Monday, November 18, 2013 THE NEW MEXICAN
Be careful with consequences — they can backfire
Family
iPads out of sync at L.A. Waldorf School bucks long tradition of keeping kids tech-free; not everyone is on board By Howard Blume
LOS ANGELES he eighth-graders in Stephanie McGurk’s class at Ocean Charter School began a recent day as they usually do: reciting a verse celebrating nature. Next, they played scales on recorders as they sat in a classroom furnished with wooden furniture, lamps, wicker baskets, artwork and plants. Then McGurk did something incongruous in a school that avoids plastic toys, let alone technology: She handed each student an iPad. By chance, Ocean Charter, a school based on the Waldorf educational philosophy, became part of the much-debated $1 billion effort to provide an iPad to every student and teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District. As a charter school, Ocean is run independently of L.A. Unified. Still, under state law, charters are entitled to roughly equivalent learning conditions, and L.A. Unified decided that charters operating on district property are eligible for iPads. And for Ocean, this created unique tensions. The school was caught between a philosophy that strictly limits technology and a school district determined to provide it. Ocean asks parents to keep students away from technology and media on school nights. It also avoided computers, even for school work, until sixth grade. A strict, private Waldorf school might not have even accepted the devices. For more than 100 years, Waldorf schools have emphasized child development over skill development. Instead of plastic dolls with detailed faces, for example, young children in a Waldorf environment play with toys made of natural materials, such as wood, silk, wool and cotton — that are unformed enough to stimulate the imagination. Schools encourage creative play and artistic expression; students often stay with the same teacher three years or more. Some parents who subscribe to Waldorf
Question: We have discovered that our 17-year-old son recently went to school, checked in, and then, a short time later, left. To our knowledge, he’s never done this before. His explanation was that he was bored and just wanted to have some free time. We are at a loss as to how to respond. What consequence or consequences do you think are appropriate? Answer: This is a great question because it raises some very important considerations concerning the use of consequences. Today’s parents seem to believe two things about consequences: First, that when a child misbehaves, the child’s parents should apply a negative conseJohn quence; second, that consequences, propRosemond erly selected and properly used, work. Living With There is some truth to both of these Children assumptions, but both come with caveats. To the first assumption: Consequences should be used very conservatively. When they are used liberally, the parents in question are guilty of trying to micromanage misbehavior. Any type of micromanagement will result, ultimately, in negative outcomes. Overusing consequences can lead to full-scale rebellion, for example. Taking this situation, in order for me to answer your question with any degree of confidence, I would need some background information. Is your son a repeat offender? Does he have a history of willfully irresponsible, rebellious behavior? Are his grades up to his ability level? In other words, is this a blip or is it part of an overall pattern that has been developing over some time? If it’s a blip, then the fact that he was caught is price enough. If it’s part of an overall pattern, then it’s definitely time to apply consequences. You can, for example, take away any and all electronic devices — computer, cellphone, video game, and MP3 player — until certain behavior and academic goals have been met and the improvement has sustained itself over, say, a month. But that would not be my response if he’s a generally good kid who just took a brief walk on the wild side one day. My response to that would be, “I hope, for your sake, that this doesn’t happen again.” To the second assumption: Consequences work reliably, predictably, with dogs, rats and other lower life forms. They do not work reliably with human beings. It may surprise the reader to learn that no research psychologist, including B. F. Skinner (the “father” of behavior modification theory) himself, has ever conclusively demonstrated that rewards and punishments have predictable outcomes when used on humans. In fact, there is a growing body of anecdotal and research-based evidence to the effect that rewards can actually lower performance or stimulate an increase in misbehavior, and that punishment can similarly backfire. Those risks are increased the more rewards and punishments are used. When you hear a parent say, “I’ve punished my child consistently for misbehaving, and he keeps right on misbehaving,” the problem may be the first half of the parent’s statement.
Sonny Jennings receives an iPad on Nov. 7 in Stephanie McGurk’s eighth-grade class at the Ocean Charter School in Westchester, Calif., as part of a $1 billion program to provide the devices to all students in Los Angeles public schools.
