Hollande goes full Bergeron

[caradoc]

Apparently France needs to ban homework to preserve equality.

"François Hollande has a bold new plan to tackle social injustice and inequality in France: ban homework. Introducing his proposals for education reform last week at the Sorbonne, the French president declared that work "must be done in the [school] facility rather than in the home if we want to support the children and re-establish equality."

Banning out-of-school assignments would put France on the cutting edge of pedagogical fashion, though it wouldn't be entirely unprecedented. An elementary school in Maryland recently replaced homework with a standing order for 30 minutes a day of after-school reading. A German high school is also test-running a new homework ban, after an earlier reform lengthened the school day and crowded out time for extra-curriculars such as sports or music.

These small-scale experiments aim to give students more freedom to excel on their own initiative. Mr. Hollande wants just the opposite. As Education Minister Vincent Peillon told Le Monde, the state needs to "support all students in their personal work, rather than abandon them to their private resources, including financial, as is too often the case today." The problem, in other words, isn't with homework per se. It's that some homes are more conducive to homework than others.

Here we begin to wonder: Are the French losing their mind? Fortunately not. More than two-thirds of the country would oppose the ban, according to an Ifop poll, so there's hope that even in the land of égalité there's some recognition that state power cannot equalize everything. It's also reassuring to know that a majority of French adults believe there's something to be said for instructing children in the need for personal initiative and responsibility, regardless of excuses or circumstances.

Mr. Hollande, however, remains out of step. At the Sorbonne, he stressed that school is where "the child becomes the citizen of the future." Perhaps his ideas about homework say something about the kind of citizens of the future he wishes to see. "


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443675404578058301483391978.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopBucket

[dbucfan]

Only being fair 'doc... lol

[spartan]

These small-scale experiments aim to give students more freedom to excel on their own initiative.

Haven't we just been trying this for the last 40 years? I believe every current education study is coming to the conclusion that this methodology sucks rocks and they are moving back towards more traditional methods.

[John Galt?]

I had to read a thread with a  Kurt Vonnegut reference.

Well how can you disagree with Mr. Hollande? It just isn't fair that some kids can do homework in a home where parents make them do it, while other kids are handicapped by disadvantages like being allowed to play video games all day, or being distracted by the temptation to roam the streets and ignore the homework. We can't allow the social injustice of more studious kids getting better grades that might make other kids feel bad.

[John Galt?]

Of course the US is well ahead of France in promoting "Fairness". While France toys with eliminating homework, in Maryland they are eliminating those pesky grades.

Principals and parents in Montgomery County Public Schools will need to find a new way to recognize student achievement with the roll out of new report cards for elementary school students, according to Ebony Langford-Brown, the school system’s director of elementary instruction and achievement.

Students will no longer see A, B, C, D or E, but rather ES for exceptional, P for proficient, I for in-progress, N for not-yet making progress or making minimal progress, or M for missing data.


http://www.gazette.net/article/20121010/NEWS/710109621/0/gazette&template=gazette

See instead of kids feeling bad for getting an "F" now they can feel good about just having "Missing Data"

[dbucfan]

That is simply beautiful JG?  And the teachers/administrators who designed this oh so eloquent facade of a progress report think it will take the kids how long to figure out who excels and who is missing







data

[John Galt?]

I love how a school system thinks ES stands for exceptional. Is the "s" in exceptional silent AND invisible??