I know, a lot of parents actually dread it when their kids come home with big projects from school. Just like the class from Christmas Story groans when their teacher says those dreaded words, “I want you to write a theme.” But, I just survived two big class projects, History Day in middle school and the Science Fair in elementary school. I supposed I could fault the school district for assigning both of these projects at the same time or say what most parents said when I saw them at the school after all the projects were done, “thank god it’s over.” That would be a little too easy though, right? Say what you want about American public education. My daughter’s 5th grade teacher, who is in his first year, says that today’s 5th graders are covering the content that he learned in 7th grade. I’d probably stretch that out a few more years because I’m older than he is. Do you believe the comparisons to other industrialized nations that say we’re falling behind? Maybe that’s because we over-emphasize extra-curricular activities? The high school my kids will attend actually sponsors 30 sports and probably twice as many activities. They don’t have a high school alpine ski team or jazz band in Indonesia for example but they are the happiest school kids in the world. Check out this study published in the December issue of the Atlantic which draws a reverse correlation between happiness in school and how are good you are at math. Did you see the best country in the world at math – Korea – also the most unhappy. The U.S. was much closer to Korea on the list than Indonesia. I’m sure we still need more focus on STEM – science technology engineering and math – so that would make me favor the science fair over history day.

But I’m here to advocate for them both. Kids need to learn how to learn, that’s why projects like these are important. My son studied World War II but he researched an often forgotten aspect of it – the fact that the U.S. put Japanese Americans in internment camps because we were afraid of them after their country bombed Pearl Harbor. He learned that a young man named Fred Korematsu actually fought the U.S. government and lost. He also learned how to work with two other kids on this project. They actually let other kids do their projects by themselves, which I think should be penalized. They also let some kids’ parents do their projects for them but whatever. The bottom line is that my son learned something and taught me something. And, when it was over, he was happy.

My daughter learned the scientific process. She wrote a hypothesis, which she proved wrong. She ran an experiment and documented the results and told her story to lots of other kids and parents in a packed elementary school gym. She learned something and taught me something. And, when it was over, she was happy.

So, thank god for school projects and for kids learning. Not learning how to take tests or score better against other countries. Learning how to learn and then being happy when they are done.