrassing, but at least they could tell he had no outside assistance. I've seen the occasional project that seemed really educationally great. Mostly not, at least for my kid.</p>
<p>No, you're not the only one. As an artistically inept person, married to someone with a similar handicap :), we've produced two bright children (one a freshman in college, the other a freshman in high school) who draw at the level of 5-year-olds. When they were small, I would tell them "Mommy is craft-impaired; here are the pipe cleaners and the shoebox - do the best you can!" </p>
<p>I've been pleased to note that at my son's school this year, the projects he's going to have to do in English and History include the option of (gasp!) writing an essay on the topic - but the other choices all involve some sort of artistic creativity. That's fine, as long as there's an option for the inept among us, which certainly wasn't the case in his middle school.</p>
<p>Thank god my boys have not had to do a "project" since elementary school. They hated them -- and SO DID I.</p>
<p>I wish I had had more projects in high school, it would have given me more of a base for college and grad school (of course, I'm an Arch. student...)</p>
<p>My youngest D (only one still in h.s.) has already done a bunch of "projects" this year. Of course she has to spread her stuff all over the dining room table and living room floor and all over the place! She actually enjoys doing these projects and would take them over doing a paper any day, so I bite my tongue. </p>
<p>But I can't remember my other 2 kids doing as many projects as she does.</p>
<p>The only thing worse than projects. . . GROUP projects! Don't even get me started on those.</p>
<p>No, you aren't the only one. Ah, "diorama" -- the word that strikes fear into a parent's heart.</p>
<p>Frankly, projects -- or what my daughter called "silly little art projects" -- are one major reason she was pulled out to homeschool. Imagine ... I had her writing book reports rather than "create a board game based on your book." I still have flashbacks to that one. Do you realize how hard it is to make a spinner that works properly? It reached the point she didn't want to turn anything in because she was embarassed by her lack of artistic talent (apparently a flaw inherited from me, so I wasn't any help).</p>
<p>I think this is where of those areas where educational ideology gets in the way of common sense. Of course, part of the problem too is that teachers don't have time to correct essays. So they ask for the art.</p>
<p>It makes more sense to me to teach presentation skills pertinent to particular areas when that becomes appropriate. For instance, my daughter is looking at college classes that teach about presentation of archaeological research and artifacts, more useful and less traumatic for her than a middle school "board game based on a book" project. It isn't just her, either. My son is a senior in college and still speaks scathingly of HIS board game.</p>
<p>Actually, my mom and I both remember some projects I had to do in elementary school for a program that tried out the latest in education. (Fortunately, I then went back to schools where we just wrote and did an occasional poster.) I'll probably still remember that, none too fondly, into my 90s...</p>
<p>The absolute BEST thing about your children leaving home and going off to college is the end of projects! I hated them and so did my boys. I may never step foot in a craft store again. I also always wondered about those children who had neither a craft/arts oriented parent (as mine did) or had the financial resources to go out and buy all the materials necessary to put together a decent project. A friend of mine with 6 children once added up all she spent in a school year on just project supplies. I don't remember how much it was, but it was much more than one would think. She turned it in to the respective school principals and said that she would not be donating to the fund raisers as she had already made her contribution.</p>
<p>Son's 9th grade advanced language arts teacher was artsy, required a lot of silly projects- and I thought they were supposed to paint pictures with words! Some kids actually opted out of the advanced section because of this- a few ended up with that teacher for the regular section and didn't escape. In college his problem sets are due 5pm Friday- no ruined weekends for procrastinators.</p>
<p>mkm56: what a hoot! Wish I could have thought of that! I remember in grade school, my D had to do science fair projects that were due in the beginning of January! Guess what both of us were doing during the whole Christmas break! When the Science Fair became "optional" in 8th grade, guess how many 8th graders participated? (None, hopefully the principal got the message!)</p>
<p>Ah, the old science fair projects -- the whose parent did a better job contest? Our schools finally dropped them also. Alas, not until mine were through those grades. I actually made my oldest son drop boy scouts because of the pinewood derby races. Those cars could not have been made by 10 year olds (or whatever the age was). Unless everyone else's son was weaned on power tools?</p>
<p>Hey
I have to run soon and didn't read every post but I wanted to give my personal view on these. I HATE THEM!!!! My school also has them in what is called "core curriculum". 1/every half credit of a course basically if it is a math/science/english/social studies/language class. I never put my heart and soul for the 100 because I see them as useless toward my education, time-wasting, superfluous, redundant, and, overall, below me. Why can't I just give the information? Why must I make a 3-sided poster, powerpoint, 5 page essay, 10 minute report, and other supplemental portions (no, not every project requires all of this, thank God) when I have the same information in the essay that is on the poster, etc.
