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Schools Banning Homework?
theodp writes "Alarmed by indicators of student stress like cheating and substance abuse, some SF Bay Area schools are reducing an education staple: homework. Homework is mostly banned at Menlo Park's Oak Knoll School, but some teachers apparently have higher 'expections' [sic]."
like good grammar? FTA: . Reading Log - children should be reading a minimum of 15 every night.
Um. 15 what?
Your sig(k) has been stolen. There is a puff of smoke!
Given the order of magnitude of what is expected of my little cousins, the 15 probably refers to 15 minutes.
I'd be pulling my child out of that school with their "expections," not only due to their poor grammar, but also for their militant view on homework. Or maybe things have just changed a lot since I was in grade school.
:q!
How come the ol' "My homework is driving me to smoke pot" trick didn't work when I was in school?
Similes are like metaphors
These helicopter parents whining about homework need to take their kids and shove them up their ass. It looks like they never wanted to release their kids anyway....
I didn't have homework for most of elementary school. In fact, I remember when we finally did start getting it in the sixth grade, and then it was less than 3 hours a week or so. Is dumping lots of homework on kids these days a new thing or did I just go to some hippie school? I think an important part of my development was to have time to do kids things, and even learn and explore on my own. If I'm spending all my thinking time on the things that they want me to learn, where am I supposed to get any creativity?
"They already do 6 hours of work in school... can't give them more work... blah blah"
How about we wipe their tushies and tell them they won't have to work hard to make something of themselves? Howabout just have them skip college (whole lotta more school work plus paying work)? Just tell them that a real work day is only about 6 hours, and you never have to take some work home with you, or stay late to finish that work so you don't have to take it home?
Why does it seem that the USA is progressively skimping on education? Is it any wonder that India and Japan (I am sure there are others) are surpassing us in general academic, and therefore work, achievement?
And yes, I graduated high school, got a BSEE, have worked in industry for 5 years, am going for a masters, and I did skim the TFA.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
This is silly. Homework is an important requirement in learning. The clear solution is 30 mg of Prozac a day. This has the added bonus of promoting abstinence. Win-Win.
...do first graders need homework? Surely the first few grades of school are for getting the basics down, rather than attempting to cram as much as possible into the kids' heads?
You can learn a lot about a person if you just take the time to inject them with sodium pentathol
Maybe teachers will start doing their jobs now. Too many ended up just not wanting to deal with kids at all, they just told their students to sit down and shut up for an hour and then assigned homework that should have been covered in class.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
I wonder how they are going to explain the drop in grades? Probably blame it on the teachers or some such.
Homework exists to reinforce the learning from the schoolday. It is not punishment, and it is not surplus work to keep the devil from taking over their souls.
As much as I hated homework (even moreso because I learned very well during the class), I have to admit that it does reinforce the learning. It's the 'doing' that reinforces the 'learning'.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
Homework, sheesh, its amazing what happens when people try to be nice but stop thinking..
It used to be that there were three groups of kids in a clasroom. One was average, one was above average, and one was below average. The teacher taught to the average group. The above average kids got bored, but hopefully were given more work if they enjoyed it. The lower than average kids did work at home in order to keep up with the average. All was good.
Then we decided to be nice. So, instead of letting the lower-than-average kids deal with being such, we'll teach to their level so everything can be done in school. Well, that left most of the kids bored, and the nostalgic feeling of homework was going away. So, they started giving homework to everyone.
Parents liked homework too, because it occuppied their kids time for them. So teachers gave more, and than the kids complained or rebelled. It's just plain sad.
One of my teachers did it best. He wrote an assignment on the board every day at the beginning of class that was due the next day, and then proceeded to teach it. As soon as you understood it, you stopped listening and started on the work. The lower-than-average kids needed help, so the higher-than-average helped them when they were finished with it themselves. There was rarely homwork for anyone, unless they needed it to keep up with the class (and that was known by whether they could do the work in class.) I consider that teacher the best one. He gave work for learning it, not just to give it.
