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Thursday, November 3, 2005
The ‘Dreaded’ Social Studies Fair
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An old friend just e-mailed me wanting my help with her child’s “dreaded” social studies fair project. Her son just turned his in and now she’s trying to get daughter’s out of the way. She asked if I knew where she could get gang statistics.
I referred my friend to the DeKalb police department, but the e-mail got me thinking about projects and how hard it is for parents to draw a line when it comes to helping their kids. I know we’ve talked about this before on Get Schooled, but I thought it was worth revisiting since the winning projects bring a lot of attention to the student whose names are on them. Sometimes I wonder if the parent’s name doesn’t belong on there too.
Parents, do you dread such projects? How much do you help your child? How much time are you willing to spend on a project? How much money? Teachers, do you give parents and kids directions about how much help they should get from Mom and Dad? Have you ever disqualified a project because it was obviously done by the parent?
