I also hate homework with the exception of readers and projects here and there.
I'm of the opinion that homework is more to keep parents happy than the kids education. My mum is a teacher and doesn't send any home with the exception of unfinished work. She has so many parents come to her complaining about the lack of homework! After years of trying to explain her reason for not sending any home she now just gives out a homework book to the parents who a desperate for their kids to have some.
I am so sick of homework, my kids twins are in year 1, they have about 1 hour of homework every night. I don't have the time to do it with them, then I get into trouble.
They also have a project at the moment, to either write a book, do an environment or enclosure for an animal. Obviously this is homework for the parents, I have spent about 10 bl**dy hours doing the projects over the last few days, now I have to make them confident enough to present them next week.
I feel like I'm back at school again, although it wasn't that hard when I went.
Yep, I agree. I think a little bit of revision, say 15 mins to half an hour a night can be beneficial later in primary, but I'm floored to read that a 6 or 7 year old has an hour of homework a night, that is crazy AS someone else said, they are alredy at school 6 hours a day, the afternoon and evening should be spent playing, reading and spending time with family.
I'm trying not to bag teachers but my thoughts are that any teacher that gives that amount of homework to a child so young is maybe not teaching them what they need to in school hours.
Yeah, not a fan of homework. Unfinished work, readers and I guess learning something like spelling by the end of the week or something like that would be ok, as well as the odd research assignment. But I'm certainly not looking forward to hours of homework being brought home!
My brother was pulled up on the quality of his DS's homework (this in in like 1st grade or something!) because my bro had actually encouraged his DS to do most of it himself.. so of course it looked like something a 1st grader would produce. But of course all the other parents had helped their kids and they were handing in all these beautifully presented assignments... obviously done by the parents! and so theirs wasn't up to scratch! Think he had a firm word with the teacher about it. Don't know what the outcome was tho..
There is probably a lot of underlying fear of children falling behind or being disadvantaged if not achieving high grades on these assignments. I dunno.. But I agree it seems the parents have a lot to do with homework expectations!
I was hopeless at doing my homework and hardly studied at highschool, and I managed to get through quite well! I often wonder how well I could actually have done had I applied myself a bit more LOL.
A bit off topic, but I don't like the idea of exams either.. perhaps that could be another thread.. except I don't have oodles of articles to quote on that.. just my opinion LOL.
Oh, and I completely agree, it should not be expected of the parents to do the kid's homework. Yes, helping a little if the kid has a question. But I don't think the point of homework is for the parent to be that involved. In my opinion homework is so that a kid can recap on what has been learned at school and then for the teacher to see the next day how well the kids grasped the lesson. The homework might show that the lesson needs to be re-addressed.
And homework should not be marked!
Last edited by sunshine_sieben; January 11th, 2010 at 01:37 PM.
Okay I am going to throw this one out to you all....
As a primary school teacher we not only teach children to read, write, spell, think (well we try to), add, subtract, all that jazz, uomputers, sport, health, HSIE, I could go on and on......we also teach them about sex education, child protection, road safety, interpersonal skills and all the other things that parents have requested that teachers should now be responsible for educating about. I could go on and on about how crowded the curriculum is.
Homework shouldnt be given to teach a new skill, it should be there to consolidate the skill learnt at school.
Teachers are the main educator in a childs life but parents need to play a role as well. Teachers set homework to enhance the child's learning. Parents need to take responsibility for their childrens education as well.
I agreee that some of it is not necessary but I know at my school, homework has a purpose and is meaningful.
Apologies for this being a bit rambled. I totally get where you are all coming from (and I can tell you I dont enjoy marking homework either) but just wanted to point out the other side of the story.
i am a high school teacher. I don't set a lot of homework as i think most students should be busy doing things like playing sport, doing dance/drama after school.
I do ask that they all watch the news every day (first 5 minutes and the weather) or read the front pages of the herald/look at it and the weather report online-and we have regular discussions about things that appear that are relevant to our studies.
Any homework i set is usually as part of a unit of work and is an extension of what they are doing in class-ie as part of your assignment you need to find x y z, and can do this bit at home. I also see homework as separate from study for high school students.
Alibaby - For myself I am actually really looking forward to helping DS with homework. But my concern is that how many hours do we expect our children to be involved in active, concentrated study rather than absorbing activities that will have a learning aspect to it too? I want to DS to be balanced and happy, not just academically complete. If that makes sense?
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AS someone else said, they are alredy at school 6 hours a day, the afternoon and evening should be spent playing, reading and spending time with family.
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