Have you read my journal today?
Kids are under increasing stress to outdo their peers in the rush for university places. I'm feeling the pressure at A Level, and I've no doubt that kids younger than me are sick of it as well. It's not just homework, either, it's all the extra-curricular rubbish they're pushed to do in order to "stand out" from other applicants.
I'd welcome a ban on extra homework - besides what's normal for children that young, i.e. spellings and so on - until they reach Secondary School age. Give them a little bit of time to be themselves before rushing them into a world of hard work and sparse praise.
I think it's ridiculous to restrict the time they have to play when they're all so young, and we'll end up with a generation of robots if all we learn to value is grades.
Homework is not a requirement for learning - practice is. With 6 hours a day of school, minus 1.5 - 2 hours a day for lunch, fine arts, etc... my students need more time to practice long division, work on drafts of their writing assignments, and read about science and social studies. I focus on more interactive learning during my classroom time, so I send reading and practice home as homework.
A better system would give students time each day, or at least a few days a week, in supervised study hall. Staff it with student teachers or assistants capable of helping with questions (which parents often can't). A longer school day with me would work too.
The real issue is that all too often homework is given because it is expected by parents, and is just busywork. The "I had lots of homework as a kid so my kids should too" attitude of some parents is not beneficial. Homework shouldn't be a punishment or given just because teachers are supposed to. The question is, what do students need to learn what they are supposed to learn?
I was about to say this is a good thing because frankly the problem is that teachers don't freaking teach anything in class anymore. Some of you who are older might not realize how bad it is but classrooms have been dumbed down horribly by the lowest common denominator problem. Basically the instructor is lazy or has to explain things really slowly such that any halfway smart kid will just go to sleep. They then make up for it with stupid amounts of homework.
So reducing homework and maybe making teachers actually teach sounds good at first though but then I remembered all the busy work. So how about instead of making our kids waste a full 40 hours a week sitting in class snoozing we give them less school and actually make sure they do their learning at home at their own pace.
If http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml/ wasnt bad enough to push the stress limits of an already completely fucked up education system, lets throw in some wild theories about whats causing stress in todays children. Maybe it isnt "homework" but the straight from school to the factory education model we use to teach children today. I've had the unfortunate experience of working as a corrections officer and a factory worker, and I can tell you that there are frightening similiarities between the three. The problem that is well known about the education system is its inability to let children accel at their own pace, when in fact, all the current system does is keep the smartest right in line with the dumbest. At least back in the day before political correctness, the dumb ass of the class was left way behind and the rest were forced to rise to an artificial standard... today we have "No Child Left Behind".... I cant wait for the re-runs "Ow my Balls"...
20th century Marxism is not progress...
And today, when they start giving homework at k12, one really wonders what it is about...helping the children learn, or attempting to prove to the parents that they are trying to educate the children? There is no scientific proof that homework generically helps grades. Additional work, especially with a teacher, on the other *does* improve grades...I wonder if the North American school system is trying to substitute homework for time with student and class sizes?
ttyl
Farrell
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
I read somewhere that schools in Sweden (at least in the '80s) didn't give homework. How true is that?
I wonder how they are going to explain the drop in grades? Probably blame it on the teachers or some such.
Oh hell no...they'll blame it on being "underfunded."
I think you must have just gone to one of those hippie schools. Like me. You know, one of those schools where they had freaky programs like art and music and history class actually taught something about the constitution. Most young people I meet today not only haven't a clue how a piano works, they seem to have no familiarity with the bill of rights, either.
assanine, I do see a problem with the homework load kids have in lower grades (as many others have pointed out). My son is in 4th grade, my daughter in Kindergarten. While my daughter doesn't have much homework to speak of, my son does, and has since 1st grade (in the same school as my daughter) have at least 1 - 2 hours per night. He's a very bright kid, but I see him often times burning out due to sheer load. Sadly, most of it too seems like busy work. I think this is a very damaging trend in education today. Sure, highschool and college brings a heavy work load, but at a time in your life where you have the ability to look ahead in order to see the value in it. My son on the other hand is at the age where life is very much about the next 10 minutes. Things are broken.
