Is Your Child Suffering from WBOD (“Worksheet Burnout Disorder”)
Friday, November 11, 2011
When was the last time your child came home and excitedly announced, “Mom, I got this great worksheet in school today. I can’t wait to finish it.”
Probably never.
Parents will come in to see me and bring in large folders with the “evidence” – all of the worksheets that the child has gotten marked up with tons of red ink or failing grades (even first and second graders, believe it or not).
It’s my impression that too many kids are suffering from WBOD – Worksheet Burnout Disorder. Every day they are handed one worksheet to finish after another. By and large, the worksheets are dreadfully boring to the child with entirely too much to handle on a given page
Yes, there will be the dutiful types, the ones who find the worksheets boring, but they get them completed anyway. Then there are the other kids, the ones who are crawling out of their skin from the continual drudgery of one worksheet after another.
If you think your child is suffering from “WBOD,” try and approach the teacher and tell her your concern. Maybe you can ask her to limit them to one (two at the most) per day, including homework.
Maybe the teacher can even create a “worksheet free week” and have the kids read real stories instead – that might break up the action and relieve the WBOD (for a little while at least).
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