I just want to second what you said, PsychMom. I’ve always hated homework and skived out of more of it than I can remember and so graduated with what was considered a pretty lousy GPA. It felt like college wasn’t an option, plus I felt like it would just be more of the same so I joined the Navy. It was the best decision of my life. Now I’m married with a beautiful son and extensive training in the electronics field. I plan on going back to school, but since getting out (and moving around) I’ve had the opportunity to work at some excellent companies. Sometimes I think that way too (that if I had done my homework, I would have excelled) but then I realize that of all the decisions I’ve made, I have excelled, maybe not by the world’s standards, but by mine, and isn’t that all that really matters?
I’m a teacher and I’m really disturbed by what I see here. How can parents not be expected to take a part in their child’s education? Do you not care what happens to your child in the future? I teach you child for one school year and you expect me to care more about ensuring their future than you do… That’s excatally what you’re saying when you tell me that you don’t think I should assign your child homework and ask that you make sure it’s done and done properly. But don’t worry, I’m sure your child will have a really great boss when they enter the workforce flipping burgers. And I’m sure that boss will be someone whose parents actually cared about their education and tried to encourge them to learn outside of school as well. I guess the world will always need worker drones…
gourl its not you doing the homework. You GIVE it. you dont have to complete it. so dont talk on a matter that doesnt effect you. Some teachers are the root to this problem 😦
My mom used to be a teacher and she saw that a lot of people couldn’t do their homework because of stuff at home and if people don’t really have anything at home, they still come tired after trying their hardest but they push their self to hard and have to study and study while putting pressure on their self. So what is it your own mental health? Or some random piece of junk we already know how to do but just do it at home. And if school isn’t a place to sleep then home isn’t a place to study
For heaven’s sake, the parents who comment on this forum are some of the most involved, dedicated parents you could ever meet. Just because we don’t want to do the homework you assign doesn’t mean we don’t care about our kids’ education. Actually, we care so passionately that we don’t want to see our kids waste their time with busywork that does nothing but make them hate school and learning. And no, the busywork you send home will not magically prevent kids from becoming burger-flippers.
You know, there’s nothing wrong with flipping burgers. I have bussed tables, been a waitress, washed dishes, cleaned floors and bathrooms. I’ve done these jobs by choice and been paid for them. Everytime a teacher makes a comment like that, they are putting down millions of people..millions, maybe billions.
Life is about making decisions and choices. And as my daughter’s mother, I see it as my job to teach her how to try and make more good ones than bad ones. I don’t need to teach her to obey. I need to teach her to think. If I am a good role model, I always question things that don’t make sense to me. Homework for elementary age children makes no sense to me. Blind obedience to a tacher, or a boss…makes no sense to me.
I have spent many sleepless nights trying to do homework, having no time to do anything else. I wish my school wouldn’t give homework, but you see there is nothing I can do…
Any advice?
I run a new website, http://www.slader.com, that is out to disrupt education, especially homework. Slader is a website we’ve created that offers solutions to homework questions in popular math, science and english textbooks. Our users create all the solutions.
Most students hate homework because it just reinforces that they don’t understand, it provides no path to success. No student wants to be a failure, but they often don’t have the tools available when they need it. However, if given the tools along with some positive reinforcement, most students welcome the opportunity and confidence that comes from mastering concepts as they are introduced by the teacher.
Rather than being frustrated with that “I just don’t understand!” feeling, they now have a place to go with no embarrassing consequences. They don’t have to drag themselves, feeling inadequate, to that tutoring center or to the teacher. They can just, somewhat anonymously, go to Slader and get the help they need at the very moment they need it.
To fellow students who are complaining about homework,
I’m in an accelerated program at my high school. I’m a Senior. All of my courses are either AP or advanced level classes. Plus, I’m also using proper grammar and spelling here so nobody here can really make a valid argument against my intelligence.
Homework. It’s a dreaded, necessary evil. Actually, I’m starting to doubt if it’s necessary. Students should have homework but it starts to get ridiculous if it exceeds the 10 rules (10 minutes multiplied by grade level. I’m in 12th grade, I should just be doing 2 hours’ worth of homework max).
I may have a certain sentiment towards homework just because of the level I’m in. People taking on higher level classes tend to already be resigned to homework. It’s a law that higher classes have more homework or at least more tests/quizzes which require more studying if you truly care about your grades. Unless you’re just a genius . . .
I do my homework. I have had to stay up until 1-2am to finish my homework before. I have cheated on homework but only when I was positively sure I already know how to do the work and it was not a word-for-word answer. The majority of the time I do my work. I am meticulous with my work, probably more so than I should be with the complete lack of care teachers grade homework. If I cheat and I don’t understand the work, I’m screwed. I may have a higher homework average but if my test/quizzes average is a disaster, it doesn’t matter.
However, I do think teachers need to give students a crash course on how to properly manage time. I will bet at least 75% of the students here that have complained procrastinated until the eleventh hour to do their homework. Well, it’s freaking obvious that you will have to take longer to finish it. You tend to hate homework even more when you’re exhausted and on the brink of delusional grandeur.
I can not stress this enough. Students who need tutors, or just don’t ‘get’ the material, who can’t finish their homework before midnight, LEARN TO MANAGE YOUR TIME. There are so many resources out there, I’m sure fellow posters here would be happy to share. You won’t ever learn the material if you’re exhausted every day.
So, for people who are utterly buried by homework and are tempted to cheat to get good grades, remember:
1) If you don’t understand the material—ask your teacher, fellow classmates, Google, whatever. Sit down and take the time to study it and know it. Give yourself cushion space to
2) Realize you’re royally screwed if you’ve cheated and you don’t really understand the material. You won’t get good grades.
3) Check how you spend your time. If you’re a procrastinator, you better get to it. Homework will still be there later on and it won’t get any easier.
4) That being said, if it’s easy. Just finish it for crying out loud. Do it on the bus or something. Find those wasted pocket of times.
5) Homework can seem extremely pointless. Believe me, I know. However, no one said life was fair. Suck it up, get it done. No employers wants to know what skills you have to offer the company if your GPA is trash. Unless you just wanna work minimum wage all your life.
I was totally like you when I was a student, Ceaira. I understand what you’re saying and agree with you that that’s what you need to do if you want good grades.
But 30 years later, as a mother with a young child in school…I now know (and I hope you will too when you’re 50) that grades don’t mean a blessed thing. They are meaningless.
I have to go now but I’ll say more…
Do kids spend too many lunches working on homework? My answer is yes. I contemplated not eating lunch and catching up with my friends on the first day, but I forced myself to go.
What about homework projects that I have to stay home from school to do? I find this one ironic. We go to school to learn, and we’re given projects so huge we have to skip going to that learning place.
Last year, I spent more lunches inside doing homework than outside with my friends. I swear half my school does that. And everyone acts like it’s perfectly normal.
I once spent an entire day at home, working on a Sharpie colored poster that probably lowered my IQ by about ten points. I turned it in, and guess what I got on it?
B-.
Because it was late because I had no time to go to school and turn it in.
I also must add that I realize why America is such a “stupid” country. It’s because we make learning mandatory. Every been to a house where the kids don’t read at all? It’s because reading, to them, is just one more thing on the chopping block of homework. People blame there being not enough homework, but kids are already spending four hours a day on it sometimes.
Homework is done so that the child has time to practice things that he/she learned in school that day and for math studies it is essential.
Reading is essential.
