Archive for January, 2009

Gender Differences in Learning and Play

I went to an interesting talk at my son’s school last night about differences in boys and girls in learning and play.  The speakers were 2 academic PhD types who have read every book on the topic and also have a private practice in counseling little kids.

They began the session with a great story, excerpted I think from Raising Cain (one of the definitive books about how the education system is squelching boys’ natural exuberance and society kills their emotional side.)   It was about a group of elementary school kids who were divided by gender for a woodworking activity and each side had to work together and decide whether they would build a bridge or a catapult.   Girls typically chose bridge and boys always chose catapult.   Then the girls got together in an organized fashion planning their bridge, discussing ideas, etc. (much like a business meeting I gather.)  The boys, on the other hand, each went off on their own, slapping together ramshackle catapults with little planning or discussion, trying to out-catapult each other.  They were more energetic and crazy and got madder and more frustrated, but soon the best catapults rose out of the rubble, then the boys would come together more, fine tune, share ideas, and ultimately a very fine catapult was build using the best ideas from the group.

But you can see where a teacher or parent would probably be telling the boys to work more like the girls and to pipe down, not goof around, etc.  Yet the speakers pointed out that the boys took more risks and may have ended up with a better catapult than if they’d sat there and “ideated” for a while.  So in the end, each side can learn from each other about ways to work as a team.  She didn’t mention it, but I bet the boys tried to use the catapult to smash the girls’ bridge.

Some other points that they made that are good for parents to know included:

Just because your son plays with fake guns or is enamored of voilence doesn’t mean he will grow up to be a gang member, NRA member, prison guard, criminal, etc.  He could just as easily be something peaceful (and make his mother proud.) As long as you keep reinforcing positive messages.

Just because your daughter is obessessed with princesses doesn’t mean she’ll grow up to be shallow fashion-loving bimbo.   As long as you keep reinforcing positive messages.

Just because your teenage son acts homophobic doesn’t mean he will be so as an adult.  As long as you keep reinforcing positive messages.

Young girls today are much more progressive in their thinking – they believe the world is their oyster, they can do anything, etc.  But they will still likely revert to the typical old pre-teen/teen girl way of thinking that will make you want to cringe (caring about what the bitchy girls at school think, treating other meanly, seeking approval from the opposite sex, etc.)  But they will emerge OK if you keep reinforcing positive messages.

Boys and men have a harder time multitasking than girls/women do.  So when you are reinforcing your positive messages to boys, don’t do it while they are deeply involved in another task.

Reading disabilities in 1st an 2nd grade are no predictor of future academic success IF they are dealt with.  Most can be corrected.  BUT, if a child continues to 3rd grade and on and these reading problems haven’t been dealt with they will likely be behind for the rest of school.

The recommended a book called Boys & Girls by Vivan Gussin Paley, a teacher who explored the differences in play and words of her Kindergarten class one year.

When I read Raising Cain last year, I did get a big apprehensive about putting a boy into CPS where there are big classes that are harder to control and plenty of teacher who use the traditional techniques to keep the kids in line.  So, plenty of opportunity for a rambunctious boy to be told he’s naughty.  I have to see how this pans out.  My son’s latent naughty side is now emerging so I may find out first hand how it is dealt with.

This morning I was relaying the story about the catapult experiment to my son.  Of course he was interested in building the catapult and his main comment on the whole things was “But how BIG was the catapult?!”  I guess I should have asked.  Gender difference.

Add comment January 29, 2009

CPS Worries – Classroom Management

I imagine there will be more of these down the road, and maybe this first one is just a school thing and not specific to CPS, but here goes:

One thing that makes me crazy about the big classes is the time spent on classroom management.   My son’s Kindergarten teacher is amazing – possibly one of the best he’ll have in CPS over the years.   She knows all kinds of tricks to help prevent the kids from getting out of control and when a child has a particular problem she seems to work with the parents to set up a system that works for the child and that the parents are on board with.  I’ve marveled repeatedly at how well-behaved the class is.   But now that a few months have passed and the kids are buddying up, the talking and goofing off factor is growing.  For the first time I was in the classroom in the mid-afternoon and the noise factor was crazy.  The kids spend a good part of classroom time in centers where they sit at a table of 5-6 kids to work on a learning project.  Which is how parents want it these days since the traditional all-kids-at-desks-facing-front classroom is totally frowned upon.  The problem is, this system really relies on the kids teaching themselves or each other the materials.   My son DOES seem to be learning a ton at school so it appears to be working, but man, it is SO hard to believe that in that loud, crazy, boisterous room they are learning math.  The teacher works with one center at a time, yet has to keep her ears open for the tables that have veered off course (namely one child hogging all the dominoes and another one freaking out about it – typical 5yo behavior.)

A couple months ago I happened to be in the computer lab filing stuff while a kindergarten class was learning some basics on computer usage.  The teacher was infinitely patient, but his talk was something like this “OK, let’s find the letter P.  Who can find the P?  OK, I need everyone to sit still and not talk.  This side of the room is doing a very good job.  If you get this finished you can have computer free time at the end.  Did everyone find P?  OK, someone over there may not get free time. Find the P.  Quiet everyone.  I need everyone to look at the keyboard and find the P.    OK, now lets look for the B.  But we need to ALL be quiet.  And find the B.”    This went on for a good 20 minutes and it took all the composure I had not to just blurt out “It’s PBSKids.org!  Just type it in!”  Or just walk around and show each kid individually which would have taken half the time.  Honestly, it was torture to listen to.  I have to keep reminding myself that part of being at school is learning how to act in a classroom setting and that keeping Kindergarten kids in line is like herding wild kangaroos.  Or curious monkeys.   Or bored cats.  It just is bothersome when you think about how little times is probably spent each day on actual learning.

Today my son reported that “we didn’t do anything in art class except learn how to behave and what the rules are.”  Damn, they only get art once a week.  They have to spend the whole class session one week learning rules?!  Its just seems like its sucking the joy out of school.

I sense that these are good teachers and I have to assume that a class of 27 kids needs a lot of “molding” so they don’t stage a rebellion, but these are the times I can’t help but be wistful for the smaller classes of a private school where I imagine that controlling the masses isn’t as big a part of the day.

5 comments January 28, 2009

New head of CPS: What the F?

For once I’m speechless.  So Mayor Daley is selecting the current head of the CTA as the new head of the Chicago Public Schools.   I can’t even fathom how to process this information.

If I read even one sentence tomorrow that expresses this guy’s opinion about a vision for CPS I might feel marginally better.  And no, “greater efficiency” won’t count.

So who’s going to take over the CTA?  The head of the Lincoln Park Zoo?

Add comment January 26, 2009

Consent Decree Hearing – What Next?

The consent decree hearing took place last week, where parents were able to voice their opinions on whether CPS should continue to require magnet/gifted schools to keep a ratio of 15-35% white kids.  According to a Tribune article CPS district officials say they have met the goals of the 1980 consent decree that ordered them to set up magnet schools as a way to get children from diverse neighborhoods into integrated schools.

I personally have no way of knowing whether this is true or not.  Yes, the magnet schools seem to be very nicely integrated.  No, my son’s gifted class is not integrated at all (although I believe CPS tried, it was hard to find minority students who wanted to start in a new program on the north side.)  What I don’t know is whether parents of minority kids who are in neighborhoods with the worst CPS schools really feel like they have a decent shot at getting their kid into a Magnet school. 

The Sun Times article reported the following: Wanda Hopkins of Parents United for Responsible Education said she got one child into a magnet school, Andrew Jackson Language Academy, by complaining to CPS about a long list of rejections. 

Wow – CPS responds to complaining?  Who knew?  Wanda is from the group PURE that I’ve raved about – a “power to the people” organization that fights for fairness in CPS and helps teach LSCs to demand reform where it’s needed.

At the hearing, kids and parents expressed the need for continued integration among other things (books, better teachers, etc.)

