<p>Homework is extra practice. Which is why my math teacher says that homework is optional. However, if you aren’t doing well in the class, he reserves the ability to make it required. And if you want tutoring, you have to show him proof of an attempt at the homework.</p>
<p>Someone needs to prove to me that the poor work longer hours than the upper middle class/rich. I have never seen any poor person work as many hours as my dh and myself. Most of the poor people I know don’t even work 40 hours. Show me the numbers please.</p>
<p>momof3greatgirls:</p>
<p>I’ve been poor and I’ve been economically “comfortable” too. I can tell you I’ve always worked a LOT of hours. When I was poor I worked 2 and 3 jobs to try to make ends meet. Not all poor are the same. Just like not all wealthy are the same. I hate generalizations. I realize statistically we are going to see a link between SES and doing well in school. I think there are MANY factors at play, and the factors are not the same for everyone.</p>
<p>Homework was always optional during the elementary/middle-school years in this household. I made that clear to DS teachers at the start of every school year; no point in trying to “involve” us in the education “process” (silly ones anyway), no point asking us to check his working indicating we’d seen it or sending home notes for incomplete/missing assignments. That’s between kiddo and teacher, not parents and teacher. “We” do not have a homework requirement; we did not choose to home school. Kid is in high school now with no detrimental effects (but does the homework required there). So, my conclusion is that, for our school district anyway, homework provided no meaningful educational purpose and only interfered with family time.</p>
<p>I agree that the President’s reasoning is faulty. The problem is not homework per se, but badly designed assignments and excessive quantities of work to be done at home. The busywork nonsense really needs to stop! My 8th grader just had to design and draw her “dream house” for literature class–a complete waste of time and, IMO, an undesirable emphasis on materialism. It also pointed out economic differences among the children, since what my D wanted in her dream house, many of her classmates already have in their real houses, LOL. </p>
<p>I understand why the novel they’re reading prompted the assignment, but that project was too superficial to really benefit their comprehension of the plot. Most of the “creative” (read “craft”) projects suffer from being misguided in some way. Typically, any learning to be gleaned occurs in the first 15 minutes of execution, and after that it’s meaningless tedium. And I particularly object to projects that waste money and resources, like making an edible model of the earth with baking products and sugary junk food.</p>
<p>That said, I’m also not completely comfortable with the trend in our district to downplay homework and put more emphasis on GRADED classwork. I’m sure the motive is also an attempt to level the playing field as far as parental assistance. But what is happening for my D is that there’s a lesson, and then she is required to do a lab, worksheet or some other classroom exercise employing the new concepts. It is then collected and graded, sometimes in lieu of assigning and grading homework. The teachers assert that if the students are paying attention, they should have no problem doing the classwork well. For some children, this simply isn’t true. They need time and a lot of practice to assimilate new concepts. Grading classwork rather than homework, means they are assessing the students’ mastery of the material based on their first opportunity for practice. D consistently gets A’s on tests, but B’s and C’s on classwork for this reason.</p>
<p>ChoatieMom,</p>
<p>How courageous of you. I would have never thought to rebel like that! LOL!</p>
<p>We just dutifully did every stupid, mundane, repetitive, boring worksheet that got sent home.</p>
<p>I liked to see what they were doing in school, and I liked to help them if they needed it - in those cases, we would have opted to do the homework and help.</p>
<p>But the 50 math problems on a concept they already understood? We probably would have skipped those.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Sounds like you don’t know too many poor folks and the effects of the post-2008 economy . </p>
<p>Most of my childhood classmates’ parents were working 2-3 jobs 6-7 days/week just to bring in enough for necessities like food, shelter, school fees, etc. My own parents worked 14.5 hour days/7 days a week for more than a decade. </p>
<p>Also, almost every one of us kids had both parents who worked long hours so most of us were your proverbial latchkey kids of the 1980’s.</p>
<p>Cobrat: “…working 2-3 jobs 6-7 days/week just to bring in enough for necessities like food, shelter, school fees, etc. My own parents worked 14.5 hour days/7 days a week for more than a decade.”</p>