Thinking is essential.
I don’t like the strict curriculum geared towards test taking and scoring high on those tests. There should be more flexibility in classroom. Teacher should be entrusted to give different assignments to different students using different ways.
Some kids are better visual and auditory learners, some learn better by reading, and most all learn even better though experience and hands-on.
So no, I don’t want to ban homework. But I would be for banning testing and classroom lectures focused on test taking.
Oh, and bring morality and ethics into the school. Maybe for just 1 hr / week, because not all families have great values they are imposing on their children and our future.
why do we need to do the same thing that we have learned in class? when really some of us need to be working. at home of for money. doing what we already know is redundant. we could be makling our own future. in stead were stuck doing the same old thing over and over.
Everyday students everywhere complain about getting homework. “It’s not fair. We do enough work at school.” How come we never hear, “Thank you. Homework will really help reinforce the things that we learned today.” “Homework helps students learn and reinforces concepts,” Elizabeth Yeow states in Homework: To do or not to do? Therefore, homework is very important and deserves some more respect from not only students, but from everyone. It should not be banned from schools or from anywhere.
There are different opinions about homework, but in the end we all have had to deal with it at some points in our lives. Most people though, only look at the negative effects and neglect the positive things that come from doing homework each day. I agree that homework can bring a lot of stress to the person doing it, but once it’s over they better understand concepts taught at school. Not only that, but it gives the teacher a better understanding of what students know and what needs to be taught more. I know that this is true from personal experience when dealing with homework. It’s not fun and I as a student understand that, but there are ways to make it easier for yourself. Before you even start, go over what was given and make sure you understand. If there is confusion about anything, ask a teacher BEFORE you go home. Don’t wait until it’s to late. Second, look back at any notes given about the topic. They are there to help you when things are too hard to understand. To make things more fun, why not get a study group together. Then if you have questions and are too nervous to ask a teacher, you have other students there that are going through the same thing.
Not only students do homework though. I mean think about it. Look around the neighborhood and see the different jobs. Almost all of them imply working at home. Business people, lawyers, doctors, and teachers. Throughout life, homework is always going to be there. So, why would we ban it in schools? Homework is preparing kids for the future and teaching them different responsibilities at a young age. It is leading them to things that will need to be done in high school, college, and more importantly jobs. Doing homework in most cases is a drag to everyone, but it almost often comes out with a positive affect on the people doing it. If it wasn’t for homework given out in school, my older sister would not be where she is today. Homework is still a part of her life. If she didn’t do homework as a student, she wouldn’t be willing to do it as an adult and therefore she wouldn’t have a job. That applies to adults almost everywhere and will even apply when we’re adults. So it is good to be getting homework at an early age to prepare us for what lies ahead.
So you see, homework is actually a blessing in disguise. It’s just the way you go about doing it each day that will make or break your perspective of it. I suggest following the steps that I mentioned above and start looking at homework as a good thing. It’s only there to help you in the long run, so why not try to get along with it. A quote from an unknown author sums up homework perfectly. “Everything has it’s beauty, but not everyone sees it.” Homework is a beautiful thing that is helping to shape the minds of everyone. It is teaching life lessons, helping people retain more knowledge, improving study skills, and promoting independence and responsibility to people everywhere. I believe as a student and as a person preparing for adulthood that we should not ban homework in our schools.
“This parent, for one, has concluded that “the homework question” itself is flawed.Further, our preoccupation with it has led us to overlook a far more important inquiry. Forget homework’s impact on our children’s test scores, report cards, and international aptitude exams — good or bad. The salient question, instead, is this: What does all this desk and test time mean for the quality of our kids’ lives, now and for their future?
Let’s turn instead to the evidence that is mounting in our homes, our classrooms and our ball fields. At my kitchen table, putting in a second shift of homework after seven hours in school does not help my son become a more inquisitive, confident, life-long learner with an intrinsic sense of curiosity and joy in discovery. It does not allow my family to strike a graceful balance between school and home life. It does not leave time for those non-academic pursuits — lying on a blanket under the sky and puzzling out the constellations, peering under rocks, putting a nose in a book for long, lost hours — that can shape a child’s personality, aspirations and dreams.”
Oh, yes. I’ve been singing this song for years. Thank you, Vicki Abeles, for crystalizing what the likes of FedupMom, PsychMom, Sara Bennett and myself have been saying over and over and over.
Similarly, I find the question of whether high schools should start later or not grating. That is because researchers focus on ACHIEVEMENT. I read one article which showed that yes, students who are more rested do better in school (we even have to ask the question? That’s like saying my headache goes away when I stop fasting). While I applaud research that backs up what I already know anecdotally, we’re asking the question all wrong.
We parents see the fallout each and every day. When our children are stressed, anxious, sleep deprived and depressed, does it really matter if it’s an A or a D? And what about the kid who outwardly appears to be an excellent student, on little sleep? Shall we conclude she doesn’t need any? Of course not.
It’s not about whether scores go up or down. It’s about the very health and well being of our children and our families. We’ve asked this question enough. We already have the answers. It’s time for some action.
The first reference listed at the end of the article was written right here in Halifax!
I agree that we’re asking the wrong question about homework. But I think we need to extend it further than that. We need to ask what school is for, and what childhood is for and what adolescence is for. Is infancy only a waiting game to get to toddlerhood? And is graduating from daycare the goal of toddlerhood? Of course not. So why do we define children by their achievement in school for 13 years of their lives.
One of the issues we face in Nova Scotia is declining enrolment. The government is reducing budgets on that basis and class sizes are growing as schools close and programs shrink. But no matter what crisis arises in education, the only thing the education department sees as its goal is graduating students from highschool so they can go to university. There is some development here of some trades course now in the high schools, after about a 35 year hiatus. I would love to see more of that..so our kids have choices as to how they spend their time…the kind of education they want. Teach them entreprenurial skills, bookkeeping, music, web design, management skills……give adolescents a purpose, a role to play instead of starting them down a road (in middle school) that tells them they will only count if they have a degree.
We need to rethink kids…they weren’t built for homework. Or school for that matter.
Can I say something? I know this is an anti-homework site and all, but this is how I feel about homework. I am 22 and I am about to start my third year of medical school at Johns Hopkins University. When I was a sophomore year of high school, I began to truly do my homework, even seeking extra work when I had time. I worked 21 hour days, with only 2-3 hours of sleep per night, every night, for three years. I finished high school with 14 AP credits, and did all my homework without a complaint. When I got into Stanford University for my Undergraduate studies at the age of 16, only then did I realize how much doing my homework helped me. At Stanford, I did even better than I did in High school, the long work days and the countless hours of homework, instead of stressing me out in college, made my life a Stanford easily the best years of my life. This whole narrative of my experience with homework would show the opposite of what many of you seem to believe. Though it makes life tough now, and trust me no one wants to see their child suffer, it really helps so much more in the future.When your child goes to college, only then will you, and them, realize how much doing homework helps. Also, I saw a lot of criticism of teachers on this site. Strangely, these people have learned how to teach. They have been through school. In most cases, your child is not the first child they have taught. These people know what helps in college and beyond. Take it from a current student at one of the best medical schools in the world, who still benefits from those 22 hour workdays.
