Posted on 01/20/2005 5:10:29 AM PST by Obadiah
In an effort to teach educators a lesson about the importance of summer vacation, a Whitnall High School student and his father have filed a lawsuit against the boy's math teacher that seeks to bar teachers from requiring homework over the summer.
In the lawsuit, 17-year-old Peer Larson and his father, Bruce Larson of Hales Corners, argue that school officials have no legal authority to make students do homework over the summer because the state-required 180-day school year is over.
"It is poor public policy," Bruce Larson argues in the lawsuit. "These students are still children, yet they are subjected to increasing pressure to perform to ever-higher standards in numerous theaters.
"Come summer, they need a break."
(Excerpt) Read more at jsonline.com ...
The ironic thing is that college vacations are longer.
Now, since we don't get snow days usually or less important holidays like MLK Day off like many public schools, that may be an attempt at equalization.
But, summer vacation is a little bit longer, and Christmas vacation is a couple weeks longer than public schools' vacation.
Not that I am complaining. I love it. But, once I am out in the real world with a job, I can say goodbye to the long vacations.
All the more reason to enjoy them now I guess since we aren't like France with mandatory 5-week vacations for workers etc.
That was a very well-phrased comment, and a good example to live up to!
Thank you. I hope that I can someday achieve as such. I appreciate your compliment.
I took advanced classes and had no such requirements (except for one year, but it was just one book, so not a big deal).
One reason I am considering not going into education is NCLB. Good in theory, but in reality, I think it will cause more problems and make teaching even MORE of a paper-pushing activity than it already is instead of simply teaching and grading.
Switch the B and L to make No child's behind left. At least for the present, teaching is still very rewarding to me. But yes, when it is "simply teaching" and not having to be the latest political pawns in the overtures from the right or left.
There are many who just do not do the homework, who copy homework from friends when it is going to be graded, etc.
And to try to stop this, the schools add more homework.
I remember the hell of high school.....5 hours of homework a night with no block scheduling....because unlike the other kids, I actually DID IT.
But boy, college is a breeze now that I have the same amount, but more time to do it since classes meet every other day.
Heck, I got a 4 in my American govt. AP exam a couple years ago WITHOUT EVEN TAKING THE AP CLASS. I just took the regular class and did fine.
I'm the Nuclear Niceness Nazi :-).
I think that most people here would fit your description of "right-thinking," at least in their intentions.
HONORS class? And pre-calc too(which I didn't take till college). WTF is he bitching about then? If honors class is like AP here, that's college credit and a whole different ballgame. If he didn't like it, he should have taken a different course.
And dad should get his ass kicked with a fines for wasting taxpayers' time and money by misusing the courts.
I'm the Nuclear Niceness Nazi :-).
I think that most people here would fit your description of "right-thinking," at least in their intentions.
I would agree with you and in most areas (as you said, in their intentions). I have seen some whose language and rhetoric sound like liberals. But then I guess I can't judge too much.....I got that big old two-by-four stuck up in my eye.
Heck, I got a 4 in my American govt. AP exam a couple years ago WITHOUT EVEN TAKING THE AP CLASS. I just took the regular class and did fine.
Me too. I had a great teacher from whom I learned a ton.
Well, some people do get excited ... in fact, just about everyone has some issue that he gets in a raucous fluster over occasionally. But mostly, people are trying to live up to high standards, I believe.
Whoa! That's the toughest scale I've ever seen. 69 an F? That's sometimes a C+ depending on the prof and curve
Not necessarily. It could be a situation where Honors pre-calc is the only class math class he can take. They may not offer a non-honors version. (The way my old high school only offers AP Calculus; you can't take regular Calculus.) If this kid has already taken all the other math classes leading up to this one, and he still needs more credits in math to graduate or get into college, he may have no choice but to take this class. A lot of schools really push math but don't offer a lot of options as to which classes students can take. In fact, at my old high school, the kids who get on the advanced math track in middle school run out of high school math classes by their senoir year and have to take it at the local community college.
Most college kids and a lot of high school kids use their summer vacations to work. There are a lot of students who would be unable to afford to go to college year round.
And as a recent college grad who is now working full time, all year round, in many ways life in the real world is easier than life in college. The few vacations I do get are real vacations, unlike in college, when I spent them working. Also, when I get home from work I'm done for the day; I don't have homework to do or papers to write.
Exactly. My daughter skipped the AP Euro History test because the teacher was incompetent. (She had him the previous year and he taught material riddled with factual errors.)
It's all about the desire to learn and a wise management of time, not having homework piled up during what should be vacation time...
Correction to my last note, my daughter skipped the AP class, not the test! She passed the test with flying colors :).
My sentiments exactly. But, alas, we are few.
He even skips a D.
Good point that school is essentially two jobs....one in the classroom and one for homework.
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