parents/students and school homework

[sonoma1993]

I was reading in my local newspaper talkback section. Few people have been writing saying teachers give out to much homework. Some say the students/parents should just deal with it.

here one students opinion

To No name regarding the backpacks that can't stand up to all the books and materials we students must take home with us: I can't agree with you more. I am a student at Port Huron Northern High School. Each night, teachers slam down homework at us. I have been through two nice name-brand backpacks this year. Carrying around those heavy textbooks day to day really tears them up, no matter how nice they are. Also, only one of my teachers is nice enough to not give out homework on church night! Its not students' fault that teachers can't teach enough during class. We should not have to expand our school work into our home time which should be spent with our families. We should not have to worry about ruining our backpacks, not to mention our backs

here someone saying they should just stop whining about it

In response to no name from Port Huron Northern High School: U.S. students are far behind other countries, not because teachers don't teach, but because the teachers have to deal with students such as you, who are not appreciative of the educational system. You're whining about having homework, taking home books and ruining your backpacks. If you spent the time doing the homework assigned and not whining about it, you may have the opportunity to be successful in life. Right now, with your attitude, it is not looking good. There are plenty of students elsewhere in the U.S. and other countries who are willing to do what it takes to be successful in school so they will have more opportunities in life

I think, today students/parents think they don't have to work hard to earn that A. They think it should just be given to them.

some college teacher posted this

I teach at a college and am appalled at the students who expect to learn by doing nothing except coming to class. You should hear the groans when I announce that it is typical (in college) to spend 2 hours per week for each credit hour of class. I've had many tell me that they "never had to study in high school." The best students are those that spend a lot of time studying, coming to class and asking questions. Those are also the students that are getting the good jobs after graduation. /Q]

I think this teacher is right. spend some kind of time studying, asking questions, showing up for class. You'll earn that A, and end up with a better education which should lead to a better job.



I'm not sure if this should be in political/news or off topic.

 

[Lonyo]

LOL @ the church night thing

 

[mercanucaribe]

A church night??? Why do you need to go to church any day other than Sunday?

 

[Toastedlightly]

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
A church night??? Why do you need to go to church any day other than Sunday?

The standard confirmation/bible study.

 

[tfinch2]

Kids now-a-days have no work ethic. Sense of entitlement FTL.

 

[chambersc]

church night...complaining about homework...yep, we've got a person with the potential to be a loser in life.

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: Toastedlightly

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
A church night??? Why do you need to go to church any day other than Sunday?

The standard confirmation/bible study.

And that should exempt people from homework? I don't think so. Someone needs a reality check.

 

[IAteYourMother]

I'm in HS and I'm getting buried in homework, it's insane.

 

[Wreckem]

Originally posted by: IAteYourMother
I'm in HS and I'm getting buried in homework, it's insane.

If you cant handle the homework load in High School you wont do well in College.

All highschools should really switch to A/B days, where 4 classes are MWF and 3 classes are TR. That would ease the book carrying burden. It would also allow more time for teaching.

 

[PrinceofWands]

I both agree and disagree. I think too much busy work is given out, and there's too little allowance for varying levels of ability/knowledge. However, I also think kids today get grades for next to nothing and are really not learning very much comparable to previous generations. I have a feeling I will be much hated for my grading policy...perhaps to the point of grading myself right out of a career. *shrug* We'll see.

 

[GregGreen]

They give out homework in High School?

 

[waggy]

i agree with both.

in high school every teacher would assign 1-2 hours of homework a night. now considering i had 7 diffrent classes it added up. there was many nights i just did not do some homework. Weekends was even worse. My SIL who is 14 her school is just as bad. she is doing homework from 5-12pm every night (she gets home at 4 for dinner). she works so hard i am afriaid she is going to have a breakdown someday. though she has already got a scholership private high school (math and science acadamy or something like that)

not to mention there have been many studies that kids carying home those huge books night after night is bad for the back.

but kids need homework to learn. but they really need to find a good amount. Wreckem had a good idea A/B days would help.

 

[TecHNooB]

I had a tougher time in highschool than I am right now in college. The workload was a bit less, but the tests were much harder.

 

[jmcoreymv]

What the hell classes were people taking that they ended up with 5 hours a night of homework? I had like 5 AP classes my last 2 years of HS and don't remember doing more than 30 minutes tops on a given night.

 

[LS20]

its not about homework... its about the CURRICULUM.

k-12 schools need to buff up their math, geography, history, and especially english. basically... EVERYTHING

edit: economics

 

[Tiamat]

They need to stop their whining. If they are not getting 100% on their tests, they need to do more studying and homework. Up through high school, no matter what you take it is possible to get 100% on tests that are non-paragraph based.

