Reply to HW has no benefit in elementary school

Forum Index » Schools and Education General Discussion

Reply to "HW has no benefit in elementary school"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]PreK and kindergarten homework should be limited to things like:

Go outside and count how many bees and butterflies you see.  Draw a picture of them pollinating a flower.

Count the numbers of windows and doors in your house. Which number is greater?

Have a grown up  help you cook a recipe. How many fractions did you use when cooking? What other types of numbers did you need to know to make your recipe?

Read for 20 minutes and draw a picture about your favorite part of the story. Explain why you liked it, either by writing it and reading what you wrote to a grown up or telling them why you liked the story.
Etc.

Drill and kill worksheets should not be part of homework at that age.[/quote]

I don't think worksheets have a place in PreK at all, and ideally not in K bit the kinds of assients you propose that not only take time but require parents to take kids to specific locations are absolutely unacceptable.  [/quote]

You don't have an outside? Windows? Doors? You don't cook dinner?

All of these ideas are perfect "homework" for early childhood education and take no extra effort or resources from parents (assuming you cook dinner in your home at least occasionally).[/quote]

I do cook dinner for my family but there are also days when we have eaten dinner at my mother's nursing home, or we ate sandwiches in the car on the way to a sibling's soccer practice after daycare, or we ate dinner at "family night at church", or we cooked a recipe that has been in our family for generations and involves quantities like "a pinch" rather than a fraction.

The above homework assumes that every child has the same experiences -- like families that prepare dinner with recipes, or playing outside with a parent after school.  In my experiences, the teachers who think it is OK to dictate to families like that post above, are the same teachers who use homework as a tool for deciding which families are "invested in their child's education" and for reducing their effort and sense of efficacy when I comes to helping kids.  [/quote]

I agree. I talk to my child about math a lot. But the times when we were required to go outside and count the number of red leaves,  we made those up. I consider those bad homework. It is okay they do that at school. I would have hated those activities as a child but haven since given up on making learning math more abstract for my child at this stage.  The constructivism agenda in education is too prevalent to battle. [/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