I just learned from the principal of Grant Elementary School in Glenrock, Wyoming, that her school is implementing a no homework practice. The school came to that decision after examining homework and having discussions with Kim Bevill of Brain Basics, who provided them with materials about homework. Kim, a dynamo, teaches social studies and psychology in a Colorado high school, owns and operate Gray Matters (whose goal is to “re-ignite learning in every classroom using brain-compatible curriculum to further academic achievement”), hosts a yearly conference entitled Brain Basics, and, most importantly, is a passionate advocate against homework. I have enjoyed many conversations with Kim this year.
Here’s the principal’s letter to the parents explaining the new policy:
Dear Parents,
Over the years we have seen that with the increased pressure in meeting AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress), homework has also increased. This increase may have come in response to the call for higher expectations, comparisons of American student performance with the children from European and Asian countries, and the pressures created with state testing programs such as PAWS.
With that being said, the research is unable to produce evidence that homework improves student performance. The research is telling us that if we want to improve attitudes, mental and physical health and academic performance, we as parents need to promote the following 5 things:
• Children need to play outside for at least an hour after the school day. They should be at the point where they are almost sweating.
• Dinner with your family every night or at least 4 times a week. This is shown to decrease eating disorders in females, decrease smoking and drug abuse rates in males and recent research suggests it teaches life-long good eating habits—more fruits and vegetables.
• Early to bed. Research suggests that children need 10-12 hours of sleep a day to be ready to learn.
• Limited television, video games and computer time, especially an hour before bed time.
• Reading time every evening. This is a great time for the whole family to sit and read together.
At Grant this semester we are trying something new. Homework will only consist of work students did not finish during the school day. However, if a child is bringing homework home on a regular basis then we will have a parent meeting to see why the child is not getting the material done during school. At semester our staff will review how our students are doing with these new guidelines.
We are going to ask that parents help us promote reading at home. Our school wide reading program, “Splish Splash,” will be a great way to encourage reading and will provide monthly reading incentives. Our children are making great gains in the area of reading. A key component to making these gains is the work that parents and children do at home. We do thank you for your help.
We would love to hear from you on your thoughts about homework as we explore some new guidelines. Again, thanks for everything you do to help our children, staff and school be a great place for learning.
Sincerely,
Christine Hendricks, Principal
Grant Elementary Teachers and Staff
Stop Homework 
This is a great post! My daughter’s school (in Victoria, Australia) has given homework since the kids were in prep – my daughter was four in that grade. I love encouraging her to read, but the homework was really not worth doing. I love the principal’s letter to the parents – how refreshing to see someone prepared to go out on a limb, and probably against the grain of what most people believe. Let’s hope lots of other schools follow suit. I found you through stumbling, and I’m really glad I did.
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Absolutely perfect!!! I am a stay at home Mum….. and I have done two years of homework with my daughter. I am home, I would hate to see the strain cramming in ALL activities on a working Mum. The child also suffers at home with these deadlines and work they already do day in day out. Seriously, my daughter loves school…she is bright…loves learning…but over time, homework is always a rush…and something that just makes her negative and bored, and she knows how to do it all. The amount of learning crammed into a day AT SCHOOL SHOULD BE SUFFICIENT.
I would absolutely love for this to be introduced at her school.
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I agree with Emma but….
I teach English and at the moment we are dealing with creative writing. During the lesson I teach the process and technique of writing as a homework they have to practise what they have (should have) learnt in the lesson. I’m sure a maths teacher would argue the same way, homework is the time when students practise what they should have learnt. Homework does have an important place in the learning experience provided that it is modelled to fulfill the needs of the educational theme.
Simply setting homework to cover what was not taught or because ‘it is expected’ is wrong and in that regard I agree with the school.
The knee jerk reaction is to say that the school decided to abandon homework to give the teachers an easier life, less stuff to mark for example. I don’t agree with that but I do think that homework is important as it can force students to learn how to self-learn such as finding the information they need, discovering new ways of doing a task and being creative in approaching a task.