I must say that I completely agree with “thedevilsadvocate”. I am a 23 year old student at MIT, on my way to getting my PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and let me say that college would have been a living hell if I had not been so studious in my high school years. High school is a stepping-stone into college; if it is not properly utilized, I can say without a doubt that a student will not be as successful as they would have been if they had chosen to make the most out of their high school career. I know that they long hours may seem like a lot but we must remember that this is what the real world is going to be like. Would you like your child to be living in a fantasy world and then be in for a cruel awakening once they enter college? Also, once they get a job, they will be under constant pressure to meet certain deadlines and sometime all-nighters will be the only way that they can successfully meet these dates. This is exactly what schoolwork teaches children – how to complete a task in a timely manner and then submit it when it is due. This is a skill that can’t be enforced, though. Repetition is key and that is what our school system currently provides us. Maybe we should also look to other countries where our jobs are getting outsourced to. Why don’t we have jobs anymore and they do? That is because of their rigorous school curriculum that enforces vital skills in them that, apparently, we want to get rid of.
HELP! Need to know where to go to file a complaint on my childs school and the school board. I have tried to go through the board but they just say “we will resolve the issue” but it is never really resolved. No reasons are given just that it has been resolved when in fact the problems are still there. I have had many problems with the principle on a personal level and with the treatment of my child. I have tried to go throught the recommended channels but i get no where. I cant even get an appt. with the president of the school board. I think i may need a lawyer or some kind of advocate. Any ideas? I am in San Jose ,Ca. and the school is Capri elementary in Cambell.
I am so happy to see this mentality is shared by others. I have been opposed to homework for years as I watched my son struggle through an otherwise normal school experience, and it is through this observation, I have made a case against homework; in my own mind, anyway. I would have never guessed it was a mindset shared by so many others. I have decided, aside from projects students complete over time, reports and studying for tests, homework is ridiculous. Projects a child works on outside of school with a future due date, provide a child with opportunities to enhance essential skills such as time management and allows the child a real opportunity to be independant and engage in organized thinking that produces a tangible result. There are plenty of opportunities to engage in self expression and creativity, as well as an opportunity to expand their knowledge by researching an area they may need more information about in order to complete the project. Of course, it helps if the project is centered around a topic the child finds interesting in the first place, which presents a unique challenge to some areas of study. Maybe the teacher struggling with this should actively engage the students in developing projects that promote student interest in their particular subject. Reports offer a more academic-minded approach to student learning and represent an opportunity for a student to take time and independantly research a topic they may not have a lot of information on at present or a way to ensure the student thinks more about something they were presented with in class in order to re-enforce the material and offer long-term retention. Studying for tests is a catch 22 in some respects, because it creates a way for students who procrastinate to memorize information and after the dispensing of the information on the test, they often permanently dispense of it from their mind altogether. It is also somewhat necessary in order to tie material together that may have been collected over a period of time and to develop a cohesive understanding of the complete lesson in order to be assessed on that knowledge. For some, this will be more involved and take more time, than for others. Interestingly, if you think about it, studying is only required for material not yet learned or understood completely. You no longer need to study something you already know or understand. The concept of learning should be life long. The challenge for teachers, is to offer the student instruction in class that allows them to learn and understand the material in the time they have. Educators often complain there is not enough time in the school day to effectively teach the students the material. I say, tomorrow is another day. If the teacher is engaged in creating an environment of learning that is focused on the students, above anything else, they will figure out the best ways to effectively teach the students by offering the information in a way the student will comprehend the material and retain it. If a child is leaving school with instruction in class they barely understood and forced to figure out the application on their own before they are graded on homework or taking a test, they will likely suffer in the grades they get for those classes. Homework that is busy work, is largely an excuse for teachers to leave learning up to the student, in my opinion. I expect my child’s teachers to do their job and teach my child. The learning environment for their particular area of study ends at the end of class each day and begins again the next day. Students spend as much time at school as adults spend at work and the rest of their day should be an opportunity to engage in healthy extra-curricular activities, sports and clubs, or family and social time. The problem of homework is not a result of not enough time for the teachers to teach the subject, it is a problem with the lack of teachers who use creativity and practical application to tackling the real-life issue of engaging a student’s interest enough to allow for the material they are offering to be received well during the time they have with the student. If that doesn’t occur, it is simply a waste of that time, for both the student and the teacher. Maybe this simple and logical concept was missed by educators who spent too much time doing homework instead. The student should not be responsible for their own learning, only in the application once the learning is achieved. That is where the information becomes a useful tool, capable of any value. A student who achieves an A in a class because they are effective at doing busy work or are a type-A personality and memorize information well will be sadly disappointed when life fails to give them visual accolades to assess their progress. Where those students who did not achieve great grades based on poor performance on homework may not have been given the opportunites they were better equipped to handle. Teachers are the same as anyone else when it comes to real-world application. Just because someone does a particular job for a living, doesn’t mean they are necessarily good at their job or inspired by their job. School administrators should pay more attention to the response and opinions of the students regarding their teaching staff. The job does not just involve having the appropriate credentials or a knowledge of the material. It is just as important to be able to effectively impart that knowledge to others in a way they can understand and to be a person others can relate to well. It helps to be vibrant and inspired yourself, if you want to capture a young person’s interest. Schools that are interested in producing students who will acheive the most from their education should really be interested in filling their staff with great teachers rather than trying to fulfill the government’s standards of acheivement. Success is based on accomplishment.
Or maybe the jobs are getting outsourced cause the labor laws are lax or non-existed and they’re cheaper?
What you and that other person is supporting is basically the method on making us office drones. You don’t need homework to teach a kid the real world there are other and most likely better methods. Sorry but that homework thing teaching real life is a cop out answer teachers use to avoid being creative.
Plus why take the job if they are not going to take the time to make the changes to make their teaching carrer easier without having it at the expense of others(espeically those who are paying them)?
I suppose very few, if any, people will read this because this is such a large discussion. But regardless, I will put in my two cents.
Far too many people on this website (the website generals included) are pushing for absolutely no homework ever. This is the wrong approach! This is the reason there is such a struggle in Washington to reach any agreement on policy (ahem, case in point…the almost month-long gov’t shutdown in 2013). Arguments like these have gray area, therefore more people should consider the gray area rather than just seeing it as black and white.
I am a straight-A student with a weighted GPA in a high school that only weights AP classes (not honors classes) and uses a 7 pt grading scale (93% to 100% is an A). It’s tough to achieve the way I do – but many students at my school just tell me how “lucky” I am to be so smart. Trust me – it’s not luck. It’s a hell of a lot of hard work.
Honestly, homework is too large a part of my life. Sure, I chose more challenging classes than most, but does that mean I should EVER have to do busywork? I have a job. I am on the debate team. I participate in a sport. I am in our honor society. I volunteer regularly. Life happens, and oftentimes homework holds me back. When managing all of these things and 4-9 hours of homework per night, something always falls behind. Sometimes it’s my friends. A lot of times it’s my family, sleep, or excercise. Even more often, it’s some combination of those.
The irony of all this is that I am not for the homework-free plan… ESPECIALLY in high school. So many of the students on here simply say, “homework should be banned!” This is the mentality of many of the students in my school – a mentality of laziness and ignorance rather than one of reason and forward-thinking. These are the students who copy every night and then complain of how poor the teaching is when their grades suffer after a quiz or test. They blame others for their own mistakes – the first, and probably most influential of which – being that they blow off all howework as unneccessary.
