homework at Holton & NCS

[Anonymous]

In what grade do the girls at Holton & NCS start getting 5 plus hours of HW per night as alluded to in some other posts.

[Anonymous]

7th grade

[Anonymous]

7th for Holton -- it may be 6th for NCS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In what grade do the girls at Holton & NCS start getting 5 plus hours of HW per night as alluded to in some other posts.

I don't care what grade it is, 5 hours per night consistently is crazy and borders on child abuse. A parent would have to be effed in the head to see this as an acceptable situation. Burning the midnight oil a few times a month is one thing, but this is just nuts.

[Anonymous]

It depends upon the quality of the work. If they are working on big projects and interesting work, then fine. When I was in MS and HS, 5+ hours was normal.

Let's face it, everyone here wants Ivy schools for their kids. If they can't do 5+ hours every night, college will come as a real shock.

[Anonymous]

NCS is making a concerted effort to scale back on homework. They conducted a study a few years back and decided to respond to the community's strong feeling that too much homework is not conducive to productive learning. Last year was their first year of scaling back on homework. I think that initially they may beginning with the Lower and Middle schools. This year they are increase the decrease in assignments. I am an alum and the Head of School has addressed this issue in both of her last annual school meetings. It is a work in progress, but hopefully will result in a healthier balance of learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends upon the quality of the work. If they are working on big projects and interesting work, then fine. When I was in MS and HS, 5+ hours was normal.

Let's face it, everyone here wants Ivy schools for their kids. If they can't do 5+ hours every night, college will come as a real shock.

Any thought as to what the kids want or where they hope to be?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let's face it, everyone here wants Ivy schools for their kids. If they can't do 5+ hours every night, college will come as a real shock.

Except perhaps for science/math-related majors, no "Ivy school" requires 5+ hours of work a night. Many rigorous high schools demand much more work than do "Ivy schools." That was certainly the case for me--my Ivy college workload was pretty much a joke after the work that I had had in high school. For me though, this was not really a good thing--I was already too burned out from all the work in high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's face it, everyone here wants Ivy schools for their kids. If they can't do 5+ hours every night, college will come as a real shock.

Except perhaps for science/math-related majors, no "Ivy school" requires 5+ hours of work a night. Many rigorous high schools demand much more work than do "Ivy schools." That was certainly the case for me--my Ivy college workload was pretty much a joke after the work that I had had in high school. For me though, this was not really a good thing--I was already too burned out from all the work in high school.

I agree with response here - as someone who has taught and been student in Ivies. Remember, in college kids spend a LOT less time in class than in MS/HS. So they may have more work in preparation, but 5 hours a night (except in exams) ... I think not, at least for someone really doing homework during that time - and not gabbing on the cell phone with mom, texting friends, going to get coffee for a one hour study break.

Re the second part about college being less work, I hear that again and again from my current students.

[Anonymous]

I am the pp poster who is the NCS alum.

The school is taking their change in policy very seriously, but it is a work in progress. I am posting a highlight and and excerpt from NCS Head of School Kathleen O'Neill Jamieson January 2009 & 2008 addresses to the school where she specifically addresses how they are approaching lessening the load.

2008 Excerpt:

? Developing appropriate grade level homework models. Many faculty members have addressed this individually by trimming assignments, allowing term papers to stand as the final exam, and sharing an assessment with a fellow teacher. In addition, this fall, department chairs reviewed outside research on homework compiled by our ace researcher Librarian Katey Craver and found cause for adjustment at NCS. I trust you know in which direction! As many of you know, the Lower School has adopted several “BBC” (backpack by choice) weekends. In addition, School Government leaders met with Upper School departments to discuss the issue of homework load and followed up with a proposal to the Upper School faculty at a recent meeting.

2009 Highlights:
Homework Policy
Anecdotal feedback on the homework policy has been “widely varied,” said Mrs. Jamieson.
“What has happened is exactly what needs to happen—conversations about what the issues are
around the homework load. It’s not a quick fix. It’s much more subtle.”
“Yes, sometimes too much is assigned. And sometimes girls over-prepare. These are the kinds
of things connected to the Teaching and Learning Center. Does the teacher need to look at
what’s appropriate or do we need to look at advanced critical reading skills? What kind of skills
do 16-year-old girls need to pursue an accelerated curriculum?”
Mrs. Jamieson said the conversations will continue, and noted, “Every head of school I’ve
mentioned [the homework policy] to asks for information about it. Any school with academic rigor
is dealing with the same issues.”

[Anonymous]

I attended several Ivies and was consistently studying all afternoon and night. Considered a slacker by many of my friends. And I was a gov major....

Would love to see some studies relating to our downplay of homework as it relates to the fact that Asian cultures study all the time and can run rings around us in achievement.

I do believe that our culture of "everyone as winners" and less pushing of our students has been detrimental to our place in the world as achievers and inventors.

[Anonymous]

I agree with PP. Holton has an upcoming seminar btw on the homework issue

[Anonymous]

5 hours sounds like a lot - would anybody care to give an example of a typical evening's work that would take a 6th-7th grader 5 hours to complete? I have a 6th grader at another private - we have nothing close to this workload so I'm just curious....

[Anonymous]

Yes -- the typical Holton girl takes 5 or 6 classes in 7th grade. There is about 1 hour of homework per class every night -- including weekends -- no exceptions. NCS & Holton girls get nearly perfect scores on the new writing portion of the SAT -- no one can beat them

[Anonymous]

More specifics please...is it a lot of reading, researching etc? Our kids have 3-4 classes worth of homework each night, but 1/2 hour tops per class (this does not include reading b/c they do that on their own and I don't know how long it takes - they just seem to get it done and they don't complain so I don't factor in time I'm aware of at the table where they do the work on the computer....I'm just blown away by the 5 hours a night and don't know how you could do that plus activities and not be up till all hours...