Do you think it would be better to extend the school day a couple of hours and eliminate homework until the kids get into high school?
I do. We expect our kids to spend 8 hours in school and then 2 or 3 hours on homework. Not to mention the fights with parents over homework. I think if they did all their work where their is a more qualified teacher, they would do better. Less stress at home. More time for after school sports, etc......
Maybe give them some book reports or something like that in Junior high to get them ready for at home work in high school, but that's it.
Just wondering what you guys thought. I know there are some schools that have done this, but I don't know where they are or how it's worked out.
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interesting thought, EG. it would certainly make my life easier, but that's probably why it might not be a great idea.
i am not a professional educator (in fact, best i can lay claim to is teaching my boys to belch on demand and make fart noises under their arms), but i think kids learn best when they're learning the same stuff in two environments, home and school. moreover, homework should involve the parents because i think kids retain things better when the parents are actively involved in the learning process. granted the latter doesn't occur all the time, so your idea would certainly work better for that segment of theschool population.
i'd love to pick my kids up and only have to worry about the fun stuff like practice and such, but as painful as the homework is for me and them, i think i gotta be involved in it.
I was lucky in high school, I was able to complete at least 50% of my homework in study halls. Usually I could do more then that. Senior year was great, I hardly ever had to do any homework at home. I dont school needs to be extended any longer. Being there 8am-3pm 5 days a week was enough. Teachers should just give reasonable amounts of homework. I hated it when a teacher would assign a ton of work and expect done in an unreasonable amount of time, rarely happened though.
Good points. The pay already probably needs to be a little better. I think it might attract more dedicated teachers.
I'm about as involved with my kids homework as I can. Problem is, and I hate to admit this, but some of the stuff my 6th grader is learning I either don't remember, was never good at, or I never learned. When I went to school, only pre-algebra was a required course. And that was high school. Now, they are learning algebra and geometry in junior high. It's hard for me to help explain it to him when I'm trying to learn it myself.
It is kinda good for me, but I can count at least three times when we came up with what we thought was the right formulas and then found out I had taught him wrong. Even some of the stuff that I do know, is being taught different than when I learned it, and it tends to confuse my kid.
I'm sure it depends on where you are also. I live in Ca. The third largest economy in the world, and last I checked, we are like 48th in education among the 50 states.
Result is that my kid ended up having to go to a "homework center" at the school. 2 hours after school with other kids and teachers to help. What ended up happening was that he spent 2 extra hours in school, had no homework when he got home, his grades went up, and we were all much happier at home. Then, when they said he was doing good enough not to have to go to the center anymore, little by little, his math grades began slipping again to the point where he almost didn't pass the class! His self esteem went to an all time low. His other grades are A's and B's.
Now I know that some people (myself included) do better insome subjects and worse in others, but the anecdotal evidence suggested to me that if all the kids stayed in school with proffesional teachers to help them learn the stuff, and didn't get any homework, maybe the kids would do better. Maybe just give them long term projects to complete at home to teach them how to research and do stuff on their own.
I don't know. It just struck me that maybe doing it all at school was better.
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While you rest, someone, somewhere, is training. When you meet, you will lose.
It all sort of boils down to identifying the purpose of secondary education. I think what I learned in extracurricular activities was as important to my development as what I learned between 8:30 and 3:00. Extending the school day would cut down on the time spent in sports, clubs and part time jobs, not to mention that I used to go hunting after school once football was over.
I graduated from high school in May of '03 so I have a relatively fresh perspective. I always felt like there were two types of assigned work; busy work and actual homework. I hate busy work and I don't think it reinforces anything. IMO, that can be eliminated from the educational system. The real work, like research papers, projects, etc are more valuable and teach valuable lessons outside of the material. (Time management for example.)
As a senior in college, I look back and sort of feel ripped off. In college, there are general education requirements that everyone must complete, general science, chemistry, communication, algebra, etc. But those subjects were covered in high school in college prep courses. As a pre-law/poli sci/ag econ major, I am highly skeptical that I will ever find the need to know the atomic weights of elements or balance a chemical equation. If we want to improve education, eliminate the busy work and gen ed classes at universities. Universities are designed to prepare students for the workforce by allowing students a program of study tailored to their needs.Gen ed classes assume that everyone has similar educational needs. Eliminating gen ed classes would allow everyone to graduate in three years or less. (But colleges would lose money asstudents wouldhave fewer credit hours to be billed for) It wouldn't take seven years to receive a law degree, etc... Just my two cents on the educational system in America.
I'm about as involved with my kids homework as I can. Problem is, and I hate to admit this, but some of the stuff my 6th grader is learning I either don't remember, was never good at, or I never learned. When I went to school, only pre-algebra was a required course. And that was high school. Now, they are learning algebra and geometry in junior high. It's hard for me to help explain it to him when I'm trying to learn it myself.
It is kinda good for me, but I can count at least three times when we came up with what we thought was the right formulas and then found out I had taught him wrong. Even some of the stuff that I do know, is being taught different than when I learned it, and it tends to confuse my kid.
I hear you EG. I had 2 years of calculus and advanced physics, and my 6th grader still brought home stuff i swear i've never seen in my life. thank god my kids get their brains from my wife, and their pasty, bloated irish good looks from me.
I think homework isa GREAT thing, for more reasons that learning school work, which I agree with. having homework and projects also teaches important skills such as time management, responsibility and actually remembering to do things. All things that are needed the rest of your life. I always tell my kids that there are two things they are learning during school (they are heading into 9th and 11th grades in the fall):
- the context of the school work, which is important.
- time management and responsibility to get things done on time.
Adding in things like extra-curricular activities is adding an extra challenge to the time management aspect, which is important. In life they will have to juggle job responsibilities with family responsibilities and learn to plan out time accordingly.
Doing homework also reinforces the lessons from class. Remember back to your school days, how often did you understand everything the teacher did and said during class, then get to the homework that night and go "uhhhhh don't remember how to do this". The reinforcement after some time period is the important apsect to actually learning it, not just memorizing for a short time. This is the same reason I am against allowing kids with good grades to opt out of final exams. If they know the material, then the final is no big deal, if they don't remember it from months ago, then they should be be studying it for reinforcement.
As for helping them, ya it gets challenging. My wife and I both have masters degrees in engineering disciplines and she is currently a math teacher, we often times need to look at the book to "remind" ourselves hwo to do some of the math/science they bring home [&:]
I think homework is still a good idea, especially if they plan on attending college after high school. I averaged about 3-4 hours of homework per night, to be completed after football/track practice and a part time job. That was nothing compared to the load of work when I started college. It teaches time management and personal responsibility. Just my opinion.
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No more homework
