Upper school homework load?
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Anonymous
| What is the typical homework load for Big 3, or big 5 schools in upper school. Could this affect DCs abilitie to play club sports? How do homework levels compare between schools like maret, GDS, sidwell, St. Albans, Ncs, Holton, etc? Would it most likely be more or less then a good MOCO or Fairfax public school? |
Anonymous
| More |
Anonymous
| Not a big 3, but Catholic, DD will be up till 2 am tonight after coming in from practice - looks to be about 4 or 5 hours, including some study time. Darling niece graduated from MOCO HS last year and was also on the honor roll. Her HW was maybe 10% of DD if that much, plus zero text books, what a joke. |
Anonymous
| Really depends on the type of classes. if the student is taking Ap or honors classes, it can easily be3-4 hours a nIght. It is really hard to do club sports and take the hard classes. The hw load is tough especiallly if you travel on weekends.doing projects or studying for tests on the road just doesn't work very well. |
Anonymous
| DD in private catholic hs not known for top students. She is in "regular" classes. She gets 4 hours of homework every night plus more on weekends. I have asked around and this seems to be typical for private schools. Rigor = lots of homework? |
Anonymous
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I disagree, the MoCo homework load is comparable to private. We are in private, but nephews go to a great MoCo public high school and they have 4 hrs of homework/night. They are in AP classes and do sports, so they are staying up late at night too. It seems pretty consistent across the area for kids who are good students.
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Anonymous
This is our experience too. Now, there are kids at the MoCo publics putting in 2 hours of homework a night, but there are many doing at least double that number. My DS is a junior in a MoCo public and generally studies 4 hours/night, sometimes more. He is in all AP classes, and this seems the norm among his peers. |
Anonymous
| The problem is one student's 2hrs can take another kid 4 hrs. I'd be interested in what parents from different schools (please specify school) are told by admin/teachers that the expected workload is per night. |
Anonymous
I've had/ have kids in both and homework loads are comparable. 3-4 hours/ night, sometimes more. I think the difference is that in public you can take a lighter load if you are willing to get Bs and Cs or take on level classes. Harder to do that in private without being counseled out. The AP track in public is similar to the top private schools in terms of homework. My DC says she has to work hard to get all As, it would take minimal effort to get Bs. As to sports, my DC was on a club team with a mix of kids from top public and private schools. Many kids continue with club sports in addition to school sports. It's tough though, and at some point you need to decide if DC is aiming for college recruiting or not. If not the time might be more productively spent on getting good grades. DC stopped club after 3 years. Depends on the time commitment of the particular sport of course. Ultimately we got tired of the constant conflict between school sports and club sports. |
Anonymous
| My Arlington sophomore does 4 hours a night -- enrolled in a rigorous schedule. Between that and sports, there isn't enough time for sleep. I agree that for kids in rigorous coursework -- regardless of private or public -- 4 hours a night is the norm. |
Anonymous
| This post makes me sad. 4 hours on average is a ridiculous amount of work every night. |
Anonymous
Our school sent an email saying - parents should expect 2-3 hours of homework a night. If their child is doing more homework they should contact their mentor to adjust their schedule/work on study skills. They are expected to study much more 4-6 hours exam week. (I only think they do this to get kids ready for college though) I am constantly telling my son - a B is fine - 3+ hours a night is crazy. I tell him - it is sad but you are learning work(school)/life/family balance at a very early age. I have a big family and lots of neices and nephews. I think it comes down to the parent's expectations on how heavy a course load, how much homework a kid does and what grades are expected. I have the benefit of seeing many of these kids succeed with and without all the stress or all AP classes with straight A's. |
Anonymous
Don't sweat it. I sense some people view this thread as a contest, with homework as a proxy for which school is better. |
Anonymous
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Those homework loads are insane. This is why the Harvard admissions office complains about getting burned-out over-achievers who crash as freshmen.
Homework does not equal rigor. It just equals homework (and kids who never get to be kids). Well, I suppose it does accustom them early to being miserable.... They can go straight from college to law school to working 80 hour weeks at Big Law, and they can have kids who will go to Big 3 schools and do four hours of homework a night and go on to college and law school and.... Kind of makes you wonder just what it is we thik counts as "success." |
Anonymous
+1 Also to 9:21 - I agree - more homework does not show a school is better - though the tone of the thread was feeling that way. I find sometime I am alone in trying to break the cycle. It take real conviction to stay the course with your kids and not fall into the AP, 4.5, SAT prep madness. I have a friend that works at a school and he has this on his wall... The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, he said: “Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.” |