Reply to how to approach school about having higher educational standards

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[quote=Anonymous]Board is parents.  Administration is (or could be -- i.e. under the previous head was) in charge on these types of issues.  And that's where I see the failure of leadership.

That said, teachers do have a fair amount of control over homework and grading standards.  And I've seen a handful exercise it in ways that suggest they look at this as I do.  I've seen more who would agree with me in principle but who, in practice, find themselves competing for students' attention and fearing/discovering that if they are less demanding, their subject falls to the bottom of the to do list.

And, hey, I'll admit (as a teacher who is guilty of this myself) that when you've got a bright student who is doing amazing things, your pedagogical instinct is to give that student what s/he needs to take their work to the next level.  Not to say, "that's great -- you're done for now.  Go do something else for awhile -- preferably not schoolwork."  As a parent, I can say that but (a) it would involve a level of micro-managing of my kid's schoolwork that is inappropriate (and discouraged) and (b) I lack credibility because I'm not the one setting standards/expectations and doing the evaluations.  That's before we get to the question of whether I want to be in the position of urging my kids to do the minimum necessary.

This is where how you structure assignments really matters.  You can create assignments that are challenging but that also have clear points at which they're done.  Or you can create sky's-the-limit assignments where the only constraints are time, energy, and interest or ability.  If you don't see part of your job as helping to establish a reasonable workload that leaves space for life beyond school/work, then you're more like to do the latter than the former.  Especially if you're teaching in a great private school because you love your subject and love working with the kids and helping them see how far they can go.

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