I have a few teachers who do a fabulous job of managing this. The first is my chemisty teacher. His policy? He hands out optional homework packets that he gives the answers for but does not grade. He reviews in class for tests and does many practice problems. I do well in his class not only because I am good at chemisty, but also because I can do as much of the homework as I want and choose to do what I see as meaningful and helpful. If I understand a concept, I don’t do the homework on it. Unfortunately for him, Chemistry is a core class with many sudents who are not very driven and don’t do homework AT ALL or pay any attention in class. These people complain about their grades and what a terrible teacher they think he is.
Another teacher who handles it reasonably well: my AP Biology teacher. He is very intelligent and really loves both the material and the students. He advocates the “flipped classroom” that many colleges are trying. Outside of class, we watch lectures he has recorded and read however much of the textbook we want/need to understand the concept. Inside of class, we do labs (applying our knowledge), listen to more in-depth lectures, go over answers on practice tests, and are free to ask him about anything we don’t understand. This is a great system because the amount of time you have to spend on the class is your decision. But beware – laziness will not get you A’s. Many of those who do not seem to understand this dropped the class at the semester.
My third teacher who handles homework well is my AP US History teacher. He told us from day 1 that he values our time and understands that we have busy schedules so he has never assigned busywork. We often are assigned readings outside of class – which we can do as much or as little of as we like – and then we have periodic small quizzes over the readings until we reach the end of the unit, at which point we have time to review and then a test. In class, he lectures and we take notes to reinforce the readings. He often takes days to just let us relax in class while he tells stories…and he is a great storyteller. He is excellent at preparing students for the AP test… last year our school had the largest number of people get 5’s yet and one of the largest numbers of 5’s in the state (the highest score – and he is the only APUSH teacher).
So why is homework an issue for me still? This is because of people like my Spanish teacher. She assigns something every night, and much of the time, it is meaningless. In class, the only activities we do that are worth anything are review ones. I used to have more teachers like this in the past, but as I have moved through high school and taken more challenging classes, their numbers have dwindled.
These are just a few of my teachers…all with different approaches to homework. I’m sure I have rambled, but this is a subject I feel strongly about and that I feel has more than one solution. All in all, homework is necessary, but NEEDS to be limited, or at least made optional. The current system requires far too much effort to maintain good grades because it blocks opportunities outside of school and results in students like myself who are burned-out because homework has taken over the places of other important things in life.
I’m lucky that my child does her homework at night without any problem. She understands that for a couple of hours, schoolwork is the priority, and then she can do something else. She understands that homework teaches her where her strengths are and where she needs to spend more attention. I feel bad for parents whose kids think that homework is a waste of time.
Gracias por sus valiosos aportes. Te cuento que tengo un niño de 8 años. Al cual todos los dias le asignan tareas que termina por hacer hasta la noche. Este fin de semana se asignaron escribir 100.000 cifras númericas. LLeva 7800 y nisiquiera va en la mitad. Esta cansado y no ha tenido descanso. Estamos todos cansados y no se que hacer. Gracias por su ayuda. Funza, cundinamarca, colombia.
I just got off of winter break and already have over an hour of homework. Our science teacher said we would be finishing a project after break and we had to present today! Half of the students weren’t ready (including me) and now we’re all getting points taken off.
Homework these days are full of stress and lead to little if any learning. Parents do most of the homework for kids in younger grades so they can satisfy the teachers. Kids do not start learning until after elementary school. Middle school starts with giving more and more homework to prepare kids for high school. The teachers do not even know what to prepare for the students when they do go to high school. this is why they cover a wide variety of topics and subjects. Even in high school more homework is added and teachers complain about not keeping track of students because they have so much grading to do. By giving less homework students can learn better in school and teachers can give better explanations for in class assignments.
The amount of homework that I am given every night is insane. I am currently writing three essays, for the SAME class. If I get a not so great grade, then I fail the entire class. They all have to be 4 pages long, and they’re all due tomorrow. My teacher said “You have two days to write three essays on whatever topic you like. Here are the restrictions, no topics on phones or how “terrible” this place is.” At that point, I got up and spoke my mind saying we will have no time to do anything else besides the homework for that class. The class is English. I go to my next period, history, and have the worst news of the day, ANOTHER essay. I only have 4 days to complete it. No one in my class is even CLOSE to finishing because all of the people in that English class is spending every minute of their free time for the English essays so they don’t fail. Then I learn that my free period in the history room, I can’t do homework. I am FORCED to read. I had an argument with the teacher with very good, and valid points. But the teacher just brushed it off like the points my classmates and I had made. Like they were worthless. We knew we won and had the right to do the homework in the period. But he didn’t listen. My classmates and I have been trying to get the two other teachers to cut down the homework that they give us, but they DOUBLED it. I’ve been up until 3 in the morning trying to stay ahead just incase something happens. I ALSO have to finish my reason to go to a certain night school. It’s so stressful. They expect us to be freaking superhuman and pull one all nighter after another, expecting us to be completely ready for school and not falling asleep in the classroom. Truth is, they don’t understand that everyone in those classrooms would rather break their leg, or kill themselves to get out of school. People like me DREAD the thought of waking up on a weekday knowing that we are federally forced to go to school. Knowing that they have to hear the words “Tim to get up to go to school!” Or “have a great day at SCHOOL.” I’ve been so behind in sleep that I have been waking up at 4:30 I’m the morning because of the stress of knowing that I have UNFINISHED homework, and if k don’t get it done, I will fail.
Hi!
I’m a highschool student, and I’m sick of homework replacing…living. This year I plan to do something about it. I want to start a “No Homework Campaign.” I will speak to officials and the student council to see what we can do and try to get other students and parents on board. However I am unsure how to approach this. Who can make this decision? Should I go right to a school official or gather support first? I don’t want the first thing I get to be a flat out “no” from a guidance counselor or the principle. If anyone could give me any ideas or suggestions that would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you!
Alright, here’s what I think, the kids need some downtime, I understand that much, but its to prepare them for the next year and so that the kid just doesn’t forget how to do things. I would enjoy if they reduced the amount of work.
Because its getting to the point which the parents CAN’T help with the homework. We are just now learning stuff that nobody will actually use. Most of the math up until 6th-7th grade is what we might use at our future jobs. However, polynomials, most jobs will never use polynomial equations. If we ever needed to actually use the equations, we already have it on the internet, don’t we?
My children’s school gives them summer homework. I get it, it is a requirement in out district, but the one thing I don’t understand is the amount of homework the students get. My son is going into 3rd grade, and he has to read 4 chapters each night. They are fairly short chapters, but it is a long book. My daughter is going into sixth grade, and her teachers gave her 7 assignments. They go back to school in about a month, but she only has three things done because we lost two weeks of it due to vacation. She is feeling really anxious and stressed, and her teacher said that he wouldn’t respond to any emails after June 30, which is only two weeks after they got out of school. He also said that he might read the email but he wouldn’t respond, which is unfair because we got back from Europe on the 29 of June, and my daughter still had to adjust to the time differences.
Stop Homework
Hi Sara K,
Take a look around this website–including the FAQs, the interviews, and the quick facts–and you’ll have plenty of information to back you up.
Good luck and keep us posted!
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I just want to second what you said, PsychMom. I’ve always hated homework and skived out of more of it than I can remember and so graduated with what was considered a pretty lousy GPA. It felt like college wasn’t an option, plus I felt like it would just be more of the same so I joined the Navy. It was the best decision of my life. Now I’m married with a beautiful son and extensive training in the electronics field. I plan on going back to school, but since getting out (and moving around) I’ve had the opportunity to work at some excellent companies. Sometimes I think that way too (that if I had done my homework, I would have excelled) but then I realize that of all the decisions I’ve made, I have excelled, maybe not by the world’s standards, but by mine, and isn’t that all that really matters?
