Does your kid's HS just give homework to seem rigorous

[Anonymous]

DC (9th) is in a "top" school and has ridiculous levels of HW already. I can't fathom what the purpose of this is, beyond the school making themselves feel like they are badasses. It's definitely not about learning or retenion.

[Anonymous]

I s a great question! We’re feeling the homework slog already. Some of it seems really tedious

[Anonymous]

My kid is in 10th grade at a "top" private and I disagree. Last year (and so far this year), almost all of his assignments were either reading to be prepared for class discussions or meaningful writing assignments in English or history.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC (9th) is in a "top" school and has ridiculous levels of HW already. I can't fathom what the purpose of this is, beyond the school making themselves feel like they are badasses. It's definitely not about learning or retenion.

I agree with you 100%. It’s performative.

[Anonymous]

Why do you say it is not about learning or retention? Homework gives students opportunities to take the initiative for their own learning, practice, manage their time, and try to answer questions on their own (or look up appropriate sources.)

[Anonymous]

Op—I think you are going to have tough time getting a good answer to this because there are a lot of parents invested in the bragging rights that come with an incredibly rigorous school. Admitting it’s performative (if that is in fact what’s happening) will detract from their perceived status.

On the flip side if you say it’s performative people will say something like “that’s just because your DC can’t hack it” which may or may not be true.

Having had more than one kid in private HS in the dmv, I will say that different schools approach hw very differently. One DC’s workload was over the top and I would call it performative. Stressed them out to no end. Another’s was far more reasonable volume wise, but had very strict standards around that hw.

[Anonymous]

My DC is not in the top tier of private schools, and gets a moderate to heavy workload on any given night but the majority of assignments seem valuable, not make-work.

[Anonymous]

We are not in the top tier of private schools. Homework seems to be designed to help kids retain information and is appropriate to the class levels taken.

That means it's a LOT more than public, where they seem allergic to homework (unless it's an AP class).

[Anonymous]

In our NOT Top 3 private, homework in the high school for my kids in Honors and AP classes seem to be about providing rigor, hard work and honing of advanced skills in writing etc. Homework for DC in more gen pop classes seem to be for material retention. I'd say we are glad for the load on all our kids to bring out their best.

[Anonymous]

DS is a freshman this year and in talking with friends parents about homework at various schools I’ve noticed that schools with block scheduling seem to have more responsible work loads and schools that run all classes every day M-F tend to have crazy amounts each night. Hard to know whether the actual work itself at any of the schools is busy work or valuable time spent though.

[Anonymous]

Please give examples of performative hw. Why is it performative? I see my hs student doing math and physics problem sets (seems legit), reading history and literature, foreign language writing, etc. Big projects are essays or presentations. It all seems legit to me. Very seldom does dc complain about it just being busy work.

[Anonymous]

The transition to real levels of work is hard. Your kid is developing a new skill. It does get easier; it's just really hard to build those new mental muscles.

For my kids, the homework was about preparing for class and being ready to discuss and go deeper. Without the homework, they would have covered far less information and learned far less. Practicing math problems is important. Learning FL vocabulary is important. /reading the material to be discussed in class the next day, taking nots on it, thinking about it and preparing questions about it to contribute makes the class time more productive. Reading the novel you are studying in class, is obviously necessary. I really can't think of any assignment my kids had that didn't seem purposeful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op—I think you are going to have tough time getting a good answer to this because there are a lot of parents invested in the bragging rights that come with an incredibly rigorous school. Admitting it’s performative (if that is in fact what’s happening) will detract from their perceived status.

On the flip side if you say it’s performative people will say something like “that’s just because your DC can’t hack it” which may or may not be true.

Having had more than one kid in private HS in the dmv, I will say that different schools approach hw very differently. One DC’s workload was over the top and I would call it performative. Stressed them out to no end. Another’s was far more reasonable volume wise, but had very strict standards around that hw.

I agree with this bolded portion. We have experienced the same at two different schools - both top 3/5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are not in the top tier of private schools. Homework seems to be designed to help kids retain information and is appropriate to the class levels taken.

That means it's a LOT more than public, where they seem allergic to homework (unless it's an AP class).

We’re at a private HS but a good friend who went to the same private middle is now in the public HS. The mom was shocked – – he has less homework now than he did in middle! I did not appreciate this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op—I think you are going to have tough time getting a good answer to this because there are a lot of parents invested in the bragging rights that come with an incredibly rigorous school. Admitting it’s performative (if that is in fact what’s happening) will detract from their perceived status.

On the flip side if you say it’s performative people will say something like “that’s just because your DC can’t hack it” which may or may not be true.

Having had more than one kid in private HS in the dmv, I will say that different schools approach hw very differently. One DC’s workload was over the top and I would call it performative. Stressed them out to no end. Another’s was far more reasonable volume wise, but had very strict standards around that hw.

I agree with this bolded portion. We have experienced the same at two different schools - both top 3/5.

What do you mean by “very strict standards” out of curiosity