Reply to Typical nightly homework load at various Upper Schools?

Forum Index » Private & Independent Schools

Reply to "Typical nightly homework load at various Upper Schools?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous] I don't know . . . I know some teachers at top private schools that are alums of the private schools at which they now teach, and they believe the workload is very comparable.  But maybe there's more pressure to take AP classes and such.  They do all say that the distractions have multiplied exponentially, however.[/quote]

On thing about teachers -- we do tend to focus on our own subject, and it's often the subject we liked best and spent the most time on when we were kids. I know I blew off (more accurately, satisficed in) the classes I didn't care as much about, so I could spend more time on the stuff I loved.  Even when I was only doing the assigned work, I'd put much more time, energy, and thought into it than I would put into other classes where I was getting similar grades.  I never tried or felt the need to do everything as well as I possibly could.  Many kids today, especially in this hothouse environment do.  And many teachers, AFAICT, are eager to give such bright hard-working kids a chance to see.what's so cool about their subject, despite all the "distractions" (which include other courses) pulling them in different directions.  At which point homework sometimes seems to, inadvertently, turn into an arms race.  And I don't mean busywork.  I mean more texts, topics, more ambitious essays, more in-class debates.

Now layer in AP, which cuts off at least a month of instructional time (and that assumes that the teacher devotes little or no class the to exam prep or review).  Add a rotating class schedule which removes a lecture a week.  Oh, and recognize that because more kid are applying EA/ED to college, that they'll be doing as many APs as they can Junior year, while also trying to take SATs in the Spring semester.  Don't forget that the curriculum for most Humanities courses has broadened considerably -- I think APUSH covers about 50 years more history than it did when I was in HS and Lit has moved well beyond major English/Irish/and a few US authors.  we also have higher expectations regarding foreign language acquisition.

To me, these are the sources of the inhuman pace.  Social media may be a refuge for lots of kids, but the workload is overwhelming even if you try to do nothing else.  Until we recognize this, things aren't going to get better.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics