Worst Homework Assignments Your Kids Have Had

[barkley]

the back to school and homework threads have me happy i'm done with those years but also remembering them. homework? I had no issue as a kid doing it/my kids doing it when it served a purpose but there were a handful of years/teachers for whom it was strictly useless busy work (and I don't know why-the district did'nt mandate it). hands down though, the WORST homework assignments my kids got (both had the same teacher) was 'book in a bag'. 'book in a bag' entailed the student reading a book and then having to gather 1 dozen items (physical NOT photos/drawings of) pertinent to the book, place them in a bag and bring them in to class to do an oral report explaining the book/the items. doesn't sound bad??? the teacher got to pick the subject of the book so she always tied it in to something they were studying in one of their subjects such as 'the revolutionary war' or 'westward expansion'. yes-our household had a wealth of muskets and butter churns and whale oil candles NOT. it was the most frustrating homework assignment ever.


please share/vent yours.

 

[kdonnel]

Not homework, but science fair projects.

Nothing like a science fair project to make a kid despise science for years.

 

[leebee]

DD always struggled with group projects. There is always someone that doesn't do their part, and then there are the students like DD, who tend to be a bit of a perfectionist. NOT that 'her way' was the only way, but man, it'd be nice if the other kids cared about their grades and presentations as much as she did.

 

[disykat]

The "Halloween Fun Pack." My 6th grader was told it was required. It was taking hours, coloring solving riddles that even DH and I couldn't solve, etc. - a whole packet of worksheets. By the end of it, me, my husband, and our fourth grader were all helping him. I ended up writing the teacher (who I knew pretty well because I actually had subbed for her quite often during the years) a rather snarky note that "in the spirit of Halloween fun the entire family helped him and it was still difficult to get it done and that we would not be participating in any more Holiday Fun Packets." After all his angst, he was literally the only student that completed the packet. There were no more Holiday Fun Pakcets. Since I was back to working a regular contract by that time I don't know if it would have kept her from having me sub for her, but she didn't seem to hold it against me during conferences, etc. I made sure my 4th grader had a different teacher when he hit 6th grade- although he might have been one of the kids she was targeting with her "do your best" lectures!

I always had to tell him that the teacher only said "this must be done carefully, etc." to the whole class to target the students who didn't do their work - they weren't expecting more from him. But he still had angst pouring out of him like Charlie Brown and friends in the cartoons whenever the class would get a lecture about how they should be completing work, etc.

 

[hardcorestitch]

The "Halloween Fun Pack." My 6th grader was told it was required. It was taking hours, coloring solving riddles that even DH and I couldn't solve, etc. - a whole packet of worksheets. By the end of it, me, my husband, and our fourth grader were all helping him. I ended up writing the teacher (who I knew pretty well because I actually had subbed for her quite often during the years) a rather snarky note that "in the spirit of Halloween fun the entire family helped him and it was still difficult to get it done and that we would not be participating in any more Holiday Fun Packets." After all his angst, he was literally the only student that completed the packet. There were no more Holiday Fun Pakcets. Since I was back to working a regular contract by that time I don't know if it would have kept her from having me sub for her, but she didn't seem to hold it against me during conferences, etc. I made sure my 4th grader had a different teacher when he hit 6th grade- although he might have been one of the kids she was targeting with her "do your best" lectures!

I always had to tell him that the teacher only said "this must be done carefully, etc." to the whole class to target the students who didn't do their work - they weren't expecting more from him. But he still had angst pouring out of him like Charlie Brown and friends in the cartoons whenever the class would get a lecture about how they should be completing work, etc.

More like a Holiday Flunk Pack…

 

[tvguy]

Not really homework but my kids high school required 100 hours of community service over the four years to graduate. The school had a number of options that they had set up, or you choose your own, but it had to be approved by the school. Some parents were upset by that requirement. If your child was not yet 16, an adult had to go with them to supervise at a number of places. My daughter volunteered at the Food Bank, the Homeless Shelter and the Salvation Army. All were from the schools list of pre-approved places I went on all of hers. My son found his own, coaching Junior High flag football in the parochial league. That one did not require an adult present, and was near our house, I just had to get him there. They practiced for two hours four days a week after school, and had a 2 hour game every Friday. He got an extra rope on his Graduation robe because he did about four times the community service hours he needed.

 

[Skippy918]

Not really homework but my kids high school required 100 hours of community service over the four years to graduate. The school had a number of options that they had set up, or you choose your own, but it had to be approved by the school. Some parents were upset by that requirement. If your child was not yet 16, an adult had to go with them to supervise at a number of places. My daughter volunteered at the Food Bank, the Homeless Shelter and the Salvation Army. All were from the schools list of pre-approved places I went on all of hers. My son found his own, coaching Junior High flag football in the parochial league. That one did not require an adult present, and was near our house, I just had to get him there. They practiced for two hours four days a week after school, and had a 2 hour game every Friday. He got an extra rope on his Graduation robe because he did about four times the community service hours he needed.