Los Angeles Times
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MARK BOSTE LOS ANGELES TIMES
methods don’t let their children use technology at all; others limit screen time. As a public school, Ocean cannot follow all Waldorf beliefs and practices. It has eliminated religious references, for example. It’s also accepted annual standardized testing — as well as the idea that the school will be accountable for academic results. Still, a technological emphasis seems to cut against the grain. Nearly every classroom has a garden as well as shelves of books, musical instruments and a wealth of art supplies. On a recent visit, fifth-graders were exploring mushrooms using their five senses. Director Kristy Mack-Fett is aware that new state standardized tests will be given on computers and that new state learning standards require knowledge of technology. For those reasons, she’s grateful for the devices. At the same time, parents and teachers have shared their serious concerns freely, although there’s been no rebellion. “Most parents are plugged in,” said parent Lisa Cahill. “It’s not like they’re off the grid.” But until parents realized the younger students would only use iPads for testing, they were “a little freaked out.” “I don’t want to be responsible for a 700 iPad,” said parent Tamara Haas. Mack-Fett was discomfited by a promotional video showing a classroom of students plugged into tablets with ear buds. “This technology shouldn’t replace a school community with people interact-
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ing in live situations and working through problems,” she said. Nor was she impressed with students writing on the touch screens with their fingers; Ocean instructors teach printing, then cursive writing over three years. “The physical act of writing is important, both print and cursive,” Mack-Fett said. Ocean, which offers kindergarten through eighth grade, has needs beyond iPads. It lacks a permanent campus: The school’s 454 students are split between a rented church for the lower grades and space at Westchester for grades four through eight. In its corner of Westchester, the school’s only running water is in the student bathrooms. In her class last week, McGurk explained to students how to turn on the devices and how to carry them safely — hugging them to their chests, glass screen facing in. But it’s not as if most students are new to computers. At home, Andre Hinton said, he has a MacBook Air, two MacBook Pros, an iPod, an iPhone 5 and an iPad. Sixth-grade Ocean teacher Kit Olbris knows how to use computers — she’s getting an online degree and emails parents — but she’s not especially gung-ho on iPads. “I suppose you could go out in the garden and take a picture of a flower with an iPad and then come in and draw it,” said Olbris, who’s been teaching at Waldorf schools since the mid-1980s. “But then you’re not in the garden experiencing the wind and sun playing off the flower.”
© 2013 by Vicki Whiting, Editor Jeff Schinkel, Graphics Vol. 29, No. 49
Snails hatch from eggs as teeny, tiny snails. As they grow, the shell grows, too.
Snails don’t live just in gardens. They can also be found in ponds and even in the ocean. They are related to oysters, clams and even octopuses. They are part of the group of animals with soft bodies known as mollusks.
A snail’s eyes are at the end of its long tentacles. The short tentacles are for smelling.
Snails slide along the flat part of their body, called the “foot.” Snails make a trail of silvery slime. This helps them to slide up walls and even crawl upside down.
Snails breathe through a hole near their shell. How many snails can you find on this page? Help this snail find its way to the Snail Motel.
If the weather turns very cold or very dry, a snail pulls into its shell and waits for the cool, damp weather it loves. It fills up the opening of its shell with a mucus-like slime, that hardens into a snug door.
You can make a comfy motel and invite some snails for a visit. Look for snail visitors under rocks and leaves.
Circle one snail on this page each time you read 2 column inches of the newspaper. Can you circle all of the snails before the week is out?
1. Partially fill a large jar with moist soil. 2. Add a piece of chalk, some leaves, grass, and chunks of bark.
End
3. Give the snails lettuce and cabbage leaves to eat. 4. Keep the jar covered with a piece of nylon stocking or window screen. 5. Keep the Snail Motel in a shady place. 6. Twice a week replace the old soil and food. Standards Links: Reading Comprehension: Follow multiple-step written directions
Draw a circle on a large piece of paper. Draw a small circle inside the 17 + 6 + 9 large circle. Put two snails or more in the small circle and watch to see which one slides out to the large circle first. 28 - 6 + 12 Do the math to see which snail will win the race. Highest number wins!
42 - 11 + 5
9+9+9
Standards Link: Math: Compute sums and differences.
SNAILS TENTACLE OCEAN WINDOW SLIME CHALK WEATHER SMASH SHELL LETTUCE MOIST TRAIL MOTEL SCREEN CHUNKS
Find the words in the puzzle. Then look for each word in this week’s Kid Scoop stories and activities. C H U N K S T W I T E S D S C R E E N S
Are you an eagle-eyed reader? Circle the seven errors in the article below. Then, rewrite it correctly.
While snails are considered destructive pests to almost everyone with a garden, in in they’re natural environment they perform an important function. Snails feed on decaying plants, recycling them and creating nutritious new soil for a knew generation of plant life. Most snails that destroy our prized petunias come to our gardens as silent, slimey stowaways. Hiding under a leave of a plant sold in garden centers, shiped from other parts of the world, snails arrive and thrive in home gerdens just about everywear.
C A T H A E L A E I U M W I M C S T N O T S L I A N S H C M T A L T N H I E H L E S N E E D A R A L L E L L S N O W L S T I L E T O M W K E Standards Link: Letter sequencing. Recognized identical words. Skim and scan reading. Recall spelling patterns.
Snails for Sale!
Study the ads in today’s newspaper. Rewrite one to sell snails. Include three opinions and three facts. Use this page to gather snail facts.
Standards Link: Reading Comprehension: Understand fact and opinion; Writing Applications: Revise writing; Write brief descriptions.
Standards Link: Reading Comprehension: Read for a variety of purposes.
The snail has a latin name that means “a belly-footed animal.” Use the code to find out what this name is.
A= D= F =
G= H= N=
O= P = R =
S = T = U=
Finish this sentence and then write five details about your home. Standards Link: Spelling: Spell grade-level words correctly.