Why do parents think it's ok to toss out homework? What do teachers think of this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In my experience, most teachers penalize students who don't do homework with bad grades.

Penalize? The homework is an assignment. If it is not completed, the student cannot have earned points for it. Having several assignments where they earn zero out of an allotted number of possible points will obviously reduce the student's grade. It's not a "penalty", it's a direct and logical result of what the student's decisions and efforts have EARNED.

I want my kid to learn that she EARNS grades or other measures of performance evaluation based on the quality of the work she submits for evaluation. I would not phrase your point the same way you did because it smacks of a "the teacher gave me a bad grade" mentality and entitled attitude that will not serve anyone well in school or in life.

My kid will do all assigned homework to a high standard of quality, because I want her to learn to take pride in work that bears her name. She's a student -- doing assigned work is part of her duties as a student. If I believe that the obligations placed on my young student are inappropriate, I have the right to seek out a private school placement where the homework philosophy better aligns with what I find acceptable. However, I fail to see how it is remotely acceptable to teach my kid she has the right to just decline to do an assignment which was given to her, for other than serious ethical considerations. That wouldn't fly at work or in life, so why would I get her in that habit now in school?

[Anonymous]

Actually the most recent research shows parental involvement in homework does not improve grades. And there is no evidence supporting early elementary homework.

I agree that homework in the early grades likely doesn't help with grades. But I think that if you teach kids that it is OK to blow off homework (if it has been assigned) that will likely affect grades and school performance down the line. So, ideally you need to get the teacher and administration to severely limit homework.

[Anonymous]

Are first grade teachers really giving lots of homework? I just kind of doubt that.

[Anonymous]

Hmm. I can't speak to what the research says generally, but so far, the homework that my K son has received has been beneficial for the simple reason that it helped me identify the fact he didn't seem to understand some of the concepts (e.g. word families), and provided an opportunity for me to review them with him. At least in his individual case, it seems to have helped for me to explain the concept and go through the examples with him one on one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are first grade teachers really giving lots of homework? I just kind of doubt that.

I'm the PP with kids whose 1st grade teachers gave a ton of homework, and I was amazed, too. In one case, an e-mail asking "How long do you want kids to spend on this? Because my kid would need an hour to do the LA legibly" resulted in a significant reduction in the amount assigned and a message to all parents that aside from reading, homework should only take 10 minutes.

But a couple of teachers were sure that the more homework they gave, the better it was for kids. There was no talking them out of it, and no way I was going to turn homework into a nightly festival of parental nagging, because that is a terrible precedent to establish. As someone said earlier, that's not how it's going to work in college.

[Anonymous]

I'm a teacher. I assign homework on average about twice a week. I'm usually surprised at how many times I hear from parents that it's not enough (I teach special education, 8th grade math). I use homework strictly as extra practice time since my students learn at a much slower pace and really need more practice on certain topics. I encourage them to ask questions and get help on the homework. I tell the parents at BTSN that if the homework is taking longer than 15 minutes or so, to let their child stop doing it and write me a note on the top of the page that that's all they could get done.

If it's not turned in, it's a zero. It's graded on completion, not accuracy. And homework as a whole only counts for 10% of their grade.

Honestly, in 15 years of teaching, I've never had a parent dismiss homework or toss it out. Or maybe I do have parents who do but have just never outright said it.

[Anonymous]

I can't imagine not making my child do homework. I got homework. I did my homework. My daughter is in kindergarten. We do the homework every night. I feel like we need to prepare her for more homework and harder homework later on by starting it now. I had good study habits in college and high school because I learned how to study early on. I feel like most homework serves a purpose.

I can see how homework might be counter-productive for some kids with special needs, and those should be figured out on a case-by-case basis. But I have a coworker who complained about her ADD son (now in his 20's) hating school because his ADD made it hard for him to do homework. She didn't understand why teachers gave out homework. I told her, "but if homework didn't count and it was 100% testing, would that be fair to the kids who aren't good test takers? or the kid who had a bad day on test day?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't imagine not making my child do homework. I got homework. I did my homework. My daughter is in kindergarten. We do the homework every night.

It's her homework. She should be doing it. If she can't do it without help, the teacher needs to know that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't imagine not making my child do homework. I got homework. I did my homework. My daughter is in kindergarten. We do the homework every night.

It's her homework. She should be doing it. If she can't do it without help, the teacher needs to know that.

Parents are supposed to help in K, from what I understand. At least help the kid read and understand the instructions, and be available if the kid has questions. Homework in the very early grades also helps keep parents informed about how their kid is doing with understanding class material, so I think it's good that parents are involved.

[Anonymous]

I think it's good that parents are involved.

+1000
This also lets K parents know what the kids are working on. I don't think it should take more than ten to fifteen minutes though--aside from reading story books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think that this of you who override your child's teachers need to change schools. You are teaching your child disrespect for the teacher and the school. If your school is so awful and assigns souchh BS, please do your child a favor and switch. I teach MS and without exception all of my strong students do their work (which does account for 15% of their grade) and those who don't do it do not end up doing well, and of course their parents beg for extra help or extra credit assignments right at the end of each quarter. BTW, I teach a foreign language.

I think there's a difference between homework in middle school and the busy work given to students in kindergarten and first grade.

In younger grades there is no correlation between doing homework and academic success.

[Anonymous]

In younger grades there is no correlation between doing homework and academic success.

But, there is a correlation between parent involvement and academic success. Homework in younger grades encourages parent involvement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

In younger grades there is no correlation between doing homework and academic success.

But, there is a correlation between parent involvement and academic success. Homework in younger grades encourages parent involvement.

I don't think it is appropriate for a school to impinge on my family's free time for these ideological reasons, and there is no proof that homework for 5 year olds actually encourages involvement anyway. Or teaches them "study skills.' It seems likely that it would turn kids off to school to give them inappropriate busy work that creates tension at home.

[Anonymous]

I don't think it is appropriate for a school to impinge on my family's free time for these ideological reasons, and there is no proof that homework for 5 year olds actually encourages involvement anyway. Or teaches them "study skills.' It seems likely that it would turn kids off to school to give them inappropriate busy work that creates tension at home.

Since you bother to write on this board, it is likely that you are aware of what your child is doing in school. You'd be surprised at the homes where the parents are not.

[Anonymous]

there is no proof that homework for 5 year olds actually encourages involvement anyway. Or teaches them "study skills.' It seems likely that it would turn kids off to school to give them inappropriate busy work that creates tension at home.

Well, I don't know what homework your kid is getting. But mine gets a small amount (15 minutes) and generally, does not get the assignment completely correct on his own without some assistance. If he's not doing it right on his own, and needs some help, I don't consider it "busy work," because he's learning something.