Read the following post. What do you think? I think that we do baby our 9-12th grade students too much.
Do we baby our students?
My district has a PreK-6 building and a 7-12
building. The two principals are at odds: The junior high/high school
principal wonders why the seventh graders are not coming in with more
independence, while the elementary principal wonders why the junior high
is not a more nurturing environment.
Obviously there is a middle ground here. But then, I had a visit from the college instructor (called my "collaborator") of the dual-enrollment college course I teach (freshman comp.), and he says that he is amazed at the "codependent relationship" between high school teachers and their students. He says we constantly remind them of due dates, ask them to complete missing work, etc. The come to college unprepared for the independence that college demands; they flounder, and some flunk out.
As much as I harp on my sophomores to take care of themselves, to replace junior high thinking (Yes! I'm gonna miss that class! I don't have to do anything!) with senior high thinking (No! I'm gonna miss that class! I better do something!), and to take action on their own behalf, some students (certainly not all) still need hand-holding just to complete their work and earn that diploma. After all, we don't want to see any Fs . . . or do we? In our efforts to prevent failure, are we doing too much hand-holding? Are we babying kids to the point that when they leave high school they are not ready for the challenges of independence?
How much hand-holding is too much? What are your thoughts?
Obviously there is a middle ground here. But then, I had a visit from the college instructor (called my "collaborator") of the dual-enrollment college course I teach (freshman comp.), and he says that he is amazed at the "codependent relationship" between high school teachers and their students. He says we constantly remind them of due dates, ask them to complete missing work, etc. The come to college unprepared for the independence that college demands; they flounder, and some flunk out.
As much as I harp on my sophomores to take care of themselves, to replace junior high thinking (Yes! I'm gonna miss that class! I don't have to do anything!) with senior high thinking (No! I'm gonna miss that class! I better do something!), and to take action on their own behalf, some students (certainly not all) still need hand-holding just to complete their work and earn that diploma. After all, we don't want to see any Fs . . . or do we? In our efforts to prevent failure, are we doing too much hand-holding? Are we babying kids to the point that when they leave high school they are not ready for the challenges of independence?
How much hand-holding is too much? What are your thoughts?
13 comments:
After the transistion from my sophomore to junior year, I have realized that yes, high school students are babied way too much. Throughout my junior year I have been taking honors classes that require more responsibility and independence, which have made me notice how much high school students are babied. High schoolers are constantly reminded about due dates, late work, and anything else needed to make it through the school year. I could understand reminders for freshman that are still adujusting from junior high, but for the rest of the high schoolers, reminders should be uneccessary. At some point in everyones' lives they must grow up and do things on their own. Success does not come without a few failures; that's how we learn.
Yes, I think students are babied to a point. I don't see a problem about reminding the students of an upcoming assignment that is due. That is very important, I personally think it is the teachers job to help the students remember the assignments due, to a point. The day before for sure is a good time to remind the students; maybe every other day before that. What drives me crazy is when we are given a week-long assignment, we are reminded every day of it and a student doesn't get it done. Basically, that student should have detention. But a half a week later, that student finally gets it done; without detention. I think that students should get detention because it helps teach them responsibility. It gets to a point where the students know that they can get away with things. That isn't learning; those who get it done just to be safe is learning.
This year, I had a pretty big wake-up call. Junior high to high school was a bigger jump than I thought it would be. I am grateful for the reminders of assignments being do and late assignments. I feel that students should only need those reminders for the first part of freshman year. Students shouldn't need that babying anymore more throughout their high school career. High school is supposed to teach independence to help make college easier. If students are constantly babied during high school, they will be completely lost when college comes around. Responsibility is a big contribution to teenagers maturing. This is why I think "hand-holding" should definetly stop after freshman year.
well with my experience of having been to three schools i think yes there are some teachers that do baby some students like their favorites. but it also goes with students suvking up to them. and the teachers going with it but we are cute aborable kids like whats wrong with a little push. but tachers shoudl know there standing point of going over the edge and not lettting them fail or pushing them. but then you have your teachers are completely mean and jerks to students and that should be unacceptable also and teachers should have
Yes, all students are babied, from the beginning to the end. In kindergarten, they seem more independent with more of a sense of responsibility and can-do attitude than most of our high school students (which seems to be a sad truth and quite the opposite of what it should be). We are babied because as we age and seem to “grow up” we seem to lose the attitude that “I can do it; you don’t need to help me.” What happens to this attitude in so many? Why do teachers feel it necessary to compensate for a student’s lack of responsibility?
The easy way, that’s why. It’s easy to give up and never fight and take advantage of the tools we are all given and skills that most of us possess. It’s easy to cheat off of the smart kids who get everything right so that we can get every worksheet right and get a pretty decent grade that makes our parents smile and have a heart swelled with pride; but is it worth it? It’s a challenge to see out of our own bubble, but we have to clear away the smoke to attempt to find some sort of way to see that there is a path ahead of us and taking a few bumpy jaunts in the right direction makes it so much easier for trying to stay on a smooth path in the future. You never know what situation you might find yourself in that might require a little help from some knowledge that seemed so “useless” so you never bothered to learn it.
