Homework-

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's a very good summary of the literature on homework from Slate:

http://www.slate.com/id/2149593/
Forget Homework
It's a waste of time for elementary-school students.
By Emily BazelonPosted Thursday, Sept. 14, 2006, at 7:47 AM ET

I'm with OP. There is zero evidence that homework for young children has any benefits, and some non-trivial evidence that it is counter-productive (e.g., just breeds resistance to school). I HATE the stupid homework my 1st and 3rd grader come home with. A lot of it truly is homework for the parents -- which, as a single, working mother, I resent.

The worst of it is when filling in idiot worksheets actually cuts into time for somewhat more valuable activities... such as cuddling, talking and reading together. (And can i say how annoying it is to receive homework assignments that contain glaring grammatical errors in them? I'd say that's a weekly occurrence).

I have raised this issue with the teachers and administrators at my children's expensive and "progressive" private school. The Head more or less told me that they know the homework is pointless, but they're afraid to stop assigning it since so many parents foolishly equate quantity of homework with academic quality.

I didn't get any homework as a child until 5th or 6th grade... and rarely more than half an hour or so of work, a couple days a week. And the the plural of anecdote is not date, I grew up and went to Harvard and did just fine despite my tragic homework-free childhood. (Come to think of it, I didn't have music lessons, language lessons, sports lessons, Sunday school classes, gymnastics lessons, ballet lessons, or any other outside-of-school lessons either. After school and on weekends, we just... played. What a concept!)

At Janney ES circa 2005-2007, we would get school wide letters from the principal that had so many grammatical errors that I wondered if he ever proof read ANYTHING he ever wrote. At first. Then I came to realize that proof reading doesn't help if you never learned the actual structure of the english language. The ignorance was systemic with some of the teachers in the early years there. I then decided that in the pre-k, k, 1st and 2nd, I would sort out what was meaningful in the homework and just discard the rest. As a child, I had no homework until 5th grade. I learned to love to read. Graduated in the top quarter of a good prep school went on to a top college and law school. School, of course, was hard work. I'm no "slacker" but we were given time to develop a "love of learning". I'm just trying to tailor something like what I had for my kids.

[Anonymous]

Here's a very good summary of the literature on homework from Slate:

http://www.slate.com/id/2149593/
Forget Homework
It's a waste of time for elementary-school students.
By Emily BazelonPosted Thursday, Sept. 14, 2006, at 7:47 AM ET

I'm with OP. There is zero evidence that homework for young children has any benefits, and some non-trivial evidence that it is counter-productive (e.g., just breeds resistance to school). I HATE the stupid homework my 1st and 3rd grader come home with. A lot of it truly is homework for the parents -- which, as a single, working mother, I resent.

The worst of it is when filling in idiot worksheets actually cuts into time for somewhat more valuable activities... such as cuddling, talking and reading together. (And can i say how annoying it is to receive homework assignments that contain glaring grammatical errors in them? I'd say that's a weekly occurrence).

I have raised this issue with the teachers and administrators at my children's expensive and "progressive" private school. The Head more or less told me that they know the homework is pointless, but they're afraid to stop assigning it since so many parents foolishly equate quantity of homework with academic quality.

I didn't get any homework as a child until 5th or 6th grade... and rarely more than half an hour or so of work, a couple days a week. And the the plural of anecdote is not date, I grew up and went to Harvard and did just fine despite my tragic homework-free childhood. (Come to think of it, I didn't have music lessons, language lessons, sports lessons, Sunday school classes, gymnastics lessons, ballet lessons, or any other outside-of-school lessons either. After school and on weekends, we just... played. What a concept!)



At Janney ES circa 2005-2007, we would get school wide letters from the principal that had so many grammatical errors that I wondered if he ever proof read ANYTHING he ever wrote. At first. Then I came to realize that proof reading doesn't help if you never learned the actual structure of the english language. The ignorance was systemic with some of the teachers in the early years there. I then decided that in the pre-k, k, 1st and 2nd, I would sort out what was meaningful in the homework and just discard the rest. As a child, I had no homework until 5th grade. I learned to love to read. Graduated in the top quarter of a good prep school went on to a top college and law school. School, of course, was hard work. I'm no "slacker" but we were given time to develop a "love of learning". I'm just trying to tailor something like what I had for my kids.

