Homework rant

[zoemurr]

Why are kids expected to go to school for 7 hours day and then often have 3-4 hours of homework? I feel so bad for my DD. First day back after vacation and she has a huge SS packet, and tons of math homework due tomorrow. I know she just wants to relax. Fortunately we didn't have anything else going on today after school. She has club meetings every day but Mondays.

It just seems so unfair. Most adults aren't expected to start work at 7am, come home at 3, have an hour break and then work from home until bedtime. This has to be unhealthy.

She's is in all advanced classes, so some of this pressure she did put on herself. She's in 9th grade and I assume it's only going to get worse. She is not poking around or wasting time either. She did homework for an hour or two almost every day over vacation as well. How do families w/high schoolers go away those weeks?

Selfishly I would like to spend some time with her today but I know it's not going to happen. She can't stay up late because chorus starts at 6:50 am. tomorrow.

Thanks.. just venting. She's not the one complaining, I am.

 

[Southernmiss]

We don't go away for spring break. Ds is in 10th grade ap world history and he did homework most all week. Had to keep up with 2 chapters. I am sure he'll have several summer assignments over the summer for next year. 9th grade is only the beginning

There is a light at the end of the tunnel though. Oldest ds is classified as a sophomore in his 1st yeat of college because of his high school work.

 

[disney is my life]

Im happy to inform you as much as you think it doesnt get better believe me it does. On our first trip to disney in november 2011 dd15 was in 9th grade as well she spent countless hours working on math homework. Not only did she not finish the math homework but she was also expected to read a whole shakespere book too (which she never completed). However this year when we went to disney she only had math homework and finished the whole weeks worth in about 3 hours. she is also in all advanced classes. 10th grade seems to be a lot better because shes adjusted into the school and the new people so she is able to work better.

 

[EMom]

We changed school districts partly because of this. From 5th grade on, the students had 3-4 hours of homework per night and spent most of the weekend trying to get ahead on math packets, etc. I could not see, even as a former teacher, how this was actually helping the students learn, as a lot of it was busywork. The school prided itself on being tough and they seemed to be proud of the enormous homework load they put on the kids.

My child was becoming burned out on school and I wanted her to actually LIKE school and learning so she would not be so turned off to it that she wouldn't want to go to college. We moved her to a new district that seems to take a more balanced approach to education and are very pleased. She has time for academics and other extracurricular activities. She is happier and enjoys school again.

 

[zoemurr]

We don't go away for spring break. Ds is in 10th grade ap world history and he did homework most all week. Had to keep up with 2 chapters. I am sure he'll have several summer assignments over the summer for next year. 9th grade is only the beginning

There is a light at the end of the tunnel though. Oldest ds is classified as a sophomore in his 1st yeat of college because of his high school work.

She has AP history, Chem H, Pre-Calc H, ELA H and Spanish H next year.. I think she's nuts.

Maybe she can test out of a year of college.. that would be nice.

It took her two hours to finish the math packet and she said the SS is at least another two hours.

This doesn't happen every night.. it definitely goes in waves. But I didn't think the first day back from break they would lay it on so thick. At least it was only two teachers.

 

[ICF]

Is this HW that was missed while you were on vacation (i.e. due to missed days of school) or just "regular" daily HW?

 

[zoemurr]

Is this HW that was missed while you were on vacation (i.e. due to missed days of school) or just "regular" daily HW?

Assigned today and due tomorrow. We didn't go away. Not sure how we could have as she had 12-14 hours that she did then too.

I think that is my biggest peeve about hw is only being given one night to do something that takes more than 30 minutes. I keep thinking what we would do if we had a special family event tonight. Would she not go, or stay up all night getting this stuff done and be useless tomorrow? Luckily that hasn't happened yet, but I'm sure we'll run into it at some point. Real life is about budgeting time.

 

[ICF]

Assigned today and due tomorrow. We didn't go away. Not sure how we could have as she had 12-14 hours that she did then too.

that's crazy...glad my kids dont deal with that.

My 7th grader had 4 tests leading up to break...so he had no HW during break and seldom ever has more than an hour most.

 

[LongLiveDisney]

I couldn't agree with you more. It's beyond ridiculous.

 

[Southernmiss]

that's crazy...glad my kids dont deal with that.

