Free Republic

All 12-year-olds at a comprehensive will be told today that homework is being scrapped because teachers have better things to do than mark it. Dr Patrick Hazlewood, the head teacher of St John's in Marlborough, Wilts, who has already scrapped subject teaching, will not put it quite like that, of course. He will tell them that, to make their schooling more "relevant to life in the 21st century", they are to be given responsibility for "managing their own learning". Parents, who were told on Monday, are confused because, according to school policy, "regular homework is an essential element of learning...

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...

I need info. for a report that i have to do this month on Robert E. Lee. I have to wirte at least 1 page on him so any info. at all will be very helpful

To The Editor: I have a daughter in first grade in Henderson County schools. She gets off the bus at 4 p.m., dinner around 5:30, and bath/bed by 8 p.m. That in itself is a busy enough night. But she has spelling words (writing 10 words five times each), reading a book (first grade, 100 words), nursery rhyme, memorization goals. Where does family time, playtime, or just sit and stare time go? And then there are families with multiple children in school. And you can forget it if they participate in Scouts, dance, sports. There's just no time! We spend...

I guess it would be for the best for me to first introduce my situation: at the moment, I'm a high school senior and currently in the running for the Navy Nursing Option ROTC Scholarship (as a matter of fact, my interview is tomorrow). I was wondering if anyone could offer advice on how to get myself prepared before going into college so as to get a good hold as to what I'll need to do to pursue a degree (and, later, a career) in nursing. Secondly, I am currently doing a school report on military nursing. The Senior Project,...

July 8, 2004 Studies debunk myth of growing homework burden on students By DAVID SCHARFENBERG Sentinel staff writer SANTA CRUZ — Reveling in the newfound freedom of summer vacation, Marjorie Robinson, 15, wasn’t in the mood to discuss homework Wednesday afternoon. But with a little prompting, the Santa Cruz High School student made it clear where she stands. "It’s way too much," she said. "You need time to chill after school." But if homework cramps her style, Robinson is in the minority. Despite all the hype about a surge in after-school assignments and the decline of the American childhood, most...

Kyle and Leon Patton have settled into a weekend routine. Friday is family night, the one evening of the week they get to spend with their sister and parents, eating pizza and watching Animal Planet. Saturday is for sports such as flag football, and Sunday is devoted to church. But since April, they've had to work one more activity into their weekend schedule: homework. On a recent Sunday, that meant Kyle, a third-grader, had to list 15 words with the prefixes "un," "dis" and "non" and use three of them in sentences. For math, his teacher at Fort Washington Forest...

Does Hollywood use schools and teachers to pimp movies to young children? I suspect that they do. We already know that companies provide schools with products and supplies in exchange for in-class advertising and promotion. The following is a true story. (Although, in writing this, I have undoubtedly improved upon the grammar of the responses I received from the children.) Yesterday, I was talking to a friend's third-grade daughter about her school curriculum. I asked her what she was studying this week. "The Greeks," she said. I asked further, "Why are you studying the Greeks and what are you learning...

Hi! My name is John Martineu. Im 18 and a student of Dover high School in Dover Delaware. I have been assigned a final term project. We are to do a 20 page turn paper on different subjects. I am doing one on the collapse of communism. Since you coservatives know alot about this, I was wondering if you could help me out. First Id like to know what communism is and how it is different from socialism? Second I would also like to know about why Russia collapsed. Third could you tell me why you refer to certain people...

The Homework Delusion From the Education Gadfly: What do American students need? More homework! by David Skinner AMERICAN STUDENTS are being overworked, says an alarmed chorus of newspapers, magazines, and books. As described by the popular media and even some academics, the crisis is reminiscent of "Sister Carrie" and Industrial era child-labor scandals. "Overbooked: Four Hours of Homework for a Third Grader" blared a recent cover of People magazine. Beyond the headlines and behind the expert quotes, however, one discovers a story of political agendas, manipulated data, and a credulous public that wants to believe children are working oh-so-hard, even...

In a gruesome incident, a teacher allegedly blinded a nine-year-old student simply because he did not complete his homework. The incident took place at a government school in Rawatpura village in Madhya Pradesh. According to a complaint lodged with the police on Tuesday by the victim's father, Ajay Yadav was cruelly beaten up by the teacher, Sukh Devi, on December 11 for not completing his homework. The teacher was so furious that she poked her stick into Ajay’s right eye after beating him, the complaint said. The blow caused the pupil of Ajay’s eye to come out. A scared Sukh...

At the turn of the 20th century, Edward Bok, the powerful editor of the Ladies' Home Journal, launched an impassioned campaign against homework, arguing that it crippled the physical, mental and emotional health of children. He branded it ''a national crime at the feet of American parents.'' The U.S. commissioner of education agreed, telling Congress that homework was ''a prolific source of abuse.'' A year later, in 1901, California - along with dozens of local school districts across the United States - banned homework altogether for any public school child younger than 15. Today, concern about homework is again reaching...

<p>Audible groans begin at the end of class, build throughout the evening and turn into full-blown complaints by the next school day.</p> <p>"We don't like getting it, so we complain about it," Monique Fischer, 17, said of the homework doled out at Seaholm High School in Birmingham.</p>

[Letter:] My son recently started fractions in school. When his teacher assigned homework problems, my son struggled to understand his notes and recall the teacher's explanations. He finally came to me for help. To encourage him and help him understand that he can get this stuff, I told him, "That's easy!" and taught him some of the shortcuts I use to figure out fractions. I must have done the wrong thing, because he became terribly frustrated and wound up in tears. Most parents have heard their children complain, "I don't know how to do it!" The natural inclination is to...

A total lunar eclipse should be brilliantly visible against the full moon on early Thursday evening, May 15th. Since most of the storms seem to have blown past, let's hope the skies will be clear and not covered up. Homeschoolers should take advantage of this (early evening) eclipse time to get some dramatic "free science homework credit" by spending a few minutes outside watching the moom suddenly "almost vanish" in an orange glow of reflected earthlight.

I was informed today that my fifth-grader Granddaughter has an unusual homework assignment, in keeping with Black History Month...make a model of an Afro-American. Yep, they are to take modeling clay, or a similar medium, and make a "model" of an Afro-American. This opens a couple of questions: 1. If the model is not absolutely perfect, and one feature or another is not proportional, etc., will she be given a bad grade for "stereotyping"? 2. Will Black parents be brought in to file racism charges if the "models" are not perfect? And finally... 3. Will the class have an assignment...

All right, Now It is my turn... Jesu H. Christ, for God's sake!     I AM AN ONION, a damned vegetable, and   EVEN I   know enough European and U.S. history to know what this is about...! This is not about keeping any religion away from the common folk, government or its officials declaring or taking oaths with any words referencing God or a God, regardless of origin. The origination of this part of the Constitution either has been lost by the Congress and the Courts or is being prostituted by them for their own political benefit. This...