Hello,
Your article on meaningful homework surprised me.
I’m a German living in Greece. In the mid-seventies I lived for one year in Bellevue near Seattle as an exchange student and went to Junior High School there. For me, this was the first and only year where what I learned in most classes had some meaning, some impact on my life, and was fun.
The big difference?
In Germany we were frequently told that we learn for life, not for school. In retrospective I know that to a great extent our teachers were right about that, but as a child I could not see it as this statement was contradicted by practice. Most teachers failed to demonstrate how we could apply what we learned, where we actually did need the stuff they told us, in a way we kids could relate to or were interested in. All that seemed to matter in the end were grades.
In Bellevue however even maths came with real life examples, and Language Arts and Social Studies were mostly taught “the project way”, with some assignments similar to those you describe in your article.
As far as secondary school is concerned, projects and practices were introduced in Germany in the eighties, after I finished school. Here in Greece it has begun to change about ten years ago. When reading your article I wondered how come your curriculum has developed the other way? And you are not even writing about secondary school, but primary school…
Seconds 
Really enjoyed this, has given me plenty of food for thought for the homework I set on my next placement.
Hello,
Your article on meaningful homework surprised me.
I’m a German living in Greece. In the mid-seventies I lived for one year in Bellevue near Seattle as an exchange student and went to Junior High School there. For me, this was the first and only year where what I learned in most classes had some meaning, some impact on my life, and was fun.
The big difference?
In Germany we were frequently told that we learn for life, not for school. In retrospective I know that to a great extent our teachers were right about that, but as a child I could not see it as this statement was contradicted by practice. Most teachers failed to demonstrate how we could apply what we learned, where we actually did need the stuff they told us, in a way we kids could relate to or were interested in. All that seemed to matter in the end were grades.
In Bellevue however even maths came with real life examples, and Language Arts and Social Studies were mostly taught “the project way”, with some assignments similar to those you describe in your article.
As far as secondary school is concerned, projects and practices were introduced in Germany in the eighties, after I finished school. Here in Greece it has begun to change about ten years ago. When reading your article I wondered how come your curriculum has developed the other way? And you are not even writing about secondary school, but primary school…