A Thought That Came to Me in an Email and More
Everything I’ve written thus far about public schools and homework seems very negative. But, I want to make sure everyone knows and understands that I know I can’t do the job of a teacher. I’ve tried, Lord knows I’ve tried. I tried one year, quit for a couple, tried for 2, quit for a couple, tried one year, quit, until I had amassed five years. I simply am not cut out to be a teacher. So, please don’t get the impression that I am downing one teacher in one school or anything of the like.
And, that last sentence is exactly where the problem lies. It is not that your child’s teacher is doing this, every teacher is doing it. It is not that your child’s school administrators are pushing your child’s teachers to push the kids harder and further. It is not even just your child’s system. As a nation, we’ve lost our minds thinking we can push these little tots into being grown doing grown-up skills at the ripe age of 7.
I just chatted with someone in email. I know she won’t mind me sharing but just read this…
“This weeks homework for 1st grade:
Study for spelling test and sight word test on Friday
Then choose four of the five activities to complete by Friday:
Alphabetize a set of four words
Read her weekly story they are doing in class from her reading book (they bring it home on Monday..return it on Friday) and then write if its fiction, non-fiction, or realistic fantasy. Then answer end of chapter questions orally to an adult.
List 5 words using the “bl” blend sound
Work a set of 10 math addition problems
Write to complete sentences using at least two weekly spelling words.
Last week one of the activities was to label out sentences with verbs, nouns, adverbs, and adjectives.”
People, come on. When is this kid suppose to play with her Barbie’s? Midnight? And, you know what I’m going to say next right? They do this to these kids and then complain because the kids don’t get enough sleep. I am the very first to yell foul when I think a kid is sleep deprived. But I know exactly what happens. These kids actually need some time to play and for many of them it is through organized sports.
I played organized sports from the time I as 12 until well after I crossed that graduation platform. So, these kids want to play and in order to do that, they have to practice. Practice then delays homework which in turn delays sleep AND WHAT DO YOU GET?
You get a kid that is too tired to even tell you what he does know. And…….and the blame gets put on organized sports. They (as in the folks who are pushing pushing pushing our babies to the brink) always want to holler that the kids are sleep deprived because of organized sports, or dance classes, etc.
And, at the same time, they are being pushed to color in a goofy bubble. I took AP classes with the same 5 or 6 kids for my junior and senior year. I made the same grades they made - A’s. I know in my heart of hearts that only one of them had a greater intelligence level than me. But, when we took college entrance exams, I would bomb.
Coloring in the bubble is just not my gig. Here’s an excellent example. When I graduated from high school, taking the ACT as a junior was advised because they would “give” you a point for taking it a year early. So, I did what all the other kids did, I took it early. Out of those classmates, there was a 34 (high score being 36), 32, 30, 28 and a 18. Guess who scored the 18?
I don’t color bubbles well. I took a class in test taking and the next year I scored a 24. But, I sat in class with those smarty-pants above and I made the grades all on my own. I didn’t get anything easy and to be honest, none of us did. But, they were better at being analytical - two of those were girls, two were boys and then me (a girl by the way).
So, what I’m getting at here is a bunch of rambling and off topic stuff. But, my point is, do we want to teach our kids how to take a test or how to actually retain some knowledge? There is a company out there that can teach you how to increase your scores a lot. I took the class and later took the class to be a teacher of the course. It is ridiculous.
This class for the teachers shows you how to take a standardized test and know very little but score very well based on analytical thinking and basically mind-reading the producer of the test. Big deal, I can decide whether the answer is a, b, c, d, or e based on the answer to the last 3 or 4 questions or the next 3 or 4?
And, that accomplishes? Nothing in my opinion. Give me the opportunity to tell you what I know, I believe I could have scored just as well as my peers. The tests I had to take in college to get into the “Teachers” program was all essay based with the exception of one part of the language assessment. I did really well. My graduate courses…..they didn’t ask me if the answer was a,b,c,d…they wanted to know if I had read the material, understood the material and knew what I was talking about.
Ok, this is way too long and I’m going to post it. I may break it down later into separate posts but I am anxious to hear responses so I’m going with it for now.
Share this post :
September 9th, 2008 at 7:27 am
I’m not a fan of homework, especially in the lower grades. I agree that it’s overdone.
But - especially given that she only has to do four out of five assignments - that doesn’t seem excessive for a six year old. That should take her a maximum of ten minutes a night. Fifteen if she dawdles. She has, judging from that list, exactly one assignment per night. Total. In all subjects. That’s not as much as all that, and you hurt your argument by presenting this list as taking hours and asking when she will be able to play or sleep - this work is not so arduous that it should prevent that.
