Detention for not doing homework-?? your thoughts

[Disney Doll]

I would have a problem with it, as a parent, because I do not see any lee-way for parental notification... I mean, that would leave parents hanging, not knowing when, or how, their child would be returning home each day.

I think the school is accountable to let parents know ahead of time if their child will be kept after school, and kept from riding their regularly scheduled bus home.

Other than that, the homework issue is probably Okay.

The parent can be notified by their child that they are staying for detention for not doing their homework and their transportation home will be provided by the "late bus". These kids are in middle school. That makes them 11-14 years old. 95% of them have cell phones and, last time I checked, middle-schoolers were very capable of using them. For those that don't have a cell phone, I am sure the prinicipal's office would be more than happy to allow them to use the phone to call their parents.

BTW, this is not a "new" idea. This is how it was when I was in upper grammar school and high school grades. The only difference is that there was no "late bus". My mother having to come and get me after detention only added to the whole "experience".

 

[tlgoblue]

The parent can be notified by their child that they are staying for detention for not doing their homework and their transportation home will be provided by the "late bus". These kids are in middle school. That makes them 11-14 years old. 95% of them have cell phones and, last time I checked, middle-schoolers were very capable of using them. For those that don't have a cell phone, I am sure the prinicipal's office would be more than happy to allow them to use the phone to call their parents.

BTW, this is not a "new" idea. This is how it was when I was in upper grammar school and high school grades. The only difference is that there was no "late bus". My mother having to come and get me after detention only added to the whole "experience".

Not to mention the fact that even before they leave for school, I bet they know they didn't do their homework and will be receiving detention. Let your parents know before you leave, so they can make arrangements. My kids would pull a last minute phone call on me just once. In fact DD just got her feebie today. Got a call, "Mom? Can you hurry over hear with my planner? It's in my other binder on my bookshelf." I look, of course, nowhere to be found. By the time I found it, and got it to the school, she was in class. When she gets home, she will be informed that was her one freebie. Now she gets docked points if it winds up in the bottom of her closet, underneath clothes she decided not to wear at tle last minute this am. Yes her grade will suffer if she doesn't have her planner with her every day, filled out and sighend by her teachers and me or DH. Kind of "micromanaging" but at least we all know what is expected.

 

[swilphil]

I'm all for it, as long as the administration helps enforce the detentions and contact parents.

I taught in an inner-city high school with a math teacher who did this. It worked great. The kids would come in for detention and finish the work. In some ways it was a way to get the students to come in for the extra help that they needed. Many students didn't do homework because they didn't understand it and, frankly, neither did many parents. Even though most teachers are willing to help after school, it isn't cool for the kids to come in for help. It's much more acceptable for kids to say they have to stay after school for a detention. This teacher had much more success than the other math teachers, even though it meant more work for him.

It is true that some students still failed, but he still reached many more kids who otherwise would have fallen through the cracks.

 

[golfgal]

As a parent that battles with a child nightly to get anything and everything done, I would LOVE this policy. If we left it up to him, he would NEVER do homework. We had a conference with is math teacher part way through 4th quarter last year and she started talking about over scheduling kids, not having enough time, blah, blah, blah. I stopped her and said that DS is in track and only track (at that time) he is home and fed by 6:00 every night, he has plenty of time and opportunity to get his work done and he chooses to make 10 minutes of homework into a 3 hour battle. DH and I are home to help, and DH can even do middle school math if he needs help. I told the teacher that perhaps some consequences at school to reinforce what we were doing at home would be nice. I suggested detention for not turning in work, she didn't think that was a good idea (she is a great math teacher otherwise). Adulthood is going to be a rude awakening for this child. The word LAZY comes to mind VERY often when thinking of him. We also have the twins that we never have to say 'get your homework done'. They had their science fair projects done 3 weeks in advance, etc. It isn't always the parents fault (although I know PLENTY of parents that don't care).

I think that the school is notifying the parents that this may happen and they should make the kids in detention call their parents and tell them why they won't be there. I also think that perhaps they shouldn't offer a bus, that makes it too easy on the parents (I for one would make my child WALK home after this, but not everyone has that option).

 

[nativetxn]

A student has a job description and doing homework is part of that job description.

Perhaps they may consider their assignments "busy work" but what job doesn't have some sort of busy work?

When these students are out of school and get a job, unless they are self employed, they will have some sort of task that they might consider "busy work". If they don't do that "busy work" they will be fired.

I have a friendly acquaintance whose son is extremely intelligent. He could "ace" exams easily but he never turned in his homework. He never did graduate from high school. He eventually took the GED exam (nothing wrong with that) and at the age of 30 is a sophomore in college. It took him a while to figure out what he had to do to succeed.

Speaking of college, if you don't turn in your assignments you fail. Period. No excuses, no parental notification just failure. My own son learned that painful lesson a couple of terms.

I wish they had given him detention when he didn't turn in his homework. He was a talented athlete and missing his practice for swimming, hockey and football and missing his rehearsals for drama would have gotten his attention very quickly.

Katholyn

 

[believe]

We had this policy when I was growing up....and no, parents weren't notified if we stayed after school. They were more than able to call the school and see if we were in detention or we could use the pay phone at lunch to let them know we had received detention. I remember in 6th grade being kept for almost 2 hours after school, the entire class was kept My parents were not called. Some parents did call the office to see if their child was there. I know that my nephew had detention several times, and on occasion they were detention sessions that a parent had to also stay with the child...typically a Saturday detention. My sister was not happy. It didn't happen too often because my nephew not only had consequences at school, he got them at home for the inconvenience it caused his parents. As long as the consequences are stated up front I have not issue with this.

 

[golfgal]

We had this policy when I was growing up....and no, parents weren't notified if we stayed after school. They were more than able to call the school and see if we were in detention or we could use the pay phone at lunch to let them know we had received detention. I remember in 6th grade being kept for almost 2 hours after school, the entire class was kept My parents were not called. Some parents did call the office to see if their child was there. I know that my nephew had detention several times, and on occasion they were detention sessions that a parent had to also stay with the child...typically a Saturday detention. My sister was not happy. It didn't happen too often because my nephew not only had consequences at school, he got them at home for the inconvenience it caused his parents. As long as the consequences are stated up front I have not issue with this.

At our high school, after your 3rd detention you move to Saturday detentions from 8 am to noon and a parent has to attend with you. You are not allowed to do anything during detention but sit there. Most kids do that once.

 

[Southern4sure]

Whether this policy is stated up front or not, I agree with it. Kids need to learn accountability and responsibility, even younger ones. As a child grows, the accountability and responsibility will increase. Kids need to know there are consequences for the bad choices they make and parents and teachers need to be consistent with their expectations and the consequences. It is hard being consistent all the time but my kids know I mean what I say and no school activities, extra activities or their social life activites will override the consequences of bad choices.