It was a general question to all, especially those who think my district is much crazier than theirs. I just wondered why, absent an environmental college admissions obsession, parents are nonetheless getting so involved in their children’s work.
I think in my district some that do in the high school years are responding to increasing class sizes. Over the last ten years the support from the state has been decreasing every year and for sure the class sizes have increased. It can take three weeks for a paper to be returned and there are no rewrite opportunities.
The family that kicked off this discussion does it because they are very GPA focused to the point of not taking an AP class if the kid might not get an A. The kids were smart but they weren’t allowed to stretch. Now in college they are still GPA focussed. They are the only family that I know that is doing this at the college level.
My Ds attended an “elite” private prep school that sends its graduates to all the top schools. I never felt the kind of parental competitiveness GFC is describing. My philosophy was that we were paying a really hefty price for our Ds to attend, so the teachers should earn their salaries and continue to teach after the paper was turned in by giving great feedback and editing. And that’s what they did.
As far as school assignments went, I was pretty much a hands off parent, even early, because the teachers did such a good job; my input wasn’t really necessary even if I could have offered any valuable input.
I can tell you why I read my kids’ papers before college. Because I could see the school was not teaching them properly. I couldn’t count on those papers to be marked up thoroughly much less that there would be a real discussion about how you organize your thoughts, how to make a snappy lead sentence, how to capitalize, or what a run on sentence was. Even when papers were marked up with a grade, students don’t really process the info. If I were teaching writing in a high school, I’d have every kid hand in a rough draft before the final version.
BTW in real life I take the minutes for our neighborhood association. I always send them to the other secretary who is an excellent proofreader.
“But why the need in your kinder, gentler places?”
Because for some families it’s not about grades or college admissions, but about pursuit and acquisition of knowledge and skills.
If the papers weren’t grades all this parental involvement would cease. Somehow the pursuit of knowledge becomes a far higher priority when parents are seeking a competitive edge for their kids. Wouldn’t that pursuit be equally served after a paper was turned in?
Sometimes I wonder if my family lacks the interpretation of literature gene. My kid had to write a short essay on the use of the color orange in the Lord of the Flies. I am thinking to myself, is this a thing? I lurk on the CC book club page occasionally but I know I am out of my depth.
I spent more than a decade immersed in a homeschooling community with parents guiding the educational experiences of their children. No grades and as few standardized tests as possible. No academic competition.
I’ve also lived in various academic communities, with substandard public schools, where faculty parents supplemented their kids’ education. Those kids were going to be straight A students regardless. It was an extremely low bar.
So my personal experience is that not that all parental involvement is about grades and competition. fwiw. I understand there is a range of experience here.
My S had peer-editing requirements in college. He would show me the edits made by his peers, which were … to be kind … not good at all. He did not use their edits. However, he DID ask me to edit … which I did. I edit for my peers - why wouldn’t I extend the same courtesy to my kids? I never rewrote anything; I just edited. By the way, both of my kids are exceptional writers on their own. S asked me to edit a cover letter and resume the other day. Not only were there no changes needed, but the writing was amazing.
Like some others have said, it’s because–in the moment–I can teach them to be better writers and they WANT to be better writers. They do not get adequate writing instruction or feed back from school. I am certified as an elementary teacher, an English teacher and a reading teacher. I have written and edited copy professionally for years. I have hired copywriters for projects and have edited their copy. I know how to get my daughters to re-work the sections of their papers that need revision by getting THEM to do the additional work. I ask guiding questions, point out obvious errors and have them edit and fine-tune their work.
In many cases, as is, their work would have received high grades. Im not sure that the additional effort is translating into higher grades. The point is for them to have another set of eyes see their work and for them to get crtical input in order to learn and grow their skills.
As a family, we also like to have in depth discussions about books and various readings. Some readings were from school, some from personal readings. I have never thought to limit these discussions because they may expose them to higher level thinking and give them some advantage in terms of tests or grades.
I can’t stand the peer editing in high school. One student hands off to the straight A student while the next student hands off to the kid barely passing. I think this is ridiculous.
My child sent me this morning his resume and a cover letter for an internship he is applying for this summer. Asked for help in editing and suggestions. I happily did it. Can you feel the breeze from those helicopter blades…ahhh, feels so good on a hot day 
Emphasis added:
Or, perhaps, there were other markers of academic ability not reflected in their test scores and such.
Those who don’t meet expected numerical averages aren’t always only there due to their non-intelligence-based promise, and all would do well to keep that in mind, I think.
I’m pretty sure it was the girl’s 5K time that was the marker.
Peer editing is not helpful once you reach a certain level of skill. Either the peer is worse than you and makes bad/wrong edits, or you get “This is good :)” which is less than helpful.
So then it’s the teacher’s job to give thoughtful, extensive edits on every student’s paper? I can see why some wouldn’t. That’s a heck of a lot of extra work.
So we have reached the point in American education where the English Composition teacher should not be expected to give thoughtful edits? Not that they all do, but I don’t agree we should give them a pass on that failure.
Yes, it is the teacher’s job. I don’t have a degree in education or English.
Depending on the school perhaps there could be team teaching with the 9th grade history and English teachers working together on how to write a research paper.
@TheGFC said:
As a former teacher, I could not agree more!
Maybe if we stop cramming 25-27 kids into each class and having them teach 4 sections. That’s one of the reasons we decided to pursue private high school for our kids, where a teacher has 3 classes to teach with between 8-15 students in each. Definitely allowed room for more individualized attention. I find it hard to fault public school teachers given the burden placed on them. Perhaps other areas have smaller classes.
Peer editing, I’ll note, isn’t always intended to help the writer, but often the editors. Editing is a learned skill, and a rather different one than writing—there are lots of great writers who can’t edit their way out of a wet paper bag, and vice versa.
@dfbdfb This may be true however I’ve seen it done many times and only the paper is graded, not the editing. Shouldn’t the editing be graded, as well as have the teacher correct all editing prior to the student submitting their final draft.