Dear Dr. Fournier: My ninth-grade son has always enjoyed history, but this year he is taking a history class and is doing poorly. My husband and I have encouraged his interest and have even developed our own by doing so. Now he has a teacher who teaches history as an overwhelming number of facts to be memorized. My son says he won't do this because, in his words, he finds it stupid. We tell him that he isn't old enough to question his teacher and must do what he is told.
The assessment: History is data that must be interpreted. An effective history teacher should not stop at data and imply that history has no message.Let me be clear: I do not support mediocrity in students, but I do validate our children when they identify mediocrity and name it.
In my work with students, I have seen many teaching methods - some good, some mediocre. Some have been praised for being creative alternatives when the teaching method was, to use your son's words, just plain stupid.
One middle school teacher made pie graphs that looked like Trivial Pursuit game pieces. In each section of the pie, the teacher wrote a clue, such as a date, a name, or a place. The students then had to guess the answer. This training - I refuse to call it education - might have helped students excel at trivia games, but it did nothing to help students analyze and interpret data.
Another example comes from my own household. My son once had a history course that was overwhelming in the way it was taught and tested. My husband and I decided our son should attempt to make a C and no more because we needed to protect him from harm to his ability to think and create.
Although we have never given rewards for grades, when our son brought home a C we went out for dinner to celebrate. In our eyes, our son had made an A because he understood it was more important to honor our values at home than to honor the misconception that an A in school is worth disrespecting your own be-liefs.
The term "disrespect" is important. I did not teach my son to disrespect his teacher. I taught him to respect and honor himself.
What to do: As parents, we must define what we expect our children to get from their education. Once we determine our own "educational values," then we must make them clear to our children, both in words and in action.
Different families will honor different things. For example, if you believe your child must learn obedience above all else, then not doing what others say is not open for discussion. The content of what is taught is second to following directions and completing the work.
Other families may build their educational values around the ability to think analytically and interpret information. In that case, you must be willing to have your child get a lower grade.
What matters here is that your child not do this frivolously or through emotions. Rebelling against "that stupid class" can be a defense mechanism to protect against hurt and failure.
Instead, your child needs to go through disciplined thinking to understand why upholding this value is important.
Once you have established your own educational values, then help your son practice them at home.
When he prepares for a history test, have him learn the data within a context of interpretation.
Help your child understand that to reach his goal of comprehension, he will have to know the data anyway. You can help him develop the "story" in which the data fits.
As parents, we cannot forget that we are the major stakeholders in our child's education and in his future.
We must establish our goals and values and convey them to our child. What better way to learn how to deal with the challenges of life than to start with this challenge at school?