I agree that balance is key to slowly moving children into the different stages of life, and getting them acclimated to the real world. Ultimately, they will be able to stand on their own as independents.
What I'm curious about, is how have things changed since I was growing up (I'm 35) for an average child, and how much the day-to-day school experience differs from what I was brought up in (I went to private, Catholic schools)?
I will say that I recall having a low work vs. play and recreation ratio in the early years...that gradually changed so that as I matured, I was given more work, more responsibility, and that of course related to homework as well. I mean, I'd get close to nothing in 1st grade...maybe 20-30 minutes of homework in 4/5th grade....then by high school I'd say on average anywhere from none, to 30 minutes to a couple hours each night, depending on the classes I was taking.
The key thing I remember throughout, however, was that from my parents, my teachers, and my peers, there was always an expectation to succeed, to try your hardest, and to do your very best. That environment gave me the support and willingness to push myself harder, and ultimately become a productive and successful person. I think this environment of expectation and support in the different areas (parents, teachers, peers) is key for a young person to develop as individuals and fulfill their potential as people. I think things fall down when there is lack of support in one of those areas, or when the areas don't mesh....particularly from the parent and teacher side.
While I'm at it, I'll also mention that all kids should not only have to do some kind of homework (and get a job when they're old enough...say 12 yrs old)....they should also not all get a trophy just for participating in something. Doing so shows kids that they don't have to work hard for anything, and that they are entitled for no good reason. I think there are way too many parents out there today who think children are somehow adults already, and that they deserve all consideration and entitlement that an adult does....that somehow children possess adult-like intellect and emotions...and that they come out of the womb as 21 year olds. I think this type of parental behavior damages children much more than any possible 'bruising of self-esteem' that everyone seems to concern themselves with these days. It teaches children to become manipulative and difficult.
they just shouldn't GRADE homework, well IMO anyway. One of my favorite profs in college always assigned us homework but never collected it. Why? His philosophy was that he would know if you were actually doing your homework by how you did on the test. He would assign problems then publish the solutions on the web. And when you went to his office hours you could ask him ANY question you wanted to about the homework. Other profs who grade homework would always dance around certain questions because they didn't want to "give away the answer". What BS! I learn as much, if not more, from trying problems and being able to see my mistakes then by making sure I need to do everything perfectly all the time. Profs would usually post answers to the homeworks, but unless I made copies of what I did, I wouldn't get the homework I handed in back until weeks afterwards. By then many of the lessons have already been forgotten.
Isn't grading by both testing AND homework implying that people cheat on homework? If you believe that everyone is honestly do their homework, then the homework should show whether or not they trully understand(not MEMORIZE per se) the material. Or if you have tests then don't collect homework because the students will have to prove their mettle on the test anyway. I think it would be great if classes had either only test or only homework/discussion grades. Each would work better in certain situations, but the whole idea of having to be perfect all the time without being able to consult reference materials or collaborate with others against the spirit of education. Also, it doesn't represent the "real world" at all. I know bridge makers aren't allowed to make mistakes, but all bridge designs have to be signed off by several people and they are allowed to collaborate with co-workers and several people have to inspect the design and put their own reputation and even wallets on the line when they sign off on the design. This isn't allowed on tests or even homework theoretically. So why grade it?
Monstar L
Speaking as a teacher, I agree with this move. The problem with homework (at least in the schools where I have worked) is that it is expected to be graded and counted toward the overall academic progress of the child. This is an issue because as a teacher I cannot trust that the work done at home is the child's own. Aside from the easy things to catch like copying there are a myriad of parents and tutors who will use homework to artificially boost a child's grades.