Interestingly, one article reports that “the district” will ask the judge to let CPS switch to an income-based quota system that will make sure a certain % of lower-income kids get into the magnet program.   This seems like a smart way to do it, given that school performance is typically tied to socio-economic background.  I mean if Obama’s kids had gotten into a magnet school based on race, it wouldn’t really be giving them any race-based edge, now would it? (Oh wait, they went to private school of course.)  But man, what a can of worms if CPS has to be checking everyone’s income for enrollment.  Or will they use the honor system like they do now for minority status?  Interesting times ahead….

So for now, I guess the testimony continues, then a judge will decide whether the the integration efforts will continue in the Magnet schools.  It just seems weird that it is all up to one judge to decide.  I hope this dude knows what he’s doing.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/1393518,CST-NWS-deseg23.article

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-chicago-magnet-schools-23-jan23,0,1895023.story

 

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/01/chicago-magnet-schools-kocoras.html

 

2 comments January 25, 2009

White People Love Gifted Children

I happened to see this funny book at the Women and Children First Bookstore (a retail establishment who’s name my son objects to because it’s unfair to men (oh boo hoo hoo)) called Stuff White People Like.  Basically it’s a list of things that white people are enamored with that may very likely make your entire existence feel like a cliche (if you’re white.  If not, you may feel infinitely cooler.)  Some entries are obvious, such as Coffee, Film Festivals, Farmer’s Markets, and David Sedaris.  Others are a bit more obscure (yet insightful) such as Outdoor performance clothes, standing still at concerts, and making you feel bad about not going outside. 

At #16, right between hating their parents and yoga is Gifted Children.

It says:

White people love “gifted” children, do you know why? Because an astounding 100% of their kids are gifted! Isn’t that amazing?

I’m pretty sure the last non-gifted white child was born in 1962 in Reseda, CA. Since then, it’s been a pretty sweet run.

The way it works is that white kids that are actually smart are quickly identified as “gifted” and take special classes and eventually end up in college and then law school or med school.

But wait, aren’t there white people who aren’t doctors or lawyers, or even all that smart?

Well, here is another one of those awesome white person win-win situations.

Because if a white kid gets crappy grades and can’t seem to ever do anything right in school, they are still gifted! How you ask? They are just TOO smart for school. They are too creative, too advanced to care about the trivial minutiae of the day to day operations of school.

Eventually they will show their creativity in their elaborate constructions of bongs and intimate knowledge different kinds of mushrooms and hash.

This is important if you ever find yourself needing to gain white person acceptance. If you see their kid playing peacefully, you say “oh, he/she seems very focused, are they in a gifted program?” at which point the parent will say “yes.” Or if the kid is lighting a dog on fire while screaming at their mother, you say “my he/she is a creative one. Is he/she gifted?” To which the parent will reply “oh, yes, he’s too creative and smart for school. We just don’t know what to do.” Either situation will put a white person in a better mood and make them like you more.

But NEVER under any circumstance imply that their child is less than a genius. The idea that something could come from them and be less than greatness is too much for them to bear.

 No need to buy the book, the whole thing is on the blog. (Unless you want to support Women/Children First!)  Come to think of it, bookstores like W/C First should probably be on the list.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/full-list-of-stuff-white-people-like/

4 comments January 16, 2009

The End of De-Seg as We Know It?

This month, there will be a hearing (a real hearing, in a Federal courtroom!) to consider the Consent Decree, which is the ruling from back in the 80’s that required the CPS Magnet and Gifted/Classical schools to include a certain level of minority students.

My understanding is that these school can take a maximum of about 35% white students and the rest are minority students (not balanced within that group by any race, background, etc.)  If you’re a white parent on the northside who is entering the lottery, that might sounds like tough odds.  And it is.  But you might also be surprised to know that only around 10% of CPS students are white.  So in reality, the 35% of slots is very generous.  And by the way, if you’re curious, nobody every checks what a child’s “true” background/heritage/etc is.  You are supposed to indicate how the child identifies, but of course that is a muddy area and it certainly is tempting to go into the 65% pool if you can.   Each Magnet/Gifted/Classical school actually has 2 lotteries, one for the whities and one for the minorities (actually the majorities.)

