Posted on 08/23/2016 3:43:43 AM PDT by Zakeet
A teacher in Fort Worth has gone viral after she sent home a note to parents outlining her new homework policy for the year.
In the note, Mrs. Brandy Young says, "After much research this summer, I am trying something new. Homework will only consist of work that your student did not finish during the school day. There will be no formally assigned homework this year."
[Snip]
The note ends: "Research has been unable to prove that homework improves student performance. Rather, I ask that you spend your evenings doing things that are proven to correlate with student success. Eat dinner as a family, read together, play outside, and get your child early to bed."
(Excerpt) Read more at walb.com ...
I couldn’t care less if I’m a minority of one. Never did.
Now, here’s a FReeper with a truly suiting username.
Homework every night is not preferable, but neither is the 9 to 5 mentality. College certainly doesn’t work that way, nor do many types of jobs/professions.
I’m really surprised at all the comments here. I assume most of these posters are much younger than me. We are producing a nation of idiots. Reducing the amount of homework will only make them dumber.
Yeah! Then you can get into... 
some serious drinking & football watching without the rugrats interrupting!
Yeah, I knew all you oh so smart people would go ad hominem and start insulting me.
Have fun.
In early grades I considered most homework a waste of time. Even in my high school years (and I went to a good private high school), a good portion of what was assigned did nothing to help a student actually learn the material that was taught in class.
I have an advanced degree, a professional license, and I think I've been pretty successful in my career. I'll tell you here that what I learned outside of school was far more important than what I learned in the classroom and in my homework assignments.
I gotta’ hit the hay anyway.
The schools aren't afraid to assign the children homework - beginning in kindergarten. Assignments include reading, handwriting, arithmetic and memorization of Bible verses. Parent involvement is required; in fact, parents are required to sign off on their children's assignments.
The results are impressive. Our third grader can already read better than many high school graduates. The two first graders can read and do addition and subtraction better than many grade school graduates.
The teachers are kind, loving and adored by students and parents alike. The school has a long waiting list of applicants.
In other words, as my old pappy used to say, "a little hard work never hurt anyone ... and might actually do you some good."
I’ve changed my mind. A better username might have been “Touchy”.
(Meant no insult; just an observation that your username really does fit._
People here are smarter than you think, and I'm sure these comments are based on personal experience.
Kids in school today do far more homework than I ever did. I see kids walking to school in my town, and half of them are dragging home their books in wheeled luggage. If we're producing a "nation of idiots" then maybe that's part of the problem.
That was exactly my experience as well. Chores, study hall and being a quick study.
If you say so. That’s just not how I see it.
We really need to have extras hours of public school indoctrination for seven-year olds? That’s who we’re commenting on here; public school second-graders.
The only homework they need is math flash cards - but wait, we no longer approve of boring rote learning do we?
Some teachers don’t want parents to know what they’re children are taught and some homework assignments have lead to the involvement of parents objecting and protesting . No homework solves their problem ,,,, think about that a minute .
The idea of having set State standards for passing a grade sounds like common sense, doesn’t it? In practice, it limits the good teachers to “teach to the test” in large part and gives the few lazy-ass teachers an excuse to not care to do more than the minimum work.
Find an effective way to deal with this (political) problem in public schools and you can be elected State Superintendent of Education.
The most useful things I learned were done as punishments rather than lessons. Typically writing the multiplication tables from 1 to 12 ten times each. Really drills into you that 7 x 8 = 56. etc.
Now the kids pull out calculators to do such things while I just look at the problem and have the answer. Learning by rote in the early years gives them a good basis to build on in the later years.
Parents signing off on the homework does not mean they were actually involved with the homework. It means they signed it. Homework for kids your grandkids’ age makes sense in moderation because they are essentially memorizing a lot of things. Handwriting is a physical skill that requires practice but when I look at all of the adults whose handwriting is borderline illegible, most of whom had penmanship homework, I wonder how successful the homework assignments actually were long-term.
I’m guessing the school environment and what they learn in school has much more to do with where they are educationally than going home and doing homework.
I hate to be the recalcitrant one on this post, but the teacher is full of it.
My son has been in a private, independent school since he was two. By the first grade, he had already had two years of foreign language and was doing an hour of assigned homework a night.
Now, he is entering ninth grade and will have 3-4 hours of homework per night. He also plays on the Varsity football team, is an active Eagle Scout, is in student government, was in a school play, and will wrestle and play hockey this fall/winter.
He is an A/B student in school and had the opportunity to take the SAT early through Northwestern University last year due to high standardized test scores.
He is not any different than the rest of his classmates. They all just learned how to budget their time and work hard starting at an early age. Based on the matriculation and scholarship dollars, I think the edge they get from a rigorous homework schedule is an outstanding way to progress through school.
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