Friday, November 4, 2011

Repost - The Audacity of Homework from Playborhood

The Audacity of Homework

He hasn’t been handing in part of his kindergarten homework, worksheets full of letters that require tracing over. However, he has handed in his book reading logs and book report.

He likes reading books that interest him, but he’s not keen on tracing letters.

So, his teacher told him he may not be able to have recess all next week.

He cried and cried. He doesn’t want to go to school tomorrow. What a baaaaaby!!!

On the other hand, his teacher is so audacious! She’s so noble! She’s ignored the vast mountains of research that show no academic benefit to homework, even for kids in later elementary school years. Good for her.

She’s managed to show Oliver in his first few weeks of kindergarten what the rest of his school career will be like: stressful and unhappy. Why “sugar-coat” kindergarten? Why leave him with any impression that he can control his own learning experience?

In addition, she’s fired a vital shot across the bow to Oliver’s parents. Now that he’s in school for part of each day, they’re not in total control of their family life anymore. No, they must serve her first. Their first duty when he gets home from school is to check his backpack and follow her instructions.

Yes, the party’s over. Oliver’s in kindergarten. How sad…

4 comments:

  1. Not 5 minutes ago did I finish reading an article in Educational Leadership entitled SUCCESS WITH LESS STRESS. Guess what? Students were "stressed out, overworked, and deprived of adequate sleep" which "affected their mental health and their ability to learn" - much due to the hours of high school homework. AND the high school in the study were high performing high schools in the Bay Area. WHEN WILL THINGS CHANGE? Despite the SRVUSD homework policy, we still get homework every weekend. And I know that the teachers reviewed the policy at the beginning of the academic year. Anyway, it was a good article: Conner, J., Pope, D., & Gallowya, M. (2009) Success with less stress. EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP, 67(4), 54-58.

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  2. We are all slaves to the crazy homework assigned by teachers. As a parent of children in SRVUSD, it is frustrating because teachers do not follow the homework policy. There has not be a weekend without homework (and a lot of it). Our weekends don't belong to the family anymore. If the kids don't do the work, they get a zero.

    I feel that my hands are tied. I have talked to teachers, and they don't seem to care (or even have a clue about how much time homework actually takes).

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  3. My son struggles with the homework thing. He has a teacher now who could care less about the students, but is very concerned with making it clear "she has spelled it all out" in School Loop and they have no excuse to turn in their assignments. So, he misses a couple and the grade drops. The grade is 70% weighted on homework. What on earth?

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  4. i am a student in the east bay. im in 7th grade and i dont have one night(including weekends) without it least 5 hours of homework each night... i am a ski racer, and i have to miss some fridays for races and/or training. when i go back to school on the following monday, i feel like i am soooo behind because everyone had like 15 hours of homework i havent done yet... then the teachers expect you to turn in all of it the next day, including that nights homework!!! its crazy! are they trying to have us hte school??!!?!? isnt this the reason why people drop out of highschool, and dont go to college?? i think principals should make a limit of homework per night, that can only take us a few hours.

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