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No child of mine will ever do a "team homework project". Schools are intruding massively on the lives of children and their families with all sorts of needlessly time-consuming busy work. When will parents learn to just say NO?

I recall an article in Time magazine a few years back about this problem. Especially loading up elementary school kids with homework and "projects", despite that fact that no research on the subject has ever been able to show any academic achievement benefit to homework prior to the high school level. One father, a former school teacher himself, had the guts to simply inform his daughter's school that she would not be completing any homework assignments, period. And who cares if the teachers trash the kids grades for that -- elementary school grades don't matter!

I did lots of homework in grammar school (an elite private school). I was quite literate by sixth grade. I still have an essay I wrote on the atom (you know, nucleus, proton, electron, negative charge, positive charge, nuetral charge, how the number of electrons defines the element, and all that; I find to this day that it reads rather smoothly, and my penmanship has gone way downhill since then). In the 7th grade I went after describing the theories of the origin of the universe (in those days, the big bang was just one theory, rather than THE theory).

It was the homework that did it, writing essay after essay, and having to read, and then read some more. I hated it at the time (my mommy helped me some through the 4th grade, when I decided relying on mommy was unmanly and degrading), and it was painful, but it made me the master of circumlocution as it were that I am today. It also teaches some decent work habits. Acquiring good habits is work, yes work, lots of work. Homework is good. No pain, no gain. Deal with it.

If you live in Texas, the team homework assignment is a state requirement. We hated those assignments and always opted our daughter out of them. She did the entire assignment on her own and made better grades than the kids who worked on a team.

It worked well until her junior year. Her history teacher (a first year teacher who was an ABSOLUTE twit) wouldn't let my daughter opt out. We ended up in a two hour conference with the new VP and the new teacher that ended when my husband forced them to admit that they had no intention of letting her out of it.

My husband then turned to my daughter and said, "You have to understand that these people are typical bureaucrats. They are not here to work with you. They are not here to help you. They are here to tell you that you have to do exactly what the say without thought or deviation."

What are team homework projects?

I am sick of homework at my house. Mainly because most of the homework is just busy work. My kids do not need to write their spelling words three times if they already know how to spell the words.

One of my daughters has brain damage. She's done really well, but she is spent at the end of the day. She does okay with math homework because she's good at math. However, she loses it when it comes to any writing assignments. Then we end up getting into fights. I just don't need that with her.

I think I'm going to fight the homework thing more next year.