So somebody, somewhere decided recently that it might be time to create a level playing field in the city and put an end to the race requirement.  And I can’t help but wonder who it was that felt that minority kids in this city are getting as much out of their education as white kids are.   Test scores among African American students are much lower than Caucasion kids (although Asian kids are kicking everyone’s asses.)  Schools in some of the lower-income neighborhoods are in a state of squalor from what I understand, and there isn’t a fundraising or tax base from which to get the extras that other schools are putting into place.  The rate of drop-outs among minority students is much worse as well.

Also, as a matter of principal, Chicago is hideously segregated by race – as was reported recently in the Tribune.  Yet some of the bright spots in the city are the schools that balance on race.  I swear when I toured Hawthorne and Stone each class had a perfect balance of white/black/hispanic/asian/other kids.  It’s like exactly what I envisioned when I pictured an urban school.  (Yes, of course I was counting white boys to see what our odds were.)

So really, I cannot for the life of me fathom how someone could say “desegretion – yeah, it worked! Done!”  I don’t get it.  I HAVE heard that if the ruling is overturned, some schools (or all?) would still honor the decree.  But then again, the lottery is handled by CPS, not the schools so I don’t know how they could work around it.

The hearing is January 22nd.  Members of the public were invited to speak if they submitted their comments last month.  Should be interesting to see what happens.

http://www.cps.edu/Pages/MagnetSchoolsConsentDecree.aspx

1 comment January 14, 2009

Our Gifted Testing Experience – Part 2 (for 1st grade)

On a friend’s advice I called to see if I could reschedule my son’s 8am test time for the Gifted Test.  I decided to cancel the Classical test since I didn’t want to go down for the test 2 days in a row.  On they phone, they offered me a test time for the next day – slightly freaky, but why not?  I wasn’t planning to prepare my son in any way, so I just took the next-day option.  If I haven’t said it before, I wish the people who run the testing and the GEAP office people were running CPS.  In my experiences, they’ve all been incredibly nice, fairly accomadating, intelligent, and professional.  When you get into that time period where they’re doling out the gifted spots they are super-efficient (a word that rarely comes to mind when I think of CPS.)

So, test day – another snowy snowy day in our fine city.  I leave the house (in my usual late fashion) with the following:

  Comic books

  Book (Stink and the Super Stinky Sneakers)

  Nintendo DS (in case we wait a long time – don’t know why I thought that since I was running late)

  Headphones for Nintendo DS

  Bottle of water

  Tic Tacs

  Lifesavers

  Reading material for me

  Extra pants and shirt in case the ones he’s wearing get wet in snow

  Dollar bills for the parking lot, as instructed

What I leave the house without:

  Our admissions notification with the testing ID# and exact address.

  Exciting snack I promised my son in the car on the way to the test

I return home to get important document but am still lacking the snack.

Pick him up, usual dawdlings, starting to panic that we’ll be late, 4 blocks later he has to pee, pull into Lane Tech parking lot so he can pee in plastic bottle (thankful now that I don’t have a girl,) go to Wendy’s drive-thru adrenaline building so I miss highway exit, turn around, get on highway, freak out about traffic, continuously suck on Frosty straw getting continuously more angry that it is too thick to drink with straw, panic more.  Then something re-aligns in the universe, traffic opens up, Frosty comes up the straw, we hit 31st St. and breeze into test site early.  Whew.

This testing experience was different from that for Kindergarten placement in that a group of kids are all tested together.  We started in big lecture hall and the nice testing people explained what would happen, then 2 groups of 15 kids each were taken out.  The whole thing is easier because 5-year-olds are generally more sane than 4-year-olds.  I don’t think any child was having a major problem.   Off they marched, unaware of how their fate depended on this next hour.  

The test guy said the test would involve no reading, but each question would have pictures and the child would be asked to choose the picture that was the right answer.  Of course once again, the kids were all brainwashed and my son couldn’t seem to recall ANYTHING that was on the test a mere 10 minutes prior.  And he said it was fun and “awesome!”

The kids were in there for exactly an hour, then all marched out, seemingly a bit weary.  All in all, fairly painless.