Homework should be used for practice, but not count for the final grade.
-CGP
Silver Clipboard: Time Management Tips
We've come to expect that our kids do tons of homework each and every night, and I have many colleagues who parrot that idea. When I press them as to why, they basically tell me that they need to practice doing homework. Rarely is the question answered that the lesson needs to be reinforced or whatnot.
We're in the day and age of "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB), the current incarnation of educational reform that has been around since the sixties. I live in an average-to-slightly-upper middle class neighborhood, and the vast difference among my students academically is astounding. 1/3 of my kids in the classroom have IEPs (Individual Educational Plans, which have goals tailored to the individual, and you must follow them, even if it was written in another district before the student moved to yours), and gathering homework on a regular basis from everybody is time consuming due to the amount of kids not doing it to the different expectations NCLB has forced.
The reality is that very few parents are willing or able to help at home. Kids are overextended with activities (kids are doing extra-curriculars at an all-time high), or they're latchkey, or they're in daycare for extended time. I usually get done in FIVE minutes one-on-one what could be done in half an hour at home, and of course I take that route when I can. I've moved on to pushing some work back to the next day instead of giving it for homework (yes, I still give homework, just not nearly as much as when I started, and now it's mostly reading), due to the fact that while they are learning skills they should have an opportunity to learn it from a person that is getting paid for teaching it, and it highly qualified to do it (yes, there are teachers who are not highly qualified, or highly motivated, but that's for another thread I think).
Kids who don't finish something in a reasonable timeframe in the classroom will have more homework than those who do. It's easy to tell, once you get to know the kids, whether they don't understand or are malingering. I do, however, like to give reading homework for many reasons. For one, it helps them become better readers, and they actually DO IT, especially if they self-select the reading. Another reason is that, in my grade, I encourage the kids to read with parents or siblings. I get a lot of feedback about how that has been good for the family as a whole over time.
I can't speak to the upper grades, but I know many teachers who see the same thing (the kids who can do it already, the kids who can't at home, and the middle ground) in middle school and high school. There's no easy answer, but looking back at the history of education, there was an extended period (covering DECADES) where there was virtually no homework for the kids. I wouldn't say a blanket "no homework at all" for the upper levels, but I'd certainly be in favor of limiting it to an hour or less. Just food for thought.
Yeah, probably switched topics too much, but I have no time to re-read this because I have essays to grade...
I'm pro-accordion and I vote
I believe the teacher was trying to spell "expectorations", as it is important to know how to spit properly.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I no did homework four school and me smart today
Will program for karma.
the grading? Have the student get 2 grades. The first would be a grade at school and the second is the grade of homework? That way, the parent can see what the real difference is. Of course, that will leave some parents to be upset, but just explain to them, that you prefer to grade their child, not the parents work. :) Sadly, some parents will still not take the hint.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
One wonders if the 2nd grade teachers at Menlo Park ES have ever actually raised a 7 year old themselves. The average 7 year old has an attention span of about 15 minutes. I've raised 2 myself, and coached hundreds of others in both basketball and baseball. The cognitive skills these teachers seem to expect simply are not there yet. The idea that you can give them a weeks worth of homework on Monday and expect them to remember to bring in Friday without mom helping is ludicrious. The only way it is going to happen is if mom and dad help them schedule out the work all week, and then personally put it in the backpack Thursday night. Even with that, a lot of the kids will walk out of the house Friday morning without it if mom isn't there to hand them the backpack on the way out the door. Punishing the kid for being a normal 7 year old is simply cruel.
It seems as though the school has outsourced reading, handwriting, math, and spelling to mom and dad. What exactly are they doing all day in school?
I just graduated high school last May, so I understand this system of homework. I'm also in the military, so I understand what it's like putting in long hours and a good work ethic. (just establishing my credibility, folks)
Homework, I feel, is essential in some areas, especially in mathematics and science. I found myself earning higher grades on tests and quizzes when I did the homework. It's a great way to practice the material studied in class. What didn't help is my parents did not know the material. I had to go online a lot and research tips and other educational materials on my own to help me understand better.