<p>Sounds familiar. I’ve done that. And fed my family for a week off of about $30.</p>
<p>Thanks, @cromette. This is the letter I sent to our son’s principal early in his elementary years and that I forwarded to his teachers thereafter. They seemed to love the fact that we had no ridiculous requirements of them. </p>
<hr>
<p>Dear <principal>—</principal></p>
<p>I was disappointed to see the item “The Elimination of the Zero for Homework” in this week’s newsletter, not because of the change in consequence, but for the misguided statements about homework. Let me state my and DH’s position clearly first, and then I will clarify. We do not buy into the myth that homework has much academic value, especially in the elementary school years. We believe that this widely-held idea is based on misconceptions of how children learn and a misguided focus on competitiveness that has left our children and families with conflict and little free time. In our household, homework IS an option that is left up to DS. </p>
<p>That “Homework is an essential part of your child’s academic success” is simply false. Many believe that homework is a practice that promotes achievement and the development of discipline and responsibility. Of the few studies that have been conducted, there is no substantiated evidence for these statements. Supporting data for this premise are weak or non-existent. Studies that have seriously looked at the homework/success relationship have, instead, exposed the meaninglessness of most take-home assignments and have been an indictment on the content of what schools approve as homework.</p>
<p>Over the years, DH and I have looked at what DS has brought home and, sadly, much of it has been in the form of Xeroxed drill sheets, lists of spelling words, and other repetitive or multiple-choice exercises. If the homework took the form of creative thought or writing exercises outside the scope of routine classroom learning, we would be more inclined to encourage it. Few assignments are truly inspired and crafted in such a way as to engage a kid’s imagination and love of learning. Most are rote drudgery that do nothing to promote academic excellence much less discipline and responsibility (two virtues that have absolutely nothing to do with homework—if we were relying on homework to instill these virtues, we would be abandoning our parenting responsibilities).</p>
<p>Mostly, homework is being used as a sad and inappropriate tool for solving the dilemma of too little classroom time available to teach subject matter thoroughly and attend to individual students’ learning needs. (For example, any single classroom minute spent preparing kids for state-wide testing is a travesty.) Asking for homework to become a “family commitment” seems to be a desperate plea for parents to supplement the shortfall in the classroom. We should be focusing instead on solving the shortfalls-- inadequate class time, too many children per classroom, shortage of qualified teachers, lack of teacher expression and autonomy–not masking those problems with the hopelessly ill-suited but widely accepted non-solution of homework. Homework is NOT a family commitment in our household and never will be. We are not home schoolers. Instead, we will continue to ask the question, “what is the problem that homework is attempting to solve?”, and we will try to find and promote real solutions to those problems.</p>
<p>We know that, once again, we are in the minority with our opinion, as parents are the ones leading the homework crusade and districts are just trying to satisfy their constituents without bothering to investigate the merits of the clamor. The reason I have made this effort is because DH and I both feel that <school> is an otherwise excellent school and we have valued your leadership. Also, reading your book, <principal>, confirmed my impression that you are not a follower, not one to blindly buy into the status quo. You are clearly an adventurer, a thinker, and a searcher for truth, even to traveling to the other side of the world and enduring much personal discomfort to satisfy your curiosity. You hate mediocrity, so I want to challenge you to consider the premise that “homework is an essential part of any child’s academic success” to be an uninspired belief of the mediocre masses, one that pacifies parents and district policy but does little or nothing to challenge young minds or further academic excellence. I bet if we were to sit across a table to chat about this, I would be hearing something more interesting from you. In any case, I think it’s time to tell the emperor he isn’t wearing any clothes.</principal></school></p>
<p>With all respect and sincerity,</p>
<p><choatieparents></choatieparents></p>
<p>Choatemom,</p>