UPDATE: Through conversational trickery, we got him to divulge a couple things about the test (pre 1st grade gifted test:)  The picture answers were all in black and white.  They had to fill in a circle below the correct answer.  One question was to choose the piece the completed a puzzle above.  The other was to choose which shape matched the 3 others above it.  He says there were no letter/numbers.  So take that for what it’s worth.

6 comments January 10, 2009

Got a Test Date. Ugh.

So it looks like the guy at the post office got my application postmarked for the Gifted/Classical test.  (Thank you, whoever you are, for not chastising me for cutting it so close that day. — Wouldn’t that have been funny if he was some fellow CPS-knowedgeable parent and he’d looked at the address on the letter and said “Lady, don’t you think it would have been smarter NOT to wait until the last 2 hours to mail this!?!”)

We got a test date for the Gifted/Classical testing for 1st grade.  Or should I say test dates.   I didn’t realize that the tests are given at separate times and dates.   Going into Kindergarten, each child is tested individually so they can take both tests at once.   For 1st grade and up, the kids are tested in groups so they split up the test times.

So… we got a classical test time for an afternoon and the gifted test for the next morning at 8am.  At IIT.  Which means we need to leave the house at (what for me is) an ungodly hour.   Like before 7am.  Have I mentioned that I can rarely get my child to school 8 minutes from my home (not that I’m counting) by 9am each day?  Having been a happy WAHS (work at home slob) for the past couple years, I’m just not good at getting up before the sun.  Nor is my son who seems genetically programmed to open his eyes at exactly 7am each morning.  So this 8am thing is our fly in the ointment.   I need to decide if it’s worth trekking down to IIT at that early hour mainly to satisfy my curiousity about the test process and the year-to-year score variations (sample size: one.)  Got to mull this one over…….

Add comment January 6, 2009

CPS Survey on the School Application Process

The CPS Website has a survey up right now to solicit opinions on how to improve the school application process.  (See lower righthand corner of the site.)  http://www.cps.edu/Pages/home.aspx

I hate to get excited enough to think that they’ll make changes based on the suggestions, but it can’t hurt to vent it a little, can it?   Feel free to pilfer from what I wrote (submitted in 3 chunks to circumvent the 2000 character max.)  My complaints are mainly tactical in nature.  I haven’t had the brain time yet to think about possible changes to the entire process (such as applying to all schools via one form or online, preference for school admission based on where you live, limit to this plan of opening more “options” to prevent kids from leaving their neighborhood schools, etc.) 

The suggestions I submitted:

The current application process has a major flaw in that parents cannot be certain that their application is in the queue at a certain school.  Last year, some parents turned in applications in person only to later find out that they’d been lost/misplaced and were not included in the lottery for that school.   The offices at some schools are disorganized and can’t be trusted to handle the applications.  Applying should be done at a central level so parents can ascertain that they are on the list of the schools they are interested in.  Ideally, this could be checked online before the deadline so parents could confirm the status of their applications.  Also, the lottery results would ideally be posted online from a central source.

 

The current system is also inefficient in terms of the time that parents must spend touring schools with very limited enrollment.  Some of these schools (notably those that are the hardest to get into) give no or very few tours after the March notification date so parents must tour ALL these schools (in addition to other magnets, gifted, classical, neighborhood) before the notification date.  Many tours are 2 hours in length so it ends up being a waste of time for 95% of the schools you apply to since you don’t get in.  I feel that these schools should be required to give several tours in the weeks following the notification date so that parents can tour the schools AFTER they find out if their child has gotten in. 

 

The individual schools need to be better informed about the new lottery system results.  Last year some schools gave out numbers that didn’t match what CPS had in their system because the school didn’t understand the waiting list numbering system.  I had to make several phone calls to clarify, and I still wasn’t sure who was correct since each office assured me that they were correct although one gave me #5 and one gave me #29 as my son’s spot on the waiting list.  Parents need to have correct information to weigh their decisions.

Add comment January 2, 2009

Top Posts

Archives

Categories

Blogroll

Blog Stats