My 7th grader had 4 tests leading up to break...so he had no HW during break and seldom ever has more than an hour most.

I just told my eighth grader to enjoy his last month of middle school. While my kids are able to have some extracurricular activities, the homework load drastically increases for Ap and honors classes in high school. The payoff is experiencing college work learning to budget your time and being able to test out of college classes.

 

[clutter]

She has AP history, Chem H, Pre-Calc H, ELA H and Spanish H next year.. I think she's nuts.

DD's math chair won't let 10th graders take both Trig/Pre-Calc Honors and AP World. She says its too much work, and recommends that they stick with Honors History or drop to regular Trig/Pre-Calc. (I'm lucky, my math/science whiz kid hates English and history, so no problem for her!) Since she has to approve anyone taking Honors Trig, you don't get any choice. In reality, Trig was a bear, but Pre-Calc has been pretty easy. Next year, Calc AB is supposed to be review for the first half of the year. (Yay because dd is going away for a semester and has to take it online.)

But it is feast or famine. In our school, all the Honors Chem students are struggling this year.

 

[zoemurr]

DD's math chair won't let 10th graders take both Trig/Pre-Calc Honors and AP World. She says its too much work, and recommends that they stick with Honors History or drop to regular Trig/Pre-Calc. (I'm lucky, my math/science whiz kid hates English and history, so no problem for her!) Since she has to approve anyone taking Honors Trig, you don't get any choice. In reality, Trig was a bear, but Pre-Calc has been pretty easy. Next year, Calc AB is supposed to be review for the first half of the year. (Yay because dd is going away for a semester and has to take it online.)

But it is feast or famine. In our school, all the Honors Chem students are struggling this year.

She's taking Alg2/Trig now, w/H Earth Science. (Took bio in 8th). ES is killing them all.. never thought that would be her hardest class. (Although she doesn't get a ton of hw in there.)

Her math teacher told all of them that she doesn't want anyone taking all H classes next year but many of them are. Her counselor approved it, and she is taking all of the classes that this year's teachers recommended. (Although she did ask if she could also take AP stats and was told no.. I told you she is crazy.)

She has a wonderful GPA. Definitely her father's kid.. no way I could have handled this.

 

[Jennasis]

You just got back from vacation. Why on Earth does she need to relax...after only one day back at school no less?

I just don't get parents complaining about homework loads. Maybe because nobody complained about the hours of homework I came home with. I just assumed that's how it was and I dealt with it.

Does anyone know what kind of homework is typical in countries with superior education systems (South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Norway etc)?

 

[minniecarousel]

Some HW is truly just "busy work" - no doubt about it! If she stays on this path, she'll be taking AP classes, she'll take the AP tests and it she scores well enough, will get college credit. That's how students "test out" of the first year of college. And yeah, vacations were hard to fit in once kids started high school.

My suggestion to you is to not let her see you stressed about this. If she's fine with this, that's what matters.

 

[sam_gordon]

You just got back from vacation. Why on Earth does she need to relax...after only one day back at school no less?

I agree with this.

My other thought... is it truly 3-4 hours of homework for the average student in that class? Is your DD truly "buckling down" and working on it, or is she checking her FB, email, text messages every couple minutes? Or perhaps the classes aren't right for her? Does she budget her time wisely and try to get things done during study hall/in class/during lunch?

I'm not really looking for answers to these questions, I just want you (and other parents) to think whether it's legitimately 3-4 hours of home work vs. 1-2 hours of homework, and the rest of the time is taken up with other things.

When is your child's bedtime? If she gets home at 3, has an hour break, and then works on homework for 4 hours, that's still only 8pm.

 

[zoemurr]

You just got back from vacation. Why on Earth does she need to relax...after only one day back at school no less?

I just don't get parents complaining about homework loads. Maybe because nobody complained about the hours of homework I came home with. I just assumed that's how it was and I dealt with it.

Does anyone know what kind of homework is typical in countries with superior education systems (South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Norway etc)?

getting your info?

The findings are detailed in a new book, "National Differences, Global Similarities: World Culture and the Future of Schooling" (Stanford University Press).

"American students appear to do as much homework as their peers overseas -- if not more -- but still only score around the international average," LeTendre said. "Undue focus on homework as a national quick-fix, rather than a focus on issues of instructional quality and equity of access to opportunity to learn, may lead a country into wasted expenditures of time and energy."