Homework is good when it is properly guided, when it is set without thought it is bad but to not give homework at all is the worst.
Kind regards,
Milander
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I’m tempted to MOVE to Wyoming after reading this! What a smart and forward thinking school. Children are in school for 7 hours a day and many schools are eliminating recess. You can’t tell me that teacher aren’t able to teach all that needs to be taught in 7 hours! When my kids arrive home after school, they are tired and cranky. They need time to play, ride their bikes, etc. Trying to cram another 1-2 hours worth of schooling into their evenings causes nothing but stress for the entire family. We have no time to socialize and hang out. I can’t even imagine how it would be if both parents work! I completely agree with this school, family dinner, reading time, playing….all will make for a better student the following day.
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Milander,
It is true that children need time to practice what the teacher teaches. Children should still have assignments but they should be given time at school to work on the assignment, where they can ask the teacher for help, work with other students and if they don’t finish at school they have to finish it at home.
I hated homework and this it what I usually did. So much time is wasted in our schools and I found so much time to work on assignments during class and rarely ended up with homework.
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Milander, I think that the knee jerk reaction is actually that the school did their homework and considered the available research. This is about returning family life to the realm of the family and refocusing teacher time on teaching rather than managing and administering homework.
I have heard a number of teachers say to me recently that they are more comfortable having students perform their work in the classroom (be it math, writing…) because they are there to observe and guide. Students can practice what they have learned in school, there is plently of time for that.
I am so encouraged by the approach that this school is taking. I hope that others will pay attention.
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Milander,
I think you might be missing the age group that is being addressed in this school. This is an elementary school – from Kindergarten to grade 6 (ages 5 to 12 here in the States). I doubt that many elementary school children are doing excessive amounts of creative writing or partial differential maths equations, so they certainly shouldn’t be bringing much, if any, homework home.
Kids in this age group *should* be doing exactly what the school suggests: playing outside, eating dinner with the family, reading, and getting enough sleep.
Cheers,
Dan Yocum
a certified, albeit non-practicing, physics teacher
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I am a teacher in high and middle school in the US. Personally speaking I like what this school in Wyoming did. The article does not say it eliminated studying, just homework. The time would be well spent as suggested. I would go one step further. I would extend this to the upper grades (high school and middle school).
I also think there should be some time for recess in the upper grades. Yes, a little down time where the pupils can get outside and have some recreation with their peers. After burning off some of that energy, they will be able to concentrate better on the studies in class.
I believe classes for these children should be 50 minutes long and there should be a minimum of five classes a day. In addition to the five classes there should be time for lunch and recess.
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Finally, somebody has figured it out!
Homework is useless. It was intended to be a time to practice what was learned during the day, and turned into the primary component of most grading scales.
My friends and I spent most of our class time doodling in notebooks, reading magazines, and generally ignoring the instructor. The only time I EVER did any homework was when I was told I could do it or fail the class.
I aced EVERY test, even the secondary “We think you cheated, take this surprise, significantly more difficult test to prove your innocence because we can’t prove that you did” tests I got on a regular basis. Yet my instructors refused to give me the grades I rightfully earned because it wasn’t fair to the other students who had done 10 times the work but scored 10 to 20 points lower on the tests. The “A’s” were reserved for the hard working nimrods, who wound up flunking out of the advance placement courses, while my like-minded friends and I received “C’s” and “D’s” because 2/3rds of the score was always based on “I won’t flunk you as long as you work hard” homework assignments.
Enough is enough – It’s high time EVERY school got on board with the no-homework philosophy.
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Much of this is what Maria Montessori taught in her schools. The Montessori method is very similar and we love our Montessori school. My children learn during school hours, have art, Spanish and PE once a week and NEVER have homework other than to read. They play when they get home. And we eat together at least 5 nights a week plus breakfast 5 mornings a week.