September 9th, 2008 at 7:35 am
Actually, my point really was more that she shouldn’t have had that much in the first place AND it is just so advanced that we are killing our children’s desire to learn and if you look at most of those activities, she can’t do them alone, they require parental assistance. And, if there were 4 or 5 kids in the home, how would a parent be able to help them all that much each night? Finally, it does really seem excessive to me for a six year old. My son’s 10 minute assignment was easy and we breezed through it but again, it required parental assistance. And, what happens if the parent is not able to help their child? What happens if the parent has so many kids that he/she has to sit down with each child at night and do 30 minutes of homework? Then, you have stressed kids, stressed parents and kids going to be late.
Lastly, I didn’t mention this in the post but I almost fell into the trap that “homework first, play later” which with the small amount that my son had wasn’t necessary. But the truth is, he needs the time to run off some excessive energy before sitting down to do homework. And, he had a little and after I put my head back on straight, he was allowed some free time before he did his homework and honestly think that’s why he didn’t approach it with hate an animosity. But, if he had homework that was going to take an hour, we couldn’t have approached it that way.
September 9th, 2008 at 7:48 am
I don’t think those assignments are very difficult, either. No, not even for the first grade.
I mean, let’s see. Over the course of a week, if she did all of them, she would:
Practice her spelling words - that’s about 5 minutes a night, or 10 minutes on Thursday.
Alphabetize four words - I don’t know if the words were assigned to her or not, which does make a difference. I know that I was taught how to alphabetize my very first week in the first grade, and it was a task that, with ten words, only took me about ten minutes. With four words it should go faster. This was possibly the easiest homework I ever got. It should not require parental assistance.
Read a story, determine what genre it is, answer questions with an adult - this is a more difficult assignment, and it does require an adult.
List five words that start with bl. My five year old niece has just started school for the first time - kindergarten - and she’s been able to do that task for the past half a year, orally. Writing it down would presumably take another few minutes and might require parental assistance, though it shouldn’t within a few months.
Work on 10 math problems. That’s two a night. I haven’t seen them, so I don’t know if they’re on the line of 2+2 (which, again, my kindergarten niece can do) or more like 415 + 321 - that would make a difference. This task should be easy to complete on her own.
Write two complete sentences using her spelling words - this one probably would require adult assistance. However, in a few months, it will not.
I do not see how these tasks are too difficult for your average first grade student. If they are, there’s a bigger problem there than homework.
“But, if he had homework that was going to take an hour, we couldn’t have approached it that way.”
But this homework shouldn’t take an hour - not even if the child really drags her feet about it and is slow at it besides.
I do not disagree with your main point. I do, however, think that your example is flawed. People who are gung ho about homework are going to read this example and think exactly what I do - that it’s not that much and it’s not that hard for a first grade, that you’re making a big deal about nothing. And then they’ll decide that your entire argument is flawed. Stupid, but there you go.
September 9th, 2008 at 7:57 am
Hi all…I am the friend that she is referring to in the email. So, I’ll answer some stuff:
My child has all week to do the work and honestly…she gets it all done on Monday afternoons in about 20 mins time. Then, on Thursdays we study for her tests. Thankfully, she is ahead academically and can pretty much do it all without my help except for what requires an adult too. I am okay with her workload though. We do live in a county that is known for good schools and as a former teacher I expected it for the most part based on her academics from last year. We do it on Mondays so we have the rest of the week to go to Brownies, Dance, and then her worship arts group on Wed nights. So far, the workload still allows for plenty of play time and for her to be well rounded activity wise.
April 3rd, 2009 at 12:57 pm
As I’ve read in your blog, you are not cut out to be a teacher. However, you make it plain that ALL teachers are doing “it” wrong. Hmm…how can that be? You don’t like the way your child’s teacher handles things, yet you can’t do the job yourself. Quit whining and complaining. Spend all this free time you have blogging on spending time with your kids and helping them with their homework. If you can do a better job than “all” the teachers in the district, pull your child out and homeschool…oh wait, you can’t do that either. Teachers are overworked and underpaid, and you constantly griping about every little thing doesn’t help matters. This does not happen in any other profssion. I get so tired of people complaining about all the problems in education, but spend zero time fixing them. Go solve a problem, volunteer at the school, do something…and quit your whining!!
April 3rd, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Apparently you only read one or two posts because I have given major props to my son’s teacher for the way she has handled my son this year. The candy issue is the only issue I had with his teacher. And, in a sense of how the teachers are teaching, that’s not what you heard me complaining about, if you read more than one post. My problem lies with administration and rules.
I can tell you with 100% certainty that I am not cut out to be a teacher. I did it though, for many years and I was unhappy the whole time. We owned a daycare and I loved it although I didn’t teach in any capacity.
With that said, you need to read more before you jump to conclusions because really, my son’s teacher is and has been wonderful (with the exception of the candy issue) and she is not the person responsible for the homework issue, she is merely doing what the majority of the teachers are doing. And, with that, again, that’s an administration issue that allows the crap to roll down hill.
Please read more before jumping to conclusions.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:14 am
As a Newbie, I am always searching online for articles that can help me. Thank you