This may be a little off topic, but I feel it needs mentioning. The school system nowadays, as I have experienced it, are focusing more on getting students to pass the yearly standardized state test. The HSPA (NJ) and TAX (TX) tests were all we were prepared for as well as the AP* exams in my advanced courses. Granted, it is in our best interest to pass, but when you're in AP English IV looking for grammatical errors in sentences for two dittos/sheets, back and front, and you spend two days on the material, all because it's on the state test, there's definitely a problem.
*AP stands for advanced placement which is the equivalent to one college semester of that course; see Advanced Placement, College Board
Thems fightin' words! Now, if you had mentioned Digg, I'd have agreed. Digg is populated by the very kids who aren't doing homework, don't want to, and wouldn't recognize a brain cell if it bit them. At least on Slashdot, even the morons can tell a packet from a rectum. Er, I hope. Otherwise, there're going to be some interesting network connections.
Boy, I do not follow that reason at all. Most people graduate from high school at age 18 or so, so a 40th reunion would make someone 58 years old. I see no reason at all why someone who is only 58 necessarily should be retiring. It's a perfectly reasonable age to retire if you've already saved up enough money not to need to work, but then so is age 35, but there is no reason someone should be required to retire just because they have reached the ripe "old" age of 58.
I think your point might've been that, at 58, one is probably past their prime, but that's far from being a fair assumption as well. I had an excellent calculus teacher in college who must have been in his 70's. His mind was certainly sharp enough to teach calculus at a college level; in fact, he was sharper than most of the other college professors I've ever had. And he certainly had his teaching style perfected by then. If you had the proper background and simply came to class and paid attention, it was almost impossible not to learn the material. As a matter of fact, I myself never did any homework (he assigned it but did not require you to turn it in), but his lectures were so clear that I managed to get near perfect scores on all the tests simply by sitting there in class and listening closely to what he said, and I had failed the same calculus course prior to taking it from him.
The teachers are in a hard place. Teachers will have parents complaining about giving too much homework, while parents in the same class will complain about not enough homework.
What, me worry?
Homework didn't start until I was in 6th grade. Even then, it wasn't anything time-consuming. There was still ample freedom in my schedule for soccer, playing with friends, having dinner, taking a shower, watching some TV with the family, and going to bed before 9pm.
The amount of work did gradually increase, until high school when there was several hours per day to be completed. But since I was in school during the day for only 6 hours, that still left three hours to finish whatever was assigned before the 'rents came home from work. Larger projects obviously took more time, but that's life. College, naturally, demanded more.
Now, I have two sons. The third grader can read at a sixth grade level, but he was taking home reading material to practice reading 15-30 minutes per day outside of class starting in kindergarten. He was also taking home math and weekly projects, as well as one or two sheets per day that were "required" coloring. The only thing different for him starting in first grade was that the coloring assignments became penmanship assignments. The amount of work has only increased, both in quantity and complexity (I can understand the complexity point, obviously). He spends three hours a day doing homework. He's 8. I didn't do that much work until I was 15.
The younger boy is in kindergarten. He's there three hours a day. My wife and I have sat in on his classes. These kids are busy! They have rotating stations, music lessons, gym class, art class, their time is filled to the brim for those three hours. He brings home enough work with him every day to fill up another two hours if we bother to make him actually do it correctly. We don't. In fact, we encourage him to go out and play more. He's 5. No, he is not as far along as his older brother when that boy was at this point, but then again, neither was I.
Our parents, upon hearing how much our children are doing, simply shake their heads. Both of the grandfathers are engineers. Both of them recall kindergarten as a time for naps and crayons. Reading and the alphabet didn't start for them until first grade. Homework didn't start until high school. They obviously turned out fine. Both grandmothers are college-educated as well.
