-=> Quoting Donna Ransdell to All <=-
 DR> My daughters, still in public school, came to me for assistance with
 DR> their science fair projects. Participation in the science fair is
 DR> mandatory (at 4th and 5th grades). I wasn't too happy about that, not
 DR> being a very scientific person, but decided to go with the flow. 
 I remember this.  When my kids went to school it was mandatory from 1st
 grade up.  Last year in public school I refused.  I explained my situation
 and also told them that since this was a adult participation project 
because
 of the childrens ages) I could not help 3 kids get theirs done.  Especially
 since I was spending 3-4 hours on homework, this included weekends, with
 one child and had two others to help as well.  I hate this mandatory stuff.
 At this point I already knew we were going to homeschool so I really didn't
 care.  OBTW, we were also taking care of an invalid (my mother-in-law, who
 is now passed away).
 I think it is rude not to include parents in this decision process.  It is
 not that I did not want my children to do it, but time would not permit me
 to help them.  I was bogged down already.  The principal let each teacher
 decide for themselves and each child had to do a report of some kind.  Only
 Sara sort of got shafted on that.  Because she did not participate, even 
though
 she wrote a report, she could not see a movie like everyone else.  I kept 
er
 home that day.
 Also I remember having mandatory concerts.  The theme of one of them was
 against our beliefs so they did not participate.  But this concert was
 an afterschool, actually evening thing, and I felt that was wrong.  If it
 is part of school it should be on school hours.  It was counted as a grade.
 Some parents had a real tough time doing it because of work and stuff.
 I did understand this one a little more than the science since they wanted
 to give the parents a chance to see their kids singing.  I do remember the
 principal telling me that on the MEAP test or part of it, the 5th graders
 needed to understand the principals of experimentation or science projects.
 I still felt it should not be mandatory until 4th grade.  Plus they should
 give them time in school to work on it, but they don't.  This is just my
 opinion.  How much can a child learn with parents helping so much on a
 project.  Heck, because of the winning aspect of this I see parents doing
 most if not all of the project.  I think that children should do the project
 at school with input from a teacher, who has too many children to be tempted
 to just do the project herself.  This will give a child more understanding.
 At home if we do science stuff the kids are mostly on their own.  I don't
 care if it takes weeks.  The point is for them to understand the process
 and do ALL of the work themselves.  I could not do it this way before.
 The pressure of time limits, rules and winning/losing, oral reports and so
 forth just got them stressed out.  I do go over it at first with them.
 But I have them write out what they are going to need right off the bat
 and I check it out afterwards.  This I believe is how the science thing
 was suppose to be, but it doesn't happen this way when kids are going
 to public school.
 Regina
... A feature is a bug with seniority.
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