That’s tough especially if it relies on the parent to go with the kids. How did this work for kids whose parents weren’t able to go with them or have transportation to take them?

 

[tvguy]

That’s tough especially if it relies on the parent to go with the kids. How did this work for kids whose parents weren’t able to go with them or have transportation to take them?

There were opportunities to volunteer that did not require a parent present and there were volunteer opportunities on campus. Or at the elementary school next door. The complaint from some parents was they did not feel community service should be a graduation requirement. Especially 100 hours. But I never heard of any student not graduating. This was a Catholic High School and there were a number of things unique to the school that were fully disclosed before you enrolled your child. Another was that summer school was mandatory before your Freshman, Sophomore and Junior years......at no additional cost. At the time the biggest controversy was the school had a very liberal policy on taking your child out of school for vacations. If they did the course work, they got credit. But over the four years my son was there that was slowly phased out because the organization that accredits private schools said it was an unacceptable practice and the school would lose their accreditation if it continued. Some parents chose to put their kids in this school so they COULD take their kids out of school for vacations. The public schools here do not allow it.

 

[china mom]

"about me" projects (runner up - family tree). Provide baby pictures, weight at birth, when did you first walk, talk lose a tooth etc. Basically, any assignment that made a child feel different for not having a traditional back story.

 

[Turn the Page]

Math raps. One of the middle school math teachers had the kids write a rap song using math terminology. It was the dumbest, most frustrating thing. I didn't even know how to begin to approach that.

 

[sailorstitch]

I don't have kids, but I have a doozy of a story from my childhood!

I was in 7th grade. It was the 1994-95 school year. There was NO INTERNET yet. Most families didn't even have a computer at home.

Our school decided that we were going to do what they called the "World's Fair Project". This was the first year they were doing this project. The entire grade was split up into groups of four and each group was assigned a country. There was at least 200 kids in my class, so that's over 50 different countries! My group was assigned The Czech Republic.

We were given semester long assignments related to our country in every class except for math. It wasn't just writing reports with facts and stats. We had to cook food from our country. We had to do art projects to recreate art from that country. One kid from each group had to SEW THE FLAG of the country!

But the big thing that really got the parents in an uproar was that each group was required to interview TWO people that had visited their assigned country! I got lucky. My dad had a cousin that was a university professor. She had visited Czech. But good luck finding somebody that has visited Chad without the internet.

When the school was flooded with phone calls from angry parents, they assumed we put our parents up to it to try to get out of doing our homework. They told us that if we didn't know somebody that visited our country, we needed to run an ad in the newspaper until we found someone! They eventually lower the requirement to interviewing one person, but wouldn't drop it completely.

It was so bad that all the churches in town got involved. They were reaching out to their congregations and printing lists of countries needed in their weekly bulletins.

A lot of kids with more obscure countries were struggling to find enough facts and stats to satisfy to project's requirements. I was one of the lucky ones that had a computer at home. I had a computer program that had a ton of information on hundreds of countries. One of my biggest bullies was really struggling with his country. I happen to mention it to my dad. My dad printed off everything we had on that country and had me take it to school for him. I knew my bully wouldn't take anything from me. So when he was across the room talking to a friend, I left it on his desk. He screamed at me for putting something on his desk until he realized what it was. He stopped bullying me for a whole week after that. After word got around I had a couple other kids approach me asking for information on their countries.

The whole thing was a nightmare! And the school didn't learn their lesson. The project continued for at least three more years. Every year parents were dreading their kids entering the 7th grade.

 

[clh2]

For context…my daughter is now 31. This “project” was in 3rd grade. Immensely disliked that teacher. Class took a field trip to a 1-room schoolhouse. For a social studies project, they needed to do a diorama of the 1 room schoolhouse. Teacher was specific in the instructions to use things in your house (Ie do not go buy stuff). But then she took off points since some things were out of scale. People with better grades picked up stuff from stores.

But seriously-why not have the art teacher manage this type of project in an actual art setting. This project had NOTHING to do with social studies.

Still peeved about this 23 years later.

 

[barkley]

For context…my daughter is now 31. This “project” was in 3rd grade. Immensely disliked that teacher. Class took a field trip to a 1-room schoolhouse. For a social studies project, they needed to do a diorama of the 1 room schoolhouse. Teacher was specific in the instructions to use things in your house (Ie do not go buy stuff). But then she took off points since some things were out of scale. People with better grades picked up stuff from stores.

But seriously-why not have the art teacher manage this type of project in an actual art setting. This project had NOTHING to do with social studies.

