[roostercogburn]

Freep the poll there. 77% agree school is too hard for kids. I do not think it is hard enough. The teachers unions are the ones I bet doing the majority of the complaining.

[mysterio]

First graders shouldn't have homework.

[Principled]

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.

[Clara Lou]

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.

[DoughtyOne]

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.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

It takes too much time from watching TV and doesn't do enough for baby sitting.

[Jim Noble]

I went to a K-6 Elementary school (public) which did not assign homework other than book reports, State reports, etc. (no exercises or worksheets). I had an average of 1 hour homework in JHS (7-9), and about 1.5 hours in HS (10-12).

I got 1526 on the (old) SAT and 800 on the (old) MCAT.

I'm on my thirtieth year in full-time medical practice.

All the homework mania in elementary school is nonsense. Teach 'em while they're there.

[raybbr]

We are getting pressured to hold our four year old back year and start him in first grade when he's six. From teachers, fellow parents and the school. He turns five next Sept. We, at this point are planning to send him to first grade next year. They want us to keep him back and send him to a private pre-school so he's "ready" for first grade.

Isn't that what first grade is for? To get started on the learning process?

[luckystarmom]

School has become too much reading/writing/math. We just switched my twin girls out of the public school, and put them into a private school.

One of my daughters is gifted, and she was bored to tears. My other daughter has brain damage, and even though the school worked on reading a lot, she still is not where she could be.

In the private school, they have reading/writing/math/history/science/bible every day. Twice a week, they have PE and music. Once a week, they have art and Spanish.

In addition, my daughter with brain damage is pulled from reading to go to a multi-sensory reading program with two other kids.

Both girls so far love the new school. My gifted daughter just loves the variety. I'll have to wait until the end of the year to see how the reading program is helping my daughter, but I'm sure it will.

I don't know why the public schools are not focusing on history and science, especially in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. My son is in middle school in a public school, and he is still only getting 1/2 year of science. In 8th grade, he will finally get a whole year of science.

[Chode]

when i was a youngen, you were taught your alphabet, numbers and colors BEFORE you started school... AT HOME!!!

[brazzaville]

Good afternoon.

Why is it that I'm always on the losing side in MSNBC polls?

Michael Frazier

[Snoopers-868th]

This is nuts. Put your children in school develope various programs to grill them to learn the ABC's and to read before they start Kindergarten. Make 'em have homework plus soccer, dancing, music lessons, basketball, football, on and on. When summer comes and after that "quality" vacation to Disney or somewhere similar put them to work or plop them in front of the TV or computer with a babysitter while Mommy and Daddy are at work. Get them back in school and fast, preferrably all year to make the schools cost-effective. Keep them there until their early 20's and then it is time for them to hurry up and get out there in the real world and work until they die. What is going on here? We are running our little people in the ground with OUR expectations. Let them be kids, life and the responsibility that goes along with it begins all too soon and the working years lasts oh so long and some want it to last even longer. This competition that began with pro sports has filtered to the elementary school levels and it makes me sad. When can they just be kids--little kids--kids who misbehave, kids that are not medicated because of some thought up syndrome to make the drug companies more money. This all just makes me sad.

[RJL]

The New First Grade: Too Much??

This is just a political attack on President Bush's No Child Left Behind program.

While Newsweek is promoting first grade as being too tough, I'll bet they're in full support of all day kindergarten for even younger children.

[SoftballMominVA]

Public Schools are in a catch-22--damned if you do and damned if you don't. If they don't push kids, they are accused of not offering enough, if they don't push them, then they are accused of being lazy and wasting the tax payers money.

I do agree that 1st graders should have homework, but only about 10 minutes or so. This is time that the child should ideally spend with a parent to review what was taught that day--never, ever to introduce new concepts.

As far as who is complaining--parents, parents, and then parents. These would be the very same ones who will then turn around and blame the schools when Susie or Johnny doesn't do well on the state-tests.

The article mentions kids falling asleep at their desks at 11 am? Well, I'm betting the problem is that they didn't go to bed at a decent hour! When I taught 6th grade, the overwhelming majority of my kids did not go to bed until 11 or 12. I had one that went to bed at 9. This in a school district where school started at 8:15 am and some of my kids were getting on the bus at 7:00am. In my 11:20-12:10 class, I had to be very inventive with lessons to keep them moving just so I could be sure they would stay awake.