As for me and the missus, I graduated top of my class in high school and college, and make excellent money working from home. She's a teacher. Both of us are successful, well-adjusted, and intelligent. We didn't have homework in grade school, and we turned out just fine. We see what our kids' schools are doing to them, and we can see the educational benefits. We can also see the stress and anxiety. They don't need to learn that at 8 and 6. There's plenty of time for that when they are older. Their education will not "suffer" if I do my job as a parent and help them learn to slow down and enjoy life when they can, and to work hard when they must.
Oh yeah, let's get rid of homework because the poor kiddies are stressed out.
Hell yes. This article isn't talking about high school, or even junior high school, it's talking about freaking elementary school. When you're 8 years old you damn well shouldn't have to be stressed out every day, and only a sociopath would think otherwise. These are not the ages to start teaching kids about the "real world". They can stress out for the next 70 years of their life, why can't we let them be a kid for just a few years?
I went to second grade in the Menlo Park school district, the location of Oak Knoll School, which is described in the article. I went to Willow School. I don't know how much has changed since 1973, but back then, it was a low-income area, with really horrible schools. I remember learning to flake loose paint off of the buildings with a pin at recess. They had a government-subsidized breakfast program, and my parents offered to pay for it, but the school thought they were just being proud, and told them it was really OK. There was not much learning going on. The teacher would play records, read books to us, and give us toys and comic books as prizes for good behavior. There was no homework. One big reason we moved after that year was to get me out of that school. However, even though the next place we landed was much more affluent (I went to Forest Grove School in Pacific Grove, Ca.), there was still no homework.
Today, I have two kids in grade school, and I do think they get too much homework. (A lot of it is busywork, like word searches, or 50 arithmetic problems when 10 would have done it.) My impression is that the school assigns a lot of homework because the parents expect it. Real estate has tripled since we bought our house here, and I think large amounts of homework reassure affluent parents that their kids are getting a good education. Also, the area is majority Korean, so the culture leans that way too.
Find free books.
When I arrived in the US, I realized my fellow 5th graders had no idea about geometry, sets and a whole bunch of other mathermatical concepts that I thought were completely basic. In 9th grade geometry, they basically made me repeat the math I learned in 4th grade. And I'll admit it: I was totally baked in very many of my geometry classes and it was still an easy A.
But what I really wanted to say is this: I don't dispute the results of the study. I can easily imagine that homework doesn't help American students do better at the American grade school curriculum. That's because in America, the slowest kid in the class sets the pace for everyone else, and that kid dosn't do homework anyway. No wonder it takes no work to keep up! But we absolutely can aim higher standards. Kids are capable of learning a lot more than people expect. Many can learn Calculus before they enter high school. Homeschooled kids with competent mentors do this all the time. My dad was teaching calculus when he was 16 (his dad taught math and there was no other qualified sub in their little town).
If doing homework doesn't show any benefit in how kids do in school, that screams to me that whatever they're doing in school is messed up. I suspect they dumbed down everything so that doing homework doesn't teach you anything you didn't already learn in class. Now (surprise, surprise!) they release a study showing that doing homework doesn't help you perform in class, and they react to it by cancelling homework. How stupid! Why don't they instead set higher goals in school, so that you would learn something important when doing homework?
It prepares kids for 10x the stress levels that they'll receive once they're on their own. Homework is also good - it keeps kids off the street and off the TV. Life's hard, little folks. Deal with it.
US public schools suck as it is. If they also abolish homework they'll be even more of a laughing stock for the rest of the world and in 10-15 years US of A will be paying dearly for this decision. I bet kids in China, India and Russia don't dare to open their mouths about getting too much homework.
From:
http://www.worldtrans.org/whole/schoolteacher.txt
"After an adult lifetime spent teaching school I believe the method
of mass-schooling is the only real content it has, don't be fooled into
thinking that good curriculum or good equipment or good teachers are the
critical determinants of your son and daughter's schooltime. All the
pathologies we've considered come about in large measure because the
lessons of school prevent children from keeping important appointments
with themselves and with their families, to learn lessons in self-
motivation, perseverance, self-reliance, courage, dignity and love and
lessons in service to others, which are among the key lessons of home
life.
