Students At Bat

Reflection:
I really liked this article because so many adults don't think children can make any decisions by themselves. It's not just teachers though, many parents are limiting the decisions that their children are allowed to make. It's like they don't want to see their children fail but in the long run it will make their children a smarter and better person because they were allowed to make mistakes. The reason that teachers limit the choices that students are allowed to make is because they're pressured to meet standards and improve scores on assignments. And I think it's a valid reason, these teachers don't realize that in the long run they're hurting their students by making all the decisions for them. I do however find it very hypocritical when parents or teachers get mad at students for not taking responsibility for their own actions - they've never had to do it before! The good thing is that it's pretty simple for teachers to allow students to make some decisions around the classroom. I think the best thing that students should be allowed to do is create the classroom rules, for the main reason is they are the ones who are going to have to follow them. If they create them then they have no excuse not to follow their own rules. Students can make so many decisions besides this though. They can decide what to do with extra class time, they can decide where they want to work, they can decide to work in groups or by themselves, and they can even decide what projects to do and how they are going to be graded on it. Teachers should be willing to give these decisions to the students, for one it's less decisions they have to make and two it will help students later on in life. Of course if students aren't used to making decisions they won't be very good at it at first. If they get free time during class to work, and they just goof off the whole time, they will learn that they will just have to do that work at home. It takes time and practice for students to catch on, but it's worth it in the long run. Students want to be able to make decisions on things and they will become more engaged and focused with a project that they helped create and got to make some decisions on.