From The Past: March 17, 2005

If you have kids who are around ten years old or older then you know about school projects. Ashley hasn’t gotten into doing the projects yet, but she will. I don’t know how it is in other places, but in our area, the students have to do 4-H projects. These are not optional projects, they are mandatory.

Andrew has made posters and written reports. He also had to make a leaf collection where he collected the leaves and then labeled them. This wasn’t so bad. Then he had to make a bug collection and label them. That project was no fun at all. When we saw a bug, instead of crushing it beneath a tennis shoe, we were forced to capture the thing and then stick a pin through its mid-section. Oh, joy! Not only that, but then we had to spend hours in the library with textbooks trying to figure out what the thing was called and what its scientific name was. That was not a project I would have left him to do alone. It was hard enough with me helping!

The rules on these projects normally state to get parental help, but how much help is too much? Let me give you an example of what was probably too much help. When I was in fifth grade, I had the choice of making a diorama or a bookmark for library (yes, they actually had assignments in library). I asked my dad to help me make a bookmark. You will see below what I ended up turning in.

Yes, it is beautiful and dad did a wonderful job, but I don’t recall doing anything for this project. That’s because I didn’t! I’m sure the librarian about died when I turned that in as my own work. It was only fifth grade after all and I was never a gifted artist. Oh well, dad earned an A and I’m sure he was happy; I know that I certainly was!

I know Kevin and I have often helped with projects much more than we should. I’m sure that all parents have. It just makes me wonder exactly what the teacher is thinking when these projects are turned in for grading. Do they know how much the parent helped or how late the parent was up working on these things? And, once the teacher is given a perfect-looking project with no flaws, does that make the project the students did themselves look bad? Does their work look shabby in comparison?

I will say that I am so grateful that I had a dad who would help me with projects. There were countless times that I popped up the night before something was due asking for help and he was right there. It’s the kids who don’t get help that I feel bad for.