If it can’t be taught in a 7 hour day, something needs to change. Throw out the way testing is done and stop stressing young children so much. Very few adults would go to work for 7 hours a day and then come home and do another 2 hours of work and then go to bed! But it is what many schools ask of children under 10!! Crazy.
I am proud of this school because they are taking a huge risk in todays educational culture. BEST OF LUCK!!!
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I, a student myself , agree with the “no homework policy” because it is way to much, and useless, a waste of paper, and time. and there is this kid, in my grade who is pretty smart aces all of the tests, but he dosent do his homework, and chances r, he’s gonna flunk the one class that weighs homework more than tests !!!!!!!!!!!!!! that is horrid, right??!?!?!?
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I am sorry but I don’t agree with this policy. While homework “can” be useless in some cases, it is needed for many reasons.
1) It helps strengthen the students understanding of the lessons taught in class.
2) It helps get the parents involved in the teaching of their children.
3) It also helps keep the parents informed on what is being taught in class.
I do agree that the amount of homework could be curbed. One suggestion might be getting the students teachers to coordinate when they will be sending homework home so students won’t be overwhelmed.
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Now if only they had done that when I was in highschool. 😦
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Hello,
My name is Christine N. Wayman. I have been doing some research on the “No Homework Policy” for two main reasons.
1. I am on a curriulum reasearch committe for putting together an application for a Charter School in the Salt Lake City Valley in Utah.
2. I am doing a research paper for my writing class in USU college.
I have been teaching co-op homeschool for 12 years.
I have always had a strange belief that homework is not neccessary for children in oder for them to learn what they need to know in today world.
Some of the people that I am working with to found this Charter School have had alot of experence in the public school system and have founded their own Charter School in Arizona. They have a very strong view that they believe that they can not meet state standards without giving their students homework. They are very hard workers in their school and have made significate achivements with their students. They have received an award of recognition from the State of Arizona Charter School Board for having the best progress with their students this year. But, how can I convince them that this can be done with out homework. I know that alot of parents of the children that will be going to this Charter School, that we are founding, are very opposed to their children having homework. Considering the fact that most of these children are coming from a homeschool enviroment.
I would appreciate all the advise you can give me to address this problem.
Thank you very much,
Christine N. Wayman
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Christine: If you haven’t done so already, I suggest you start by reading The Case Against Homework. It should put to rest the idea that kids need homework to meet state standards. In fact, if kids were left alone at the end of the school day, did some reading on their own and pursued their own passions, they’d pass all state tests with no problem. (Those tests set a very low bar.)
And, watch for my blog entry on the follow-up in Wyoming. I’ll be posting the results of the school’s survey on its no homework practice.
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I am a student in Tuscon, AZ and we have homework every night. We would like a break once in a while.
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I am a student at cfms in Tuscon, AZ. We have homework every night and on top of that, we have to do a science fair project. We never have one night without homework.
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Aside from being a high school administrator in NJ, I am also a doctoral candiidate at Seton Hall University. I am considering a dissertation on homework policies and practices and the claim that positive student achievement is associated with homework. I became interested in the subject after reeading Alfie Kohn’s work, but I will also read your book as well.
I support the initiative of this Wyoming principal. She, and her BOE, are true renegades and trail blazers. Kohn (and you, I am sure) has done a great job of debunking the traditional arguments for homework (a la Damon’s post) as well as refuting the research that support homework.
As I get closer to my dissertation preparation, I would like to consult with you. Is this possible? I can be reached at my blog or via email.
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I’d love to discuss your dissertation with you. Just email me at sara@stophomework.com
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I am a student at Lakeside highschool. Having each class 90 minutes is not as easy as a 50 minute class, you guyz are lucky! In every class I have multiple assignments every day. That should not be “fair”. I think that the teachers need to rethink the assignments because we teens need to live life a little don’t you think?
