No more homework in New Jersey?

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
0
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/05/19/parents-in-n-j-town-start-movement-to-abolish-homework/

MAPLEWOOD, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — A lot of kids complain about homework, but now some parents are saying their children are getting too much and want it abolished.

Even during their lunch break, high school students in Maplewood try to squeeze in some homework.

“Two or three hours,” freshman Maddy Reichman told CBS 2’s Cindy Hsu, referring to how much homework she gets on average per night.

Friends said it’s sometimes as much as four hours and makes for a very hard balancing act.

“I play sports so it’s really tough to have practice right after school and come home at 6:30 and then do my homework, eat, do my chores, do everything,” Reichman said.

High school junior Jeremy Walrond said his nightly homework load is massive.

“In terms of hours, I guess like around five or six,” Walrond said.

Now while you’ll find lots of students who want to cut down on the amount of homework, there’s actually a parent who wants to get rid of it altogether. She sent out an e-mail to other parents in the South Orange/Maplewood area, asking them to organize to help abolish homework.

Education expert Sy Fliegel said not having homework is not the answer.

“It’s like someone saying to you too much food is no good for you, what’s the solution? Let’s not eat anything,” said Fliegel, of the Center for Educational Innovation. “What has to happen is more attention has to be paid to the quality of the homework assignment.”

Fliegel said schools need to follow homework amount guidelines, such as 10 minutes for first graders, 20 minutes for second graders and so on, with the maximum load of homework reaching two hours in high school.

He said teachers should coordinate with each other.

“My daughter is frequently up until midnight doing homework, sometimes past. Last night it was 2 a.m.,” parent Jeff Schnorr said.

Even some students think abolishing homework is going too far.

“I think it would be nice, but I’m not sure we could ever abolish it 100 percent, because it helps me sometimes,” freshman Molly Brett said.

But students told Hsu, with really effective teachers, less can mean more when it comes to learning.

Education experts said homework is also a good tool to let parents know what’s going on in class and for teachers to monitor a student’s progress.

I'm kinda thinking some of these students are grossly over reporting how much time they spend on home work. Or their time management skills are just pathetic and they're struggling to do everything in the 11th hour.
 

coxmaster

Diamond Member
Dec 14, 2007
3,017
3
81
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/05/19/parents-in-n-j-town-start-movement-to-abolish-homework/



I'm kinda thinking some of these students are grossly over reporting how much time they spend on home work. Or their time management skills are just pathetic and they're struggling to do everything in the 11th hour.

I have to agree with you.. I worked in high school (generally 4-10pm) and I was ALWAYS done with homework before 11 or 12. And i was in all AP classes so its not like I wasn't taking hard stuff..
 

SirStev0

Lifer
Nov 13, 2003
10,449
6
81
I've heard it claimed that homework's usefulness in learning was pretty insignificant.

For a majority of classes, especially in high school, I always thought it was pretty worthless.

Usually it was just worthless busywork that I usually didn't do until minutes before class.

What we need is teachers who actually teach. Some of the best ones I had were the ones that could explain shit and didn't waste my and their time with homework.
 

bunnyfubbles

Lifer
Sep 3, 2001
12,248
3
0
I never did homework. Made my life that much easier.

ignorance-is-bliss.jpg
 

duragezic

Lifer
Oct 11, 1999
11,234
4
81
Hmm, I'm thinking their 4-6 hour homework per nights is because they spend 10 minutes on homework, 15 minutes on Facebook, 15 minutes texting, 15 minutes watching TV, then 5 on homework and repeat.

They should be making school harder for the most part, not easier and less time consuming. Not that a bunch of homework makes people smart, but some things it definitely helps, like you just need to work a bunch of problems to get it.
 

ussfletcher

Platinum Member
Apr 16, 2005
2,569
2
81
Ha, I probably got around 4 hours of homework a night my senior year, though I probably only managed a few hours a week at home. Most I just scribbled in and BSed just before it was collected, or in classes earlier in the day (when I wasn't sleeping). AP Physics actually required homework though :(
 
Oct 25, 2006
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I highly doubt they're spending all that time doing homework.

When I was in HS, ratio was 80 neffing: 20 actual work.
 

I Saw OJ

Diamond Member
Dec 13, 2004
4,923
2
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Well they probably have 5 or 6 classes that they take each day, so an hour or so of homework for each class wouldn't be too absurd.
 

nageov3t

Lifer
Feb 18, 2004
42,808
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I believe that they're spending 6 hours/night on homework.

I also believe about 5.5 of those hours are spent taking homework breaks to text their friends and refresh facebook.
 

mrjminer

Platinum Member
Dec 2, 2005
2,739
16
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Yea, there's no way the kids are regularly getting 6 hours of homework a night. I could buy 2-3 hours if they end up getting homework in every single class they have, but that's pretty damn unlikely, especially every night.
 

CZroe

Lifer
Jun 24, 2001
24,195
857
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The eating analogy is grossly incorrect. If you spend 8 hours a day eating, why send them away from the food source with hours more of mandatory eating? They are paid to yeah our kids in school. Longer-term projects, like reports, should be the only kind of thing they have outside of class so that they can learn to budget time without wasting what little useful time they have outside of school doing things they should be doing in school.
 

CZroe

Lifer
Jun 24, 2001
24,195
857
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Yea, there's no way the kids are regularly getting 6 hours of homework a night. I could buy 2-3 hours if they end up getting homework in every single class they have, but that's pretty damn unlikely, especially every night.

