More parents, students saying 'no' to homework

Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | 10/26/2015 | Kathy Boccella

[Kid Shelleen]

Amy Clipston had a request that was a new one for her daughter's first-grade teacher.

Many parents had marched in to demand that their children, even those who couldn't tie their shoes yet, get more homework. Clipston was the first to request the opposite - that her daughter opt out of homework altogether.

"I felt my child was doing quite fine in school," said Clipston, a chemist with three children, noting that her daughter's schoolday in the highly competitive Lower Merion School District was 61/2 hours, with a 20-minute recess. "I felt 10 to 20 minutes of homework a night was not accomplishing anything."

[rightwingcrazy]

I wasn’t assigned a single bit of homework until the the 6th grade, at which point I got just a single home assignment. Somehow I survived and thrived academically and professionally.

[lastchance]

Good for them. Studying and spending time reading is one thing and parents should encourage their children to do this. Busy work for the sake of filling up folders is another and more parents are coming to realize how useless this is.

[BobL]

We afterschooled our kids (taught them reading and then math well ahead of the schedule that the schools used). The BIGGEST PROBLEM for us was the silly make-work homework that our kids kept getting assigned. They were light years ahead of the material for their ages, and had much more important stuff to do - so we (i.e., the parents) simply did their homework and projects, just so the kids could still get some REAL LEARNING done at home.

[UCANSEE2]

Stupid assignments come from stupid teachers.

[karatemom]

That is exactly how it played out for me too. High school was a relative breeze. High honors, NHS, minimum effort. Boy did I pay the price in college.

I notice my neighbor’s elementary age daughters have far more homework than I ever did,or my own son for that matter. And much of theirs is all done via computer. No textbooks.

I feel bad for today’s kids. We had less homework and tons more time outside in the evenings. And actual Christmas parties in school...with cookies and gifts and FUN. even though school was ...well school, there were still moments of joy!!

[sitetest]

Because they were homeschooled through 8th grade, my kids really had no homework till they got to high school.

[sitetest]

Homework, especially in earlier grades, shows a complete inability on the part of teachers to manage time effectively.

[Gay State Conservative]

Homework? Why! Self esteem is all that's important.So what if the Japanese,Chinese and Germans are going to school 60 hours a week,50 weeks a year.

[Chode]

point taken...

[DH]

I’ve always felt that homework was a control issue the teachers used to exert their dominance over you.

Worse yet, if you had 6 periods you had 6 teachers assigning you homework without any knowledge of what other homework loads they put upon you.

Now, I have no problems with the teachers using research assignments to condition a child how to research things on their own without assistance but that is not all about...it’s CONTROL without regard to the many hours the poor student spends trying to do all of the homework for all of the teachers.

The problem that we have is the fact that our teachers cannot teach. If they could, they would be able to clearly explain things so that the students knew the most basic facts of relaying thought....THE 5 W’S! Who, What, When, Where and why. Another addition to this statement is the most important and that is How.

I had a very hard time through the first 9 years of school but I was lucky enough to have some really good teachers in the following grades. I became interested in school and even more interested listening those rare people who actually TAUGHT the subject they were expert in...not a football coach teaching english or the art teacher teaching geometry.

It’s even worse today for the teachers of today have an “iron hard” government approved teaching plan with no latitude to actually teach. The plan has already been laid out for them and they are responsible to indoctrinate the students (not teach) to remember by rote with no rationalization, analization, or reason to actually think with their own brains.

Homework is the result of the teacher not giving 8 hours work for 8 hours pay. They may lie that it instills discipline into the student but in most cases it instills resentment for it is not necessary if the teachers actually taught instead of making the students memorize such trivial things as the exact date, time and where something happened. In later life what would that get you at the hamburger stand?

I still have very bitter memories where I stayed awake until 4 in the morning trying to do all of the homework given to me by numerous teachers (not one knowing what the other one gave), while I was fully realizing the worthlessness of the subject matter I was assigned.

We have labor laws in this country and regardless as to who (or what) you work for, these laws apply to everyone...EVEN CHILDREN. When you are forced to work (and school is work) for more than 8 hours a day, federal and state laws kick in for compensation of overtime.