Why are they not doing the homework assigned? Well, I asked one of my 8th graders that question on Thursday--as to why didn't you do your science, geography, English or reading homework? He said, "It cuts into my play time." I then asked him what time he went to bed and he told me between 1 and 1:30 am, normally. Sometimes he stayed up later and every now and again, he would not go to sleep at all. Where in the world are his parents? Got me--I don't know.

I checked with his 7th grade teachers and they said that will pretty much be the way the year will go. He will pass his classes with D's and maybe actually fail one, but he will do well enough to pass on to the next grade. The problem is that when the yearly SOL's (Standards of Learning) he will not pass. So, who will get the blame when he fails? The schools of course.

So, as his teacher, what do I do? I'm pretty much stripped for answers. If I pull him out of class to help him on homework, he misses class. If I pull him out of gym or electives, he will be surly and refuse to work. He will turn 15 this year and the school will pass him on to high school next year. I can't ask him to stay late because no one can come to get him and by law I am not allowed to take him home. I do work with him one-on-one as much as I can during the day, but he is one of 12 kids and I have 11 others who also need one-one-one. (I teach special education, that is why my classes are so small.) I have already requested a meeting with mom and she told me she is too busy to come in. I already have an incentive chart for kids to earn prizes to do their homework, but he told me th only thing that would motivate him would be if I bought him an XBOX 360 to replace his old XBOX. Yeah, I'm on top of that one! So, he doesn't care, his mom doesn't have the time and I am out of ideas.

Catch-22 all the way.

[mware]

Oh dear, I give homework almost every night except for Fridays.

I do however grade every bit of homework I give them. If it is important enough to give them as homework it is important enough to grade, as a diagnosis tool.

[Scotswife]

What kind of expertise do you have in education?
Are you aware of the differences between what was expected when we were children vs. what is expected now?
Are you aware of how this has hurt young boys?

[busstopsindetroit]

Homework is necessary if for nothing else than to teach kids the ability to work independently. That's something they'll need to know for the rest of their lives. The problem is parents who can't allow their kids to actually do it-they want to hover over them and make sure it's perfect, which defeats the whole purpose.

[mewzilla]

Four words: Home/private/parochial school.

[esopman]

First graders should NOT have homework. In fact, first graders should not be in the first grade. The whole argument of public schools goes on, while children are distorted, uneducated, tormented, etc. This is like discussing the discontinuance of Iran's nuclear program -- while their dangerous progress continues uninterrupted. So it is for the children of this nation -- any one child has up to 18 years (?? .... if he's lucky) to be a child. When that time is up, it's up! For that child, the discussion is ended. But the formative losses and hurts are there for a lifetime. I believe that for the vast majority of those who can homeschool, they should. Retrieve your child's childhood while he has one.

MRS. ESOPMAN

[mware]

Could You Pass the 1885 Admission Test for High School?

The following entrance examination for prospective high school students in Jersey City, N.J. was reprinted in the Union City, N.J., newspaper, the Hudson Dispatch, and later in the Wall Street Journal, June 9, 1992, Section A, p. 16.

EXAMINATION FOR ADMISSION.
Jersey City High School, JUNE, 1885

Algebra

I. Define Algebra, an algebraic expression, a polynomial.
Make a literal trinomial.

II. Write a homogeneous quadrinomial of the third degree.
Express the cube root of 10ax in two ways.

III. Find the sum and difference of 3x - 4ay + 7cd - 4xy + 16, and
10ay - 3x - 8xy + 7cd - 13.

IV. Express the following in its simplest form by removing the parentheses
and combining: 1 - (1 - a) + (1 - a + a2) - (1 - a + a2 - a3).

