Posted on 01/31/2008 9:17:14 AM PST by bs9021
No Homework Rules
by: Deborah Lambert, January 31, 2008
Remember the brouhaha that erupted over “high stakes” testing in education a few years ago?
According to author/radio host Charles Sykes, that was nothing compared to the current outrage being expressed over what is being called “excessive” children’s homework.
What’s really amazing, says Sykes, is that the most vocal protesters in this war on homework aren’t some pointy headed “educrats,” but the parents.
Columnists like Wall Street Journal columnist Jeff Opdyke who tackle this subject can expect a blizzard of emails from parents who blame an overdose of homework for an epidemic of stress in their offspring.
Of course, it doesn’t take long for schools to catch on … These days they are apparently falling all over themselves to ensure that they won’t be blamed for adding more emotional stress to their students.
A perfect example of this mindset is our friend the principal at Needham High School whose mantra is...
(Excerpt) Read more at campusreportonline.net ...
Homework is often an excuse for teachers to avoid doing real work in the classroom. A few hours a night isn’t unreasonable but six hours is utterly insane. I know where people who protest the idiocy of massive amounts of homework are coming from.
Charlie’s great and he makes valid points. That being said, the quality of homework is as important as the quantity. In many cases, it’s doled out because there is too much time wasted in class on movie watching and other useless activities. In other cases, the repetition of doing 10 pages of an already mastered concept makes for some really crabby kids.
The parents are right.
We don’t send our kids to school, but school parents have told me about the homework their kids are given. Not only does it last hours and hours, but it’s mindless stuff.
I know parents who’ve pulled their kids out of school due to the overwhelming, mindless homework. One is a relative - a conservative Republican, for the record - who pulled her very bright, advanced high school student out of school to homeschool because she said all the homework was complete and total nonsense. It was a waste of time.
In kindergarten at a private Christian school, my son would get coloring pages as homework. He hated doing them, but it would lower his grade if he didn’t.
My son is now 13 is very gifted, and in 8th grade has an A+ in 10th grade geometry.
He didn’t need to be doing coloring after school.
exactly. I’ve done more than my share of teaching the lesson that should have been covered in preparation for the homework.
We’ve never had 6 hours but as my kids never were a conduct problem,it’s apparent that keeping order in the classroom was time consuming.
It’s not just public schools, it’s also the private schools.
I never had homework until high school, and even then I could get it done in about an hour.
(I was also not stupid. I have a degree in Computer Science from Texas A&M.)
I never really had homework in high school (99-03), but that was mainly because I found time to do it during school. One of the many positives of going to a rural school with not a lot of elective options. And having coaches teach health and PE.
When I was in public school, we had an hour daily for every subject - no fluff added, rarely had movies (and then only educational ones), and huge homework assignments on a nightly basis. Took at least 4 hours nightly, even at the elementary level. Nobody complained back then. The point of it was to get you ready for college, where we actually had far less homework but a stronger work ethic about it.
When I told the teacher at conferences what we were doing, she chewed me out stating that our children would never grasp the concepts they were trying to teach without practice--hence they'd never learn to read.
By third grade, they were devouring every book they could get their hands on--Harry Potter, Beverly Cleary, Catherine Woolley (delightfully un-PC--mom wears an apron and makes marvelous meals while Daddy reads the paper after work!) and more.
And yes, I have colored on occasion for my girls too. I know they already know how to color-sometimes they need the sleep instead.
Agreed, with one stipulation - the only way tp really learn math (for most of us non-”gifted” folks) is to practice it. I see nothing wrong with a math teacher teaching a concept then giving homework to practice applying it. My middle school daughter almost never has math homework - I give her problems myself when I find that she does not understand something (dad’s approval rating drops quite a bit on those nights!)
Public ed ping.
Now, I am a public school teacher, and I do not, as a rule, assign homework. I prefer to have students do the assignment in class where I can guide them if need be.
When I do give homework, it is work that was not finished in class or a minor assignment, such a reading a chapter of a novel that we may be studying.
I agree, 6 hours of homework is ludicrous.
Also, I teach the bottom of the barrel, straight to work kids. I also do Sp-Ed inclusion for 1/2 a day. My classwork consists of questions like:
“What do you think the speaker/writer meant when....”
and
“Explain what you mean when you say...”
My students do not get off easily.
We do the same. But if the concept is solid in their minds, I would prefer they stretch them a little by making them look at it in different ways instead of doing the same over and over.
I was in high school from 96-00, and I never had much home work either, but I was not in a public school.
Yup! I do all coloring and any word search that isn't spelling related. More and more, I find myself giving him answers because his textbook is written poorly and the answers are unclear. His social studies book/workbook is terrible!
Yesterday my son's math homework included some beginning division. The book had a chart of multiplication tables in that chapter so they could easily look up the answers! I wouldn't let him use it.
The book “The End of Homework” is a short and worthwhile read (despite the left-leaning orientation of the author). Homework is a way for schools (including private schools) to monopolize children’s time, pushing out activities that their parents would prefer them to be doing. There is also zero evidence that homework before the high school level has any positive effect on academic achievement.
Schools have your child for 6-7 hours a day (more if they participate in school-run extracurricular activities). That’s plenty of time to get academic work done. When children come home, they should be focused on home and family and neighborhood and activities that their parents approve of, and should have time left over to get plenty of sleep as well as do some healthy goofing off and daydreaming.
Schools shouldn’t be allowed to monopolize children’s and their families’ non-school hours. All that teaches kids is that when they grow up and get jobs, they should accept pressure from employers to work insane hours, take work home regularly, and force family, church, and community into the distant background of their lives.
When I was in junior high, I had a couple of school friends who were the children of British diplomats. They both went back to England to attend the same well-regarded boarding school. I learned from their letters that the school rules explicitly prohibited taking any school books or other academic materials back to the dorms with them in the evenings. They had periods during the school day called “preps”, and were expected to learn to get their work done in that time. When the school day was over, it was OVER — time to go back to the dorm, have dinner, hang out with friends, write letters to parents, and go to bed in plenty of time to get a good night’s sleep. In other words, the school insisted they build habits of living a well-balanced life. American parents should insist on this sort of lifestyle for their children too.
ping to my post #19
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