My daughter entered third grade yesterday. This year they begin to focus on organizational skills, and the school has provided an organizer for each child. The students need to record all their assignments in it, and parents have to initial the records each day and record whether the homework was complete. If the child (and their parent) don’t do their organizer correctly, or forget to return it each day, the child misses recess.
I had a visceral reaction to this new plan. I don’t know why this bothers me so much. I’m familiar with using Outlook, calendars and PDAs. I guess I had a fear reaction. All of these children are going to be infinitely more organized than I am; the kids are leaving me behind in the electronic dust.
I also am not sure why it is necessary for a third grader to carry an organizer. Why do they have so many activities and homework? Do we have to train them to be type A personalities so they can grow up and take on too much work and have too much scheduled in their lives? What’s the point of all this? We aren’t churning out happier people. Perhaps I’m getting old and feeling lost in the digital shuffle.
They also train in email and the internet this year. I would think they would learn these skills on their own. Shouldn’t we be discouraging these skills, and encouraging good nutrition and sports instead? I thought we didn’t want the kids sitting in front of the computer and video games all the time.
The schools could strive for a bit more balance. To counteract teaching all this fast paced technology, maybe they could teach them meditation, theatre, art, or social skills like manners or resolving interpersonal conflict. Why can’t they quietly read during class time?
I’m getting a little tired of the pressure. Not only do I have to fill every second of my day with work, but my child seems to be required to do it, too. We’re all collectively maximizing and multitasking our way to a nervous breakdown. Or, maybe it’s only me.
Article comments
1 - Tan The Man
As important as organizational skills are, kids should be acting carefree at that age and not have to worry so much about things and life.
2 - Nancy
I agree; I could see this being a good thing in 5th or 6th grades, but 3rd?! That's ridiculous.
3 - Gina
I agree with the above comments. As a former educator, 3rd grade seems to be just too young. Most children this age are more carefree. They talk more about that new video game they just bought or that tv show they watch weekly or daily. They are out there doing, and not organizing what they plan to do.
4 - Victor Plenty
Neurotic children become better consumers and more dedicated employees. They get deeply indebted while attempting to purchase happiness through material status symbols, high tech toys, and other forms of conspicuous consumption. Once deeply enough in debt, people must keep whatever kind of job they've been able to find, and often need to take on a second job or a third one.
If we allow children to develop into well adjusted adults with a healthy sense of self-worth, they might stay out of debt. They might get involved in community activities, start up charitable groups of their own, or even actually do something about politics instead of just yelling on the Web at people they disagree with.
And nobody in either political party wants to see any more people with the time and clarity to think too much, calmly and clearly, about the way their country's political affairs have been handled in recent years.
5 - Bob A. Booey
There's no such thing as a nervous breakdown.
I'm being a bit pedantic here, but in clinical terms, there is no recognized, discrete psychiatric event associated with the popular notion of a "nervous breakdown." People have panic attacks, they flip out, they get emotional, they do criminal things, they jump off bridges. But it's a myth that people "snap" and lose their minds. Seriously mentally ill people do dissociate and that can be affected by stress, but the idea that a healthy person can "break down" and lose their minds all of a sudden because of a situation is a myth and a cop-out. Either they already have some underlying mental disorder or they're just having a fairly typical, psychologically insignificant stress reaction or panic attack.
That is all.
6 - parker
Thanks Victor, you made some great points I forgot.
Bob, you're exactly correct, I was just going for a headline.
7 - Lisa McKay
Punishing a third-grader for failing to properly keep a day book seems absurd. I'm also not in favor of forcing any particular organizational style on people, since what works for me might very well not work for you, and vice versa.
8 - Temple Stark
Culture/Tech editor Lisa Hoover picked this for an Editor's Pick of the Week. Go find out why HERE and grab a button.
Thank you.