HS and homework
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Anonymous
| Name your private high school and how much homework your kids typically get. We are applying from Hardy this upcoming year and we keep hearing 3 to 4 hours a night at the big three… Which sounds absolutely ridiculous. They’re in school all day don’t these kids get a break? The studies show that all that homework doesn’t get better outcomes so why are the schools especially some that are more progressive continue with us if it is true? Curious minds want to know. ( And now I’m definitely not gonna send my kid to the new school which is why we are on this section of the website.) |
Anonymous
| I think about three hours is probably right, but most of the time kids have a free period on the schedule that helps them manage their time, and they usually have a good sense of their homework several days in advance so they can plan. It's not as if they get homework in every class on Monday that is due on Tuesday. They don't have every class every day. My DD does a lot of homework on the weekend. So it is a lot of homework, but it can be managed. |
Anonymous
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NCS is pretty much always 3 hours night for girls who do well. They don't have homework in every class, every night because classes are on a rotating basis. But the cumulative each night is about 3 hours.
STA is 2-3 hours. Then you have the nights before a test. Those can be 4-5 hours. My kids came from DCPS. They never studied for a test there. At these high schools, they have to study hard the night before the test: the kids make quizlets, study guides, etc. They can easily study for 2-3 hours for one test alone plus a hour for the homework in other subjects. It's very, very different than DCPS middle school--like light years different in work load. My kids do well (As). |
Anonymous
It is true and my kids had to do it and it wouldn’t be fair to now change it. That is how it is at certain schools. If they don’t appeal to you don’t apply. Don’t forget they don’t get home from sports until late as well at many schools so it’s a full day. Once again there are other options for you. |
Anonymous
It wouldn't be fair to change it? What are you talking about? |
Anonymous
| What are the Big 3? I don’t know which are considered to be on that list, but that’s a lot of homework! |
Anonymous
But but but but, it’s teach yourself the materials during homework and tutoring time and then discuss it in class the next day. It’s a really cool model for “teaching” grades 9-12. |
Anonymous
|
in contrast ...
Children went to DCPS middle school - one child at private non-Big3 has at most 2 hours a night (getting all A's). - one child at Walls and has about 2-3 hours a night. 9th grade was the most. |
Anonymous
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I will literally base my decision on where to send my kid on the amount of homework. Mine is currently at Nysmith and they pride themselves on minimal homework and it works extremely well.
Following! |
Anonymous
I don’t think it is about homework as much as you think: if there is a required sport each season, that’s 2 hours a day right there. And we are talking adolescent sleep deprivation with another 2 hours hw (it is done late, just to get it done, and with no time to stop and think). If there is no athletic requirement, 2 hours hw is no big deal; there is even a little free time for the kid every night, and there is no sleep deprivation. So maybe you should base your decision on “total time commitment.” |
Anonymous
| Don't misunderstand the word homework. Perhaps substitute the word studying. If you want to send your kid to a school where the only learning that happens occurs in the short time they are in the classroom with no studying required, then why bother going to high school at all? Get an online GED and save the commute. |
Anonymous
| These kids are working harder than they ever will for the rest of their lives, unless they go to med school. Why put them through that? Do you go to work all day and then play a sport and then come home and do several more hours of work? It’s crazy. |
Anonymous
While I think you can have most work happen during the school day, I agree that "studying" makes more sense than "homework" in the HS context. I went to a super intense NE boarding school, and it wasn't like "homework" was designed to take a certain amount of time. It was highly dependent on how you managed it. In English classes, for example, you were either reading or working on an essay due in 1-2 weeks. In math, you were working through a problem set or studying for a test. There was basically no busy work, and how long you spent on anything depended on how fast you read or how comfortable you were with the concepts. You could study for an exam all weekend or you could cram the night before. College was a breeze after this because I already knew how to plan out backwards from a big deadline totally on my own. (That said, I don't think HS needs to be this intense to be effective and I doubt my kids will be going to this same school.) |
Anonymous
| I feel like it is hard to pull out the truth on these threads. There seems to be people who feel that if they don't round up the hw hours that people will look down on their schools and they will not seem as elite. |
Anonymous
What you forget is that there is a large range of GPAs at these schools. There are kids who get straight As (exceedingly rare), and kids who get straight Cs and everyone in between. I would say that almost all the high schoolers are INTELLECTUALLY capable of doing the work but how much studying they choose to do varies a lot. My daughter has friends who study 4-5 hours a night for straight As and friends who have firm limits on how much they will study and are fine with Bs. It's really quite possible that if you asked 2 different families at a school about how much their kid studies, you would get 2 completely different replies. Within my daughter's 8 person friend group there is a large spread. |