05-21-2008

Failing Fourth Grade

By Renae

Our little homeschool is on break this month so the students and teacher can enjoy the refreshing spring. I plan for next month wondering if fourth grade was really finished. The shelves crammed with curriculum stare at me. Bookmarks peek out in various places, and I question our accomplishments. Maybe my son would learn more in school.

Street Kids Build House of Cards
House of Cards

This springtime angst is not something only I feel. Many are looking back over the year evaluating lessons. Did the facts get memorized? Are the children at grade level? What if they are behind? Yet are these even the right questions? Or have they been placed upon us by The Educational Industrial Complex discussed at Principled Discovery?

My tendency is to equate education with finishing curriculum and knowing trivia. But where does that idea originate? Maybe it goes back to my education and coloring in all those bubbles with a #2 yellow painted pencil. Or maybe it’s my own pride. I want the best for my children, but can I provide it? Wherever it comes from, it is not helpful. It feeds my fear. If fourth grade means doing every lesson dictated by pressure of my own choosing or of the public school’s making, I failed; we failed.

The only curriculum Bug finished completely was math, but what an accomplishment! He has gone from hating math to liking it. By persevering, he understands. The cracked foundation is repaired. Such improvement will show on a test, but the internal motivation is not measured on paper. It will reveal itself the next time Bug faces something difficult to understand. He has a reference that cannot be taken from him.

Knowledge needs wisdom to build a solid dwelling and that cannot be assigned to age or grade. If the foundation is strong and the bricks are laid one at a time, holes will be plastered as they appear.

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19 Comments

  1. Dana 05-21-2008, 1:35 am

    Excellent thoughts. It is hard to set aside those lingering doubts and truly have faith that concentrating on character will have fruits which will outshine the curriculum…and likely will bring measurable success in the end as well.

    One of the more encouraging things I read was a research study about late-start reading programs. The kids started reading later than their peers for obvious reasons. And they remained behind their peers for awhile.

    They caught up, which isn’t surprising, but most of them were still actively choosing to read in their spare time. Those in early start programs were not, instead reading only when it was required.

    When a love for learning is established and the character developed for the discipline, the actual details are not that difficult to obtain. And they will likely stick longer than what is trained into a child too early.

  2. Renae 05-21-2008, 2:13 am

    Dana,
    That is interesting. I heard a similar report about the curriculum I used to teach reading. We didn’t start late, but we laid the foundation slowly. Now we don’t even really work on reading. It just flows.

    For me, the fear recedes year by year. It does jump out sometimes though. I’ll read your comment if/when it does. Your words are encouraging and explain what I was trying to capture. This journey takes great faith, doesn’t it?

    I’m glad we can encourage one another.

  3. Sunniemom 05-21-2008, 5:53 am

    This is a topic that is hard to nail down, especially in high school when you start awarding credits for completed courses- what is a completed course? What is a ‘grade level’? Especially when you don’t use textbooks, as many do not, including me.

    I distinctly remember that we did not complete our textbooks when I was in school, because I actually read the chapters and answered the questions on my own- my OCD self couldn’t stand the idea of not ‘finishing’. Which is amusing to me because I have to totally go against my grain to homeschool the way I do. :D

  4. Melissa 05-21-2008, 7:01 am

    I so know what you mean. Right now, I just want it “over”. I suppose the guilt will come later! :) Most of my current anxiety is thinking ahead to teaching two. I may lose my mind trying to “figure” that one out.

    Blessings!

  5. Heather Young 05-21-2008, 7:43 am

    This is the moment where I praise the Lord for my time teaching public school. There no one worried about whether the kids got it but if they got through what they planned to get through that day. No one worried whether they finished a curriculum at the end of the school year because it NEVER happens and is not expected. As long as you have taken roll everyday, turned in your lesson plans and grades weekly, taught the lessons as stated, and did all the paperwork, no one fussed if half the kids failed a test or if some of the kids never did get that concept. Of course that was ten years ago and now the teachers are focused on teaching to the state and national testing requirements–as long as the class does well on those then we are good.

    Knowing this and remembering what it was like has removed that particular anxiety from me. Knowing my kids are spending more actual time learning everyday without me nagging them because they are learning what they are interested in and excelling at is what keeps me going.

  6. Renae 05-21-2008, 8:00 am

    Sunniemom,
    Yes, high school will bring its own challenges. And I remember wondering why we didn’t finish textbooks in school, too. However, I was not motivated to finish them. ;)

    Melissa,
    I am facing a similar circumstance as my little girls grow. I plan to use literature we can enjoy together, but that’s as far as it goes. I know they will learn just being exposed to ideas, but I’ve never done this before. Ah! We can remind each other of the goal.

