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Replies to '03/23 Homework Hell'
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December 9, 2006, 6:18 am PST
 Quote From: ghstwheel I read a lot of complaining about how terrible the mother is acting (I agree she needs help learning how to deal with this), but are there any suggestions for how a parent can help their child? I feel so bad for my own daughter, who also loses out on life because it can take her up to 4 hours to complete an assignment. The poor kid sits and stares at the computer screen for 45 minutes, because she cannot think of a topic to write on (this is a GATE seminar kid, mind you) Hand her Math or Science and watch her go (talk about saving her self esteem, we really play up her math abilities) The first years of elementary schoold were hideous for her. Fortunately, in 4th and 5th grade, she has had wonderful teachers who work with us to get the most of her time, but some teachers just hand out a stack of worksheets (pet peeve of mine) and expect everyone to get them done. Period. Or you fail the homework for the day, even if you did part of it. A) Parents need to talk to the teachers and principal of the school when your child cannot complete homework. Children are only supposed to work on homework for 10 minutes for every grade level (still way too much by high school-anyone wonder why we have fat children?) and if your child is taking longer, you have to document that they worked X time on this assignement, and turn it in incomplete. B) I have never found a use for homework. I had very little growing up, and do just fine (graduate with honors, College degree, good jobs, etc) Perhaps parents should stand up and demand less homwork from the schools. I'd rather be searchin Nasa.gov with my child checking out the Mars Rover pictures, that having the poor kids filling out yet another worksheet. That's my 2 cents. "Homework Hell" seems to be more commonplace than one might think. I could have been that mom (but not that to extreme, I hope!!). The "stack of worksheets" approach of my daughter's early elementary years was a pet peeve of mine, too; it struck me as "busy work" so the teachers could do their voluminous paperwork. Owing to many factors, things turned around for my 10 y/o in the 4th grade; she has been an honor student and has had relatively little trouble doing her homework since.
Since I only caught bits & pieces of the show, I'll ask whether anyone mentioned who thought the homework should take an hour, Mom (judging by the standards of her day), or the teachers? Was this expectation realistic to start with?
As far as the "10-minute" guideline, in many of the "better" schools, that went by the wayside a long time ago (sorry, it's just the reality). Twenty minutes per grade level for elementary school, 30 minutes per class for middle/high school, seems to be the rule of thumb nowadays. Yes, that means approaching 2 hours for a 5th grader, anywhere between 2 and 3 hours for upper grades!! Once I found this out and adjusted my expectations accordingly (and, yes, it did make sense), things went a lot more smoothly, as I was no longer expecting my daughter to do the nearly impossible.
I'll quit before I really get on my soapbox about this issue. Suffice it to say "busy work" is a real PITA for all concerned. |
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