In third grade we were given our first planner. How do we fill it out? What do we need to put in it? What’s a good way to make it easy to understand and use to be efficient? Well, a teacher was there to explain it, and make you fill it out everyday and put a little stamp on our planners to make sure that it was filled out and have Mom or Dad say that they saw the planner. Is a little hand holding in the third grade helpful when learning this new skill? Yes! Of course it is! In fourth, maybe not as necessary but it can be a bit of a help to the kids who have trouble picking up valuable skills like this. In fifth, no, it’s not. In fifth grade it’s pretty much time to stop the hand holding and start getting them going for the future! If they haven’t learned to fill out their planner after 2 years of hand holding, then obviously there’s very little chance of them acquiring the skill! In fifth do they maybe need some reminders about due dates? Yes, they probably do, they’re only about 10 or 11, maybe 12. In sixth, possibly, it depends on how developed they have become mentally. This is really the only reason kids should get any hand holding is because someone is most likely going to do that for them for a good portion of their lives.
In junior high, it’s sink or swim time: it’s better to learn that if a bird doesn’t learn how to fly as a young chick, it’s going to fall out of the nest when its older and have no way of catching itself. I know that it sounds harsh to tell a 12, 13, or 14 year old kid to figure it out and see past tomorrow, next week, next month, and even next year but the world is sink or swim.
I know, personally, that if half my teachers never bothered to tell me to get a certain project done, I would most likely been in deep. I was thankful for it then, and I’m kind of thankful for it know, but I have learned that if I don’t plan ahead now that I’m hurting myself and there will come a point in time that if I don’t plan ahead enough that I could be hurting others because they may depend on me and my abilities to plan ahead and get tasks done without reminders from others.
When babying starts to get in the way of getting things done, and even to the point of possibly hurting others then that really is saying something, don’t you think? You can become a stronger swimmer if you always swim on your own versus getting pulled half the way across the lake at a gentle pace and then suddenly let go because you will drown or come close to it.
I honestly think that some of the teachers in this school baby some students. From my freshman through junior year, We have gotten babied. You shouldn't baby students, they are old enough to do their own work and take care of themselves. We are always reminded of when our homework is due, essays are due, but once you tell us, we need to have the responsablilty to remember when the date it is due. We all are going to make mistakes in High school. We fail and we succeed, but in life we are all going to do something that we fail at. When a teacher catches a student cheating, some of them don't do anything about it, they just let them do what ever they want and get away with it. You are never going to learn if you dont listen and actually take notes and be involved in the class.
I don't think that being in high school; we get babied as much as we did as Junior High students. In Junior High they remind you every day up until the assignment date of when your homework is due, but in High School teachers may just tell you the day that they hand it out, or you just assume it’s due the next day. In High School, teachers don’t care if you don’t have your homework done, it’s an automatic detention, but in Junior High, if you didn’t have an assignment done, some teachers would tell students to just hand it in the next day. When it comes to tests, whether you are in Junior High or High School, the teachers are pretty good at telling us when we have a test at least two days in advanced and every day up until the test. So, I don’t think that being in High School we get babied very much.
Yes, I feel that students are babied in high school. Since my junior year has gone on I have realized more and more that teachers definitely baby us because they want to make sure that we make it through the school year. Teachers definitely understand that your junior year is the toughest year of high school so on occasion the teachers will help us out in any way possible whether it is move a test to a different day or not give as much homework. I know a few teachers that care about other classes that we take and will move a test up or back to make sure that we are not stressed while taking it.
After watching some people in my class, I would have to say that students are babied in our school. I think teachers should be tougher on students by making sure that they get detention but don't ask them about missing assignments or tell them due dates constantly. If they do that, the students won't care as much and won't do their work, or they will so it slopply. I can understand after a long weekend or a lot of different things have been happening, to remind them of things, but in other situations, not. They should also stress on it more in their junior and senior year, because in college, they won't do that like the teachers do here. Also I think teachers don't want them to fail, but they always want them to get better and better, that results into the babying. Honestly I think that causes them to get worse and not care as much. If a student really wants to be reminded, they can ask the teacher, and the teacher can tell them.
Well ive been too two schools and yes i think high school kids get babied sometimes by teachers that like them more then others i think that teachers need to let the kids fail in order to grow up and understand that not everything is going to get handed to them some teachers are more hard core then others which theres nothing wrong with but on the other hand i thing some teachers need to be responsible and do there job and treat everyone the same instead of picking and chooseing but ya all high schoolers are babyed in one way or another
I will be the first person to admit that I am the biggest space-cadet ever. I am the worst at remembering due dates for assignments, and pretty much everything else that needs to be remembered. I think this is partly because I'm so incredibly unorganized. I am very grateful for those little reminders; however, I do not expect them. I think there comes a time when we need to start being more accountable, but I feel that perhaps a bit of babying isn’t too destructive. Sometimes, no matter how responsible and independent a person is, they need a little help. I most definitely agree with Shayna that success does not come without a few failures.
I do believe that our teachers sometimes baby our students. For example some teachers will push back a test just because the teacher will give in to the students and will make it into a study hall. I also believe that the teachers are easy going when it comes to assignments, if you don't have an assignment done, then you can turn it in at the end of the day, when it was originally due at the beginning of class. These are some reasons that I think that the teachers baby the students.
i believe students are babied way too much. The teachers are teaching suppose to be teaching us how to do thing on our own. If our teachers baby us throughout high school we will not learn to do anything in college and then we will not do as good as we should of done. In college, the professors are not going to care; they will not care if you do not understand it. You have to be able to do things on your own, not only in college but in everyday life. I think that our teachers should do more on your own learning techniques.
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