CrazySox

No Homework…

There is a school district up north that is getting rid of homework all together. Sound good? You know, so that kids can have more time to do afterschool stuff- sports and clubs.

I wonder what the outcome will be of this “no homework” policy. Not usre if I would want my kid to be in the test group for this experiment.

In Ventura the average homework time is supposed to be 10 minutes for each grade the kids is in; a first grader should have 10 minutes of homework, a second grader 2o minutes and so on.

Filed under : General
By Sara
On 3/1/2007
At 3:03 pm
Comments :

8 Comments for this post

allison Says: March 1st, 2007 at 3:22 pm

so we i guess they’ve decided to stop teaching their kids about prioties and responsibility and that having fun is more important than working hard. Hmm…I’d opt out of this test group too. So what happens when these kids go to college? Or are colleges going to stop assigning homework too….

JaredB Says: March 1st, 2007 at 4:01 pm

I’ve always thought that grades should be solely based on test scores (and special projects) and that’s it. Daily work (whether you do it at home or not) is good for practice, but should not count towards your grade at all. That way kids that are bright enough do not get frustrated with busy work and can get good grades without doing homework, as long as they’re capable of learning, and it would still be available for those that needed it.

After all, the purpose of school (IMO) should primarily be to learn things. This means learning the subjects that are being taught as well as learning how to learn, which is probably the most important thing that should be gleaned from pre-college schooling.

Of course, that being said, I’m also a realist, and I recognize that for most kids they would need to do regular homework in order to help them learn the subjects, and that most parents wouldn’t care enough to force them to do it, so they’d end up not doing it if they weren’t required to. But then they’d just fail and theoretically learn their lesson. Then again, (being realistic) the school would probably just keep promoting them to the next grades even if they weren’t learning the material.

In the end, I’d rather not see any focus on the specific amount of homework, especially not in terms of minutes per day. Homework should be one of many tools as a means to achieve the actual goal, which should be learning. Ideally, I’d leave it up to good teachers to decide how much homework is appropriate.

Sara Says: March 1st, 2007 at 8:41 pm

I do agree with Allison- when is homework ok then? This was an Elementary school district that got rid of homework up north. Those kids are going to have a rude awakening when going to middle school!
Homework is (or should be) review of what was done in class- not new material. There are kids that need the review and some that don’t.
It is very hard to put a time limit on homework because each kid is different and uses their time differently too. I read one thing that said why not let the kids do “x” number of minutes of homework then have the parents sign it saying that yes, the kid did work for 20 minutes. Seems like a good idea, if all parents are honest and the kid doesn’t just waste the time till it’s over.
Some kids are not “good test takers.” This is why schools (and some parents) hate the mandetory tests at the end of the year.
There is a mandatory writing test for all 4th, 8th and 11th graders. ALL kids must take this test. No special arrangements can be made; meaning that there can be no extra time and no para educators (aides), even if on a daily basis a student has an aide or any kind of “extras.” Warning: this is SAD- this in one reason why some schools try to “get rid of” students who have special needs and send them to other schools. Schools get “graded” on these tests. Teachers get bad reports on these tests. It’s not the teachers fault… I know there are “bad” teachers and some that need to retire but…

JaredB Says: March 1st, 2007 at 9:54 pm

I don’t know about the mandatory time period, though, because I don’t think it’s something that meets all the kids’ needs. 20 minutes might be overkill for some (which will frustrate them and lead them to dislike learning), and for others it may not be enough, but if they’re only using that as a time limit, then they may not be doing as much time as they personally need to, and eventually also grow to dislike learning if they think they “can’t” do it.

As for the testing, I know that different kids take tests differently, and I’d hope that the structure of the school system could be creative enough to find testing methods that are accessible to all the kids. I do still think that, in the end, testing (of some kind) should be what determines the grade, though.

Basically, it should be an absolute requirement that the kids are somehow evaluated to determine whether they have, in the end, learned what they need to learn. Testing is the only way I know of to measure that, but as long as it’s being measured, I’m OK with however that happens.

I just remember being in school and knowing a lot of kids who somehow pass classes when they definitely did not have any grasp on what that class was about. They did any number of “extra credit” or “make up” work, which in combination with turning in daily homework somehow got them a passing grade even though they were failing the tests. But if, after it’s all said and done, they didn’t learn, then should they pass?

martha Says: March 1st, 2007 at 10:11 pm

Did someone say homeschooling? >>
Nope guess not. That is just for the socially, backward lops.

michel Says: March 2nd, 2007 at 5:03 pm

As usual, I agree with Jared. Sam is a fast learner, good test taker but the homework is out of control. I think sometimes teachers give extra to duck responsibility for teaching.

nstryker Says: March 3rd, 2007 at 1:24 am

if school was only about learning and learning to learn, then homework is kinda useless, but school is also about teaching you to deal with society, and society includes social interaction and bureaucracy. homework tests your willingness to jump through hoops and conform to standards set to the lowest common denominator. i failed at that test.

Sara Filly Says: March 6th, 2007 at 8:43 pm

I have stopped assigning homework to my 8th graders. There is no way to know who is actually doing the work, and it stresses out the kids who really do care. I no longer give homework just for the sake of homework. The only time my kids will be working on things from my class is if they have a project with a deadline.

I have a class blog where I have posted all my thoughts about it and the parents have been even more enthusiastic than the kids!

The site address is http://www.msfilanoski.blogspot.com
if you’re interested, you may have to look through to older posts to find what you’re after though.

Sara Cameron’s Web Blog

No Homework…

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