I found a link from this blog pointing to this post called Why Do We Still Get Homework? over at RhinoTimes.com.
Interesting read that says a lot of things I believed as a kid and still mostly believe. I especially like the Homework Rules section that they think should be the goal of every school. I like the idea lifted from Kohn’s “The Homework Myth”:
The default condition should be NO homework.
There will be times when kids need to do things at home, like interview their dad for their report entitled The Coolest Person In The World, but there should always be a reason why that assignment cannot be handled in class. I’m not buying the there’s not enough time for kids to learn everything in school argument. When I was in school, we had recess every day and another class that rotated between art, music, gym, etc. that was every day. Two sessions of every day dedicated to having some fun. And we seemed to learn quite a bit and didn’t have hardly any homework through grade school. If school’s are giving up on recess and other “fun” classes, there should be plenty of time for the core curriculum.
There is so much stuff in that whole article, but here are a couple thoughts that stand out.
- School is a job for kids. I don’t take work home with me. Ever. Almost nobody that I know takes work home with them. And when the situation arises where we have to work late or on the weekend or, god forbid, work on a project at home, we complain. If it happens often enough, we start looking for a new job. Yet, we accept a system that demands that kids spend all day in the classroom working and then more hours at home doing extra work for their job. And when was the last time they were not doing work over the weekend, holiday, and vacation.
- Parents are teachers but we have our own curriculum. There should be no homework that ever requires the parents to teach the kids how to do anything. I’m not excusing parents from educating their kids. But, us parents have our own responsibilities. It is my job to teach the kids how to fold their clothes, take a bath, walk safely to their friend’s house, and how to properly use the internet. I am not certified to teach my kids English, History, Science, or Math. That is why I pay to send them to school. I do not have a problem working with kids on assignments from time to time to bond with them, but I should not ever have to explain how to do what they are doing. Maybe I won’t know the answer. Maybe I’ll teach them the wrong way. I’ve already been warned by my mother-in-law, an excellent grade school teacher – now retired, that when we teach the kids to spell their name, we need to make sure we capitalize the first letter and none of the others. It seems that learning upper and lower case letters together is the way to go. I bet she learned that as part of job training that I’ve never had.
- 5 + 5 = 10 no matter how many times we do it. I used to get in trouble in school because I would do enough homework drills to understand what was going on and no more. Once I learned how to work with the quadratic equation, I stopped doing more homework problems where the point was to work that equation again. I always had bad homework scores, but always tested extremely high and ended up getting good grades all through school. Any homework that is assigned should be designed to reenforce the lesson. If the student understands the lesson, then they should be able to stop at five problems instead of the 30 that were given for homework.
There is also some good advice about how to approach the teacher and school if you have issues with the amount of homework your child has. Definitely a good read before you head to school ready to yell at the teacher.
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IN MY OPINION, you are right, parents should never have to teach new concepts in a homework setting. Homework should be practice for what has already been taught. BUT, every day for some student in a classroom “things happen.” Kids are pulled out of class for speech, occupational therapy, special phy ed, ESL sessions, testing, reading and math help, trips to see the principal, health appointments that perhaps could have been scheduled outside of the school or day or not, family trips, funerals, etc etc etc. Also, for some students they were there but didn’t listen or catch on but never brought that to the teacher’s attention. That classroom world goes on….what they miss can NEVER be made up. Much of teaching today is hands on, interactive and not a worksheet….That live interactive teaching and questioning time happened for the group…with or without all the students.
IN MY EXPERIENCE, concerning parents and homework…..there are several kinds of parents. Some parents help their children too much and the work is theirs as are the science fair projects etc. , some parents don’t support their parents at all with homework and projects, some parents don’t think kids should have homework at all (I tend to agree with this, but do have a few suggestions as to what parents should be doing with their students instead of homework) and some parents who want homework and are disappointed in the school or teacher if they do not assign enough homework.
My suggestions for parents instead of homework:
Grandma V,
it looks like we lost your suggestions. I would be interested in hearing them if you get a second to repost them.
Homework is fine and dandy on occassions where things happen. In my personal experience as a former professional grade school student is those special events don’t happen with most kids very often. So, most kids should have somewhere between none to hardly any homework on any normal night after a normal school day.
That is not what we are seeing in schools anymore.
I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Card that homework should be rarely, if ever, assigned, but that is mainly due to my own memories of school, where there was no homework until 7th grade, and those consisted of long-term projects which could not be done within the schedule limitations of the school day.
My children have all experienced the standardized test-driven teaching that seems to rule the schools these days; the majority of the effort is aimed towards preparing them to take the State Test rather than understanding the information. I hesitate to initiate conversation with the teacher(s) for fear of losing my temper, but will have to do something soon, because my children already are losing any of the joy they once had about the educational experience.
I look at some of my niece’s homework and I’m so confused. I don’t know if I could help her even if I wanted to. They’re paying $15,000/year for private school and they spend hours helping her with her homework! Unbelievable!
I’m going to check out that site you recommended. Thanks!
Read to your students.
Listen to them read to you.
Take turns reading a child selected book.
Read to your students.
Listen to them read to you.
Take turns reading a child selected book.
Read to your child. Listen to your child read to you. Share the reading of a child selected book.
Discuss what you read.: focus on the sequence of events, making inferences about what could happen on the next page, what different endings could the author have written, who are the characters? Which ones are most important in the story? What words might your child not know the meaning of? Look them up together. See how the meaning fits into the story. Persue any interests that occur from the story…use a child’s dictionary and encyclopedia.
Take your child to community events, museums, the public library, the airport, the depot, city hall, fire station, book stores, etc. Talk with them about who, what, when and why these places are important to your family.
Be sure you child sees you read and write. Encourage them to do the same independently.
Do craft and hobby projects that strenghten followng directions and patience.
Buy your student workbooks from the book store or Walmart. They keep them busy, emphasize the importance of practice and extend their attention span for learning activities.
GO TO THE PUBLIC LIBRARY…Everybody in the family should get books and value them during the time they are at the home.
Spend time at the public parks so that your child gets to play with lots of different children. Observe, keep them safe, but let them learn to play together.
I know these things just sound like things that good moms and dads do any way but….you would be surprised how many children do not receive these advantages. In some homes one parent may have to do these things because one parent is either absent or does not participate, but ithat can be done. If parents made a habit of doing things like the above, they would certainly fill up any time that might have been allotted for homework and in the big picture, more beneficial to students.
Enough…MOM
One more thing….I think you might be surprised as to how many interruptions the average student has in his learning day….appts, meetings, testing, special help, etc.As a parent all you can do is try to minimize your children’s interruptions…but many either cannot or are not kept to a minimum. …. and then you have to remember the poor listening and legitimate distractions in a classroom of 25 plus 1-3 adults. Mainstreaming effects everyone in the classroom. (Add to that the fact that in 19970 someone in their infinite wisdom thought that classrooms without walls werea good idea. ) MOM
Just another perspective… I’m an American dad in Germany where my son Christopher has just started first grade. School is only 1/2 day here, and they assign homework every day except Friday. (The obvious point is that 1/2 day school puts a real crimp on 2 career families, and that’s one of my big complaints about living in Germany).
The homework seems to a reasonable amount and at a level appropriate for a first grader, usually 1 or 2 sheets that should take no more than 20 or 30 minutes. But compared to my own experience in school, where homework was the exception rather than the rule, even in high school, watching my first grader do homework every day is a strange experience.
I guess I don’t have a big problem with that amount of work. My concern comes when the kids have more than one teacher and they each give no more than 20 or 30 minutes of work. I started getting pulled out into classes with different teachers in about third grade and ended up with 3 different teachers for different subjects on many years.
I disagree. As a teacher of younger children, homework is essential to practice the skills that have been taught during the school day. Many parent’s do not take it upon themselves to use everyday moments to practice math facts, or read interesting pieces of literature to their children. Homework not only teaches students responsibility, it holds them accountable for their own learning. I am not an educatory who belives in bogging students down with unnecessayr busy work, however I do think it is important to have a connection between what was done all day in school and what is going on at home.