Hello LJ, I'm back with one of my periodic rants: Homework
Of course I know this guy is preaching to the choir as far as I'm concerned, but read to the end, including the notes, then tell me what you think.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2012/11/26/homework-an-unnecessary-evil-surprising-findings-from-new-research/
I've never been a fan of homework with respect to its benefit it to my kids. Its benefit to me is that at least I see some of the work they are doing but let's be fair, why should my kids work harder and longer for my benefit?
Perhaps if teachers spent the time they currently use for preparing and marking homework preparing more feedback for parents we wouldn't need to benefit from our kids struggling over work at home.
I can understand the concept of practice and reviewing material, but if it doesn't help produce consistently better results, why do we make them do it?
When they are out in the "Real World" their time outside of work will be their own, so I don't buy the line that we are in anyway preparing them for the world of work. When they are at university they will be in charge of their own workload. So how are we preparing them to lead a balanced and full life if they have 5 hours of homework a night in High School? They won't be working 5 hours a night and half of their weekend every single week at Uni. They will be doing research projects, sure, and that will spill over into evenings and weekends, and they will revise for exams and that will also eat into their free time, but it's not another full day of study on top of a full day of academic classes.
How about if we treated homework like the occasional work overtime we all deal with in the "Real World"? Does that make sense to anyone other than me?
I should note that my 6th grader doesn't have 5 hours of homework, more like 45 minutes on average and that could be less if he found handwriting easier.
My 8th grader probably has an hour average, but some days it can be 2 or 3. But he *always* has weekend homework, and I hate hate hate weekend homework.
I am also hating this LJ app. I can't even select the bloody link. Nor put the cursor where I want it. Aargh.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2012/11/26/homework-an-unnecessary-evil-surprising-findings-from-new-research/
I've never been a fan of homework with respect to its benefit it to my kids. Its benefit to me is that at least I see some of the work they are doing but let's be fair, why should my kids work harder and longer for my benefit?
Perhaps if teachers spent the time they currently use for preparing and marking homework preparing more feedback for parents we wouldn't need to benefit from our kids struggling over work at home.
I can understand the concept of practice and reviewing material, but if it doesn't help produce consistently better results, why do we make them do it?
When they are out in the "Real World" their time outside of work will be their own, so I don't buy the line that we are in anyway preparing them for the world of work. When they are at university they will be in charge of their own workload. So how are we preparing them to lead a balanced and full life if they have 5 hours of homework a night in High School? They won't be working 5 hours a night and half of their weekend every single week at Uni. They will be doing research projects, sure, and that will spill over into evenings and weekends, and they will revise for exams and that will also eat into their free time, but it's not another full day of study on top of a full day of academic classes.
How about if we treated homework like the occasional work overtime we all deal with in the "Real World"? Does that make sense to anyone other than me?
I should note that my 6th grader doesn't have 5 hours of homework, more like 45 minutes on average and that could be less if he found handwriting easier.
My 8th grader probably has an hour average, but some days it can be 2 or 3. But he *always* has weekend homework, and I hate hate hate weekend homework.
I am also hating this LJ app. I can't even select the bloody link. Nor put the cursor where I want it. Aargh.