Middle School Teacher Says There’s Plenty of Time for Homework
About a year ago, I posted a guest blog entry by Chris Elssasser, an associate professor of education at Pepperdine University, in which he analyzed how much time high school students really have and asked what students should give up for homework.
A middle school teacher responded, writing that students have plenty of time for homework. It’s important to read what the teacher had to say, because it shows why some teachers believe that parental complaints are baseless.
Here’s what the teacher wrote:
Why are you accounting for exercise PLUS sports PLUS assuming the students have gym class. And last time I checked that 45 minutes for breakfast was more like 5, and the 45 minutes for lunch a part of school.
6 AM Wake up
8-3 School
3-5 Afterschool activities
5-6 Relax
6-6:30 Dinner
6:30-9:30 Homework
9:30-10 TV
10 BedAs a middle school teacher, we aim for between one hour and 90 minutes a day. I doubled it, and still find this to be an honest expectation. The students I find can’t complete the homework are either in a day care that doesn’t enforce homework time and have no study skills themselves and don’t begin till 7 when their parents come home; or the students who are over dedicated to sports and have multiple 3-hour-a-day practices during the week and feel that athletic achievement and ‘well-roundedness’ are more important than school.
WTF? Eight hours sleep is not nearly enough for a developing child. Eight hours may be the minimum but some children need nine, ten or eleven hours. So three hours of mandated homework per day is what this delusional teacher demands?
I would like to give this “professional” three hours of professional development during the same time frame. Oh, and I forgot to add that the teacher would be getting paid for this.
Perhaps this is the same teacher that says that it’s not possible to learn all about those “Internet things” that could make schooling more relevant for the students. Let’s mandate that all teachers have to spend three hours a day learning about stuff that they have absolutely no interest in.
and I could say much more …
May 4th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
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This person is delusional. Let’s just say that it’s okay to make a child essentially work for 10 hours a day, 5 days a week (maybe a bit less if you take out 1/2 hour for lunch, or a bit MORE, if you count those after-school activities.)
Where is the time for contributing to the household? You know, things like setting the table, doing dishes, cleaning one’s own room? Reading to one’s younger siblings? What about church activities?
What about getting ready for bed? And a half hour for dinner? Do people really eat and have conversation, etc. in a half hour? Dinner at my house is longer than that. 5 minutes for breakfast isn’t even healthy.
And after-school activities? Sports practices are usually at least 2 hours long, games are longer. That’s for my son, who’s only 8. What about changing clothes, showering afterward, and transportation time?
I agree with Mr. Jarche. Let’s take away that teachers’ prep period and make sure that he or she takes home a minimum of three hours of mandatory work home every single weeknight.
May 4th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
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I had a moment of dread when I imagined being a student in this person’s class; then it got worse when I imagined being this person’s KID.
May 5th, 2008 at 8:39 am
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I was furious when I read this. I know there are good teachers out there. My daughter had an amazing one in 4th grade. Never mind that she’s in 10th and I had to search that far back to remember the awesome one. But there are so many good ones. Unfortunately we also have too many of these. Our schools really need to weed these people out. They are intractable, arrrogant and have no respect for families. Believe me, I’ve encountered this. Not nearly so much in the private school but it was a culture shock when my daughter entered public school.
I wrote carefully worded respectful emails. I was utterly shocked at the disrespectful ones I recieved in return. Even the ones who attempted to be civil were overly didactic. The message, even if tempered, even if veiled, often was: you’re an idiot, you’re just a parent, you don’t know anything, I’m the authority. Without taking the time to know your child or your family dynamics, I’ll write you a schedule. Because all children are the same and if my rigid schedule works for Johnny, it’s gotta work for Susie too.
I’m not rabid or reactionary or crazy. I’m just a mom. A smart one. I’ve read a lot of parenting books. I’ve read an awful lot of educational policy, truly gifted kids, disabilities, divergent thinkers, the ones we should be nurturing. I nurture my child. I show up. I make the time. I know what I’m doing.
I just want some acknowledgement. I’m not a know it all. This old dog can still learn many new tricks from you. All you have to do is write me respectful emails. Even when my 10 year old didn’t finish all her homework. It’s okay to let me know but don’t take it so personally. Don’t be accusatory. You spend a lot of time talking about what we do at HOME. If my daughter spends the bulk of her long day doing homework, why am I sending her to you? You’re getting paid and I do the work!
Here’s a better strategy. If you end your emails with a kind message about what a wonderful caring parent I am, you’ll have me in your corner in an instant. I do it for you. I never hesitate to draw attention to some wonderful aspect of you. Treat me with respect. I’ll do the same for you.
And now on to my reaction. Number one, to reiterate above responses: teens need nine and a quarter hours sleep. Not eight. Younger children need even more. An eight year old on average needs eleven. Your schedule works fine for a robot. Plug it in, program it and it’ll work just as you say. Until the batteries run out. And then all you have to do is change them. Children aren’t so neat and ordered,they’re messy. God bless them. You want an automaton for a kid? I know, easier to parent, but awfully boring. Some teachers silently wish we could just put ritalin in the water. Makes for great compliance but is that only what we wish to grow?
I love when someone asked the authors of the marvelous book, “How to Talk so Your Kids will Listen and how to Listen so your Kids will talk?” Will these techniques work every time? They both laughed and emphatically replied, “Gosh, we hope not!” Kids are human. They are often not predictable. You have to finesse.