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Incredible!! I was one of those students who did all my homework and more, simply because I believed that was the way to get good grades. But now I struggle with my daughter (9 years old) to do her homework every night. She is burnt out, we spend very little leisurely time together and the day usually ends poorly. Even with a half-done job most of the time, she scores well above grade level in everything except reading, which coincidentally often gets scratched from the agenda as HW takes too long. On a gut level I agree w/the premise completely. But tell me, as a bilingual teacher I’m curious if acquiring a second language can be accomplished without some rote memorization of vocabulary. What do you think?
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hi
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My class (at this moment) is trying to convince my teacher to not have homework. BAN HOMEWORK! MAKE IT GONE FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂
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I think that the work they do in school is enough
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i agree with connor
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I think that they shouldn’t have homework throughout junior high
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good no homework
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I have to do a report on homework. I am also making a petition for no hw. Who wants 2 sign it??????
Make it gone!?? 🙂
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Hi Max,
Please let me know what happens with your petition. Where are you located and what grade are you in?
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Ok, my 2 cents.
I don’t think that banning homework is wise.
Yes, and even in elementary school.
Homework is not just a standard boring thing, it can be fun.
My daughter is in Kindergarten and she has fun homework:
1. It’s very active( for example many times we have to go outside to do it, like find patterns outside, and choose your favorite one. Observe the weather and sky, clouds etc., collect different leaves in the Fall and… I cannot stop on giving examples) It’s truly fun. Both my daughter and I enjoy it.
2. it gives me an opportunity to see what they do at school, how much she understands;
3. most of the time it leads to a discussion.
4. even when it’s something she has to do by sitting at the desk, like writing some words or drawing a picture that describes a sentence she read; it teaches her to do some work by herself.
So, please don’t get me wrong, I’m not pro a huge amount of homework, that makes kids sleep deprived or takes their time from playing outside or spending time with their parents and friends. I think wise teachers give proper homework that promotes interaction between kids and parents, teaches kids to be explorers and investigators(go to library, surf the net) and making leaning process fun.
I’m both hands up for this kind of homework.
In my opinion it’s very common for a human nature to go to extremes . The world is not simply white and black, just like homework.
I can totally understand high school students who are oppose to any homework, been there and know what does staying late just to finish homework means, and I had tones of completely wasted homework, that had no sense of doing. I’m against that kind of homework and will fight for my daughter if she gets that kind of homework.
Oh, btw our kindergarten is just 3 hours a day, so she is not overwhelmed by 6 hours of school. But still I would love to spend 15minuts a day to do fun homework.
regards,
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I very much agree children of all ages should not be required to have homework. When they are finished at school that should be it for the day. It isn’t any different than a JOB that is overtime for a child of all ages!!!!! You will burn them out. Why do you think so many children hate school and look at the dropout rate!!!!! There is a reason for that.
Now let these children be children their job is the time at school. The time at home is THEIRS.. Teachers use your HEADS!!!!! If you can’t teach them what they need to learn in the time they are in school you are a POOR teacher.
I have children and grandchildren who are up till wee hours of the morning trying to get all their homework done. You don’t have to wonder why children hate and drop out. My daughter can’t do anything with her son because he is doing homework ALL the time. That was 6th grade last year at Beaver Dam Junior High School in Beaver Dam Wi 53916
They ate to tired to pay attention the next day in school. That is like working a 14 or more hour a day job. Think about it. This teacher who is teaching the same subject for 5 to 40 years in a row I guess should know the subject without thinking. But this is new to these children make sure they know in class what they are doing. Not send them home thinking they can figure it out for themselves! Thank for listening. But we really have to do something about this. They need to learn IN school.
There are also parents who know nothing and couldn’t help their child if they wanted to. Our school system is in trouble because of this. Give them homework, send them home they can do it there, after being in school already all day. Each teacher does that. You have how many classes? How would you figure you could get that all done? 7 hours of school 7 hours of homework Pretty crazy right?
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I am a mother of 6. Several of my children suffer mental illness diagnoses. I am completely, one-hundred-percent for a no-homework program. Anxiety and depression make it next to impossible to do anything after school other than homework if my children are to maintain good grades. I also, however, believe in a good education. I think most things can be taught and learned adequately in the classroom. Occasional book reports and science fair projects should continue to be an effort worked on partially at home. Reading at home should always be required. And a parent should always talk to their kids about what they are learning, re-enforce those concepts, and strive to be as informed as possible. However, endless worksheets, papers, projects and deadlines are more than a child (particularly a special-needs child) and their families should have to deal with. There are a great many more aspects of life that have just as much value as education: family, personal goals, religion, and service just to name a few. I would be interested in a national experiment with charter schools to gage just how such a non-homework oriented education could benefit children. I would be the first to sign up.
ATTN: Christine N. Wayman
I also live in the Salt Lake Valley. If you happen to read this, please get in touch with me. We (my husband Tim and I) are in the phone book.
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Wow! I can not beleive I found this letter. I was just searching the web this evening at 11 p.m. regarding how much is too much homework. Like I said, it’s 11 p.m. and my 11 year old daughter just got into bed. Her homework tonight? Read a chapter of their reading book. Write a summary on it. Do the Vocab words & definitions from the story. Write 20 sentences from this weeks vocab words. Complete 2 pages from their spelling book. Complete a grammar worksheet. Complete 2 pages from their math book. Review multiplication, division, addition and subtraction facts, Complete a social studies paper. Helloooooooooo? Does anyone see anything wrong here? What about sports, playing outside, and spending time with the family? All things that I believe are just as important as academics. Something needs to be done, and I’m glad to see that this strong, intelligent woman has made the first step. Even if all schools do not ban homework, something needs to be done on the amount that is being sent home. And I’ve got news. I already went to school. I am done with homework. My parents never had to “do” my homework for me. Sometimes my daughter can’t even do her homework. Now you tell me. After almost 7 hours in school each day, 5 days a week………Why is that? I say, let the kids be kids again.
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I myself am a sudent in 8th grade, so i have witnised and been part of this catastrophe. Some of my friends will call me crying at 3 in the morning needing help on work that wasnt well taught in class! Te y work all night just to go to school and get a D. I learned more today in school then actually doing the homework! Heck i learn more on the history channel then i do with homework. Think about this… an hour of home work per class, on some days 4 classes will all give out assignments, plus you have misssed a day so you have a P.E. make up do the next day. so you have to…. Do 40 problems in math, make 4 circles and split them in to 4 parts, then calculate the angles, the percents, and fraction of each mesurment( 2 and a half hours). Then you have to do a history assignment plus read 4 pages out of the history book( 1 and a half hours)
Next you have to write a 5 paragraph essay, review all the words from what you learned in class, and do the make up work you missed a few days ago ( 4 hours!) Now you have to do a P.E. make up.( 1 hour) Also you have to color pictures of organs, cut them out, then paste them the write place, then go on to the teachers website and copy the noes yoo missed ( 1 and a half hours) Finally you have to write a paragraph on a movie you watched in band which you barely remeber( half an hour) It all adds up to about 11 hours. Kids get home at usually 3 so they will have to eat and get some reast for an hour. So they start there homework at 4. So there done at 3 in the morning. But do you think a kid is going to be able to wake up at 6 in the morning now? Then go to school for the same thing? after a few days like that a kid is dying to get home, dying for the weekends and end up not doing there home work at all! so they get bad grades, even though they understand everything! now if a school can do that to a kid, then it obviously doesnt realize that its not even a school, more like a prison cell.
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I sooo envy the kids who go to your school!my school makes us do 1 to 2 pages of math homework and 1 to 2 pages of english homework.I am writting an essay about no-homework thank you for the imfomatin1
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Hi. I am an Egyptian teacher and I am for a no homework policy. But before asking kids to do their homework at school something must be done first.