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HOMEWORK
what is the purpose
we do all this work at school so why should we take it home?
mmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
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true dat sister !!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂
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I’m a teacher and I’m really disturbed by what I see here. How can parents not be expected to take a part in their child’s education? Do you not care what happens to your child in the future? I teach you child for one school year and you expect me to care more about ensuring their future than you do… That’s excatally what you’re saying when you tell me that you don’t think I should assign your child homework and ask that you make sure it’s done and done properly. But don’t worry, I’m sure your child will have a really great boss when they enter the workforce flipping burgers. And I’m sure that boss will be someone whose parents actually cared about their education and tried to encourge them to learn outside of school as well. I guess the world will always need worker drones…
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gourl its not you doing the homework. You GIVE it. you dont have to complete it. so dont talk on a matter that doesnt effect you. Some teachers are the root to this problem 😦
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My mom used to be a teacher and she saw that a lot of people couldn’t do their homework because of stuff at home and if people don’t really have anything at home, they still come tired after trying their hardest but they push their self to hard and have to study and study while putting pressure on their self. So what is it your own mental health? Or some random piece of junk we already know how to do but just do it at home. And if school isn’t a place to sleep then home isn’t a place to study
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Btw, homework wastes time for teachers as they have to spend time marking it when they could just be planning an interesting lesson
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For heaven’s sake, the parents who comment on this forum are some of the most involved, dedicated parents you could ever meet. Just because we don’t want to do the homework you assign doesn’t mean we don’t care about our kids’ education. Actually, we care so passionately that we don’t want to see our kids waste their time with busywork that does nothing but make them hate school and learning. And no, the busywork you send home will not magically prevent kids from becoming burger-flippers.
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You know, there’s nothing wrong with flipping burgers. I have bussed tables, been a waitress, washed dishes, cleaned floors and bathrooms. I’ve done these jobs by choice and been paid for them. Everytime a teacher makes a comment like that, they are putting down millions of people..millions, maybe billions.
Life is about making decisions and choices. And as my daughter’s mother, I see it as my job to teach her how to try and make more good ones than bad ones. I don’t need to teach her to obey. I need to teach her to think. If I am a good role model, I always question things that don’t make sense to me. Homework for elementary age children makes no sense to me. Blind obedience to a tacher, or a boss…makes no sense to me.
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sorry, teacher, not tacher..
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I have spent many sleepless nights trying to do homework, having no time to do anything else. I wish my school wouldn’t give homework, but you see there is nothing I can do…
Any advice?
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I run a new website, http://www.slader.com, that is out to disrupt education, especially homework. Slader is a website we’ve created that offers solutions to homework questions in popular math, science and english textbooks. Our users create all the solutions.
Most students hate homework because it just reinforces that they don’t understand, it provides no path to success. No student wants to be a failure, but they often don’t have the tools available when they need it. However, if given the tools along with some positive reinforcement, most students welcome the opportunity and confidence that comes from mastering concepts as they are introduced by the teacher.
Rather than being frustrated with that “I just don’t understand!” feeling, they now have a place to go with no embarrassing consequences. They don’t have to drag themselves, feeling inadequate, to that tutoring center or to the teacher. They can just, somewhat anonymously, go to Slader and get the help they need at the very moment they need it.
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To fellow students who are complaining about homework,
I’m in an accelerated program at my high school. I’m a Senior. All of my courses are either AP or advanced level classes. Plus, I’m also using proper grammar and spelling here so nobody here can really make a valid argument against my intelligence.
Homework. It’s a dreaded, necessary evil. Actually, I’m starting to doubt if it’s necessary. Students should have homework but it starts to get ridiculous if it exceeds the 10 rules (10 minutes multiplied by grade level. I’m in 12th grade, I should just be doing 2 hours’ worth of homework max).
I may have a certain sentiment towards homework just because of the level I’m in. People taking on higher level classes tend to already be resigned to homework. It’s a law that higher classes have more homework or at least more tests/quizzes which require more studying if you truly care about your grades. Unless you’re just a genius . . .
I do my homework. I have had to stay up until 1-2am to finish my homework before. I have cheated on homework but only when I was positively sure I already know how to do the work and it was not a word-for-word answer. The majority of the time I do my work. I am meticulous with my work, probably more so than I should be with the complete lack of care teachers grade homework. If I cheat and I don’t understand the work, I’m screwed. I may have a higher homework average but if my test/quizzes average is a disaster, it doesn’t matter.
However, I do think teachers need to give students a crash course on how to properly manage time. I will bet at least 75% of the students here that have complained procrastinated until the eleventh hour to do their homework. Well, it’s freaking obvious that you will have to take longer to finish it. You tend to hate homework even more when you’re exhausted and on the brink of delusional grandeur.
I can not stress this enough. Students who need tutors, or just don’t ‘get’ the material, who can’t finish their homework before midnight, LEARN TO MANAGE YOUR TIME. There are so many resources out there, I’m sure fellow posters here would be happy to share. You won’t ever learn the material if you’re exhausted every day.
So, for people who are utterly buried by homework and are tempted to cheat to get good grades, remember:
1) If you don’t understand the material—ask your teacher, fellow classmates, Google, whatever. Sit down and take the time to study it and know it. Give yourself cushion space to
2) Realize you’re royally screwed if you’ve cheated and you don’t really understand the material. You won’t get good grades.
3) Check how you spend your time. If you’re a procrastinator, you better get to it. Homework will still be there later on and it won’t get any easier.
4) That being said, if it’s easy. Just finish it for crying out loud. Do it on the bus or something. Find those wasted pocket of times.
5) Homework can seem extremely pointless. Believe me, I know. However, no one said life was fair. Suck it up, get it done. No employers wants to know what skills you have to offer the company if your GPA is trash. Unless you just wanna work minimum wage all your life.
Okay, know-it-all rant over. Sorry about that.
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I was totally like you when I was a student, Ceaira. I understand what you’re saying and agree with you that that’s what you need to do if you want good grades.
But 30 years later, as a mother with a young child in school…I now know (and I hope you will too when you’re 50) that grades don’t mean a blessed thing. They are meaningless.
I have to go now but I’ll say more…
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Do kids spend too many lunches working on homework? My answer is yes. I contemplated not eating lunch and catching up with my friends on the first day, but I forced myself to go.
What about homework projects that I have to stay home from school to do? I find this one ironic. We go to school to learn, and we’re given projects so huge we have to skip going to that learning place.
Last year, I spent more lunches inside doing homework than outside with my friends. I swear half my school does that. And everyone acts like it’s perfectly normal.
I once spent an entire day at home, working on a Sharpie colored poster that probably lowered my IQ by about ten points. I turned it in, and guess what I got on it?
B-.
Because it was late because I had no time to go to school and turn it in.
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I also must add that I realize why America is such a “stupid” country. It’s because we make learning mandatory. Every been to a house where the kids don’t read at all? It’s because reading, to them, is just one more thing on the chopping block of homework. People blame there being not enough homework, but kids are already spending four hours a day on it sometimes.
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Homework should be banned!
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L
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I think testing should be banned, not homework.
Homework is done so that the child has time to practice things that he/she learned in school that day and for math studies it is essential.
