| KIDS IN ACTION
By Kathleen M. Muldoon
So, here you are, back in school again. I hope it has started well for you, and that you have great teachers and interesting classes. Sometimes, though, the first few weeks in a new grade can seem overwhelming. That’s what happened to me when I went from elementary school to junior high. Suddenly I had numerous teachers instead of one, and each of them seemed to think he or she was the only one assigning homework.
“I feel like I’m drowning!” I moaned one Saturday morning in early October. My friends Mary Ann and Walter and I were on our way to the library. I had due the following Monday a report on a president’s early life for American history, a report for English on a British poet, and a science paper on the life cycle of the fruit fly.
Walter shrugged. “Don’t sweat it. Just spend fifteen minutes on each thing and you’ll be done in no time.”
“Some of us care about our grades, you know,” his sister said.
To be honest, I didn’t care a whole lot about my grades, I just wanted to survive. But how? I was beginning to think my brain wasn’t big enough to hold all I was supposed to know for seventh grade. Then suddenly I had an idea.
“You know what?” I announced. “Monday morning I’m going to ask to see Dr. Dobash! Maybe he can take me out of history or science and put me in art or home ec’ or something. That would help!” “The school counselor?” Walter snorted. “He’s like a shrink or something. What are you going to him for?”
But Monday, instead of study hall, I found myself in Dr. Dobash’s office. I poured out my woes to him. I even took a tissue from the box on his desk and dabbed my eyes for emphasis. Then I waited for him to whip out a course change form. Instead, he tapped his pencil on his notebook.
“It seems to me that you’re trying to learn too much all at once,” he said. “If you could only take one subject and really enjoy it, what would that be?”
“English!” I exclaimed. “I love studying about different authors and reading the stuff they’ve written.”
Dr. Dobash smiled. “All right, I have a plan for you that I want you to try for one month. If it doesn’t work by then, you come back to see me.”
He suggested I do the homework for all my other subjects first, and then reward myself by devoting a whole hour to English. He told me to become an expert in just that one subject.
For the rest of October, I worked Dr. Dobash’s plan. I raced home from school, did all my homework except English, and then spent all the rest of my time reading and studying about poets and writers. I even read stuff that I didn’t have to know for school!
November came and went and I didn’t even think about Dr. Dobash. I was too busy becoming an expert in English. Now, here’s the weird thing. At the end of our first marking period, I had good grades in my other five subjects too. I no longer felt like I was drowning. I’d learned how to organize my time. If you have a problem like I did, don’t hesitate to contact your school counselors. They are there to help you. Who knows, maybe by the end of this school year you will be an expert in one or more of your subjects.
Do you have a homework stragegy? E-mail your expert advice to action@unitedspinal.org or snailmail to:
KIDS IN ACTION
United Spinal Association
75-20 Astoria Boulevard
Jackson Heights, NY 11370-1177
Kathleen M. Muldoon is a children’s book author and writing instructor for the Institute of Children’s Literature.
