Beyond School

The problem with bullet points and slide headings, says Atkinson, is that they typically do nothing more than establish dry, lifeless categories of information. What is usually missing is a story, something “juicy, coherent and full of life.” Hence, “some of the world’s largest organizations have adopted the word ’story’ as their new mantra for corporate communictions.”

Atkinson cites Aristotle in his definition of ”story”: it should include “action, a plot, central characters,” and even “visual effects.” He adds that classical notions of rhetorical persuasion should also play a part in the formulation of presentations. PowerPoint slides should thus articulate a story, an old-fashioned narrative incorporating ancient ideas of how to be persuasive.

Teachers have claimed that homework mirrors “the real-world.” Society has certainly seen a recent change in how much work Americans are carrying home and no one is praising that practice. Why then, would we want to extend a student’s work day by hours? One final claim by teachers has been that they are expected to carry stacks of papers home to correct so why should students not also work beyond the school day. That is a punitive argument and very faulty reasoning. Research has shown that papers covered in red check marks do not comprise a valuable learning experience for students. WritingNext reiterates the research that teaching students to revise and edit their writing has the greatest impact on the quality of student writing. Surely, students working together in math to find and correct errors in thinking would have a similar effect. The achievement levels of elementary students are not positively impacted by homework except for independent reading. Based on research many schools require thirty minutes of “home-reading” a day. I would also ague that if students are going to spend their time watching mindless television, perhaps the homework is a better alternative. But, if the students can engage in sports and physical exercise, play games and do puzzles, socialize and converse, help family members with chores, lie on their backs and watch the clouds … we will actually go further in helping young students become active and engaged learners during school hours.