Reading is essential.
Thinking is essential.
I don’t like the strict curriculum geared towards test taking and scoring high on those tests. There should be more flexibility in classroom. Teacher should be entrusted to give different assignments to different students using different ways.
Some kids are better visual and auditory learners, some learn better by reading, and most all learn even better though experience and hands-on.
So no, I don’t want to ban homework. But I would be for banning testing and classroom lectures focused on test taking.
Oh, and bring morality and ethics into the school. Maybe for just 1 hr / week, because not all families have great values they are imposing on their children and our future.
Thank you
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why do we need to do the same thing that we have learned in class? when really some of us need to be working. at home of for money. doing what we already know is redundant. we could be makling our own future. in stead were stuck doing the same old thing over and over.
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homeworks the best thing ever and im a sophmore 🙂
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Everyday students everywhere complain about getting homework. “It’s not fair. We do enough work at school.” How come we never hear, “Thank you. Homework will really help reinforce the things that we learned today.” “Homework helps students learn and reinforces concepts,” Elizabeth Yeow states in Homework: To do or not to do? Therefore, homework is very important and deserves some more respect from not only students, but from everyone. It should not be banned from schools or from anywhere.
There are different opinions about homework, but in the end we all have had to deal with it at some points in our lives. Most people though, only look at the negative effects and neglect the positive things that come from doing homework each day. I agree that homework can bring a lot of stress to the person doing it, but once it’s over they better understand concepts taught at school. Not only that, but it gives the teacher a better understanding of what students know and what needs to be taught more. I know that this is true from personal experience when dealing with homework. It’s not fun and I as a student understand that, but there are ways to make it easier for yourself. Before you even start, go over what was given and make sure you understand. If there is confusion about anything, ask a teacher BEFORE you go home. Don’t wait until it’s to late. Second, look back at any notes given about the topic. They are there to help you when things are too hard to understand. To make things more fun, why not get a study group together. Then if you have questions and are too nervous to ask a teacher, you have other students there that are going through the same thing.
Not only students do homework though. I mean think about it. Look around the neighborhood and see the different jobs. Almost all of them imply working at home. Business people, lawyers, doctors, and teachers. Throughout life, homework is always going to be there. So, why would we ban it in schools? Homework is preparing kids for the future and teaching them different responsibilities at a young age. It is leading them to things that will need to be done in high school, college, and more importantly jobs. Doing homework in most cases is a drag to everyone, but it almost often comes out with a positive affect on the people doing it. If it wasn’t for homework given out in school, my older sister would not be where she is today. Homework is still a part of her life. If she didn’t do homework as a student, she wouldn’t be willing to do it as an adult and therefore she wouldn’t have a job. That applies to adults almost everywhere and will even apply when we’re adults. So it is good to be getting homework at an early age to prepare us for what lies ahead.
So you see, homework is actually a blessing in disguise. It’s just the way you go about doing it each day that will make or break your perspective of it. I suggest following the steps that I mentioned above and start looking at homework as a good thing. It’s only there to help you in the long run, so why not try to get along with it. A quote from an unknown author sums up homework perfectly. “Everything has it’s beauty, but not everyone sees it.” Homework is a beautiful thing that is helping to shape the minds of everyone. It is teaching life lessons, helping people retain more knowledge, improving study skills, and promoting independence and responsibility to people everywhere. I believe as a student and as a person preparing for adulthood that we should not ban homework in our schools.
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“This parent, for one, has concluded that “the homework question” itself is flawed.Further, our preoccupation with it has led us to overlook a far more important inquiry. Forget homework’s impact on our children’s test scores, report cards, and international aptitude exams — good or bad. The salient question, instead, is this: What does all this desk and test time mean for the quality of our kids’ lives, now and for their future?
Let’s turn instead to the evidence that is mounting in our homes, our classrooms and our ball fields. At my kitchen table, putting in a second shift of homework after seven hours in school does not help my son become a more inquisitive, confident, life-long learner with an intrinsic sense of curiosity and joy in discovery. It does not allow my family to strike a graceful balance between school and home life. It does not leave time for those non-academic pursuits — lying on a blanket under the sky and puzzling out the constellations, peering under rocks, putting a nose in a book for long, lost hours — that can shape a child’s personality, aspirations and dreams.”
Oh, yes. I’ve been singing this song for years. Thank you, Vicki Abeles, for crystalizing what the likes of FedupMom, PsychMom, Sara Bennett and myself have been saying over and over and over.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/why-were-getting-the-homework-question-wrong/2012/05/13/gIQA1nJGNU_blog.html
Similarly, I find the question of whether high schools should start later or not grating. That is because researchers focus on ACHIEVEMENT. I read one article which showed that yes, students who are more rested do better in school (we even have to ask the question? That’s like saying my headache goes away when I stop fasting). While I applaud research that backs up what I already know anecdotally, we’re asking the question all wrong.
We parents see the fallout each and every day. When our children are stressed, anxious, sleep deprived and depressed, does it really matter if it’s an A or a D? And what about the kid who outwardly appears to be an excellent student, on little sleep? Shall we conclude she doesn’t need any? Of course not.
It’s not about whether scores go up or down. It’s about the very health and well being of our children and our families. We’ve asked this question enough. We already have the answers. It’s time for some action.
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The first reference listed at the end of the article was written right here in Halifax!
I agree that we’re asking the wrong question about homework. But I think we need to extend it further than that. We need to ask what school is for, and what childhood is for and what adolescence is for. Is infancy only a waiting game to get to toddlerhood? And is graduating from daycare the goal of toddlerhood? Of course not. So why do we define children by their achievement in school for 13 years of their lives.
One of the issues we face in Nova Scotia is declining enrolment. The government is reducing budgets on that basis and class sizes are growing as schools close and programs shrink. But no matter what crisis arises in education, the only thing the education department sees as its goal is graduating students from highschool so they can go to university. There is some development here of some trades course now in the high schools, after about a 35 year hiatus. I would love to see more of that..so our kids have choices as to how they spend their time…the kind of education they want. Teach them entreprenurial skills, bookkeeping, music, web design, management skills……give adolescents a purpose, a role to play instead of starting them down a road (in middle school) that tells them they will only count if they have a degree.
We need to rethink kids…they weren’t built for homework. Or school for that matter.
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Can I say something? I know this is an anti-homework site and all, but this is how I feel about homework. I am 22 and I am about to start my third year of medical school at Johns Hopkins University. When I was a sophomore year of high school, I began to truly do my homework, even seeking extra work when I had time. I worked 21 hour days, with only 2-3 hours of sleep per night, every night, for three years. I finished high school with 14 AP credits, and did all my homework without a complaint. When I got into Stanford University for my Undergraduate studies at the age of 16, only then did I realize how much doing my homework helped me. At Stanford, I did even better than I did in High school, the long work days and the countless hours of homework, instead of stressing me out in college, made my life a Stanford easily the best years of my life. This whole narrative of my experience with homework would show the opposite of what many of you seem to believe. Though it makes life tough now, and trust me no one wants to see their child suffer, it really helps so much more in the future.When your child goes to college, only then will you, and them, realize how much doing homework helps. Also, I saw a lot of criticism of teachers on this site. Strangely, these people have learned how to teach. They have been through school. In most cases, your child is not the first child they have taught. These people know what helps in college and beyond. Take it from a current student at one of the best medical schools in the world, who still benefits from those 22 hour workdays.
