Your opinion on my family's homework policy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Change schools. You need find to find one that matches your style. I totally get where you are coming from, but you are undermining their teachers and school. You are missing the bigger picture in teaching your kids respect and integrity.

And this is exactly what this teacher said. And maybe there's an element of truth to this. I just don't know. That's why I am rethinking.

But at the same time, everything in my gut tells me that their management of their grades is the overall point here. They actually ARE being responsible by not doing the homework and taking the responsibility for the ramifications of that decision. So if they are willing to accept the consequences, what is the actual issue here?

makes me think that the issue is the teacher is taking this personally, as a reflection of her personally. When in fact it has absolutely zero to do with her.

So I don't want to rethink our entire family policy on one teacher who personalizes our rules.

But I am staying open minded about this.

[Anonymous]

OP again

Just to be clear on my comment above: what I mean by them taking responsibility for the consequences of not doing homework:

so homework generally is anywhere from 5-15 percent of their grade. My rule is if they can maintain a B while getting a zero on all of their homework, fine with me.

So they do suffer consequences of their decisions. Just wanted to be clear I am not making some kind of "i don't believe in homework" stance and asking the teachers not to hit their grade with zeros for every missing homework assignment.

For some kids perhaps mindless repettion IS important. For one of mine who was struggling in that one class, he DID need it (and so he did it)

But if the kid does not need it, whats the point? High school kids are young adults-they know the lesson about obeying authority and being respectful of authority already. This is about time management, prioritization, and making informed decisions.

It just feels right to me.

[Anonymous]

So your kids are likely getting Bs where they could be getting As. You are hurting them for college admissions and beyond. That was the most immediate natural consequence that came to mind when I read the OP.

[Anonymous]

OP, I did this in high school. I was taking 4 and 5 AP classes, and mostly homework was calculated as 10% of your grade. There was also an honors or APt bonus. I figured if I aced the tests and final, then I could skip the homework. So I did.

I got 4s and 5 s on the AP tests, graduated in the top 10%, and got a scholarship to college. So it worked.

But developing good study habits was difficult in college and really difficult in law school. Maybe it wouldn't have been so difficult if I had had the practice in high school.

[Anonymous]

really interesting! thanks for posting this OP. my dc's are in grade school, and i have definitely helped them complete HW in cases when they have been crunched for time AND when the HW takes a lot of time but they get very little out of it.

couple questions for all...

1. i guess high school teachers make it clear that HW isn't included in final grades? (my dc are in grade school, and i assumed that HW grades and/or HW completion were factored in somehow). i

2. i would have assumed that anyone would get in trouble early on in the year for not turning in HW, even if they made it clear that it wasn't factored into grades. i guess i assumed that HW completion itself was required. do they talk about this at all at parents' night, etc? does one get a sense of this from each teacher?

3. one PP poster said to change schools. not a realistic choice imo, if one is in public schools.

[Anonymous]

PP here -- ok, 2 of the posts before me answered my questions regarding HW as a percent of final grade.

thanks!

[Anonymous]

I think the issue is that you are aetting the bar too low for them. If you do the minimum amount of work necessary you will be fine. Why not push them so they see that hard work pays off rather than sometimes when you do less work you slip by?

[Anonymous]

In MCPS, hw can't be more than 10% of the grade. Some students do pull off an A for the MP without it, but then fail the finals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP again

Just to be clear on my comment above: what I mean by them taking responsibility for the consequences of not doing homework:

so homework generally is anywhere from 5-15 percent of their grade. My rule is if they can maintain a B while getting a zero on all of their homework, fine with me.

So they do suffer consequences of their decisions. Just wanted to be clear I am not making some kind of "i don't believe in homework" stance and asking the teachers not to hit their grade with zeros for every missing homework assignment.

