Anonymous
09/16/2024 09:25
Subject: JR: no homework in 9th? Are you supplementing at home?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I have twins and one went to public one to private, both at Ivies now. The one who went to private is still pissed about how many extra curriculars their sibling was able to do while they did homework. Hindsight is 20/20 of course and the schools both worked for the individual kids, but homework can be over rated.
Sure, this is great if your child is spending 3 hours a night, all school year doing high-impact extracurriculars (in addition to sports because most privates also require kids to do sports 3 seasons a year). The private school kids are still writing in the school newspaper, volunteering, completing internships, etc. I have a hard time believing that the public school kids are doing extracurriculars to such an additional degree that their value replaces reading books, learning how to write, etc.
I've had kids in both DCPS and private high schools and in our experience the education is night and day. It's not busy work--the kids are learning how to thinking deeply, write extremely well, etc. By graduation they have churned out several hundred pages of essays and at least two 20-30 page papers. Will my public school kid be a failure in life? No, but it's hard to argue that the private education is not leaps and bounds superior and this is supported in large part by homework.
Public school products would be a lot more polished when they get to college if their work were evaluated honestly. I don’t think kids are getting much good feedback along the lines of “it’s ok but it could and should be better.” Homework is usually that channel, but it doesn’t need to be.
yes, agree 100%. What you get in private school is a lot of feedback. When the kids write a 2 page essay, the teacher may only have 20 of them to grade. Then they pick them apart, line-by-line and give feedback. Granted this means although 20 kids have turned in a completely grammatically correct essay, likely only or or two kids get an A because they're then graded on the nuances of their arguments etc. So this is the downside of this type of grading. The upside is that the kids really learn.
My son turned in a 20 page research paper in history last year and received back 2 pages of single spaced typed feedback from his teacher. You could tell that the teacher spent hours mulling over what my son had written and then a good hour typing his response.
Anonymous
09/16/2024 09:19
Subject: JR: no homework in 9th? Are you supplementing at home?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I have twins and one went to public one to private, both at Ivies now. The one who went to private is still pissed about how many extra curriculars their sibling was able to do while they did homework. Hindsight is 20/20 of course and the schools both worked for the individual kids, but homework can be over rated.
Sure, this is great if your child is spending 3 hours a night, all school year doing high-impact extracurriculars (in addition to sports because most privates also require kids to do sports 3 seasons a year). The private school kids are still writing in the school newspaper, volunteering, completing internships, etc. I have a hard time believing that the public school kids are doing extracurriculars to such an additional degree that their value replaces reading books, learning how to write, etc.
I've had kids in both DCPS and private high schools and in our experience the education is night and day. It's not busy work--the kids are learning how to thinking deeply, write extremely well, etc. By graduation they have churned out several hundred pages of essays and at least two 20-30 page papers. Will my public school kid be a failure in life? No, but it's hard to argue that the private education is not leaps and bounds superior and this is supported in large part by homework.
Public school products would be a lot more polished when they get to college if their work were evaluated honestly. I don’t think kids are getting much good feedback along the lines of “it’s ok but it could and should be better.” Homework is usually that channel, but it doesn’t need to be.
Anonymous
09/16/2024 09:11
Subject: JR: no homework in 9th? Are you supplementing at home?
Anonymous wrote:I have twins and one went to public one to private, both at Ivies now. The one who went to private is still pissed about how many extra curriculars their sibling was able to do while they did homework. Hindsight is 20/20 of course and the schools both worked for the individual kids, but homework can be over rated.
Sure, this is great if your child is spending 3 hours a night, all school year doing high-impact extracurriculars (in addition to sports because most privates also require kids to do sports 3 seasons a year). The private school kids are still writing in the school newspaper, volunteering, completing internships, etc. I have a hard time believing that the public school kids are doing extracurriculars to such an additional degree that their value replaces reading books, learning how to write, etc.
I've had kids in both DCPS and private high schools and in our experience the education is night and day. It's not busy work--the kids are learning how to thinking deeply, write extremely well, etc. By graduation they have churned out several hundred pages of essays and at least two 20-30 page papers. Will my public school kid be a failure in life? No, but it's hard to argue that the private education is not leaps and bounds superior and this is supported in large part by homework.
