<p>My daughter is ninth grader at Montgomery Blair magnet program, Montgomery county, MD. She is doing fine (straight A) but is also paying a price. Her average time for bed is midnight. Sometimes even later if quiz or project due next day. She does have extracurricular activity almost everyday. Her starting time to do homework is around 8 pm. It’s four hours daily. We heard from orientation that they (existing students) spend average 2 hours to do homework. Is something wrong with my daughter or they didn’t disclose the whole picture?</p>
<p>Sorry, if someone posted similar question before. </p>
<p>No, there’s nothing wrong with your D. We live in MC too. All three of our kids attended magnet programs (but not Blair) and getting to bed at midnight is pretty norm in 9th grade. Enjoy the quiet year because things really pick up in about a year or so. Good luck.</p>
<p>I don’t think anything is wrong with your daughter. My DD attends another MoCo IB school (non magnet) and has an average of 3 hours a night and later if a quiz/test. Her starting time is earlier so she’s usually in bed by 11pm.</p>
<p>Not unusual. Your kid is in a very intense program. </p>
<p>One of my kids attended the IB program at RM and had friends at Blair. What you describe seems pretty normal for students in both programs.</p>
<p>Some of the buses for Blair leave awfully early in the morning. Your daughter might want to start her homework earlier so she can go to bed earlier. Also, ask her whether she communicates with friends online while doing homework. On days when assignments are especially heavy, it may be best to avoid doing that – it takes up more time than students realize.</p>
<p>My daughter also found it helpful to do most of the work on long-term assignments on the weekends, but not everyone is willing to do that.</p>
<p>There’s nothing wrong with your D. These magnet schools can be extremely demanding. Every kid is different so some can breeze through their homework while it takes others longer. I agree that your D should try to minimize any distractions while she is doing her homework.</p>
<p>Our county does not have any magnet schools, but our D was nearly burned out by the time she reached the end of her junior year. College has actually turned out to be easier for her than high school and she is in a demanding major.</p>
<p>Thanks all for your responses. Just trying to get a piece of mind. We heard from another parent that her kid (same magnet program), do 8 activities a week and go to bed by 9 everyday. Definitely, I don’t want to compare my kid with genius. I agree, every kid is different. Just make sure my D is not unusual among average kids…</p>
<p>wow, that is a really rough schedule. My senior tries to get to bed by 10 - 10:30 at night, unless there is an away game during spring/fall sports season. Is there any way to cut back on the EC’s? Can she find time during the day to get some homework done, on the bus, any 10 minutes of down time here or there? I wonder if she is doing things in the most efficient manner. I don’t think my kids could have done that for 4 years.</p>
<p>I think the statement that students are averaging 2 hours a night on homework is likely to be inaccurate. Your daughter’s situation is, I think, typical for high achieving students in schools with high standards. (<em>Stereotype warning</em>) I also think that girls may spend a bit more time on homework than boys.</p>
<p>The figure of 2 hours a night probably comes from student surveys. I regard this as suspect for several reasons. First, I learned from QMP (in a similar school, but not quite as intense) that the students typically do not consider reading the text book or books for literature classes to be “homework,” nor do they count the time spent studying for tests and quizzes. In our region, anyway, the students only count as “homework” the time that they spend actually producing written or computer-entered work (or posters, or videos, an unbelievable time sink). Not saying that this is universal–it came as a surprise to me, but this way of classifying “homework” does exist. </p>
<p>Second, if word gets around that students typically spend 2 hours a night on homework, who is going to want to admit to spending 4 hours a night on homework?</p>
<p>There was a student survey in Shaker Heights a few years back, where the maximum time that students could check off that they were spending on homework was 2 hours a night. I thought that the person who designed the survey was seriously out of touch with the demands of many suburban high schools today.</p>
<p>Also, I think that if the students are replying to the surveys that they are spending 2 hours a night on homework, the teachers probably do not have an accurate view of the aggregate work load. On top of that, it is my perception that students today spend considerably more time on extracurricular activities than they did a generation ago.</p>
<p>As to what to do about it, I honestly don’t know. I worry about the same thing (retrospectively, now, impossible to change anything). Is it survivable? Definitely. Is it really advisable? I don’t think so. I would like to see parents of students who have already graduated speak to the school board about the time issues for the students. Perhaps something could be changed to make it more manageable.</p>
