Posted on 09/03/2006 10:52:22 AM PDT by roostercogburn
The New First Grade: Too Much Too Soon? Kids as young as 6 are tested, and tested again, to ensure they're making sufficient progress. Then there's homework, more workbooks and tutoring.
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First graders shouldn't have homework.
First graders should have homework in Latin and arithmetic.
Why not?
Homework isn't tough on the kids. I think alot of parents do not want to make the time or effort to help with it.
It's mostly parents complaining. 'Course most parents were educated in public schools - where they must take EVERY child, no matter how bad off, no matter the behavior or lack of intellect. No matter what.
No wonder the public schools are a cesspool.
Exactly. Parents do not want to take the time it take. Funny thing, it isn't huge amounts of time. My wife and I spend one hour per night with them doing homework.
I guess that extra hour could be better spent with Sponge Bob?
Don't be dissin' Sponge Bob.
I didn't have homework until third grade at least, and I still did quite well on my SAT and in college. It's too much for someone that age. Little kids need the teachers to go through the techniques with them one on one, and then they need after school time to decompress.
No students of any age should. The school is the zone for learning. Outside of school is the zone for life.
The ones who complain that school is too hard for kids [1st grade or otherwise] are those who value education only so long as they don't have to put themselves out to get that education [for themselves or their children, as the case may be]. They want A's for their work, but they don't want to take the time or the effort that a meaningful A requires.
Basically, I think the most important thing you can do for your child is make sure they know how to read by the age of four or so. That's what my parents did for me, and it put me years ahead of other children in that area. My parents are both teachers, and pretty good ones.
I don't have a problem with homework and studying for tests and such. But the majority of home time shouldn't be homework. I got pretty burned out on it. I made it through grad school, and I still felt like a teenager because I had spent so much time studying that I hadn't really experienced anything.
After Nursery School and Kindergarten, kids should know their ABC's, how to read a bit, and be old enough to not have nap time.
They should be experts in eating cookies and drinking koolaid.
First graders should be able to write the Greek alphabet by the end of the year.
Way too much in the early years...
Far too little in the mid to late years...
Take out the social engineering and get back to basics.
Second graders should know times table up to 12 x 12 by the end of the year.
HS seniors should be fluent in Latin and Greek and calculus.
If 'life' does not include learning, something, at every opportunity and as a habit learned early, then 'life' is not only pointless, it is self defeating.
I don't know if today's first grade is too hard or just day care but if the parents (or someone) fails to make a kid appreciate learning - early - the next eleven or so grades won't mean a thing.
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