This all leads me to another pet peeve. BUSY WORK. Sure, it can help memorize but sometimes it doesn't even match the curriculum and I could spend my time doing work in class so I have less homework, actually can sleep, study, work on those projects (see above), get my college apps PERFECT, and do all of my extracurrics/job without going crazy. This is WHY I became so motivated junior year. To be able to have a shot at the staple CC schools so I can be challenged academically and, hopefully, have all of my work have a purpose. I basically want my education to not be me wasting time in school. I could rant on and on and possibly might post again with other problems I have about my education but now I have to go play tennis. I need to de-stress....procrastinating is the key to temporary happiness.</p>
<p>See, they wouldn't dare assign a diorama at an all-boys school. The teacher would get laughed out of the classroom! :D</p>
<p>I positively loathe projects. I especially loathe educators who assign projects and call it gifted/talented curriculum. </p>
<p>Although one year my daughter took level biology, and after attending open house and meeting her teacher and hearing about the curriculum, I rechristened it "Arts and Crafts Biology".</p>
<p>Well....you can't possibly hate GROUP projects as much as the folks in my neck of the woods. We live in a regional school district that is comprised of four towns. There are parts of our region that are almost an hour from other parts of our region. My kids ALWAYS were assigned partners who lived as far away as they could possibly live. Of course, this was before anyone could drive. The teachers claimed that they couldn't take home address into consideration when assigning groups...why not, I asked? Bottom line is there was so much squawking about it that now ALL teachers assigning group projects MUST allow sufficient class time to complete the projects. AND there cannot be a requirement for the purchase of costly "items" to complete the projects either. Woo hoo. At least they listened.</p>
<p>The 'artsy' projects (posters, dioramas, etc.) consume a huge amount of time for little, if anything, learned. There must be a segment of teachers out there who were taught, and believe, that this kind of 'hands-on' will make little Jack or Jill enjoy learning and love the subject. This may have some validity in the lower grades but by middle school it just becomes a huge waste of time. My kids hated them because of the time they took and learned nothing by them other than the fact they were pretty good at art, but that's what art classes are for.</p>
<p>I agree with the point on the group projects - they're awful and pointless. The high achievers tend to end up doing it all and the bottom ones do nothing but get the good grade. Except in one class - the teacher called it a group project to take a test on a book. Three of the five kids didn't read the book. Each kid answered one of 5 questions and they weren't allowed to consult with or help each other. My D and another girl answered their questions correctly and the 3 boys of whom none had read the book, failed their questions. This resulted in my D getting a 40% on the test. I called the teacher and complained about her flawed logic, explaining to her that the head of the English department at Harvard in the same scenario would have failed her test. She ended up hanging up on me (and I didn't yell or use foul language). I had my D transferred to another teacher the next day. </p>
<p>I guess someone got me started.</p>
<p>Is there a teacher on this board who would like the chime in on what the purpose is of these projects? Especially in the higher grades. My S in the 10th grade last year had to do a board game, a video, and make a biological cell out of everyday materials. In some cases, they had choices, but the other choices were even dumber! </p>
<p>And what's the deal with Science Fair in the early grades? Their day-to-day assignments are so juvenile, then suddenly they're given something so much more advanced than their everyday work, and then have to display it for the world to see. It makes no sense. Most of the projects have very little real 'science' involved anyway.</p>
<p>This is my 100th post. Yay!</p>
<p>Ha ha - "group" projects. My middle D had a group in one of her classes - and she ended up always doing all the work.</p>
<p>She finally started passing in these projects with her name only. The teacher questioned her and she said that since she was the only one who did anything on it, she should get extra credit for the others' grades!</p>
<p>I'm not a teacher, but my mom was a middle school Language Arts teacher for several years. She rarely assigned artsy projects since she knew the kids had a bunch to do for their history class, and since I hated them so much. When they were assigned, I think she usually took a poll of the class to see if they wanted to do a more creative class. Last year I believe they made board games - but the point of the assignment was to learn writing "how to" papers, so writing the directions of the game were an important part of the assignment. I think they had a bunch of class time, and the games were later donated to a children's home in the area, which excited the kids in the class. As much as I hated group projects, I think that one at least made sense.</p>
<p>Now I want to know why I had to make a scrapbook for my AP English class senior year, and why it was due during AP testing and Prom.</p>