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I must say that I completely agree with “thedevilsadvocate”. I am a 23 year old student at MIT, on my way to getting my PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and let me say that college would have been a living hell if I had not been so studious in my high school years. High school is a stepping-stone into college; if it is not properly utilized, I can say without a doubt that a student will not be as successful as they would have been if they had chosen to make the most out of their high school career. I know that they long hours may seem like a lot but we must remember that this is what the real world is going to be like. Would you like your child to be living in a fantasy world and then be in for a cruel awakening once they enter college? Also, once they get a job, they will be under constant pressure to meet certain deadlines and sometime all-nighters will be the only way that they can successfully meet these dates. This is exactly what schoolwork teaches children – how to complete a task in a timely manner and then submit it when it is due. This is a skill that can’t be enforced, though. Repetition is key and that is what our school system currently provides us. Maybe we should also look to other countries where our jobs are getting outsourced to. Why don’t we have jobs anymore and they do? That is because of their rigorous school curriculum that enforces vital skills in them that, apparently, we want to get rid of.
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HELP! Need to know where to go to file a complaint on my childs school and the school board. I have tried to go through the board but they just say “we will resolve the issue” but it is never really resolved. No reasons are given just that it has been resolved when in fact the problems are still there. I have had many problems with the principle on a personal level and with the treatment of my child. I have tried to go throught the recommended channels but i get no where. I cant even get an appt. with the president of the school board. I think i may need a lawyer or some kind of advocate. Any ideas? I am in San Jose ,Ca. and the school is Capri elementary in Cambell.
Thanks
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I am so happy to see this mentality is shared by others. I have been opposed to homework for years as I watched my son struggle through an otherwise normal school experience, and it is through this observation, I have made a case against homework; in my own mind, anyway. I would have never guessed it was a mindset shared by so many others. I have decided, aside from projects students complete over time, reports and studying for tests, homework is ridiculous. Projects a child works on outside of school with a future due date, provide a child with opportunities to enhance essential skills such as time management and allows the child a real opportunity to be independant and engage in organized thinking that produces a tangible result. There are plenty of opportunities to engage in self expression and creativity, as well as an opportunity to expand their knowledge by researching an area they may need more information about in order to complete the project. Of course, it helps if the project is centered around a topic the child finds interesting in the first place, which presents a unique challenge to some areas of study. Maybe the teacher struggling with this should actively engage the students in developing projects that promote student interest in their particular subject. Reports offer a more academic-minded approach to student learning and represent an opportunity for a student to take time and independantly research a topic they may not have a lot of information on at present or a way to ensure the student thinks more about something they were presented with in class in order to re-enforce the material and offer long-term retention. Studying for tests is a catch 22 in some respects, because it creates a way for students who procrastinate to memorize information and after the dispensing of the information on the test, they often permanently dispense of it from their mind altogether. It is also somewhat necessary in order to tie material together that may have been collected over a period of time and to develop a cohesive understanding of the complete lesson in order to be assessed on that knowledge. For some, this will be more involved and take more time, than for others. Interestingly, if you think about it, studying is only required for material not yet learned or understood completely. You no longer need to study something you already know or understand. The concept of learning should be life long. The challenge for teachers, is to offer the student instruction in class that allows them to learn and understand the material in the time they have. Educators often complain there is not enough time in the school day to effectively teach the students the material. I say, tomorrow is another day. If the teacher is engaged in creating an environment of learning that is focused on the students, above anything else, they will figure out the best ways to effectively teach the students by offering the information in a way the student will comprehend the material and retain it. If a child is leaving school with instruction in class they barely understood and forced to figure out the application on their own before they are graded on homework or taking a test, they will likely suffer in the grades they get for those classes. Homework that is busy work, is largely an excuse for teachers to leave learning up to the student, in my opinion. I expect my child’s teachers to do their job and teach my child. The learning environment for their particular area of study ends at the end of class each day and begins again the next day. Students spend as much time at school as adults spend at work and the rest of their day should be an opportunity to engage in healthy extra-curricular activities, sports and clubs, or family and social time. The problem of homework is not a result of not enough time for the teachers to teach the subject, it is a problem with the lack of teachers who use creativity and practical application to tackling the real-life issue of engaging a student’s interest enough to allow for the material they are offering to be received well during the time they have with the student. If that doesn’t occur, it is simply a waste of that time, for both the student and the teacher. Maybe this simple and logical concept was missed by educators who spent too much time doing homework instead. The student should not be responsible for their own learning, only in the application once the learning is achieved. That is where the information becomes a useful tool, capable of any value. A student who achieves an A in a class because they are effective at doing busy work or are a type-A personality and memorize information well will be sadly disappointed when life fails to give them visual accolades to assess their progress. Where those students who did not achieve great grades based on poor performance on homework may not have been given the opportunites they were better equipped to handle. Teachers are the same as anyone else when it comes to real-world application. Just because someone does a particular job for a living, doesn’t mean they are necessarily good at their job or inspired by their job. School administrators should pay more attention to the response and opinions of the students regarding their teaching staff. The job does not just involve having the appropriate credentials or a knowledge of the material. It is just as important to be able to effectively impart that knowledge to others in a way they can understand and to be a person others can relate to well. It helps to be vibrant and inspired yourself, if you want to capture a young person’s interest. Schools that are interested in producing students who will acheive the most from their education should really be interested in filling their staff with great teachers rather than trying to fulfill the government’s standards of acheivement. Success is based on accomplishment.
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@ patrtiot
Or maybe the jobs are getting outsourced cause the labor laws are lax or non-existed and they’re cheaper?
What you and that other person is supporting is basically the method on making us office drones. You don’t need homework to teach a kid the real world there are other and most likely better methods. Sorry but that homework thing teaching real life is a cop out answer teachers use to avoid being creative.
Plus why take the job if they are not going to take the time to make the changes to make their teaching carrer easier without having it at the expense of others(espeically those who are paying them)?
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I suppose very few, if any, people will read this because this is such a large discussion. But regardless, I will put in my two cents.
Far too many people on this website (the website generals included) are pushing for absolutely no homework ever. This is the wrong approach! This is the reason there is such a struggle in Washington to reach any agreement on policy (ahem, case in point…the almost month-long gov’t shutdown in 2013). Arguments like these have gray area, therefore more people should consider the gray area rather than just seeing it as black and white.
I am a straight-A student with a weighted GPA in a high school that only weights AP classes (not honors classes) and uses a 7 pt grading scale (93% to 100% is an A). It’s tough to achieve the way I do – but many students at my school just tell me how “lucky” I am to be so smart. Trust me – it’s not luck. It’s a hell of a lot of hard work.
Honestly, homework is too large a part of my life. Sure, I chose more challenging classes than most, but does that mean I should EVER have to do busywork? I have a job. I am on the debate team. I participate in a sport. I am in our honor society. I volunteer regularly. Life happens, and oftentimes homework holds me back. When managing all of these things and 4-9 hours of homework per night, something always falls behind. Sometimes it’s my friends. A lot of times it’s my family, sleep, or excercise. Even more often, it’s some combination of those.
The irony of all this is that I am not for the homework-free plan… ESPECIALLY in high school. So many of the students on here simply say, “homework should be banned!” This is the mentality of many of the students in my school – a mentality of laziness and ignorance rather than one of reason and forward-thinking. These are the students who copy every night and then complain of how poor the teaching is when their grades suffer after a quiz or test. They blame others for their own mistakes – the first, and probably most influential of which – being that they blow off all howework as unneccessary.
