Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

No-homework policy improves home life for younger students at one CPS school
http://www.suntimes.com/news/29822856-418/no-homework-policy-improves-home-life-for-younger-students-at-one-cps-school.html ^

Posted on 09/14/2014 9:08:28 PM PDT by MNDude

To the delight of its families, Hamilton Elementary has replaced homework for kindergartners, first-graders and second-graders this year with PDF — play, downtime and family time — along with lots of reading for fun.

Only a few days into the new year, life is already better, mother Sarah Rothberger said. Not only is there more time for family dinners every night, but evenings now are for playing UNO and Othello, and reading chapters from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “By The Banks of Plum Creek.”

Beyond that, he wondered, why should school dictate what families do, given that families can’t control what happens in schoo “There was a packet every week. It was a challenge at home to get him through a seven-hour day and then consider homework. He really, really hated it, ” Rothberger said. Weekends became all about pushing him to finish his sight words. His teacher believed it was important to start the homework habit.

(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...


TOPICS: Education; Local News
KEYWORDS: news
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-38 last
To: MNDude

Our high schools have completely flipped the paradigm. Students do homework in the classroom and video lectures are to be watched at home.


21 posted on 09/15/2014 2:06:46 AM PDT by NonValueAdded ("Kerry, as Obama's plenipotentiary, is a paradox - the physical presence of a geopolitical absence")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: onona

And now I see where the concept originated. Thanks


22 posted on 09/15/2014 2:09:20 AM PDT by NonValueAdded ("Kerry, as Obama's plenipotentiary, is a paradox - the physical presence of a geopolitical absence")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: luckystarmom

Homework is good preparation for a life chained to your desk filling out TPS Reports on a Saturday.


23 posted on 09/15/2014 3:17:34 AM PDT by Rodamala
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: MNDude

It really is a daycare center.


24 posted on 09/15/2014 3:22:27 AM PDT by R. Scott (Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PrairieLady2
No offense, but it sounds like you really brought all of that on yourself and your family by living two hours away from school. Once you ask the government to educate your children, you really have nothing to complain about when it's done their way instead of yours.

Good point about the home-schooling, though. A very rural area is perfect for it.

25 posted on 09/15/2014 3:35:03 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("What in the wide, wide world of sports is goin' on here?")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: MNDude

My kids is homeschooled so they are finished with school they know they are finished — no homework.


26 posted on 09/15/2014 3:50:22 AM PDT by ExCTCitizen (I'm ExCTCitizen and I approve this reply. If it does offend Libs, I'm NOT sorry...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MNDude

Since I NEVER let the schools determine the path of my kids’ education, I never cared about the homework they got. If it was a good assignment (fairly rare) they did it, if it was a stupid assignment, I did it for them.

I was too busy with making sure they learned math, INDEPENDENT OF THE SCHOOLS, to really care what went on there, nor did I have any trust in it, any trust at all.


27 posted on 09/15/2014 4:26:56 AM PDT by BobL (Don't forget - Today's Russians learn math WITHOUT calculators.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

“Just another way to wrest control of children from their parents.”

That is true...along with having the kids leave their textbooks at school, and teaching them “math” in ways so weird that their parents (and math professors) cannot make any sense of it.

...and don’t think that weekly “science projects” are intended as anything other to keep kids “busy” and separated from their parents, for that’s EXACTLY the intent, at least according the papers I was reading 30 years ago.


28 posted on 09/15/2014 4:29:14 AM PDT by BobL (Don't forget - Today's Russians learn math WITHOUT calculators.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Mr Rogers

I completely agree with you, it is bee ess. I had maybe 15-20 minutes of homework a night through high school and I had all As in college and went to law school.

It makes me upset to see my child so stressed about homework. I don’t believe in it.


29 posted on 09/15/2014 4:33:36 AM PDT by yldstrk ( My heroes have always been cowboys)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: GeronL

“my nephew had math homework. He would type the problem on the school IPAD and it would tell him the answer...seriously...What is he learning exactly?”