Because your experience is representative of everyone's? I got homework in EVERY class EVERY day. So did/do many others.
 

chubbyfatazn

Golden Member
Oct 14, 2006
1,617
35
91
I graduated high school last year. I would regularly stay up until 1-2AM... but that was because I procrastinated and did other useless stuff. And set aside an hour each night to run outside. If I subtracted all of that junk, I would probably have been in bed by 11PM each night.

I did put off most of my homework until the lunch period before it was due, but that doesn't mean I ran out of time. I was just lazy (but I still made it work).

I benefited the most from realizing I needed more practice in a subject, and would just do problems out of the book until I felt comfortable. Other subjects, I'd just read summaries online. I have to agree that homework was pretty useless, unless I didn't understand the material. Then I would do it and really focus on it.
 

halik

Lifer
Oct 10, 2000
25,696
1
0
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/05/19/parents-in-n-j-town-start-movement-to-abolish-homework/



I'm kinda thinking some of these students are grossly over reporting how much time they spend on home work. Or their time management skills are just pathetic and they're struggling to do everything in the 11th hour.


There's a large contingent of stupid parents in the US that have their kids focus on wrong things. Kids don't have enough time for academics in school, because sports are taking up all their time - so lets cut down on the academics. Meanwhile the odds of having a kid grow up to make a career playing sports...
 
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DrPizza

Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
Mar 5, 2001
49,601
166
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www.slatebrookfarm.com
The older kids are grossly exaggerating how much homework they get a night. Take away their cell phones, take away the Xbox, take away the playstation, take away their television, take away the computer (except as necessary on the occasions it's needed for homework), and tell them they can have those things back after they're done with their homework. I think you'll find that the 6 hours suddenly turns into about 45 minutes of hard work.

Also, concerning elementary students. There's absolutely no reason for regular homework. Maybe the occasional homework - ask your father what he does at his job types of things. The only reason I've ever heard for giving homework in elementary schools is "to get the kids used to having homework when they're in high school." That statement is unsupported by any research.
 

slayer202

Lifer
Nov 27, 2005
13,679
119
106
I've got a good idea, let Christie put creationism into the curriculum like he wants, and then we won't have to teach ANYTHING else
 
Oct 25, 2006
11,036
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Because your experience is representative of everyone's? I got homework in EVERY class EVERY day. So did/do many others.

And you don't think I did? You don't get much homework in high school at all. Did anyone even study in HS? If you don't screw around all day, 2 hours of homework, tops.
 

fire hazard

Member
Jan 17, 2011
49
0
61
I've got a good idea, let Christie put creationism into the curriculum like he wants, and then we won't have to teach ANYTHING else

"Evolution is required teaching," Christie said. "If there's a certain school district that also wants to teach creationism, that's not something we should decide in Trenton."
 

xanis

Lifer
Sep 11, 2005
17,571
8
0
The older kids are grossly exaggerating how much homework they get a night. Take away their cell phones, take away the Xbox, take away the playstation, take away their television, take away the computer (except as necessary on the occasions it's needed for homework), and tell them they can have those things back after they're done with their homework. I think you'll find that the 6 hours suddenly turns into about 45 minutes of hard work.

Also, concerning elementary students. There's absolutely no reason for regular homework. Maybe the occasional homework - ask your father what he does at his job types of things. The only reason I've ever heard for giving homework in elementary schools is "to get the kids used to having homework when they're in high school." That statement is unsupported by any research.

You've hit the nail on the head. I never at any point had a TV, computer, or video games in my room until I got to college (my mother was a teacher). It seemed annoying at the time, but looking back being done with homework by 7-8pm, getting 1-2 hours of downtime and being in bed by 9-10pm was great.
 

zokudu

Diamond Member
Nov 11, 2009
4,364
1
81
My younger sister does not have a cell phone or access to a computer and regularly has 3 hours of homework every night. I was lazy and never did mine in high school but I will say that if I did sit down and do my work it probably would have amounted to something similar.

Add in practices after school and other extracurriculars and I could see where the homework is really getting in the way. I know I never saw a point to it because I grasp things easily. I don't think it can be abolished though just because some people (Like my sister) don't grasp things as easily and practice makes perfect even when learning.
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
58,548
8,828
126
My daughter(7th grade) gets 0.5-1.5 hours of homework on average. Some of it pisses me off. It's just boring ass busy work, and it serves no purpose, other than wasting time(which my daughter doesn't have an abundance of). I'd like to see homework pared down to the essentials; where it's only given when it adds to the school experience, and not just given out cause "kids get homework".
 

slayer202

Lifer
Nov 27, 2005
13,679
119
106
consistency is what they need. it's a joke how much a difference in teacher makes within each subject. one teacher can give no homework while another gives way too much, and they all ignore what the kids might get in other classes.
 

xanis

Lifer
Sep 11, 2005
17,571
8
0
My daughter(7th grade) gets 0.5-1.5 hours of homework on average. Some of it pisses me off. It's just boring ass busy work, and it serves no purpose, other than wasting time(which my daughter doesn't have an abundance of). I'd like to see homework pared down to the essentials; where it's only given when it adds to the school experience, and not just given out cause "kids get homework".

I'd agree with this. Looking back on my grade school days I remember getting A LOT of busywork, which I didn't see the point of then and still don't see the point of now. I'd like to see them revamp the school day somehow and eliminate the need for at least some of the homework.