Still peeved about this 23 years later.

what was so unique about a 1-room schoolhouse that any teacher would want kids to diorama it? we have one sitting on the college campus a handful of miles away from us (from 1905) and it's no hugely different from classrooms of later decades and even today. yeah, there's the old style desks and a wood stove but it's still one big room (same thing the elementary, middle and high schools have whereever we've lived).


p.s.-my kids (31 and 28) ATTENDED 1 room schools from 1st-8th (actually 2 room when we moved b/c that school separated the 1st-3rd graders). it takes a very skilled teacher but if you get one of the good ones it can be a phenomenal learning environment.

 

[LilyWDW]

There were opportunities to volunteer that did not require a parent present and there were volunteer opportunities on campus. Or at the elementary school next door. The complaint from some parents was they did not feel community service should be a graduation requirement. Especially 100 hours. But I never heard of any student not graduating. This was a Catholic High School and there were a number of things unique to the school that were fully disclosed before you enrolled your child.

We also had a service requirement at my Catholic High School for graduation. I don't understand parents complaining about it. You had to pick the school, apply, and pay for it. The requirement wasn't hidden in the rules or anything. If you (general you) didn't like it, then you could go to one of the other high schools in the area.

Could it be annoying? Yes. I hated missing the Bulls game when I had to go do my service at the same time lol. Was it worth it for the educational opportunities? HECK YES. It was the best high school in the area and, while I am no longer catholic, I still think it was the best decision for me to go there.

 

[KPeterso]

DD always struggled with group projects. There is always someone that doesn't do their part, and then there are the students like DD, who tend to be a bit of a perfectionist. NOT that 'her way' was the only way, but man, it'd be nice if the other kids cared about their grades and presentations as much as she did.

Your daughter sounds like me. Hated group projects! I was someone a lot of people wanted as a partner because they knew I would never settle for a lower grade and would do all the work to ensure it was done well and I would get a good grade.

The worst was my algebra teacher in high school who had us do a test with a partner. Now he did set up the pairs so that it was partners with similar grades together (ie the top kid was with #2 - it was not top with lowest thus helping the lower grade kid). I had a very high grade and pretty much knew who my partner would be as we competed a bit with one another in class. He and I did not really do the test together. We each did it and compared answers. We bickered quite a bit over one problem and I showed him where he made the error and he told me I was wrong. I finally gave in and said it is wrong, but we can put it down as the answer. Get it back and of course, it was wrong and exactly in the spot I told him the error was. I turned to him and said I told you it was wrong. He was pissed but he could not say I did not tell him it was wrong or why. Thankfully there was never another one of those tests. He and I may have killed one another if there had been.

 

[HannaBelle]

My son took 2 years of ASL in high school as his foreign language. During the spring semester of his first year, our son had a "deaf" weekend. He could not speak verbally, only through signs. We could not speak verbally to him or even in his presence. We knew very limited signs, and it was horrible. Of course, we had a super busy weekend! He had a swim meet, a family birthday party that weekend.

DH was irate and refused to participate. Our son is a rule follower and was so stressed about the whole thing. It was horrible!

 

[geargrinder]

My now grad school daugher was being taught common core math processes in middle school. The process to complete fairly simple operations was intensly complicated and was very prone to create errors.

I met with the teacher and explained that, as a managing engineer, if I ever caught any of my junior engineers trying to do math this way, I'd instantly fire them. It's a waste of time and overyly complicates easy problems creating massive opportunity for error.

She couldn't grasp what a complete boondoggle common core math was. Argued with me about it's benefits saying that knowing the process was more important than the result.

SMH

 

[barkley]

My now grad school daugher was being taught common core math processes in middle school. The process to complete fairly simple operations was intensly complicated and was very prone to create errors.

I met with the teacher and explained that, as a managing engineer, if I ever caught any of my junior engineers trying to do math this way, I'd instantly fire them. It's a waste of time and overyly complicates easy problems creating massive opportunity for error.

She couldn't grasp what a complete boondoggle common core math was. Argued with me about it's benefits saying that knowing the process was more important than the result.

SMH

I am SO glad both my kiddos were pretty much done with k-12 school before common core was introduced. all the complaints I heard from parents of the young students made me flash back to when I was in 3rd grade and 'new math' was introduced which resulted in such a mess academically that the district I grew up in ended up dropping it at years end and spending much of our first semester of 4th grade doing remedial math' to get us caught up.

 

[Rogue1677x]

The worst one for my daughter was in Kindergarten when she had to talk about herself, what she likes to do and what her parents do for a living.

Well, my husband is a helicopter pilot, which no one in her class believed and the kids called her a liar. It was hard enough for her to stand up and speak, she's an introvert, but to have her classmates calling her a liar made it worse.

A few days later, her dad actually picked her up from school and her teacher asked if she was telling the truth. He confirmed it and told the class about his job.

 

[RangerPooh]

I always hated science fair projects as well as the invention project.

My worst was probably a 7th grade pre-algebra project that we had to build/make something that incorporated math. I hand sewed a pillow with multiple triangles to represent the shaped and angles. Hated it.