You have to love projects these days.......

Back when I was in school (you know, when Jesus was a baby), when teachers assigned projects they were scaled for the student's ability to complete.  Most things consisted of looking up things in my parents' burgundy and gold copies of the Encyclopedia Britannica that we'd gotten from a door to door salesman, or actually havng to go to the Library (can you believe that, of all places?) and researching things.  We had to learn the Dewey Decimal System and how to use a card catalog.  Now?  Well, now things are COMPLETELY different.  My 11 year old son came home with a project on nuclear energy.  Ok, one would think you would have to make a model of a neutron, maybe write a report on how nuclear fission or fusion works, and some illustrations for extra credit.  Instead, we get things like "come up with 10 questions that you can get at least 15 people to answer about radioactive materials, and when you complile all of the responses, write a newspaper editorial detailing what the general public knows about the topic".   Or "write and illustrate a children's book using unbiased information showing kids that nuclear energy isn't scary". 

What the whuck??  My oldest child is in 9th grade, and we've already had to download powerpoint presentations onto flash drives, build a 3D model of a North Carolina light house, water displacement projects in 3rd grade, in 4th grade, research what you want to be, what college offers the course of study, what the tuition/room and board/fees/matriculation rate/student to teacher ratio/and extracurricular activities on campus, filtering water using inactivated carbon.....among other things.  That isn't even TOUCHING the fact that one of my kids has already had to dissect cadaver vomit (yes, the vomit from dead bodies that had been frozen). 

I know that school isn't the same as it was years ago.  I know that the education system has changed, and so has the world we live in....but Algebra is still the same.  Social studies, the English language...none of that has changed....why does it seem that the things that children are sent home with are completely impossible for them to complete on their own? 

Don't even get me started on the disparity of homes....I'm very blessed that, although we're not "flush" financially, we have computers and internet access.  I am college educated.  I do have resources that I can use to help my children with their schoolwork.  What about the kids that don't have that?  That don't have computers?  That don't have internet access?  That have parents that work nights or weekends, or any other myriad of challenges that kids face. 

I just have to shake my head when the kids come home with yet another project....and thank the Lord that somehow we can get them done......

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