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[quote=Anonymous]   Good question OP.  My kids attend(ed) at St. Andrew's. When my oldest started in middle school years ago, they made them do more of these alternative type assignment than we expected but phased it out during 9th grade.  By the time my next one came along a few years later, St. Andrew's had toned it down a bit in middle school.  I think many of the classes still will require a few assignments like this per year but typically they do not count for a large part of a grade.   They will have a few smaller assignment options like this even in some high school classes.   I was very opposed to the mandatory alternative assignments in middle school years ago, and am glad that there were fewer of them for a second child. That said, let me explain that I am much more appreciative now of the value of a few of these assignments each year than I used to be.

We live in a multi-media world. Unless you are a novelist or an appellate lawyer, if you want to be persuasive in your field you probably need more than words.  While some students may find these alternative assignments fun, my oldest did not. He is a very good writer but had weak fine motor skills, and these art like projects were terribly stressful and time consuming.  But, as long as they are only once in a while, they also really challenged him to think differently -- out of the box -- and develop basic skills he avoided.  By the time he hit 9th grade, he was getting the knack of them and they didn't take so long to do or cause as much stress.  Kids need to learn to make persuasive PowerPoints for business, persuasive posters for scientific conferences, and the ones who can make good videos are well ahead of the game.  But I agree with the OP, basic writing is the skill that is most useful and most valued in academics.

In the long run, trust me, it will have no adverse impact on your child's writing skills as long as there are more traditional written assignments than alternative types.  I can't speak to the specific curricula at Field or Burke these days, but in the middle and high schools at St. Andrew's this works out fine. [/quote]

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