He was learning how to solve a problem in the quickest way possible, using the technology tools now available. What could be wrong with that? Maybe you should join the 21st century?

So much for me giving you the “Education Establishment” answer. What you need to do is get with his parents and make DAMN SURE the kid is doing math on his own, OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL, or he will end up being a useless slog, which is the intended result for white males in our education system (assuming he’s white here...but really doesn’t matter). The system is now design to FAIL THEM, and the only people still succeeding are the ones that make sure their kids learn math OUTSIDE of the education system (Kumon, anyone)...such as Asians and Indians and, actually, most other immigrant groups.


30 posted on 09/15/2014 4:34:22 AM PDT by BobL (Don't forget - Today's Russians learn math WITHOUT calculators.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: MNDude

Our kids do a lot of their homework at school, in homeroom.

At home we are often mighty busy on the farm and it’s hard to juggle everything. I’m glad they are only in 4-H and FFA, not band and sports, too.


31 posted on 09/15/2014 4:36:30 AM PDT by Cloverfarm
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mr Rogers

Yeah and most of it is pointless BS like make a collage or some poster board crap that requires $$.

My freshman son has minimum of an hour of math every day, sometime lots more.


32 posted on 09/15/2014 6:40:56 AM PDT by Resolute Conservative
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: boop

Learning how to volunteer and get community service points since that is a more important qualifier for college than grades.


33 posted on 09/15/2014 6:42:36 AM PDT by Resolute Conservative
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: yldstrk

I did 3-4 hours of homework a year in high school. I took calculus, 4 years of science, 4 years of German, etc. After graduating, I tested out of 46 credits of college, and got my BS in Biology in 3 years.

I’m not buying the idea that kids need lots of homework. I’ve volunteered at the high school. It seems to me they fart around in class and then receive all their practice work as homework.


34 posted on 09/15/2014 7:05:48 AM PDT by Mr Rogers
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: MNDude
Japanese kids study 12 hours a day 6 days a week.I'll bet Chinese kids do the same.And those few American kids who actually manage to graduate from high school can't even read their own diplomas...because they're written in "cursive".

I thank God that I'll be in the grave soon.Things are gonna get *real* ugly here before too long.

35 posted on 09/15/2014 9:01:13 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Islamopobia:The Irrational Fear Of Being Beheaded)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Gay State Conservative

you’ll be in the grave soon? What’s wrong???


36 posted on 09/15/2014 12:35:10 PM PDT by MNDude
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: MNDude
you’ll be in the grave soon? What’s wrong???

Perhaps I should have said "may well be".Age is a factor (I had a draft card)...and bum ticker.I'm *certainly* far closer to the grave than I am to the cradle. ;-)

37 posted on 09/15/2014 1:29:34 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Islamopobia:The Irrational Fear Of Being Beheaded)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: PrairieLady2
He caught up 2 grade levels in just a couple of months, and I didn’t work him all that hard. And that’s why I had to ask....what is going on in that classroom because they were not learning much, at all. The kids were all 2 years behind eastern schools...I could see why after home schooling.

they are mainly managing the classroom... there is a big difference between teaching 30 9-year olds and 2 or 3 9-11 year olds... in our homeschool, we have experienced school with just us and school within a small co-op... 3-5 families a year... we had complete control over the days we taught... the length of the classes--which were 90 minutes... even for the Kindergarten-1st grade kids... it was wonderful... some years we met 2 days a week, some years it was 3 days a week... the remaining days were for the school work/homework, and individual learning each family chose for themselves...

two of the moms had been teachers... they both claimed that their experiences as teachers did not help them as homeschoolers...

last year i was working in NC while my family was in Calif... i Skype-schooled my sons... i went back 5 times during the year... this is not ideal, but better than sending them to government school--which was never an option...

38 posted on 09/15/2014 6:49:09 PM PDT by latina4dubya
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-38 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson