School & Classroom Homework

[Elite7]

Guys

Wanted to see how everyone feels about the current school system and to see if the amount of homework/ after school participation is required in other parts of the county. My oldest child is in grade school and just starting to get to that age of getting an hour or two of homework each night. I show my daughter full support and help her with all of her schoolwork when she needs it, but in the back of my mind I am constantly questioning the school systems need to send schoolwork home with students.

I didn't have a lot of homework until high school when I was a kid. I spent my time after school to hang out with my dad or grandpa outside tinkering around the farm. I learned a lot about work ethic and basic common-sense skills that I feel every kid should know (Change flat tire, build/ fix things).

I guess I feel like her schoolwork is taking away her ability to learn other important life traits and it bothers me. I see my younger brother in laws that can't work a power tool or read a tape measure and don't want my kids to lack those skills. Does anyone have these thoughts or have a different viewpoint on it that might help me come to terms with today's school system?

 

[Stocker]

 

[2rocky]

I remember take home homework starting in 4th grade. Usually reading assignments with 5-10 questions to answer at the end of the selection, Spelling words to use in a sentence, Math homework between 20-30 problems. DAILY.

5th and 6th grade we added research papers with completion dates for research, outline, notes, rough draft, second draft, and final draft.

My children have less homework but more studying than I did in grade school.

 

[SAJ-99]

Does anyone have these thoughts or have a different viewpoint on it that might help me come to terms with today's school system?

I have no problem with the homework, but I don’t know it is the solution to the problem. I would like to see the kids be able to access other resources rather than just doing it themselves and getting graded. The goal is for them to understand the material.

 

[Nameless Range]

My daughter had an hour plus of homework every night when she was in 2nd grade. Thought it was nuts and had some interesting convos with her teacher about it. My son is now in 3rd grade at the same school, and she is in 7th. We have never had that much homework again. So in my experience, it was teacher-specific.

I think homework if given, should be a night or two a week, and never more than a half hour. They just spent all damn day theoretically giving effort to learning the cerebral. They need to unwind, play, go outside. That seems to be what modern kids need more of. I know it's what my kids need more of.

 

[Lilhowie83]

My elementary aged kids only have reading at home every night, every once in a while they might have a work sheet or two. My middle school kids have about a half hour every night. And my high schooler very seldom has any homework. He busts his butt in class and gets his stuff done in class so he doesn't have to do it at home after football or wrestling practice.

Having home schooled our kids for several years, I feel there is a lot of wasted time in the classroom. My wife taught everything to the state requirements and the kids could easily be done with their assignments easily by noon everyday. Now at school they go until 4:00 and end up with homework doing the same workload.

 

[blackbeard]

My daughter is in the 5th grade and very rarely has ever brought home homework, maybe read for AR. Will agree with others about teacher specific though. Some teachers like to pile it on.

 

[longbow51]

Most kids are 2 years behind in math and maybe a little less in reading. I helped our granddaughter with her "remote learning" and it was a total joke.

How do we expect them to catch up without extra work? My daughter bought the math book and is helping at night.

Do we just sacrifice an entire generation, except for the Asian kids?

 

[Gellar]

My daughter is in 2nd grade. Every night she has to read for 20 minutes and do spelling words. The teacher also had all the parents download 2 apps that they often upload work to too. If she does that it could easily be an hour to an hour and a half. Plus she’s on the bus at 7am and gets home at 4:15. That’s a long day for a 7 year old.

 

[Gellar]

Yesterday school was called off due to weather. Since COVID and virtual learning they don’t have to make up cancelled days due to weather because all the older kids have their own computer. The younger kids are sent home with a packet of activities that they must complete, plus their teacher uploads activities to those apps. It honestly takes all day to complete the packet and uploaded activities. I’d almost rather just make up the day at the end of school year.

 

[Bob-WY]

Homework is as.much a time.management and responsibility exercise as anything. Build habits young

 

[Trailsend]

10-15min x grade level is an approximate average. 10 x 6 = 60min for a 6th grader, 2hrs for a senior. I think more of a problem is how much extracurricular activities these kids are involved in. That has gotten more out of whack, imho, than the amount of school work.

 

[HuntTalk Freak]

It really is kind of district/school/teacher specific. My wife teaches high school AP and early college English and I don’t think she assigns much out of school work, at that age it doesn’t really get done anyway.

I attended a “self paced” high school. We were given the curriculum for each class by the teacher and did the work on our own. It was great for people like me who enjoyed reading and competing tasks; not so great for the uninitiated.

I have a nine year age gap with my younger brother and I remember him having 2-3 hours of homework sometimes. It was ridiculous, kids need to learn but they also need to be kids.

I’m trying to figure out a way to homeschool my daughter when she comes of age. I want her to be intelligent and not just another drone.

 

[morley.tyler]

I have a 2nd Grader and a 6th Grader.

• The 2nd Grader has to read for 20 minutes, and usually has math work as well as some spelling words. He also has drum lessons 2x a week as well as an after school math class 2x a week.
• The 6th grader has about 1-1.5 hours of homework per night as well as violin lessons 2x a week.

Admittedly we do focus a bit on academics and the boys go to a private school. Additionally, our local public schools have a no homework policy.

Life is different for everybody, and I grew up on farm and remember more Flintstones & Gilligan's Island than I do homework. My wife was an Army brat and lived in 5 countries and went to 13 school between Kindergarten and college.

My kids are growing up in a city and have no calluses on their hands. Do I fear that I'm raising them soft? Yea I do, but I also raise them w/ small town values, an appreciation for hard work and community. In the summer, we go home and spend extended periods of time playing in the woods, fixing fences, playing in rivers, and getting dirty.

 

[rtraverdavis]

Public school teacher here.

I don’t assign homework. If a student doesn’t finish an assignment in the allotted class time, then it becomes homework. Waste time in class, pay the price at home.

I hate hearing that folks think that public school turns kids into drones. Should be the opposite. My whole focus is on teaching kids to be independent, critical thinkers.

OP, I’d shoot your kid’s teacher an email and kindly ask for a rationale behind the amount of homework.

 

[Slm864]

My daughter is in 1st grade and comes home with a bunch of homework every night. It’s very annoying. Maybe if they would cut out “brain breaks” and stop playing on chrome books all the time they could actually get a full day of learning instead of relying on the parents to play evening teacher.

 

[Elite7]

Public school teacher here.

I don’t assign homework. If a student doesn’t finish an assignment in the allotted class time, then it becomes homework. Waste time in class, pay the price at home.

I hate hearing that folks think that public school turns kids into drones. Should be the opposite. My whole focus is on teaching kids to be independent, critical thinkers.

OP, I’d shoot your kid’s teacher an email and kindly ask for a rationale behind the amount of homework.

Sounds like you’re a good teacher. I have considered reaching out to the teacher and might be doing that. I also should mention I don’t think it’s a public vs private school scenario. I believe all schools have increased homework loads over the years.

I completely agree it should it become their homework if they decide to not use the time the teachers allows in class.

 

[Dougfirtree]

With the exception of one or two individual teachers, homework has been pretty minimal for my kids, while in elementary school. It picks up more in middle school. Aside from being a father, I'm also a former teacher and in my opinion, there should be no homework before 5th grade, other than reading. We ask a lot of small children, to be in a classroom from 8:00-3:00. If I may be so bold as to quote Piaget on Hunt Talk, "Play is the work of childhood."

 

[Bhoesl]

My daughter is in third grade and we also have been surprised at the amount of homework. We’ve talked to the teacher about it and haven’t really gotten anywhere. She’s a good student and a quick learner but I’m afraid the amount of work expected for this particular teacher is going to give her a negative attitude toward school in general.

 

[longbow51]

Public school teacher here.

I don’t assign homework. If a student doesn’t finish an assignment in the allotted class time, then it becomes homework. Waste time in class, pay the price at home.

I hate hearing that folks think that public school turns kids into drones. Should be the opposite. My whole focus is on teaching kids to be independent, critical thinkers.

OP, I’d shoot your kid’s teacher an email and kindly ask for a rationale behind the amount of homework.

So, how are your kids doing on math and English proficiency? Oregon as a state overall looks awful.

My daughter had AP papers all the time as homework, and math homework every day.

I'm not saying it has to be hours a night, but I just don't see a plan to stop dumbing down our kids. From remote learning, which smarter parts of the world knew was wrong very quickly, to lowering standards for "equity", to "opting out" of testing (we'd rather not know) which you know Oregon did, there seems to be no end to chasing mediocrity.