For some kids perhaps mindless repettion IS important. For one of mine who was struggling in that one class, he DID need it (and so he did it)

But if the kid does not need it, whats the point? High school kids are young adults-they know the lesson about obeying authority and being respectful of authority already. This is about time management, prioritization, and making informed decisions.

It just feels right to me.

If it's just "mindless repetition" when why is it taking them 4-5 hrs. to do it? I certainly don't think ANY kid should be working on homework for 4hrs. a night... but I think it's important for the parents to understand what the teacher wants (and why) and for the kid to do the work the teacher expects even if it isn't fun. Learning to stick with a task that you don't particularly enjoy is a life skill... and sometimes you think you understand it until you test it with problems that bring up different nuances (I'm thinking of math homework here)... but also in other areas. Practice makes perfect. I wonder if your kids are learning that doing the least possible is o.k.? I don't really know. I think I would want to work with the teacher or find a school that fits your beliefs.

If this is a public school and the 4 hrs is an accurate amount even when the kid understands it, and the teachers aren't seeing this as a problem, I might do what you did OP b/c I don't believe kids should have 4+ hrs. of homework every night. But, it seems like you could explore other options before telling kids to ignore the teachers' assignments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm an FCPS administrator, and I think it's a great family policy. Homework should never be calculated in the overall achievement grade. Either the child demonstrates understanding of the material or he doesn't. That's what the grade should be based on.

Exactly. (FCPS teacher here.)

In FCPS, with standards based grading, homework should not be considered as part of the achievement grade through grade 6.

[Anonymous]

Then the county should say homework is optional for everyone. I don't like the homework load either but telling your kids not to do it doesn't seem like the correct path. If the work assigned is so worthless, then the county has a serious teacher issue and that needs to be addressed by the county. I thought FCPS was supposed to be a good system. Sounds crappy. If an administrator is applauding your policy she/he needs to change what is happening in school. Sorry you are stuck in that system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it working for your family, keep on doing it.

Agree

[Anonymous]

I am not sure if "working" is really the ultimate goal for your kids. It sounds like they are receiving a terrible education. If it is fairly easy to do well in their classes with out doing any work outside the classroom, that would worry me a great deal. If my kids were getting such a mediocre education, I wouldn't be so laid back. Teachers sound terrible just assigning repetitive busy work and the school doesn't seem to give a shit and frankly neither do you. I would try hard to get into a different school. If you feel stuck, look into financial aid at a private. I wouldn't be happy if that's what my kids are getting in the education department.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved here from a state where our school system didn't allow homework to be included in the calculation of grades, and in addition, nightly homework was discouraged (homework was to be used for review before a big test, etc). My kids were in that school system until this school year. They all got good grades. We moved here with 2 of them in high school and one in middle school.

When we moved here, the homework (we are in FCPS) stunned my kids. SO much homework! the high schoolers were expected to do about 3-4 hours nightly, the middle schooler about 2-3. Insanity.

I made a policy early in the year (October) with my kids: IF they could maintain As and Bs and not get any Cs, I didn't care if they did homework or not.

All three kids carefully calculated their classes all year long, calculating exactly how much homework was worth and ensuring they kept their grades up. Two of them didn't do a lick of homework, (they did large projects, I am talking about nightly homework). One of them did the homework for one class they were struggling to maintain a B in.

We successfully got through the school year with all of them maintaining the As and Bs we expect and the system worked fine.

A few times throughout the year, I did get emails (they were kind of automated emails, not personal ones) from teachers letting me know homework wasn't being done. I didn't act upon them, because I was well aware homework wasn't being done.

My kids had a great year, embedded themselves into new schools at a tough age to move, joined sports teams, were active and happy all year and maintained good grades.

I now have had a conversation with one teacher who dragged me through the mud for my family's policy on this. She basically told me it was disrespectful to the teachers. I am stunned, because in my house, in fact, education is a top priority. our feeling is that teaching our kids to manage their own schoolwork and teaching them to advocate for themselves, maintain expected grades, and be responsible is paramount. So I was blown away. My kid got an "A" in this teachers class, and overall I guess my question is if my kid could do that then any homework he skipped was obviously unnecessary, for him. Homework is supposed to be repetition of the classroom work in order to help the kids learn it, right? So if my kid has demonstrated that they don't need it, what is the problem?

