Why does Deal assign SO MUCH HOMEWORK?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have an OOB 6th grader at Deal and have noticed the amount, and weight of homework creeping upwards. It was supposed to be 5% of the grade. Since my kid was/is getting As, we said s/he could just skip the homework. Seriously, the long commute and a mind-numbing day in the factory is enough for an 11-12 yr old CHILD.

But. Teachers must be responding to increased pressure to ramp up test prep or something. Test prep worksheets are coming home, with little relation to the course content. Homework amounts are increasing. (They're called Independent Projects, but they are what they are: Homework.) The quality of the homework isn't even great - just more of the same old plod-through-it-leave-your-mind-out-of-it stuff. And now the homework requires the use of a computer all the time too? Just how many computers does the school think we have in this house?

For this and other reasons, I would not recommend that Deal be used as a model for middle schools elsewhere in the District. Maybe a mindless suburb somewhere. (ouch, but that was a cheap shot at the 'burbs!)

What a terrible lesson to teach a kid - you're tired, and don't feel like meeting your responsibilities? Just skip it, then. For an elementary schooler, that might be OK once in a while; for an 11 yo, not at all (and certainly not on a regular basis).

[Anonymous]

If you can't kick ass at a DC public middle school, what chance do you have against cohorts from a private school in Berkeley or Boston whose kids are applying to the same colleges? I mean, you have to have foreign language of some sort to even apply, if you don't keep up or exceed DC's math requirements you'll be put on the slowpoke track, AP classes in high school are college level courses...sadly this is a time when kids have to look down the road and kick it into high gear.
I remember thinking in 9th grade that I needed a rest in the afternoon because there was just so much to get done each night. School and homework take more hours than a full time job when you are shooting for a certain level.