Posted on 11/13/2004 4:04:54 PM PST by Marinefamilyx3
To The Editor: I have a daughter in first grade in Henderson County schools. She gets off the bus at 4 p.m., dinner around 5:30, and bath/bed by 8 p.m.
That in itself is a busy enough night. But she has spelling words (writing 10 words five times each), reading a book (first grade, 100 words), nursery rhyme, memorization goals.
Where does family time, playtime, or just sit and stare time go? And then there are families with multiple children in school. And you can forget it if they participate in Scouts, dance, sports. There's just no time!
We spend at least 1.5 to two hours a night on homework. My child is 6 years old! With barely enough patience to sit through an episode of Pokemon.
I can't blame the teachers. Sorry, but I can't. The schools are overloaded, the classrooms at capacity. And then you throw in the language barriers, and various learning disabilities, and the teachers aren't able to do their jobs.
So we're having to do it at home. There has got to be something that can be done within our schools to get this problem under control.
Homeschooling is your answer.
You can limit your children to one or two outside activities each; if the homework burden is too high you should talk to the teachers; but by all means you should make it clear to the children that homework is their responsibility , not youre, that you will only answer questions about what the teacher is asking them to do if the instructions are unclear. You already did first grade. Now it's time for your daughter to.
Of course, but you still have to pay propert taxes. You're screwed either way.
Vouchers and free school choice. Smash the liberal education monopoly.
Homeschooling - full-time. Make vouchers applicable to that as well.
This sounds like too much homework for a first grader.
The solution is called homeschooling. The work get done by noon at that age. then their is plenty of time for scouts, little league and play.
I had the same problem with my oldest. I felt like the learning the he was getting was from me instead of the classroom. So I decided to pull him home and teach him myself during the day instead of trying to fit it in during the evenig hours. One on one they learn quickly.
How many Americans can afford to homeschool? Most Americans require two incomes to maintain a middle class lifestyle. Homeschooling applies to a very small and very affluent segment of the population. Homeschool thusly may be the answer for some families - it is not for the rest.
What time does she get on in the morning, and what hours is she spending actually in school?
And then you throw in the language barriers, and various learning disabilities, and the teachers aren't able to do their jobs.
Still using the "mainstreaming" experiment, too, I notice; no wonder nothing gets done in the classroom.
If you have to teach them at home anyway, you may as well homeschool, and be done with it. To bad you can't apply vouchers to homeschooling.
Or, can you? Anybody know?
I'll pay the taxes to "educate the masses", but I will not let them have my children. There is more to homeschooling than just educating.
I can accomplish more in 4 hours of home educating than what a child is taught at a public school in an entire day, not even mentioning the homework routine.
Plus, they are not learning behaviors that are immoral, liberal, or unchristian. There's no way that makes me "screwed"!
Of course it's all Bush's fault. If he hadn't demanded 'No Chile Lef Behin' legislation that demanded kids actually learn stuff in schools, they would have ample time for tag, hide-n-seek, and arson.
Taxpayers need to stand up and demand politicians stop wasting their hard-earned tax dollars on incompetent teachers and corrupt unions.
I don't work 12-hour days so my money can be taken from me to fund the NEA's graft machine.
As others have said, HOMESCHOOLING. I'm sure there are others in your area who homeschool. They can help you get started. It should take an average ability first grader about an hour and half to get through the writing portion of the schooling each day. The rest ought to be able to be fitted around the teacher's schedule. This leaves plenty of play, family, and the important dream-and-imagine times.
Go for it. You'll never regret it.
I live in Flat Rock and see total successes in some neighborhood children who attend public (read government)schools.
No young child needs 1.5 hours of schoolwork per night in the early grades.
There is a lapse in intelligence here somewhere.
I do know that North Carolina ranks near the bottom in public education. But if parents are willing, ready, and able...they can beat the system and give their children the start necessary to get them into higher education and onto the road of a happy life.
I have to admit, though, that government education in NC is among the worst.
We have around a dozen families in our area, and only TWO are above middle class, and MOST are below middle class.
Raising your children properly has NOTHING to do with how much money one brings in.
Most homeschool families I know get along just fine on one parent's income. Sure, they live in a tiny house and drive used cars, and they don't go on vacation to Hawaii every year, but they make it...
You choose where to sacrifice. Which do kids need more; the newest Nikes, or a decent education?
Yeah, how much time is this idiot parent wasting by letting them watch "Pokemon?"
"Absurd.
I live in Flat Rock and see total successes in some neighborhood children who attend public (read government)schools.
No young child needs 1.5 hours of schoolwork per night in the early grades.
There is a lapse in intelligence here somewhere."
That was cruel. When I had my children in school, we would spend up to 3 hours a night on my oldest, who was in 3rd grade!
THE REASON: The teacher spent so much time during the day dealing with disobedient children the rest of the class either could not hold their attention or the teacher just couldn't get to it.
Educating the masses..yet another a great benefit of our government!
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