Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for January 30, 2013

Oh no, Holly, you’re not making your mother’s sister do ALL the work, are you?

Who’s name will go on this one?

Anyone know what the topic is/was?

Term papers are always easy for writers (I think that’s what Joan does). I was always much too concise and blunt to churn out 10 pages of words.

So, will Ms. Wingit offer Holly 1/4 or 1/8 credit when Holly tells her the paper is still not done? Wouldn’t surprise me.

Give it up Holly, just accept your failing grade.

I was thinking about this at the beginning of the story arc: most kids in middle school aren’t writing a 10 page paper on their own. Parents and siblings get roped onto doing most of the proof reading and editing until at least the beginning of high school, and some never stop.

@Miles;Even back in the dark ages of the ’50’s, we weren’t required to do a thousand word essay/report/critique until well into 11th grade, and depending on parents who never graduated high school was not an option. Copy and paste? psh…

I am a teacher and I KNOW 10 pages are just too much for an average middle schooler. 3-4 pages would suffice. Their attention spans are still short and their energy levels are still high. 10 pages would be appropriate for juniors and seniors, readying for college. And did Mrs Wingit TEACH the students HOW to do a paper? It looks like Holly doesn’t know how. I know for fact more and more schools are now skipping teaching how to write a paper in favor of teaching to test to keep the funding to school coming. Teaching how to write a paper is too time consuming and is not on the standards tests – just a short composition of a topic given. Why bother teaching how to write a paper if it is not on the standards test? By the time they hit college, they don’t know how and it is up to the professors to teach them, give them a guideline paper with instructions and hope for the best.

My wife helps my son with his papers… I keep telling him she isn’t going to college with him and I did all my own papers. Well at least she’s getting A’s which is more than I got. :-)