The people in charge of education should reconsider the curriculum and the amount of information given to kids. Unecessary parts should be deleted and the material given should be more interesting than it is now.By doing this, we give kids enough time at school to finish their work leaving home time to be managed by parents because it’s their duty to do so.ENOUGH STRESS PLEASE
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I agree todaly, kids need to get outside and be active. To releve stress. How are they going to realve stress if they go to school for about 5 hours. Give or take. Then come home to do homework. Theres the stress. Plus its not only the kids stress Its also the perents stress.
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=O, are you kidding me?! this is so unfair fo’real =[
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Hello. I am student at a Middle school in the Midwestern region. I love your idea of eliminating homework because at my age I am staying up very late trying to figure out some math, communication arts, world history, of science problems and it isn’t fun or easy. Again I love your idea! Thanks a lot!
Nawal Majid
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i agree that there dhould be no homework it is unfar to go to school for six hours then do homework
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i agree that home work shold be baneed it causes stress at home. my advanced classes are to hard for my family so then we arguy and i cant figure out my work
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Thank you so much for this post and this site!
My wife and I have been going through a tremendously frustrating experience with our third grade son’s school. He is in an advanced math class, which is teaching from the district’s 4th grade book. His teacher insists on a minimum of 30 homework problems five days a week. The teacher allows little or no time for the kids to start their assignments in class. Many of the problems are actually multi-part, so a typical assignment ends up being 40-45 problems each night–all to be done at home.
The time that this takes has cut into other subjects, has eliminated his study of karate (no time), and has ended up in many tearful nights as we prod our tired child to “do just five more problems.”
Multiple attempts to reason with the teacher and the school administration have ended up in total frustration. Many other parents have expressed the same concerns and issues. All have resulted in defiance from the school.
Although the math is easy for our son, it is the shear amount that is causing problems. We have decided to move him to his grade-level for math. Although the work will not be challenging, at least he will be a happier kid and have time to play, go outside, have dinner with his family, and maybe once again do a sport.
Thanks again for the information posted here that reinforces our decision. Also thank you for the dedication to this subject and for the chance to rant.
Dave Arthur
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Dave, you brought up a problem we’ve highlighted here and I’ve spoken about it many times. So has FedUpMom. Wish you could google all my posts.
Homework is particularly pernicious for gifted kids and/or children with advanced aptitude. My daughter left private school after 4th and has been in gifted programs ever since. She is off the charts when it comes to IQ but she has distractibility and focusing issues, she’s also very deliberate and perfectionist, others in the class were not twice exceptional (GT LD) but not as intellectually advanced. In both cases, for each of these reasons, the children could not handle the volume of work and were up till midnight in 6th grade. I am still so stunned that we think it’s okay for children to regularly arrive at school sleep deprived, that homework trumps common sense.
In many gifted programs, the homework pressure on these kids has reached the level of absurdity. My daughter was spending three hours on homweork in 3rd grade. By 6th is was double that. As an eleven year old!
My husband and I would go round and round. If we took her out, she’d be bored to tears and would lose her peer group. Keep her in and while some of the projects were fun and interesting, they came on top of so much busy work.
Homeschooling is the beautiful answer to all this and we did it for one year. You challenge and eliminate all assignments you see as pointless. Harder not more, harder not more is my daughter’s never ending mantra. I want harder, I don’t want to be punished with more and more work! A well rested homeschooled child can get all theo work done from 9 to 1 with no evening homework. What are you all waiting for? :).
The school day was disorganized and the children didn’t seem to get much done. The teachers didn’t “get” giftedness. I have spoken to leaders in the gifted world and they are surprised when I tell them what it’s really like in the trenches. It is amazing nothing is being done. I give three reasons for homework overload in academically advanced classes:
1. Teacher is desperately trying to impress hyper-competitive parents
2. Teacher is untrained in how these kids tick and thinks they are little adults, that we need to fill every moment of their time, that downtime and play are frivolous. To the contrary. Our greatest thinkers discovered theories in their daydreams. Think Einstein. They equate giftedness with ACHIEVEMENT and straight A’s when in fact giftedness is how these children think.