I have a few teachers who do a fabulous job of managing this. The first is my chemisty teacher. His policy? He hands out optional homework packets that he gives the answers for but does not grade. He reviews in class for tests and does many practice problems. I do well in his class not only because I am good at chemisty, but also because I can do as much of the homework as I want and choose to do what I see as meaningful and helpful. If I understand a concept, I don’t do the homework on it. Unfortunately for him, Chemistry is a core class with many sudents who are not very driven and don’t do homework AT ALL or pay any attention in class. These people complain about their grades and what a terrible teacher they think he is.
Another teacher who handles it reasonably well: my AP Biology teacher. He is very intelligent and really loves both the material and the students. He advocates the “flipped classroom” that many colleges are trying. Outside of class, we watch lectures he has recorded and read however much of the textbook we want/need to understand the concept. Inside of class, we do labs (applying our knowledge), listen to more in-depth lectures, go over answers on practice tests, and are free to ask him about anything we don’t understand. This is a great system because the amount of time you have to spend on the class is your decision. But beware – laziness will not get you A’s. Many of those who do not seem to understand this dropped the class at the semester.
My third teacher who handles homework well is my AP US History teacher. He told us from day 1 that he values our time and understands that we have busy schedules so he has never assigned busywork. We often are assigned readings outside of class – which we can do as much or as little of as we like – and then we have periodic small quizzes over the readings until we reach the end of the unit, at which point we have time to review and then a test. In class, he lectures and we take notes to reinforce the readings. He often takes days to just let us relax in class while he tells stories…and he is a great storyteller. He is excellent at preparing students for the AP test… last year our school had the largest number of people get 5’s yet and one of the largest numbers of 5’s in the state (the highest score – and he is the only APUSH teacher).
So why is homework an issue for me still? This is because of people like my Spanish teacher. She assigns something every night, and much of the time, it is meaningless. In class, the only activities we do that are worth anything are review ones. I used to have more teachers like this in the past, but as I have moved through high school and taken more challenging classes, their numbers have dwindled.
These are just a few of my teachers…all with different approaches to homework. I’m sure I have rambled, but this is a subject I feel strongly about and that I feel has more than one solution. All in all, homework is necessary, but NEEDS to be limited, or at least made optional. The current system requires far too much effort to maintain good grades because it blocks opportunities outside of school and results in students like myself who are burned-out because homework has taken over the places of other important things in life.
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I’m lucky that my child does her homework at night without any problem. She understands that for a couple of hours, schoolwork is the priority, and then she can do something else. She understands that homework teaches her where her strengths are and where she needs to spend more attention. I feel bad for parents whose kids think that homework is a waste of time.
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Gracias por sus valiosos aportes. Te cuento que tengo un niño de 8 años. Al cual todos los dias le asignan tareas que termina por hacer hasta la noche. Este fin de semana se asignaron escribir 100.000 cifras númericas. LLeva 7800 y nisiquiera va en la mitad. Esta cansado y no ha tenido descanso. Estamos todos cansados y no se que hacer. Gracias por su ayuda. Funza, cundinamarca, colombia.
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HOMEWORK SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IM IN 7TH GRADE AND I HAVE PILES OF HOMEWORK!!!!!!!!!!!
AND ITS ONLY MY 8TH WEEK
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I just got off of winter break and already have over an hour of homework. Our science teacher said we would be finishing a project after break and we had to present today! Half of the students weren’t ready (including me) and now we’re all getting points taken off.
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Homework these days are full of stress and lead to little if any learning. Parents do most of the homework for kids in younger grades so they can satisfy the teachers. Kids do not start learning until after elementary school. Middle school starts with giving more and more homework to prepare kids for high school. The teachers do not even know what to prepare for the students when they do go to high school. this is why they cover a wide variety of topics and subjects. Even in high school more homework is added and teachers complain about not keeping track of students because they have so much grading to do. By giving less homework students can learn better in school and teachers can give better explanations for in class assignments.
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The amount of homework that I am given every night is insane. I am currently writing three essays, for the SAME class. If I get a not so great grade, then I fail the entire class. They all have to be 4 pages long, and they’re all due tomorrow. My teacher said “You have two days to write three essays on whatever topic you like. Here are the restrictions, no topics on phones or how “terrible” this place is.” At that point, I got up and spoke my mind saying we will have no time to do anything else besides the homework for that class. The class is English. I go to my next period, history, and have the worst news of the day, ANOTHER essay. I only have 4 days to complete it. No one in my class is even CLOSE to finishing because all of the people in that English class is spending every minute of their free time for the English essays so they don’t fail. Then I learn that my free period in the history room, I can’t do homework. I am FORCED to read. I had an argument with the teacher with very good, and valid points. But the teacher just brushed it off like the points my classmates and I had made. Like they were worthless. We knew we won and had the right to do the homework in the period. But he didn’t listen. My classmates and I have been trying to get the two other teachers to cut down the homework that they give us, but they DOUBLED it. I’ve been up until 3 in the morning trying to stay ahead just incase something happens. I ALSO have to finish my reason to go to a certain night school. It’s so stressful. They expect us to be freaking superhuman and pull one all nighter after another, expecting us to be completely ready for school and not falling asleep in the classroom. Truth is, they don’t understand that everyone in those classrooms would rather break their leg, or kill themselves to get out of school. People like me DREAD the thought of waking up on a weekday knowing that we are federally forced to go to school. Knowing that they have to hear the words “Tim to get up to go to school!” Or “have a great day at SCHOOL.” I’ve been so behind in sleep that I have been waking up at 4:30 I’m the morning because of the stress of knowing that I have UNFINISHED homework, and if k don’t get it done, I will fail.
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Hi!
I’m a highschool student, and I’m sick of homework replacing…living. This year I plan to do something about it. I want to start a “No Homework Campaign.” I will speak to officials and the student council to see what we can do and try to get other students and parents on board. However I am unsure how to approach this. Who can make this decision? Should I go right to a school official or gather support first? I don’t want the first thing I get to be a flat out “no” from a guidance counselor or the principle. If anyone could give me any ideas or suggestions that would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you!
-S
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Alright, here’s what I think, the kids need some downtime, I understand that much, but its to prepare them for the next year and so that the kid just doesn’t forget how to do things. I would enjoy if they reduced the amount of work.
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Yo S its your buddy Tom! i miss you so much bro. Remember me? in your english class? message back
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Because its getting to the point which the parents CAN’T help with the homework. We are just now learning stuff that nobody will actually use. Most of the math up until 6th-7th grade is what we might use at our future jobs. However, polynomials, most jobs will never use polynomial equations. If we ever needed to actually use the equations, we already have it on the internet, don’t we?
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My children’s school gives them summer homework. I get it, it is a requirement in out district, but the one thing I don’t understand is the amount of homework the students get. My son is going into 3rd grade, and he has to read 4 chapters each night. They are fairly short chapters, but it is a long book. My daughter is going into sixth grade, and her teachers gave her 7 assignments. They go back to school in about a month, but she only has three things done because we lost two weeks of it due to vacation. She is feeling really anxious and stressed, and her teacher said that he wouldn’t respond to any emails after June 30, which is only two weeks after they got out of school. He also said that he might read the email but he wouldn’t respond, which is unfair because we got back from Europe on the 29 of June, and my daughter still had to adjust to the time differences.
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