I got a new student yesterday, new to our school, and I asked him what he thought of the place after one day. He said that he'd always attended private schools up until now, and then added about our school, "There's a lot more homework." And this on the first day of the semester!
I wasn't expecting to hear that.
homework in high school.....psh. if they're crying now i don't know what they'll be doing in college. i wish i was more prepared
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, Scott, in a very recent comment, if not your last one here, you cried about how much work your high school teachers gave you. In fact, you said that some even gave homework over weekends!
ReplyDeletehomework is a fact of education. I try not to give too much, just enough to get it down. I also give odds so they can check their work right away. I try not to make it more than 30 minutes or so.
ReplyDeleteSome teachers in our department think we should be giving 45 minutes to an hour a night. That's a little overkill for me. Imagine if every one of the students' teachers gave an hour, you are looking at 6 hours of homework. That's not factoring in sports or after school activities or if they get stuck or confused.
Have I turned into a hippie?
Dang, Mr. W, on this topic we agree.
ReplyDeleteDarren, I'd like to think we agree on a lot more than homework and BSG :-)
ReplyDeleteThis is one of my favorite blogs to read everyday. In fact, since my school blocked blogger, I need to google your page and then view the cache to see it. That's dedication.
And to paraphrase Bartles and Jaymes, "I thank you for your support."
ReplyDeleteI don't like busy work. And frankly much of what I saw my kids come home with amounted to just that. While practice and drill have their places, sometimes it seemed like the teachers had simply run out of ideas. That being said, research, writing or other activities based on what was done in school should be in place. And parents, especially at the high school level, need to reorder their priorities. I swear if I get one more excuse that a student had "an important soccer practice" or "a long music lesson" I will scream. It's time to stop believing every child can do every thing, and start making kids choose.
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