Anonymous
09/16/2024 07:11
Subject: JR: no homework in 9th? Are you supplementing at home?
Anonymous wrote:I have twins and one went to public one to private, both at Ivies now. The one who went to private is still pissed about how many extra curriculars their sibling was able to do while they did homework. Hindsight is 20/20 of course and the schools both worked for the individual kids, but homework can be over rated.
Sample size of two.
Anonymous
09/16/2024 05:34
Subject: JR: no homework in 9th? Are you supplementing at home?
Anonymous wrote:People have such low standards and they will rationalize anything
+1 Keep in mind also if your kid is doing homework in school, it means that the teacher is not giving instructions, i.e., not teaching.
In response to OP's question, I supplement my kid's learning at home. It doesn't have to be an intense amount, but supporting good study habits matters.
Anonymous
09/16/2024 01:50
Subject: JR: no homework in 9th? Are you supplementing at home?
People have such low standards and they will rationalize anything
Anonymous
09/16/2024 01:38
Subject: JR: no homework in 9th? Are you supplementing at home?
I was surprised too OP, but I’m not complaining. As others have said, it gives them the opportunity to do other things.
Anonymous
09/16/2024 01:27
Subject: JR: no homework in 9th? Are you supplementing at home?
I have twins and one went to public one to private, both at Ivies now. The one who went to private is still pissed about how many extra curriculars their sibling was able to do while they did homework. Hindsight is 20/20 of course and the schools both worked for the individual kids, but homework can be over rated.
Anonymous
09/15/2024 20:35
Subject: JR: no homework in 9th? Are you supplementing at home?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This is the time to load up on EC’s and get that experience! Having little homework and a chance to get great grades without is a godsend!
How about actually learning though? Is that the true godsend?
If you have reached adulthood and don't know that important lessons are learned while doing extracurriculars, your kids are in a worse position than I thought.
Same could be said for homework: practice, executive functioning, reflection, even dealing with “boring” subjects are critical skills.
Anonymous
09/15/2024 13:00
Subject: JR: no homework in 9th? Are you supplementing at home?
Anonymous wrote:I have 9th grade twins who attend private school and I wish they had less homework! It’s so hard to juggle sports (school and club), extracurricular activities and hours of homework a night. Count your blessings, OP.
Yes. My private 9th grader has about 3 hours a night. English alone is 10 books this year and all text is required to be read and annotated. Frequent pop quizzes on the reading. It's a lot.
Anonymous
09/15/2024 12:27
Subject: JR: no homework in 9th? Are you supplementing at home?
I have 9th grade twins who attend private school and I wish they had less homework! It’s so hard to juggle sports (school and club), extracurricular activities and hours of homework a night. Count your blessings, OP.
Anonymous
09/15/2024 11:46
Subject: Re:JR: no homework in 9th? Are you supplementing at home?
Don’t worry, homework will ramp up in 10th grade when they start taking APs. My junior is already very busy this year.
Anonymous
09/15/2024 11:46
Subject: JR: no homework in 9th? Are you supplementing at home?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This is the time to load up on EC’s and get that experience! Having little homework and a chance to get great grades without is a godsend!
How about actually learning though? Is that the true godsend?
If you have reached adulthood and don't know that important lessons are learned while doing extracurriculars, your kids are in a worse position than I thought.
Anonymous
09/15/2024 11:40
Subject: JR: no homework in 9th? Are you supplementing at home?
No, I'd be happy. He actually gets time to be a kid.
Anonymous
09/15/2024 11:05
Subject: JR: no homework in 9th? Are you supplementing at home?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This is the time to load up on EC’s and get that experience! Having little homework and a chance to get great grades without is a godsend!
How about actually learning though? Is that the true godsend?
Homework does not equal learning.
My recent JR great had a lot of homework in 11th and 12th. My current JR junior has a lot of homework. Both took/take lots of AP classes. 9th and 10th, when they had no/fewer AP classes were pretty easy for both of them.
The amount of work in the upper grades was/is not overwhelming for either of them; I'd say that with ECs etc it's a great balance--busy but doable.