<p>Incidentally, I know of several well-off private school/suburban public school grads at my undergrad whose parents were “my children are too good for busywork” mentality. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, they took it too much to the extreme to the point they had serious issues with grades, employment, and the law because if they felt the assigned task/legal requirement was “busywork” or “pointless”, they won’t do it. </p>
<p>The legal aspect was especially daft as it got to the point they’d half-ass an IRS tax return or won’t even bother to submit it at all even when they owed money. </p>
<p>Heard much about their whinging afterwards…especially when they tried to get me to help bail them out of their self-inflicted problems and/or I pointedly refuse considering their tendencies. Wouldn’t have mattered much anyways as it was often far too late anyways by the time I heard about it. </p>
<p>While I myself am also not a big fan of pointless busywork, there is something to be said for learning to pick your battles for delayed gratification or at least, to avoid serious financial and/or legal difficulties down the line.</p>
<p>Great letter ChoatieMom!!! Wish I had written that way back when but I was too busy writing letters complaining about the stupid state exams they make the kids take in elementary.</p>
<p>@cobrat: Those kids certainly do exist, but I doubt it’s the homework battle that created them.</p>
<p>It’s not so much about eliminating busywork as it is trying to find better ways to stimulate young minds and make better use of scarce resources.</p>
<p>The good: An excellent point that defines the real issue:
</p>
<p>The bad: The majority opinion at work
</p>
<p>The ugly?</p>
<p>It will get a lot worse before it gets better.</p>
<p>ChoatieMom, You mentioned in an earlier post that your son is in high school and now does the homework assigned there. I’m curious as to why your philosophy changed for the high school environment? </p>
<p>My kids attended a Catholic parochial grade school that assigned a lot of homework. They absolutely learned how to study and how to organize their time which ended up serving them well in the rigorous high school experiences, and now for my DS, in college.</p>
<p>My son boards at a school where the homework is relevant, productive, and engaging.</p>
<p>My philosophy hasn’t changed; the homework changed.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply, ChoatieMom! That makes sense!</p>
<p>Another curious question, how would you advise your son to handle a situation when he is given homework (in high school or college) that he views as not productive or relevant? Does his current school give failing grades for incomplete homework?</p>
<p>The reason I ask is, in high school and college I was given lots of homework that I thought was not productive or worthwhile, but I would’ve found myself flunking out if I hadn’t completed the work. My son’s university definitely gives an “F” for late or not-completed homework, regardless of whether my son thinks it is relevant.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I don’t agree with the reason, but it is a great idea.</p>
<p>Homework, as experienced by what I see with my children, is mostly overbearing lengthy make-work under the guise of “educating” and “learning.”</p>
<p>As a matter of fact, several teachers at my D’s school now do so-called “flip teaching” with “homework” now done in the class.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This.</p>
<p>xiggi,</p>
<p>Would you mind telling me-here or in PM- your first hand experience with public education K-12? I really want to know.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Homework is unnecessary and is a waste of time, unless one wants to do it.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not a bad idea. And don’t reward those who do lots of homework/practice. Get rid of tests like the ACT and make the SAT what was originally claimed to be, so no preparation is needed.</p>
<p>What we learn today becomes obsolete quickly, so what stays is the ability to tackle problems yet to exist to students. Unless we think we are learning a trade.</p>
<p>Momof3greatgirls. I find your characterization of children with an IEP rather uninformed. I do not have a child with an IEP, but my understanding is that an IEP is put in place for ACADEMIC accommodation. There can be many reasons for academic accommodation such as processing issues, hearing or sight impairment, dyslexia or ADD. To automatically assume that having an IEP in place is linked to behavior problems or stealing is nonsensical and rather judgmental.
A child that graduated with my D from 8th grade had an IEP in place, and is, without a doubt, extremely gifted . He never had a behavior problem at school, and is now in his second year at a BS that some consider to be the best BS in the country. Sounds like your children were attending a school where the discipline was lax.</p>