Too much entitlement attitude...

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: Tiamat
They need to stop their whining. If they are not getting 100% on their tests, they need to do more studying and homework. Up through high school, no matter what you take it is possible to get 100% on tests that are non-paragraph based.

Too much entitlement attitude...

its not a entitlement attitude. its overworking the kids.

as i said in high school i had on most nights anywhere from 6-10 hours of homework a night. thats after going to school all day. Its just not possible to do night in and night out. kids burn out.

also there is debate if kids actually learn with being swamped like this every night.


not to mention it is the kids that do get 100% on test that are the ones doing homework. my SIL has NEVER got below a A in any class (though came close in trig this year). she has stayed up nearly all night doing homework. she came home at 4 and was up until 2am doing homework. she did take short breakes for dinner etc.

saying that. YES kids need homework. i am not sure as much as being given is productive.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Most HW in HS is busy work but, you can thank "No child left behind" for that. School is tougher now than when I was a kid because of larger schools, more government involvement and increased competition. I say give more meaningful HW in regards to what is expected in college, decrease school population and taser a few more kids.

 

[villageidiot111]

It's not a matter of homework, it's about kids not paying attention in class. I found that in my AP classes there was hardly any homework, yet everyone in the class learned and retained more than any student in regular classes. This is because the AP students pay attention in class, so there is no need for homework. The other students zone out in class, so the only way teachers can get them to learn anything is to make them work outside of class.

High school is easy as long as you pay attention. Even if you still get lots of homework, paying attention in class makes the homework easier and therefor you get through it faster. I think any student in school can get 5s on AP tests and good SAT/ACT scores as long as they put the effort in. Whatever you put in is what you get out, it's just a matter of staying motivated.

 

[Eeezee]

Reply to first quote -
That student needs to buy better backpacks. I carried every textbook and every notebook to class every day, and I'd get at least a year's use out of the cheapo backpacks from target. My back is in great shape after 7 years of doing that (high school + middle school). High school kid doesn't know what he's talking about I guess. And WTF, assigning homework on "church night?" What's church night, isn't that Sunday? School on Sunday? Wtf is this kid talking about?

More homework is good. Our education system is in the dumps and out students should have to try much harder to pass out of high school. A high school diploma doesn't mean anything today because there's not enough homework and because our requirements on students are way too low!

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: Eeezee
Reply to first quote -
That student needs to buy better backpacks. I carried every textbook and every notebook to class every day, and I'd get at least a year's use out of the cheapo backpacks from target. My back is in great shape after 7 years of doing that (high school + middle school). High school kid doesn't know what he's talking about I guess. And WTF, assigning homework on "church night?" What's church night, isn't that Sunday? School on Sunday? Wtf is this kid talking about?

More homework is good. Our education system is in the dumps and out students should have to try much harder to pass out of high school. A high school diploma doesn't mean anything today because there's not enough homework and because our requirements on students are way too low!

Bullcrap. You don't need boatloads of homework to get good grades.
I hardly had any homework, although I did go to a good UK school, and I got good grades.
Homework isn't everything. People actually wanted to learn though, which meant we didn't really need homework.
It was suprising if I did 2 hours a week of homework.

 

[ITJunkie]

Originally posted by: villageidiot111
It's not a matter of homework, it's about kids not paying attention in class. I found that in my AP classes there was hardly any homework, yet everyone in the class learned and retained more than any student in regular classes. This is because the AP students pay attention in class, so there is no need for homework. The other students zone out in class, so the only way teachers can get them to learn anything is to make them work outside of class.

High school is easy as long as you pay attention. Even if you still get lots of homework, paying attention in class makes the homework easier and therefor you get through it faster. I think any student in school can get 5s on AP tests and good SAT/ACT scores as long as they put the effort in. Whatever you put in is what you get out, it's just a matter of staying motivated.

This is only true up to a point. I've seen kids that bust their asses in and out of class yet still can't reach the scores you are talking about. Some just simply can't make the connection between reading and applying.
The bottom line is not everyone is cut out or meant to be science/math wizards. And, as one poster already mentioned, the "no child left behind" act is a mess. A daughter of a friend is AP math in high school and failed the math portion of the WASL because even though she had the right answer, her method for solving it was "incorrect". That is seriously F'd up!

