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You know, before we went to a write-in and digital home component, we did have textbooks, and I did allow kids to take them home for the night. Despite how many times I informed parents that kids could bring them home, they always believed their kids when they said they didn't have one or could not bring it home.
Yes, I realize that some districts don't allow it, but kids come up with ways to get out of HW as well
Until recently, some school districts in Texas provided kids with 2 sets of books. One for home and one for school. That stopped when all students were provided computers.
If your school is a good one and does it right, you don't need homework in lower grades.
I came from an international school to one of the top districts in California in the fifth grade. We never had homework at the international school.
And yet I was far beyond the kids in my 5th grade class in my (also wealthy) good school in California (where they did have homework).
THis.
A hippy PhD who ran our kid's school in California said homework in early grades is a crutch used by teachers too lazy to teach. At first I thought it was an offensive thing to say, then I saw how it worked. I think she is partly right, it is a crutch, but it is an institutionalized crutch, not from laziness, but from the effort to marginalize everything. If teachers just provide and then review homework each day instead of teaching, then no kid gets an unfair shake because one teacher is better than the other. None of them are actually teaching, so they are all equal regardless of skills or experience.
However there are teachers who do teach rather than simply handing out homework and then reviewing the homework form the day before. Those teachers are cheating. Upsetting the balance. It is not fair for their students to have better teachers than other students just because of dumb luck.
We homeschool, but our kids went to a charter school for one year. My son had little to no homework in 7th grade, but my daughter was getting a couple hours worth in 5th. I finally told the teacher that she would do 40 minutes of homework plus her 20 minutes of reading. An hour of homework for a 10-year-old was enough.
After 7 hours in school, kids in K-8 should have very minimal homework. I do agree with having them read each evening. High schoolers can handle a couple of hours, but even they should not have 4/5/6 hours each night.
The day is coming when homework will be banned for everyone.
This looks like a good place to jump in.
If one does not learn about homework when they are young, when will their minds learn about homework? When will their minds develop about this concept when they have to do homework as adults?
One of the skills, an expectation of me, that came out of my first undergrad was the ability to give me a text book on a subject and that I would be up on it in a week in order to then do as was asked of me.
A and B. A: So are we expecting them to develop their homework skills in college? If so, that certainly sounds like a disaster recipe to me.
B: If we are expecting people never to do homework, then how are we expecting the world to work in the future?
If one does not learn about homework when they are young, when will their minds learn about homework? When will their minds develop about this concept when they have to do homework as adults?
One of the skills, an expectation of me, that came out of my first undergrad was the ability to give me a text book on a subject and that I would be up on it in a week in order to then do as was asked of me.
A and B. A: So are we expecting them to develop their homework skills in college? If so, that certainly sounds like a disaster recipe to me.
B: If we are expecting people never to do homework, then how are we expecting the world to work in the future?
For most kids it's pretty pointless in elementary. Maybe start sliding in a bit in middle school. Then in high school start teaching them how to do homework and self learn. In the early years, their abilities simply aren't developed enough to get anything out of it, and esp given how little they do know, they are just as likely to be reinforcing bad habits as good.
At high school they do need to start learning how to do homework, but even today, they are not learning how to really do college style homework in high school. Much is still busy work rather than self learning. The skills you need to do college level homework aren't taught, though they should be, in high school. Standard busy work doesn't teach those skills. I actually wish high school had a course called "How to College" that would teach good study skills. Would save a lot of students a lot of pain that first year.
My kids go to an academically advanced private school. Homework is minimal and unnecessary. They read at home, practice their math. They are doing very well. They work hard at school and have time to be kids. My oldest is in middle school and things change but elementary school...homework is pointless and a sign of inadequate use of classroom time.
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