  7. Renae 05-21-2008, 8:22 am

    Heather,
    Thank you for sharing your experience.

    It seems more and more irrelevant for me to compare what we accomplish to what the school is doing. Family preceded school, but in our socialized society that tends to be forgotten. The school was to serve the family, not the other way around.

    I am trying to foster a love of learning, but mother guilt strengthens insecurities. We all want our children to succeed. So how is that best accomplished?

    It depends on your definition of success. Mine definition deals much more with the heart than academics. Yes, my children need understanding and knowledge, but without the wisdom of love knowledge becomes pride and selfishness.

  8. Karen 05-21-2008, 8:23 am

    I am glad I stumbled upon your blog. I struggle with some of the same thoughts that you have on homeschooling. I am have 3 daughters - one in 1st, one in K, and one that is 3. I constantly go from being glad they learned what they have and the fact that I get to spend every day with my kids, and then to the other spectrum of “are they at least as far along as their public school peers?” I too have not finished our homeschool curriculum, and probably have 5 more weeks according to “Them”, but I really want to squeeze it in in the next 2 weeks. I am ready to be done for a while and so are the kids

  9. Andrea 05-21-2008, 8:48 am

    We reached a level of understanding where it was “know” or “don’t know” in terms of understanding whatever it was the kids “needed” to know.
    If they knew the subject matter, we moved on. If they didn’t we got back to it later.
    over the span of time, some things just fell away. You don’t have a year to pass /fail at home. You have 18 years of education before you set them out on their own.

  10. Mrs. C 05-21-2008, 1:52 pm

    Thanks for posting this!! Very good points.

  11. Emily 05-21-2008, 2:48 pm

    The dreaded….”I wonder if he’d learn more in school”. Every homeschool mom’s bane. That stupid thought lurking in our minds.

    My oldest is 6th grade and the only curriculum we finished this year was science. So congrats to your young man on finishing his math! We’re trying….oh….so….slowly…trying. :)

  12. Renae 05-21-2008, 4:06 pm

    Karen,
    Thank you for stopping by. I’m glad you were encouraged. There are so many important things our children learn that is not in the curriculum.

    Andrea,
    Your comment is so encouraging. Thanks for sharing it!

    So much of what our children need to know is learned by a bit of repetition. And is is wonderful that failing really isn’t an option. We don’t repeat grades, instead we build on what is already understood.

  13. Renae 05-21-2008, 4:12 pm

    Emily,
    I’m just wondering what it really means to finish anyway. Learning doesn’t end just because the textbooks are put away. In fact, I’m trying to instill that idea in my son.

  14. Jennifer in OR 05-21-2008, 6:11 pm

    Great thoughts. It helps me to always go back to the primary reason we homeschool, which has little to do with academic work, but the hearts and souls of our children.

  15. Summer 05-22-2008, 8:09 am

    Great encouragement Renae! This is the time to reflect and put your ducks in a row for the end of the year evaluation so this will remind what really matters. Character and issues of the heart. We will not finish our curriculum this year, we did not finish last year, will we finish next year? God only knows but He is directing our steps and we are choosing His path.

  16. Rachel 05-25-2008, 3:16 pm

    Great post! So I guess those fears are normal. . . and might be hanging around a bit, huh (I am still only in the preschool stage!)? :-) Thanks for sharing your heart! Also, thanks for visiting my blog!!

    Have a wonderful weekend!
    Love in Christ
    Rachel

  17. Walking Therein » Blog Archive » Carnival Of Homeschooling: End of the Year? Or Is It? 05-27-2008, 2:38 am

    [...] looks at a feeling common to many homeschool moms at the end of the school year as she presents Failing Fourth Grade posted at Life Nurturing [...]

  18. Adso of Melk 05-27-2008, 10:01 pm

    I’m glad someone else mentioned being OCD and wanting to finish EVERY CHAPTER of the textbook, which is ironic, because as a teacher in the public school, no way do we ever finish the entire thing. I cherry-pick like crazy and I’m fine with it, but at home, I feel as if I’ve been a slacker if we don’t read every word. Go figure, huh?

  19. Renae 05-27-2008, 10:44 pm

    Adso,
    Right. We make our own pressure. However, it is also difficult to skip parts when you use the wonderful resources many homeschoolers choose.

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