A child having to go to school for 8 hours a day and then spend 6 more hours doing school work (notice the word “work”) should be illegal.

Make the teachers teach and if they don’t or can’t, fire them and get some who will and have the natural ability to do so....not simply having a piece of paper the Wizard of Oz gave them.

[Albion Wilde]

If they didn’t spend so much time on politically correct indocrination and identity politics during the day, they wouldn’t need so much homework.

[roadcat]

You did that as a first grader?

No. To be honest, when I was older, probably 5th grade. I generally aced my homework, got it done in a hurry without problems. Same with my kids (now grown up); they said one could pass and graduate school just by breathing, and that most of the work was dumb. They said the same about attending University classes, just show up breathing and you graduate. They were self-motivated, and had enough credits to graduate in three years but I got them to stay four years.

So yes, I agree that the way kids are taught isn't working. If the parents and family invest time in motivating kids, then they learn. Left only in the hands of the schools and teachers, a kid is not going to learn unless self-motivated or bright, as the time spent in the classroom is more or less wasted.

[Albion Wilde]

We have an upper level math teacher who “flips his classroom”. He creates a 15 to 20 minute video where he explains and shows students how to do a new math problem - to watch it is the homework. Then his class period is to do a bunch of problems on what they learned in the video where he is there for assistance.

That is an awesome idea! Plus, the kids get to "sleep on it" — which is often the time when the brain integrates new information. Wonderful!

[napscoordinator]

The Chemist Mom could run rings around the teacher. I am sure if her daughter started having issues, the Mom could catch her up quickly. Although not so such about Common Core Math but the rest of it for sure.

[Ciexyz]

I have fond memories of doing homework in grade school. I loved the writing composition notebook where you had to practice cursive writing. The spelling book had fun lessons about the history of words, such as the word ‘sandwich’ came from the Earl of Sandwich putting meat between two pieces of bread so he could hold it in one hand and play cards with the other.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

10 to 20 minutes of homework? Good grief. I wanted my kids to have homework, and I wanted to see what they were working on....so I could deprogram them as needed and show them the right way to do it.

We were not able to homeschool, but we had various ways to know what was being fed to them (including my wife working as a sub). I think if I still had young children in school we would work out a way to homeschool.

[rbg81]

It WILL be expected in college, and if they haven’t developed the study habits to do the homework, they will fall behind. In many classes, it will be a significant part of their grade.

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As a college professor, let me second that. Many kids breeze through HS doing little or no work. Then they get to college and they think that the same rules apply.
And, perhaps for some majors, they might get away with it. However, in the STEM disciplines, work is required—you either do it or you sink. I can’t tell you how many kids imagine they can do things at the last minute and then find, to their chagrin, that it is just not possible. It get worse every year.

[rbbeachkid]

In my neighborhood, college bound high schoolers go to school at 7:00 am and don’t get home until 3:30. They then start the 3 to 4 hours of homework. Adults aren’t required to work 12+ hours a day plus weekend projects.

Homeschooling took care of that.

[DesertRhino]

“So what if the Japanese,Chinese and Germans are going to school 60 hours a week,50 weeks a year. “

A whack job fantasy. In reality, German kids begin their day at 0730, and are done by noon. In the afternoon they can go home, remain behind for extracurricular work, or study and do homework.

[Alberta's Child]

I'm a bit conflicted on this. On one hand, I understand the frustration of any parent whose young child comes home from school loaded down with books and homework assignments that do nothing except force the parents to do the instructing that teachers are supposed to do.

On the other hand, I've found that working on school subjects outside the classroom can be valuable tools for education if the work is assigned correctly. I thought the college approach worked best: read the relevant sections of the textbook in advance of each class, so the material isn't being presented for the first time when you sit in the classroom or lecture hall. This also prepares the student better to ask good questions in the classroom.

In engineering school I had one particular class that I couldn't pass for the life of me. I dropped it twice and was prepared to consider another career. I don't know where I got this idea, but I spent one summer sitting in a local library a couple of days every week and simply wrote entire sections of the textbook and the accompanying sample problems out by hand in a notebook.

When the fall semester started, I was enrolled in the class for the third time. The material made a lot more sense to me that time around, and I aced the class.