<p>To me, 4 hours of homework would be manageable if she started before 8 PM. Does the school have extended hours, our school day here ends at 2:30. Even with EC’s, kids are often home by 4. Sports practices are longer, but most other EC’s I am familiar with are not that time consuming every day.</p>
<p>Keep in mind these magnet programs are not for everyone (not trying to be OBX but it’s a true statement). These magnet kids (and parents) are extremely driven and dedicated (or some would say “crazy”.) A few students will drop out after the first year. Not because they are not smart or they can’t keep up… but because parents (and students) decide it’s just too much. After my D’s 9th grade, about 5-6 kids went back to their home school. Same thing happened when my boys’ were in the program. It’s difficult for kids but no less difficult for parents who suffer thru with their kids.</p>
<p>Every piece of medical advice on adolescent sleep needs will tell you that your daughter’s situation is ridiculous. I’d have her out of that school in 5 minutes. What in heaven’s name do you think you are accomplishing by making a 14 year old operate under intense pressure in a constant state of exhaustion? If she doesn’t have at least 8 hours of sleep each night plus a good chunk of time each day to chill out, relax and daydream, well, child rearing: you’re doing it all wrong.</p>
<p>^ MommaJ, that’s a little harsh. Obviously Tilden99 is concerned. That’s why she’s on CC asking the question. She’s trying to find a solution. 3-4 hours of homework is not unusual in MC. </p>
<p>Recently I tried to balance my DD classes with a few lower level classes. The teens don’t want the lower level classes because the students in those classes are disruptive and they can’t learn. This was my daughter’s choice not mine. I asked the counselor about her course load and to try to make it balanced. Tilden’s daughter may have to reduce some of her other activities so that she can get home earlier but it would be great if people aren’t so judgemental. Give some suggestions or recommendations. “You’re doing it all wrong” isn’t helpful.</p>
<p>I don’t think I’ve ever met a MoCo high school kid on a college prep track that gets eight hours of sleep per night. The homework load OP’s daughter has is pretty typical – despite the party line from the school administrators and the braggadocio of other parents. </p>
<p>Perhaps we’re all crazy out here, but nobody wants to be the first to step off the treadmill, knowing full well that the top 20% of graduating classes at our better schools take 10 or more APs by graduation. Creating slack here means figuring out how to balance the ECs so homework can start before 8:00 PM. Unless we’re talking about a concert-quality musician or a pre-Olympic athlete, whoever runs the ECs needs to exercise some restraint.</p>
<p>Watch “Race to Nowhere” if you haven’t already seen it. You can find the trailer on YouTube. It’s now available on DVD from the store on their web site.</p>
<p>Our PTA has shown it multiple times, but it has ZERO effect on behavior. This is a classic collective-action problem, and no one wants to unilaterally “disarm” if it puts their kid behind their peers for admissions to selective schools. I guess the one thing it has done is led school administrators to release these ridiculous homework estimates (like that you can get by on only 45 minutes a night for AP Chem).</p>
<p>What is your home high school, and why did your child choose this particular magnet program? It really is OK for your family to revisit the issue. I’ve known students who barely slept because they were in the IB program at RM, or the APEX program at WJ, and yes some of them did go on to rather nifty colleges, but most just landed at St. Mary’s or UM-CP along with schoolmates who followed less demanding programs. Not to mention that some of the kids who didn’t pursue the most demanding program available to them have managed to get into top institutions for the particular field they want to pursue.</p>
<p>My MoCo daughter gets 8 hrs a night with ECs and mostly honors classes. She is not in the insane Magnet, IB, or APEX programs though. No reason to put a HS student through so much stress and ridiculous hours.</p>
<p>I think four hours a night of homework is a lot, even for Blair, if it’s every night. A few things to investigate:
As somebody suggested, is she really doing homework for four hours straight, or is that really two and half hours of homework interspersed with an hour and a half of Facebook and texting? Is she trying to watch TV while doing this work? Etc.
Does she have good time management skills? Her teachers may be able to help with this.
Is she doing more work than she needs to? You say she’s getting straight As–is she just doing homework, or is she obsessively studying the course material each night?
If she’s also expected to spend significant time practicing a musical instrument each day, you may have to consider easing back on that unless she’s very serious about it.</p>