Secondly, I love how this teacher builds in time for tv. Notice she hasn’t built in any time for reading. She must assume kids don’t bother reading for pleasure anymore. Perhaps that’s the effect she leaves on her students. Reading, creativity and inquiry don’t quite march to that perfect beat. They meander. I pray this teacher doesn’t have an Einstein or Mozart in her class.
Besides, we don’t do tv at 9:30 to ten. My teen daughter is on sleep phase delay, meaning just as with many teens, she can’t fall asleep easily, her sleep phase time is shifted later. The last thing you want is tv before bedtime. Unlike adults who often fall asleep at the tv, teens’ body clocks responded differently. Television emits blue light, which supresses natural melatonin, thus further delaying sleep onset. You think this teacher of adolescents would know this.
This rigid tight schedule has children doing exactly what they are told, when they are told, and then watching tv for a half hour. Just as they are told. I’m not knocking tv. I wish we actually had time to watch some. But the teacher’s expectations here for initiative and designing one’s own downtime are fairly low. Good dog. Pat on head. You fetched my shoes. Here’s a bone.
Lastly, this teacher has these kids going fifteen and a half hour days. She’s got them up at six, in bed at ten with something like one hour of free time (which she also programs) somewhere around the dinner hour. And she thinks most teens will just fall asleep at ten. Try midnight for a lot of them.
And remember, many children cannot get all the homework done in three hours. What about those with disabilities? What about kids who are just so drained at that hour? What about kids who learn in depth and can’t just transition, robot style, from one assignment to the other?
After a certain period, there are diminishing returns. The brain can only absorb so much. Dr. William Stixrud, a famous psychologist in the Washington, DC area recently said thus as quoted in an article: “The level of homework overload has reached the point of absurdity.” He goes on to say that when a teen is sleep deprived, they are using only about 10 percent of their brain capacity. This teacher depicts a very exhausted teen, up since six, doing homework from 6:30 to 9:30. But not all kids can work in one stretch. There’s no slack here, no room for give. Teachers get built in work periods during the school day. Why can’t we do this for children?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to be rested and get more of this stuff done during the day? The teacher forgot to outline for us exactly how the school day was spent. Shouldn’t we demand an exact schedule in return? That video they watched for an hour? Let’s flip that. You do the spelling, we’ll do the video.
May 5th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
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thats really stupid i sleep way longer than 8 hours. whoever wrote this is un petite retarde
WOWW
May 5th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
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Just to add what John Taylor Gatto had to say in an interview several years ago:
“We have turned our students into parasites. It’s an ugly word but absolutely true. By reserving them in school rooms and having them think that they have nothing to give back to the world for 18 years … We need to give them real responsibility. Doing your homework is a fake responsibility.”
May 6th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
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Ah, John Taylor Gatto! We homeschooled for one year, 8th and John Taylor Gatto is a real inspiration for homeschoolers. Now let’s start quoting John Holt. That oughta get us revved up.
I still want this middle school teacher to post an exact hour by hour schedule of what MUST get done. Only this time I want to see her schedule, how her classroom time is spent.
I also want to see her evening schedule. Sorry, grading endless homework assignments doesn’t count. Does me no good if you spend three hours on it and all I see a grade, no comments, no direction. I don’t want you spending hours and hours grading all the homework my daughter does at home, I want you to teach and inspire and get most of this stuff done at school. You get paid and we do the work.
May 6th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
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As both a parent and a teacher, what bothers me most is the middle school teacher’s claim that parents who schedule after school activities are saying “athletic achievement and ‘well-roundedness’ are more important than school.”
It is a sad state of affairs when ‘well-roundedness’ and education have become mutually exclusive concepts.
Our society needs to recognize that more goes into raising a healthy, productive member of society than memorizing math facts or completing reading logs. Do we want a longer school day that offers every conceivable enrichment activity a child might be interested in? Or are we willing to allow families to make those choices on their own, based on their children’s needs and interests. If we claim that we are, we must support this by allowing enough “free time” after school for pursuing these enrichment activities without sacrificing sleep for homework.
As a society we also grumble about the erosion of family values. With most families dual income, family time is limited to between 6:00-10:00 pm on weeknights (at best). That’s not very much time for conversation in between necessary housework/chores. Add 2-3 hours (per child!) of homework to that mix, and you’ve got a recipe for stressed out family members who spend their precious hours together nagging and arguing.
And please don’t complain that studies show several hours of kids’ free time is spent watching TV. Do we hold adults responsible for making educational, enriching use out of every waking moment? Maybe the reason kids want to sit for 2 mindless hours in front of the TV is that they are over-scheduled and stressed out every other minute of their day.
May 26th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
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I’m a middle school student and I find myself coming home after track practice at 6:30 then having about an hour and a half of homework. This is not bad at all but when you consider 3+ hours of homework possible, I consider you crazy.
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:49 pm
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You may consider us crazy but you’re the lucky one here. An hour and a half for homework in middle school? We’ll take it. Try five in a 6th grade gifted program and then it’s still not done. Internet searches that lasted all weekend, project overload that took up every spare second. And teachers who just didn’t get it at all, who thought you could just whip this stuff out, like so much factory assembly line work.
There’s a need for balance here. You’ve struck it, probably a combination of less gifted programs and a less pressured area.
June 8th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
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