Science class is about learning science, not organizational skills
I was reading through my b5 feeds and found Tony’s post about the reason for his son’s less than stellar (pun intended) grade this year in science:
BUT, he couldn’t organize his science notebook.
“I’m sorry, he can’t organize what?’, I asked.
“His science notebook. He failed the notebook checks. They were worth 100 points each, almost 80 percent of his grade.”, the science teacher calmly explained with a huge smirk on her face.
“What does that have to do with science?”, I asked, but by then I knew what was going on and that I wasn’t about to get anywhere. I left the teacher conference furious.
I’m all too familiar with this kind of teacher. She was a stickler for organization. All materials had to be inserted in the notebooks EXACTLY and each item had to have the name in a certain place, with the information outlined EXACTLY as specified.
Now, I understand the need to teach kids organizational skills, I really do. But to make it 80% of a grade?
What this teacher really wanted was the students to do all of the work for her. She didn’t want to have to search through reams of paper to try and figure out what the student knew. She just wanted to open the notebook and start checking off the existence of items, each containing the proper words so she could get through the grading as fast as possible.
She wasn’t the slightest bit interested in whether or not the kids learned anything, only that the notebooks were in proper order. From: Why I’m Homeschooling My Kid in Science Next Year [Astronomy Buff]
I would have flunked that teacher’s class. Big time. Now, there is a side of the science notebook that is important, keeping good and accurate notes of experiments and such. It was drilled into us that sometimes credit for an invention or discovery depended on the dates in one’s notebook. That aside I don’t see the need for an OCD science notebook. I did learn how important it was to keep good notes, but I was never OCD about it even when my career depended on it all. I took good notes, accurate notes. Mostly legible notes.
Okay science teachers, student should be leaving your class richer in knowledge than when they arrived. If a student really knows their stuff, but their noteboook isn’t up to your standards, maybe talking to the student and parents would be a good idea.
I know that I will supplement my kids’ science, history, whatever education myself if needed. Good luck Tony.
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