2B. Teacher misundestands these are still children with avoidance/procrastination issues just like other children and thinks, they are little adults, so they can perform at an adult level. When they look at the assignment load, it’s as if they picture an electronic doll. Set the speed controls and flick a switch and it hums happily until you press OFF. Children are not robo-students.
Cognitively some of these children are capable of performing at an adult level but effective executive functioning skills don’t kick in until much later.
3. Teacher is pressured from on high to produce top NCLB scorers to balance out the failing school. I don’t know why they think homework overload will produce this, but they do.
4. Teacher has wasted class time (for all sorts of reasons, some of them perhaps not her own fault) and without heavy homework, she’d have nothing to show for the year.
It’s too bad you had to move your son back just to get less homework. He has a right to be appropriately challenged at school (FAPE, free and appropriate educaton in the LEAST restrictive environment) but I support you. A lot of parents of gifted keep the kids in, deciding the trade off is worth it. My long experience has shown me it isn’t.
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Dave, I commend you for putting your son back in grade-level math. I had to take my daughter out of accelerated math and if I had it to do over again, I would take her out sooner! Accelerated math is a scam, in my humble opinion. Bright kids don’t need to get through math quicker, they need to understand it better. I hope more parents will follow your lead.
HomeworkBlues, I am getting ready to write my next rant, “Gifted schmifted”. You read my mind when you used this exact phrase in a recent comment! Oops — gotta run —
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Back again — I wanted to post some links that discuss the accelerated math phenomenon:
http://themorechild.wordpress.com/2008/02/06/forced-march-pta-meeting-reveals-math-trail-of-tears/
http://www.nctm.org/about/content.aspx?id=1010
http://ezinearticles.com/?Is-an-Accelerated-Math-Course-Appropriate-For-Your-Gifted-and-Talented-Student?&id=1366211
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And here’s another one: also, check out the comments at the end from teachers:
http://themorechild.wordpress.com/2008/06/10/just-saying-no-to-accelerated-math/
This comment from “James” really spoke to me:
I can’t justify myself as a person who loves and cares for children anymore if I’m allowing them to suffer through these math classes while lying to their parents about their “appropriate placement”. My wife and I would never send our daughter to MCPS schools, we want her to enjoy her childhood and develop a love of learning. The last thing we want for her is a curriculum that’s developmentally appropriate for a child 3 years older than she… leading to insecurities and depression so severe that she’s on meds before the age of 10.
“insecurities and depression” … that was my daughter!
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Yes, I’m the one who who coined, “gifted shmifted.” I spent years reading about giftedness butI have found myself more and more pulling away from those groups. Who needs it? You’re right.
And is everyone suddenly gifted? Why are all the teens we know taking five APs in junior year of high school? Oh, right. It’s not about love of learning and challenge, it’s about fears, fears they won’t get into college. It’s a race.
When I was a youngster, we did high school in high school and college in college. FedUpMom, I offered my daughter an exit strategy, two local college courses and we do all the rest, but she doesn’t want to leave her school right now. As a junior, she must feel there have been too many changes in her life.
The college courses are just so that we have one or two courses as anchors. Technically, she’d be a homeschooler again.I want to play with her, and hike and bike and walk and ski so badly, I’m sick with the agony of it all.
Go ahead, rant. We’ve been punished with all this long enough. I’d love to hear more!
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While I’m excerpting, I wanted to highlight this paragraph from the article here:
http://www.nctm.org/about/content.aspx?id=1010
She’s talking about bright kids:
All too often, we cope with these students by giving them more of the same. If the less able students do 10 problems, the more able students do 25. This does little to encourage deeper mathematical thinking and might even turn capable students against mathematics. We also sometimes cope by pushing the more able students through the standard material, only faster. This has always seemed to me to be such a wasted opportunity to expose students to beautiful mathematics that they might not otherwise get to see. Instead of more of the same, why not add more depth in the form of both in-class and extracurricular opportunities for able, motivated students to engage with some mathematics that is not in the program?
From your lips to God’s ear!
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