Thirty years ago these things could still be learned in the time
left after school. But television has eaten up most of that time, and a
combination of television and the stresses peculiar to two-income or
single-parent families have swallowed up most of what used to be family
time. Our kids have no time left to grow up fully human, and only thin-
soil wastelands to do it in. A future is rushing down upon our culture
which will insist that all of us learn the wisdom of non-material
experience; a future which will demand as the price of survival that we
follow a pace of natural life economical in material cost. These
lessons cannot be learned in schools as they are. School is like
starting life with a 12-year jail sentence in which bad habits are the
only curriculum truly learned. I teach school and win awards doing it."
Homework only makes the problem worse!
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Its hard enought to get a good raid party going in World of Warcraft without eliminating a huge portion of the player base due to homework.
All through high school, one of my teachers kept saying, "If they did away with homework, and both shifted the start time and extended the day by an hour, we'd get so much more done." - And it's true. We could have finished the curriculum maybe a month or so earlier than expected, which would pave the way for either more advanced subjects or more time off between study periods, which equals rested and ready students.
Of course, this is the high school level I'm talking about, an age group that generally doesn't "wake up" until midday anyway. I know *I* was a zombie until about 10:30 AM. Actually, I still am...
But anyway, the only "homework" I can see as being necessary is studying, and learning to study, which is absolutely necessary when the college/university level hits. When I went through school, I don't think - or at least, I don't recall - that it was ever actually taught (or it was taught in a backwards way), and as a result, I never developed good study habits - I'm guessing my classmates, excepting those who developed their own, were in a similar boat.
Screw the rules, I have green hair!
if I did math homework I would get grades in the 80s or 90s. If I didn't, I would barely pass a test or even fail.
....Don't get me started on the worthless "grading" in college these days.
Homework works for you, that's great. Homework was a waste of childhood for me. If I could do the last three math problems (always the hardest) why did I need to do the other 30? If I got an "A" on the test who cares how much or little of the homework I did? And if some child does every last bit of the homework but bombs the test, they are still not learning the material, and need a different way to learn it. We need to get rid of any attachment of social value to grades and get back to teaching the kids the skills need to get along in the world.
We are all just people.
Stress is part of working in the real world. If they don't learn how to cope with stress when they are kids, what are they going to do when they try to make it in the workforce?
While I don't think that kids should be put through unnaturally highly stressful conditions with unrealistic expectations, the pressure of dealing with deadlines with serious consequences for failure is just how the real world works, and to not give children the opportunity to develop their own mechanisms for coping with the stress of being in such circumstances is setting them up for probable failure in the future.
If you don't try to get a person to stretch a person past their own comfort zone, they cannot reasonably be expected to grow. Homework accomplishes this.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
her biggest problem is dealing with boredom at school.
That was a problem for me in school as well, however for me the boredom manifest as discipline problems because I didn't respect my teachers, because they were assigning me (in my perspective at the time) remedial work. It lead to huge amounts of anger, frustration, etc. for me, my parents, and my teachers. Life would have been much better for everyone involved if could have spent that time in class learning something. I don't mean to tell you how to raise you kids, but I know what a difference it would have made for me if I had been allowed (or even encouraged) independent study during the class times that I was "bored".
We are all just people.
Since you're the only one that disagreed with me that showed any ability to debate at all, I'll respond to you.
There's 2 types of homework: Busywork, and learning reinforcement. (Despite the other response that says learning can't be reinforced, this not true. If you do something over and over, you remember it easier.)
For young students, how much is there really to reinforce? It's pretty much all just memorization, and you either memorize it or you don't. I suspect the 'homework' for these students was busywork, and not good for them, hence the negative relationship.