In the early 1980s, U.S. teachers began assigning more homework, the researchers say. The shift was in response to mediocre performance in comparison to Japanese students. At the same time, the trend was going the other way in Japanese schools. The new study found U.S. math teachers assigned more than two hours of homework a week in 1994-95, while in Japan the figure was about one hour per week."

Her bedtime in 9-9:30 if she can manage it. I was also taking time out for dinner.. silly me.

Yes, she is only working. I also said this is not every night. It's hard right after vacation because getting back on schedule of going to bed early and getting up at 5:30 again is rough.

I am not stressing.. and as I said she is fine, and has put much of this pressure on herself. I just hate nights like this when we have no family time. My DH is not expected to work during vacation, or for many hours after he gets home from work. (Although he often does.)

She has a 94 GPA so I have no doubt she is in all the right classes. She just has a lot of work tonight... as I said it goes in waves. I wish they would teach them to budget their time by giving them a few evenings to do larger assignments.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

My biggest beef was with the assigned today, due tomorrow nonsense. It made after school jobs and extracurriculars all but impossible. Fortunately, I had very little of that in HS, particularly as I got older.

 

[sam_gordon]

getting your info?

The findings are detailed in a new book, "National Differences, Global Similarities: World Culture and the Future of Schooling" (Stanford University Press).

"American students appear to do as much homework as their peers overseas -- if not more -- but still only score around the international average," LeTendre said. "Undue focus on homework as a national quick-fix, rather than a focus on issues of instructional quality and equity of access to opportunity to learn, may lead a country into wasted expenditures of time and energy."

In the early 1980s, U.S. teachers began assigning more homework, the researchers say. The shift was in response to mediocre performance in comparison to Japanese students. At the same time, the trend was going the other way in Japanese schools. The new study found U.S. math teachers assigned more than two hours of homework a week in 1994-95, while in Japan the figure was about one hour per week."

Her bedtime in 9-9:30 if she can manage it. I was also taking time out for dinner.. silly me.

Yes, she is only working. I also said this is not every night. It's hard right after vacation because getting back on schedule of going to bed early and getting up at 5:30 again is rough.

I am not stressing.. and as I said she is fine, and has put much of this pressure on herself. I just hate nights like this when we have no family time.

The bolded is true "in the real world" too.

If she's fine with it, let it go. School is almost over (34 days left here)!

 

[Aliceacc]

I'm a high school math teacher, and I absolutely agree with the OP.

My classes have what we lovingly call the "20 minute rule."

You need to spend 20 minutes per night doing your math homework. No texting, no snacking, no Facebook, no phone... 20 minutes of quality time with a pencil (or pen) and your math textbook.

At the end of those 20 minutes, finished or not, you can close the book.

If you're the only one who struggled, I'll expect to see you in extra help. If everyone struggled, then I messed up-- either my explanation wasn't clear or I underestimated the difficulty or length of the assignment.

You're also allowed to miss, then make up for full credit, up to 3 assignments per marking periods. Hey, sometimes life gets in the way of homework. Either you come home sick, or it's Grandma's birthday, or the appointment at the orthodontist's runs long.

There are no "math emergencies" that should require any kid to spend hours on my math homework.

I wish more teachers, at the end of a long day, had to spend a few hours helping their young kids with homework. I think they would see the frustration of a kid who KNOWS he's doing busy work, and the fear in the eyes of a conscientious kid who simply doesn't get the material but needs to finish it.

I have 180 days in which to cover the syllabus. It's my job to ensure that it's done well and that I've utilized my time well. I work from bell to bell, we don't play games or have days when we ease up. If you miss a day of my class, you've missed a lot. Miss a week, and you're in a pretty deep hole. But 180 days of one 38 minute class, plus 20 minutes of homework per day, is all I need.

 

[dogluva]

You just got back from vacation. Why on Earth does she need to relax...after only one day back at school no less?

I just don't get parents complaining about homework loads. Maybe because nobody complained about the hours of homework I came home with. I just assumed that's how it was and I dealt with it.

Does anyone know what kind of homework is typical in countries with superior education systems (South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Norway etc)?

I don't get it either. If its too much, have her drop down some levels. Teachers can't win either way.