Mike,
Just to add a brief note to this discussion...As someone who's observed
several different types of afterschool programs for my job and during the
course of my research, you are quite right. H.W. time is very much stressed
in most programs, primarily because parents insist on it. This is often
because, in many neighborhoods, parents can not help with h.w. because of
their own language or literacy skills. But, they want their children prepared
nonetheless. In other cases, such as my household, I'm too tired to do it,
and I want most of it done by the time I get home. So, even if staff of
afterschool programs see h.w. as basically bullshit, and want to do more
creative things, they have to have kids do it or there's a conflict with
parents. One thing I've been doing is sitting and observing during h.w. help
time, and I've noticed some pretty neat, un-intended phenonema such as
spontaneous peer tutoring, among others.
Sara
>===== Original Message From xmca@weber.ucsd.edu =====
>Hi Martin--
>
>You make two points about the activities at our local boys and girls
>club that I would like to link and discuss a little.
>
>1.
>2) The children in the homework club were dutifully filling in blanks on
>pieces of paper. They were going through the motions of calculating the
>mean of three numbers (apparently picked out of no context) and writing
>the result down. A very school like activit
>
>3) I would add of course that the interaction between the UCSD students and
>the children is as important as any of the contexts that set the
>interaction.
>
>The situation in the homework room, dictated by the school system, is
>totally contrary to what we ahve worked for more than a decade to
>institutionalize there. But EVERYWHERE in California, kids are having
>their noses put on "basic skills" grindstones afterschool as well as
>in school. Hence, around Califronia, we see homework help being
>associated with 5thD systems.
>
>Second, the entire system is set up to make the interaction of undergrads
>and kids work well. What has encouraged me is that as the undergrads
>now work with the kids in both the 5thD AND homework room, real relationships
>are forming and the drudge work for the little kids is being leavened by
>their interactions with the undergrads that both appear to create
>zopeds pretty routinely after a few weeks but also spill over to after
>homework.
>
>The very fact that the school has handed over to the Boys and Girls Club
>the responsibility for the homework hour (which hese kids HAVE to go to)
>re-mediates our activities in many challenging ways.
>
>Thanks for the comments.
>mike
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