After school homework "load" on kids.... (Houston: catholic schools, university)

[Dionne7]

Originally Posted by PR Engineer

Hi to all,

My wife and I are planning our move to the Houston area with our 5 year old and 11 year old daughters who currently attend kindergarten and sixth grade in private catholic schools in Puerto Rico. The amount of homework that is given to both our children is cruel at times. They never go outside to play or watch TV during the week because they get home from school around 4:00pm and do homework all afternoon until 8:00pm when they start getting ready for bed (they DO take breaks for dinner and shower). They only have playtime of friday afternoons and weekends.

We were just wondering if this typical in US public schools? We are planning on getting our kids into Katy ISD (just in case the answer depends on the school district). We have never had any experience with US public schools since both my wife and I were born and raised here in PR.

Thanks,

Catholic schools in the U.S. give tons of homework too. Most of the time you find that you are teaching the curriculum yourself. Anyway, public schools at the elementary level don't give alot of homework. They do give homework packets that are due at the end of the week. Some of it is just busy work and math is just test prep for the state test.

[Dionne7]

Originally Posted by ChocolateBabz

It obviously depends on school district but where we are (Pearland ISD) my son got out of school at 2.45 in elementary (8.00am start) and 3.45 in middle school (8.45am start). He did not get a break (recess) during the day and got 30 minutes for lunch. I don't think he has ever spent more than 1 hour on homework (maybe if he had a big project but usually we try to split the work over a few nights) and some nights he has no homework at all.

I don't understand why in middle, junior, and high school there are no breaks for recess. I guess this is a Texas thing. It is not like the kids do better academically without recess.

[Dionne7]

Originally Posted by PR Engineer

Thanks to all for your replys. I looks like we will have a break from all this homework stress. We like to be on top of our daughters education but 3 to 4 hours of homework everyday is too much.

Thanks again.

That is too much. I bet you fill like you are doing most of the teaching. Catholic school probably has changed from what it use to be. All the load is being put on the parents and you have to run around trying to keep up. At the end of the year the kids probably will not be able to retain all that they learned because I can imagine the school is moving really fast and piling on the homework. That is not an education.

[Dionne7]

Originally Posted by houston-nomad

You might look at St. Catherine's Montessori (in Houston, though, not katy). Since you mentioned catholic school. It is a private, Catholic school with a Montessori approach, and they definitely take a balanced view of homework. It's a really lovely school (my kids went there for a few years).

With the montessori school kids of different ages are mixed in together. So your kindergarten may end up in a class with first, second, and third graders. Watch out for low performing catholic schools in Houston. Many were closed in low income communities where the student population was African American and Hispanic.

[houston-nomad]

Originally Posted by Dionne7

With the montessori school kids of different ages are mixed in together. So your kindergarten may end up in a class with first, second, and third graders. Watch out for low performing catholic schools in Houston. Many were closed in low income communities where the student population was African American and Hispanic.

I don't understand the point of this post except to make an ignorant comment followed by a racist one.

Learn more about Montessori before offering your opinions. And learn a bit more about society and economics before equating race with income. That is an incredibly stupid and insulting remark.

[nana053]

Originally Posted by Dionne7

With the montessori school kids of different ages are mixed in together. So your kindergarten may end up in a class with first, second, and third graders.

Deleted racism.

Note: Mixing ages can be a very good thing. When did we decide that kids could ONLY mix with their own age. When I was growing up, kids played together in the neighborhoods with kids from 4 to 12 mixing just fine.

In schools, since kids are at different levels that really do not depend on age, it can be quite helpful for kindergarteners to have buddies who are 1st or 2nd graders and vice versa. It encourages caring and helping as well as learning.

My own kids were in regular elementary schools were two grades were mixed, so they had a 1st-2nd grade class and a 4th-5th grade class. The only class where my son was in a single grade was in 3rd and as an adult he has said that it was a wasted year because they could not keep up with him in math.

[nana053]

Originally Posted by jonathancalderon71

My kids get home at 3:30 and do homework sometimes till 10:00pm

You should go see The Race to Nowhere:

Race to Nowhere | Changing Lives One Film at a Time

I just saw it today and it's sad how much stress induced illness our high school students are having because they are pressured to get the grades to get into top schools. Homework is part of this too. We truly need to allow kids to be kids especially in elementary school. We also have to realize that not every teenager is college material or wants to go on to an academic university. We should be providing more vocational options. Then, too, we should realize that even for those who do go on to college, not all can go to the elite schools.

I was just reading here on a yahoo group about the junior high and the pressure to take pre-AP classes and succeed in all of them so you can then take as many AP classes as possible. What this often leads to is kids who cheat because the amount of work is totally impossible.

We have kids committing suicide and kids with eating disorders and kids with sleep deprivation due to the overload. But, its not the education - its the grades that they want.

[HoustonRonnie]

Wah, wah, wah! So kids have to work hard, tough beans. I am so sick of the Entitlement Generation. Everything gets handed to them on a silver platter and when ANYthing requires real effort, we coddle them and point to illnesses and suicides being the result of "overpressure". I call BS. Here we are in an environment where every kid gets a trophy in Little League Baseball, whether they won or not, and we wonder why it seems so hard for them when they can't accept a little defeat.

I'm out.

Ronnie

[MsSpiderWeb]

Just because a person doesn't agree with gobs of homework does not necessarily mean they are lazy or entitled. Sometimes more is not better. I personally feel that 7 hours of school 5 days a week is plenty. I'd rather my kids engage in extracurricular activities such as sports or music, or have family time in the evening. Children learned more effectively and physically worked harder 200 years ago then they do now and they attended school for less time. Interesting, isn't it? I don't understand why people are so quick to throw out labels like "lazy" or "entitled" when someone believes something different from them.

[EasilyAmused]

Originally Posted by HoustonRonnie

Wah, wah, wah! So kids have to work hard, tough beans. I am so sick of the Entitlement Generation. Everything gets handed to them on a silver platter and when ANYthing requires real effort, we coddle them and point to illnesses and suicides being the result of "overpressure". I call BS. Here we are in an environment where every kid gets a trophy in Little League Baseball, whether they won or not, and we wonder why it seems so hard for them when they can't accept a little defeat.

I'm out.

Ronnie

+1000,00000,00000...if that was a number.