Posted on 10/26/2015 5:42:18 PM PDT by Kid Shelleen
Amy Clipston had a request that was a new one for her daughter's first-grade teacher.
Many parents had marched in to demand that their children, even those who couldn't tie their shoes yet, get more homework. Clipston was the first to request the opposite - that her daughter opt out of homework altogether.
"I felt my child was doing quite fine in school," said Clipston, a chemist with three children, noting that her daughter's schoolday in the highly competitive Lower Merion School District was 61/2 hours, with a 20-minute recess. "I felt 10 to 20 minutes of homework a night was not accomplishing anything."
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
Hey, I “opted out” of homework fifty years ago.
No problem.
Of course, my grades sucked, but you can’t have everything.
Your learning is outside of class. You may only be able to take notes, be shown how to do a problem, introduced to a theory, concept or idea but, for serious endeavors, you do the research outside of class.
That is what the habit of homework was to instill.
The web makes research easy, but the version of history available on the school approved websites leaves much to be desired. There are a lot of lazy writers and researchers out there presenting stuff as being from an expert on the matter.
True.
When WBill Jr was in first grade, his 10 to 20 min of homework was almost always reading an assigned book. I think that’s a good idea.....especially for those households that don’t have books in them.
I have talked with college professors; they are not allowed to fail anyone, anymore, or are severely pressured not to. The applied pressure is to protect minorities, keeps the federal government off their backs. Only teachers with tenure will challenge the pressure coming at them.
I absolutely believe that; employers quickly realize the difference between a real degree and an “honorable mention” degree. We use a couple of tests to determine math & English skills, because there is no assurance that a degreed applicant has either (despite the fact that these subjects are usually included in the “general education requirements” - high school-type classes outside of your major required for a degree).
A simple one-paragraph essay can usually separate the wheat from the chaff.
I’ve found with my children that homework is often used to force parents to teach the subject matter to their children (as many of the teachers themselves don’t know it). I’ve also realized that if your children aren’t in “honors classes” (which are about on the same level as “regular” classes 30 years ago) they have been completely written off - the worst teachers and the lowest expectations.
Agreed, some teachers just give out useless work and then never grade it once it’s done.
Exactly
Many teachers just give out useless homework to show parents that their kids did nothing , only to find that those teachers during the day did nothing and passed their job into parents.
When the fall semester started, I was enrolled in the class for the third time. The material made a lot more sense to me that time around, and I aced the class.
On a different scale I had a similar experience in HS. I’ve no idea what the topic was, but, atypically, I faced an upcoming test and had zero confidence in my ability to do well on it. I thought, “For 2 cents I’d make a ‘pony’ and cheat on the test. But if I took the time to write the cheat-sheet out, I’d do fine on the test without it.”The light came on. I made a one-page summary of the material, and did fine on the test as a result. So I made that a habit thereafter, as needed.
The thing I discovered in college (engineering also) was that I wasn’t very good at reading the assigned material and then doing the assigned problems. I learned that I had to attempt the problems first. Only then - only when I knew what I didn’t know - could I profitably spend time reading the textbook.
Homework in first grade, ridiculous. Maybe starting in junior high.
No kidding! You can teach everything a first-grader needs in less than two hours a day. Homework is stupid at that age.
No kidding! You can teach everything a first-grader needs in less than two hours a day. Homework is stupid at that age.
I used to do my homework during class. If I couldn’t get it done there, I used another time in another class.
Math during English, English during Geography etc.
It was rare for me to do homework at home.
As for “artsy-fartsy” crap, I refused to do it at all. Having the artistic talent of a small stone and recognizing such at an early age, I told my teachers and my parents I would NOT do that crap. All it did was frustrate me and waste materials. One teacher in 7th grade tried to force it. I refused to enter her classroom again, and refused to acknowledge her existence altogether in the rest of the school. IT did give me a full period to do work from other classes ;Þ
Work hard at what? Ditch diggers work hard.
It should be no surprise to find that children who devote too much sit and study time are at greater risk of damaging their eyesight. Furthermore, the quest to perform to greater academic heights at the sacrifice of adequate sleep and physical activity and pursuing personal interests risks personal physical and mental health. Balance. Allowing children time and mental strength at the end of the school day to engage in family life (even helping to cook) and read according to personal interests or design and carry out one’s own experiments and such is important to healthy growth.
Better to order homework at https://essaydune.com/ writing service than to spoil kids’ health.
The kids need the homework because class time is spent in homo/marxist/obidiant-to-the-state indoctrination.
“a nice quiet place to concentrate without distractions of TV”
Analog surfing the card catalog for one thing then finding something more appealing was always distracting...
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