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To Homework or Not to Homework? That is the question.
#11
RE: To Homework or Not to Homework? That is the question.
You can't really expect all kids to "get" an assignment, or have the time management skills and discipline to do it on their own. And, unfortunately, you can't really expect kids to get adequate assistance at home. So homework is likely to drive a wedge of inequality between stable educated families, and those consisting of low-income parents with heavy working hours, single parents, or immigrants who may not even have good enough English to help their kids.

I recommend forgetting about home-WORK, and focusing on home-EXPERIENCE. Engaging the kid in 1-on-1 conversation, asking them to do problem solving (If I had X berries and Y friends, how could I divide them up fairly? What about the extra berries?), and generally teaching your kid to think for him/herself will mean all the difference in the world. Kids pretty much enjoy learning until some boring adult decides to make it a chore.
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#12
RE: To Homework or Not to Homework? That is the question.
(September 9, 2014 at 12:45 am)bennyboy Wrote: As a teacher, I can explain why homework doesn't work: it cannot be sufficiently enforced, and it reveals differences in opportunities at home. Especially in California and Texas, homework will drive a wedge even further between poor 1st-generation kids and more established and better-educated American families.

Because of differences in lifestyle (working parents, single moms, etc.) it has to be assumed that a child will be doing homework at home, with no assistence. And obviously this will result in more capable kids pushing ahead and less competent kids getting buried in guilt and blame.
Yes, this is what I have been reading as well.

My issue with this is it caters to the lowest common denominator without trying to improve their situations. It is basically throwing up our hands and saying, well poor kids with 2 working paents or a single working parent cannot do homework, so we just won't give any kids homework, even if it is shown to help the kids who CAN do it.

This drags down the more capable kids, and how is that fair?

I should think a better solution would be to provide some sort of after school program or help for children who cannot get help at home, and still give them homework. Useful homework, not mindless grind homework. And this doesn't even have to cost a lot of money! Our school asks for adult (and even high school) volunteers for all sorts of things. Why not to tutor kids after school in homework?

I feel like American education is being dumbed down more and more, catering to the lowest common denominator instead of trying to raise them up.

I have mixed feeling about homework. Boring work that make kids hate school and learning is stupid to assign. Interesting and well designed homework can help our children, poor and well to do, do better in their future academics.

P.S. I'm disabled and poor as dirt, but I do have TIME for my kid, and realize that is a crucial factor. I also have a degree (earned before my disability) and a passion for learning. I realize my child, though poor, is one of the advantaged ones. I would gladly donate an hour a day after school to help those less fortunate kids get their homework done! I'm sure I'm not alone.
“Eternity is a terrible thought. I mean, where's it going to end?” 
― Tom StoppardRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
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#13
RE: To Homework or Not to Homework? That is the question.
Keep the kids in school an extra hour or two and get rid of homework.
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#14
RE: To Homework or Not to Homework? That is the question.
(September 9, 2014 at 1:11 am)Ryantology (╯°◊°)╯︵ ══╬ Wrote: Keep the kids in school an extra hour or two and get rid of homework.
I would 100% agree with doing this, but that would require a lot more funding, when instead funding gets cut more and more every year.
“Eternity is a terrible thought. I mean, where's it going to end?” 
― Tom StoppardRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
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#15
RE: To Homework or Not to Homework? That is the question.
I don't see yet how some skills, e.g. in maths, but also writing, are supposed to be learned without doing work on your own and thinking about it yourself outside the classroom. There are some things like grammar rules and calculational techniques I definitely trained at home bc there is no time in the classroom. Generically studying for exams without concrete assignments is even harder. Thus I find not assigning anything up till fourth grade a bit dangerous. The firsr year, I can imagine it could work though.

I do agree that there are surely ways to cut back on the amount of homework, which is not always terribly thought through, and there might be ways to let students do more work in class already, it depends on the system.

What Ryantology said, although as a student I loved my hobbies and would have absolutely hated to be confined in school for much longer, so I'm for limiting it to maybe 90 mins.

@bennyboy

Without homework, there might even be a bigger wedge, as stable pro-education families will make sure their kids still learn stuff outside the classroom, while the others don't even get the minimal training effect from assignments any more.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition

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#16
RE: To Homework or Not to Homework? That is the question.
You shouldn't need homework if there's a good teacher, that's why they go to school, to learn.
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#17
RE: To Homework or Not to Homework? That is the question.
Quote:You can't really expect all kids to "get" an assignment, or have the time management skills and discipline to do it on their own.


Why not? Not for nothing but I had to do my homework without a parent looking over my shoulder....wouldn't have done any good anyway....both were depression-era dropouts. Aroura has a point. The schools are simply dumbing down the requirements.

This:

Quote:Because of differences in lifestyle (working parents, single moms, etc.) it has to be assumed that a child will be doing homework at home, with no assistence. And obviously this will result in more capable kids pushing ahead and less competent kids getting buried in guilt and blame.

sounds like more of that self-esteem horseshit. Self-esteem comes from doing and succeeding...not from plopping your ass down and texting with friends.
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#18
RE: To Homework or Not to Homework? That is the question.
(September 9, 2014 at 1:42 am)psychoslice Wrote: You shouldn't need homework if there's a good teacher, that's why they go to school, to learn.
That places all the burden on the teacher. Which would be somewhat fair IF teaching was an attractive profession that drew in our best and brightest. But it isn't. Quite the opposite, it often draws in those who cannot do anything else.

That is not to say there are not great teachers out there, of course there are! I honestly think teaching is one of the most noble professions in existence.
But they are underpaid, undertrained, unsupported by the public and the government, etc. They have become scapegoats for a problem they cannot solve alone.

This Article I think does a great job of really nailing some of the basic reasons our system is failing when other western countries are pulling ahead (not to mention the Asian countries!). And one piece of the equation is how we hire, train, pay, treat and view our teachers. America does NONE of these things well, yet places nearly the entire burden of student success on their shoulders. This is a recipe for failure.

Of course we are diverging a bit from the topic of homework, but it all ties together. We have a crappy system with a crappy foundation, and we keep piling more on from the top, instead of fixing the foundation.
“Eternity is a terrible thought. I mean, where's it going to end?” 
― Tom StoppardRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
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#19
RE: To Homework or Not to Homework? That is the question.
Quote: This is a recipe for failure.


It is worse than that. It is a recipe for privatization so that corporations can suck money out of the educational system as they have done to the medical system.
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#20
RE: To Homework or Not to Homework? That is the question.
(September 9, 2014 at 2:13 am)Minimalist Wrote:
Quote: This is a recipe for failure.


It is worse than that. It is a recipe for privatization so that corporations can suck money out of the educational system as they have done to the medical system.
Quite right. I suppose one of the main reasons the foundation is not being fixed is that many of those at the top like it the way it is. It opens it up for them to privatize while crowing how they are fixing it, all the while sucking all the money out of it like some demented vampires. Not to mention the population is much easier to control when they are undereducated, poor, and desperate.
“Eternity is a terrible thought. I mean, where's it going to end?” 
― Tom StoppardRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
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