For older students, there's more thought and less memorization involved. Essays, word-problems, calculations, etc. This is a behavior that is being learned, and not just memorization.
The final thing to realize is that not all homework is equal. Even if the teacher means well and wants to reinforce the day's lesson, they might assign the 'odd problems' (you know, the ones that have the answers in the back) so that the student can 'check their own work.' I think I was the only kid in the school that didn't cheat on that. (Mainly because it was even more boring than doing the problems.)
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
I went to San Rafael High ('87) and while it wasn't the worst education I could imagine, it certainly left a lot to be desired -- my councellor sucked, and in the end I got far less out of high school than I did the 3 years of private school I had before that.
Actually, I dropped-out in my final semester because my english teacher failed me and I didn't want to do summer-school....
twenty years later I decided to go to college and hit the 98th percentile on my english scores for the entrance exam.... Not that I'm holding a grudge or anything, but I think the evidence shows that Mrs. McLellan (I think that was her name) was a pompous horses-ass for failing me. (okay, so I'm not the best speller, but my comprehension, vocabulary, and grammer skills are well above average).
(I also got failed by my algebra teacher -- I just finished an "upgrading course" to refresh my high-school math, and got an A+ doing 2 years of high-school math in 6 weeks.)
The teachers were (in general) actually too stuck on homework -- I was able to absorb the material without doing the homework, but for some teachers... well, they didn't like me skipping the homework, so they failed me. C'est la vie -- I hated high school, but now I'm enjoying going back to "finish" my education.
Back then, the graduation requirements included eight semesters of physical education. I looked at their current requirements and the curriculum has only gotten worse since I attended.
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. - Dr. Seuss
*In 9th grade geometry, they basically made me repeat the math I learned in 4th grade.*
In America, most kids don't get to geometry until TENTH GRADE! It is absolutely learnable six years earlier. Most kids should be at calculus by 10th grade. The American math curriculum is a punch line, treading water from 3rd grade until high school when, for some, a modicum of teaching resumes. A lot of essential math is NEVER taught: logic? non-Euclidean geometry? probability and statistics? linear algebra? These are basic building blocks of rational thought.
But if you're qualified in math, why on Earth would you pursue a career as a math teacher? Making a quarter what you would in the private sector? Enduring unrelenting intellectual abuse from a school administration? And teaching a curriculum six years too late to students who have had every iota of motivation and curiosity programmed out of them?
No Child Left Behind = No Child Learns Anything
-- "The only thing that is ever new in the world is the history you do not know." -- Harry Truman
Having taught for a bit in Korea, I wouldn't wish their academic life on any child. The kids spend so much time studying that they really do nothing else. There is no way a fifth grader should be in extra tutoring academies until 9 at night, then have to go home and do homework. They are often stressed always tired, and most seem to have lost the ability to creatively apply anything they have learned. As far as North America goes it seems to be the exact opposite. When I went through school, partially in the US partially in Canada, I never really had to try. I rarely did homework and when I did I did an extremely half assed job, and I always did well enough on the tests to get a good grade in my classes. University was initially a bit of a shock because I really didn't have to learn any good student tactics to do well in high school. I did adjust eventually, but it involved actually doing some work. I won't even go into the extreme over coddling of kids that seems to be taking place these days. I do think however different people progress at different paces, and to think that geometry, which many students could learn easily in fourth grade, should be taught in grade four I think is a bit of an overstatement. Ideally, I think it should be somewhere between the two extremes, preferably with some emphasis on challenging the kids who need to be challenged and helping those who need it. Trouble is it's not just the school systems it's the entire society, being smart is not cool, children watching TV for hours a day is accepted and the norm. Parents often do not take their responsibilities seriously enough. If you have kids, and don't have time to spend with them on their homework, you are probably a very bad parent. I know economics does make this impractical for some, but for many the choice is between buying shit and making more money to buy shit, and spending time with kids.