Great. Congratulations. I had homework in elementary school. I grew up enjoying and excelling in school. I, too, attended a top prep school, little three, and Ivy and we are enjoying a most productive career and family life raising children who got "homework" even before elementary school and are likewise enjoying school and excelling. One man's meat is another man's poison.

[Anonymous]

God bless the drones, for they shall do our society's tedious work for us.

Go on, folks, train those little tykes to engage in mindless activities and LIKE IT.

Explains why America has lost her competitive edge in the world. This trend will not reverse until posters like the one above start to work and produce instead of play and like it. It does no good to slam the competition when you start losing the game. Sounds like a classic case of ENVY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

God bless the drones, for they shall do our society's tedious work for us.

Go on, folks, train those little tykes to engage in mindless activities and LIKE IT.

Explains why America has lost her competitive edge in the world. This trend will not reverse until posters like the one above start to work and produce instead of play and like it. It does no good to slam the competition when you start losing the game. Sounds like a classic case of ENVY.

This is what is known as Irony Deficiency Disorder. No amount of homework will cure it.

[Anonymous]

It's your approach. If you model poor work habits (which I imagine you do), your children will never develop any study skills. Kids need models. It's a no brainer that they - at a young age (early elementary) - don't know how to manage their time. So as a parent, it's up to you to teach them.

As a teacher who deals with low-level students, you're my worst nightmare b/c you're most likely the root of the problem.

Be a parent a teach them at home, too, b/c the schools end up dealing with problems YOU'VE created.

Anonymous wrote:The only habit that homework created for my kids was to make them hate school. Good habits?! Give me a break. It is us parents who end up dealing with the homework. Young kids don't know how to truly manage their time.

[Anonymous]

before the Grammar Police attacks . . .

Anonymous wrote:It's your approach. If you model poor work habits (which I imagine you do), your children will never develop any study skills. Kids need models. It's a no brainer that they - at a young age (early elementary) - don't know how to manage their time. So as a parent, it's up to you to teach them.

As a teacher who deals with low-level students, you're my worst nightmare b/c you're most likely the root of the problem.

Be a parent and teach them at home, too, b/c the schools end up dealing with problems YOU'VE created.

Anonymous wrote:The only habit that homework created for my kids was to make them hate school. Good habits?! Give me a break. It is us parents who end up dealing with the homework. Young kids don't know how to truly manage their time.

[Anonymous]

There can be a serious debate about whether the amount and quality of homework being assigned to young children by our schools is appropriate, but I am shocked at the number of parents who are instilling their child with the attitude that work is optional and/or that, if it's really hard, someone else will do it for me.

On the other hand, maybe I'm not shocked. I work with a lot of interns during the summer months, and while many are bright and ambitious and hardworking, there are always a significant proportion that seem to believe that they don't have to finish an assignment that they find to be pointless or that there is some "work fairy" that will appear if they just wait long enough. You, as your child's parent, may be happy to do your child's work for them. However, speaking as your child's future employer, I am not your child's mother, and I will not put up with it. It's fine from my standpoint, because, particularly in this economy, there are plenty of smart, organized, hardworking young people out there ready to take their place. Your child is in for a rude awakening when they have to make their own way in the real world. You, however, should not be surprised when your 26-year old "child" is still living in your basement (because, after all, work is optional, right?).

[Anonymous]

There is a reason why Americans have lost their mojo and it begins in elementary school!

Play and have fun on the subsidy of 50% of the globe's resources has come to an end and parents of spoiled and entitled brats have not figured it out yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a reason why Americans have lost their mojo and it begins in elementary school!

Play and have fun on the subsidy of 50% of the globe's resources has come to an end and parents of spoiled and entitled brats have not figured it out yet.

Are you a parent? If so, it might be nice if you would consider not referring to them as brats. If not, why not look for another forum to post your anti-kid views?

[Anonymous]

Are you a parent? If so, it might be nice if you would consider not referring to them as brats. If not, why not look for another forum to post your anti-kid views?

Indeed, I am a parent of 2 and one of a sibship of 5, and teach and coach kids through medical school and beyond. I know entitled brats when I see one. I've seen enough in my days -- including parents (aging brats). I do not sugar coat. A brat is a brat.

[Anonymous]

PS: I am not anti-kid. I am anti-brat. This is indeed the most appropriate forum; lest you forget the recent Landon/U of VA tragedy amongst many others. It may be folk like you, in psychiatry will call them enablers, with no parental skills, that spawn entitled brats and nourish them to maturity where they can wreck community havoc.