V. Find the product of 3 + 4x + 5x2 - 6x3 and 4 - 5x - 6x2.

VI. Expand each of the following expressions and give the theorem for
each: {a+4}2, {a2-10}2, {a+4} {a-4}.

VII. Divide 6a4 + 4a3x - 9a2 x2 - 3ax3 + 2x4 by 2a2 + 2ax - x2.

VIII. Find the prime factors of x4 - b4 and x3 - 1.

IX. Find the G.C.D. of 6a2 + 11ax + 3x2, and 6a2 + 7ax - 3x2.

X. Divide (x2 - 2xy + y2)/ab by (x - y)/bc and give the answer in its
lowest terms.

ARITHMETIC

I. If a 60 days note of $840 is discounted at a bank at 4 1/2% what are the proceeds?

II. Find the sum of {square root of} 16.7281 and {square root of} .72 1/4.

III. The interest of $50 from March 1st to July 1st is $2.50.
What is the rate?

IV. What is the cost of 19 cwt. 83 lb. of sugar at $98.50 a ton?
What is discount? A number?

V. Divide the difference between 37 hundredths and 95 thousandths by 25 hundred thousands and express the result in words.

VI. The mason work on a building can be finished by 16 men in 24 days, working 10 hours a day.
How long will it take 22 men working 8 hours a day?

VII. A merchant sold a quantity of goods for $18,775.
He deducts 5% for cash and then finds that he has made 10%.
What did he pay for the goods?

IX. By selling goods at 12 1/2% profit a man clears $800.
What was the cost of the goods, and for what were they sold?

X. A merchant offered some goods for $1170.90 cash, or $1206 payable in 30 days.
Which was the better offer for the customer, money being worth 10%?

GEOGRAPHY

I. What is the axis of the earth?

What is the equator?

What is the distance from the equator to either pole in degrees, in miles?

Why is it warmer at the equator than near the poles?

II. Name four principal ranges of mountains in Asia, three in Europe, and three in Africa.

III. Name the capitals of the following countries:
Portugal, Greece, Egypt, Persia, Japan, China, Canada, Hindostan, Thibet, Cuba.

IV. Name the states on the west bank of the Mississippi, and the capital of each.

V. Bound New Jersey, and name six important cities in the state.

VI. Tell the situation of the following:
Detroit, Chicago, Portland, Rio Janeiro, Callao, Venice, Bombay, St. Louis, Halifax, Vera Cruz.

VII. Name 10 countries of South America, and the capital of each.

VIII. Bound Russia and name its capital and largest river.

IX. In what countries is coffee raised?

What are the principal exports of France?

Of the West Indies?

X. New York is nearly 75 {degrees} west of London.
When it is noon at the former, what time is it at the latter?

GRAMMAR

I. Analyse the following:
Perseus ground his teeth with rage, for he saw that he had fallen into a trap.

II. Make a list of all the verbs in the sentence above, and give the principal parts of each of them.

III. Parse for, had fallen, that, saw

IV. Give two uses of the hyphen.

V. Copy the sentence below, and punctuate it properly.
"Will you please to tell me boys, for what the reindeer is useful"?

VI. Write a sentence containing a noun used as an attribute, a verb in the perfect tense potential mood, and a proper adjective.

VII. Correct

{a} It is only me.

{b} Who did she invite?

{c} Whenever my husband or son take an umbrella down town, they always leave it.

VIII. Write the declension of

{a} bird,

{b} man,

{c} fly,

{d} fox,

{e} it

IX. Write four lines of poetry, giving particular attention to the use of capitals, and to punctuation.

X. Make three sentences, using the plural of sheep

{1} in the nominative case,

{2} in the possessive,

{3} in the objective.

XI. Write a declarative sentence; change to an imperative, to an interrogative, to an exclamatory, and punctuate.

U.S. HISTORY

I. What people settled Massachusetts?

Where did they land, and what was their character?

II. Name four Spanish explorers and state what induced them to come to America.

III. What event do you connect with 1565, 1607, 1620, 1664, 1775?

IV. Name the thirteen colonies that declared their independence in 1776.

V. Name three events of 1777. Which was the most important and why?

VI. What caused the war of 1812?

Who was president during that war?

What was the result of it?

VII. What form of government was established in 1789?

Into what three branches was the government divided?

What do the Senate and House of Representatives constitute?

VIII. What caused the Mexican war?

What was the result?

What American general commanded at the capture of the City of Mexico?

IX. What was the remote and the immediate cause of the great Civil war.

Who captured Fort Donelson?

X. Name three commanders of the Army of the Potomac.

In what battle was "Stonewall" Jackson killed?

How?