 

[xtknight]

I think the whole thing is flawed.

a) Make the elementary kids (they're the energetic ones) get up at ~7AM...not the HS students.

b) Memorization != learning. Usage = learning, except that if we never use this stuff, what use is memorizing it? With math and science you are learning underlying concepts and building upon them. Not so much with History. I'm not saying they shouldn't have History, but it should be optional. Who won the election in 1864 really doesn't matter to me, I would rather fill those brain cells with something I'm going to use in my job. They could at least make the way we're learning it more fundamental instead of just a bunch of specifics. For example, knowing what a 'coup d'etat' is would be helpful, but I don't care about who won the battle at Vicksburg.

c) I think we should have more homework...as long as it's something worth learning. I could do ten math worksheets a day without a single groan, but if it's regarding memorizing the stages of mitosis...arghhhhh....

Believe me, if you study, you DO get good grades, pretty much no matter who you are, unless you have some learning disability in which case you wouldn't/shouldn't be in the normal classes. Motivation is the big problem. I know that from first-hand experience... I know I'm just not motivated enough to learn History, I'm not going to blame it on some learning disability. But I think I have all the right to blame it on them not teaching the concepts and instead making us memorize so much.

 

[PrinceofWands]

Originally posted by: xtknight
I think the whole thing is flawed.

a) Make the elementary kids (they're the energetic ones) get up at ~7AM...not the HS students.

b) Memorization != learning. Usage = learning, except that if we never use this stuff, what use is memorizing it? With math and science you are learning underlying concepts and building upon them. Not so much with History. I'm not saying they shouldn't have History, but it should be optional. Who won the election in 1864 really doesn't matter to me, I would rather fill those brain cells with something I'm going to use in my job. They could at least make the way we're learning it more fundamental instead of just a bunch of specifics. For example, knowing what a 'coup d'etat' is would be helpful, but I don't care about who won the battle at Vicksburg.

c) I think we should have more homework...as long as it's something worth learning. I could do ten math worksheets a day without a single groan, but if it's regarding memorizing the stages of mitosis...arghhhhh....

Believe me, if you study, you DO get good grades, pretty much no matter who you are, unless you have some learning disability in which case you wouldn't/shouldn't be in the normal classes. Motivation is the big problem. I know that from first-hand experience... I know I'm just not motivated enough to learn History, I'm not going to blame it on some learning disability. But I think I have all the right to blame it on them not teaching the concepts and instead making us memorize so much.

This really isn't true. Grades aren't just a measure of ones understanding of the material. In fact, that's one of the smaller impacts. You are often graded on attendence, atitude, agreement, etc. I hardly ever passed classes in high school, despite knowing the material inside and out (as my test scores proved conclusively). Let's not confuse grades with knowledge or ability.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands
This really isn't true. Grades aren't just a measure of ones understanding of the material. In fact, that's one of the smaller impacts. You are often graded on attendence, atitude, agreement, etc. I hardly ever passed classes in high school, despite knowing the material inside and out (as my test scores proved conclusively). Let's not confuse grades with knowledge or ability.

Well, not at my school at least. There's a gradebook full of scores for assignment x, and they all get averaged. That's your grade. There is a separate column for citizenship (1-5) but that's about it. For every unexcused absense you get 2% off your grade at my HS, but there can not be any penalty for excused absenses. The one class for which I am graded for participation is American Literature. First class I've ever had like that.

If you mean you're like Einstein (smart on the inside but doesn't put forth the effort), well I can attest to that, but I've never failed a class. I don't think I have ever studied for a math test (outside of within math class itself), and I generally get 100%+ on the tests. Pretty much no effort at all. For Chem class you'd be right though, I have to study to get a good grade in there (I like to say that she doesn't explain the stuff in a way that makes sense to me however). I put what we were doing (chemical nomenclature) into Google and I learned what was going on so much faster than by taking notes in class. Maybe it's because I can actually pay attention...and that brings me to another thing. Teachers pretty much give up taking control of the class at my HS (I know it's hardly their fault). It impedes everyone else's learning though when people are talking/flirting/god knows what while the rest of us are trying to learn (god forbid). The classes don't seem to be controlled well enough as people just move out of their seats and talk instead of actually do work. There are a few classes that are controlled very strictly and I was grateful for those classes: I actually learned something.

I could go on and on about this, but it would also help if what we learned had some real world connection. For example, middle eastern civilization was the funnest class I've ever had at my HS (even though I had to study). I know school isn't all about learning 'fun' or 'interesting' stuff, but if it had more of an implication people might actually want to learn it. Very few (if any) people I know actually 'like' school. Why is that? If you make people like it they'll do it. If anyone finds balancing chemical equations more exciting than learning ancient history, then let me know. I am genuinely curious.