I completely disagree with this, but my wife and a group of parents went to our school a few years ago to complain about one of the teachers my son had and the amount of homework he assigned.
On average his teacher assigned anywhere between one to three hours of homework every night, and that was just for the one subject he taught, not including the other 5 classes he had.
When my daughter had him she was routinely doing 3-4 hours of homework every day for her classes combined and more on the weekends. I’m all for kids working hard and doing homework, but when the kids have to sit there from 4:00 to 6:00 when they get home and then another hour or two after supper every day its just too much.
Somehow I doubt any teacher in LA is coming close to this though, just expecting a student to read a book in a couple of weeks is beyond expectations I bet.
I’ve heard that the amount of homework that should be assigned is about 15 minutes per grade level, for everything.
Anything more and it starts to resemble work, for the sake of working.
Book learning, which most of school is, needs solitary time. Time for reading, time for studying, and time for writing. The problem is that kids are wasting their time in school every day, where very little of the time is actually spent on “learning.” Some is, when the teacher is demonstrating something, or explaining something, but often, what he is doing is not applicable to many of the kids. Some already know it, some are daydreaming or not following, and some are trying to follow but don’t “get it” or don’t learn from listening or seeing.
If you homeschool, those same 6 hours are not spent lining up, checking out the opposite sex, texting, walking through halls, or listening to a teacher explain something to a third person. You DO the work DURING your school hours, and need very little later free time to complete something. It just saves time, and allows the kids to have a sport or hobby.
When my daughter had him she was routinely doing 3-4 hours of homework every day for her classes combined and more on the weekends.
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Your daughter was **AFTERSCHOOLING** herself!!! The institutional school was merely sending home a curriculum for her to follow! THAT IS THE FLAT OUT TRUTH!
The more I compare academically successful institutioalized children and homeschoolers the more convinced I am that institutional school teach almost NOTHING! The success is due ENTIRELY to the parents ( institutionalized or homeschooled) and the child's efforts IN THE HOME!!! Both groups of children are spending about the **SAME** amount of TIME at the kitchen table doing homework IN THE HOME!!!!
Personally, I would like to see the formal and controlled studies that PROVE institutional schools teach anything at all! I would like to see the studies that separate out what is learned IN THE HOME from that acquired in the classroom. I have asked this question many times on Free Republic and never ( NOT EVEN ONCE) has any teacher or professor of education provided a link that proves where and how children learn ( in the home or in the classroom).
Imagine that! We spend up to a quarter of a million dollars to produce a 12 th grade graduate from our collectivist government schools ( who maybe can read or not), and we do NOT NOT NOT know whether the child acquired his ability to read and his knowledge in the classroom or IN THE HOME! This is UNBELEIVABLE!!!
By the way, my homeschoolers **never** spent more than 2 hours a day in formal, at the kitchen table, schooling. Seriously!
Yet....All three were admitted to college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13. All finished all college general courses and Calculus III by the age of 15. Two earned B.S. degrees in mathematics by the age of 18. The oldest was a world class athlete and represented the U.S. in worldwide competitions and will still earn a masters in accounting at an age typical for those who are institutionalized for their schooling.
And....I am also convinced that my kids are not any smarter than yours.