My kid is so happy, well adjusted, plays sports and manages to juggle his school and extracurricular stuff on his own...Im just baffled at being told that I was demonstrating poor parenting.

Interested in your thoughts. I may change this policy up next year if I am off base here. But it kills me to pull my kids into the house every night for that much homework time, for zero benefit. They could be outside playing baseball. Plenty of time in life ahead of them to spend their entire days working.....

I never assign homework for practice, only for preparation for the next day's lesson (flipped classroom) so I would be troubled by a student ignoring this. However, if you feel your kids are only assigned busy work, challenge the benefit of the specific assignments.

UGH! Flipped classroom is the ultimate fail. Please do not do this to your students. It has proved to be a near disaster in my family. I will have my younger children avoid the teacher who does this in our school. My kid could have learned so much more and developed a thorough understanding of the topic had the teacher taught properly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved here from a state where our school system didn't allow homework to be included in the calculation of grades, and in addition, nightly homework was discouraged (homework was to be used for review before a big test, etc). My kids were in that school system until this school year. They all got good grades. We moved here with 2 of them in high school and one in middle school.

When we moved here, the homework (we are in FCPS) stunned my kids. SO much homework! the high schoolers were expected to do about 3-4 hours nightly, the middle schooler about 2-3. Insanity.

I made a policy early in the year (October) with my kids: IF they could maintain As and Bs and not get any Cs, I didn't care if they did homework or not.

All three kids carefully calculated their classes all year long, calculating exactly how much homework was worth and ensuring they kept their grades up. Two of them didn't do a lick of homework, (they did large projects, I am talking about nightly homework). One of them did the homework for one class they were struggling to maintain a B in.

We successfully got through the school year with all of them maintaining the As and Bs we expect and the system worked fine.

A few times throughout the year, I did get emails (they were kind of automated emails, not personal ones) from teachers letting me know homework wasn't being done. I didn't act upon them, because I was well aware homework wasn't being done.

My kids had a great year, embedded themselves into new schools at a tough age to move, joined sports teams, were active and happy all year and maintained good grades.

I now have had a conversation with one teacher who dragged me through the mud for my family's policy on this. She basically told me it was disrespectful to the teachers. I am stunned, because in my house, in fact, education is a top priority. our feeling is that teaching our kids to manage their own schoolwork and teaching them to advocate for themselves, maintain expected grades, and be responsible is paramount. So I was blown away. My kid got an "A" in this teachers class, and overall I guess my question is if my kid could do that then any homework he skipped was obviously unnecessary, for him. Homework is supposed to be repetition of the classroom work in order to help the kids learn it, right? So if my kid has demonstrated that they don't need it, what is the problem?

My kid is so happy, well adjusted, plays sports and manages to juggle his school and extracurricular stuff on his own...Im just baffled at being told that I was demonstrating poor parenting.

Interested in your thoughts. I may change this policy up next year if I am off base here. But it kills me to pull my kids into the house every night for that much homework time, for zero benefit. They could be outside playing baseball. Plenty of time in life ahead of them to spend their entire days working.....

I never assign homework for practice, only for preparation for the next day's lesson (flipped classroom) so I would be troubled by a student ignoring this. However, if you feel your kids are only assigned busy work, challenge the benefit of the specific assignments.

UGH! Flipped classroom is the ultimate fail. Please do not do this to your students. It has proved to be a near disaster in my family. I will have my younger children avoid the teacher who does this in our school. My kid could have learned so much more and developed a thorough understanding of the topic had the teacher taught properly.

Sorry your kids couldn't handle a flipped classroom. Works for many advanced courses.