As I was listening to the conversation about homework this morning, it appeared to me that the main point is being missed. Family life is not what it was 2 decades ago. Let's get real! How much "quality" time can be spent doing homework, resources or no resources, when families get home between 6:00 and 7:00. Both parent and child is already tired out and now begin a two-hour period preparing meals, eating, doing homework, getting ready for bed. Is it surprising that homework becomes a "living hell" for both children and parents - totally unproductive? Tell me, where is the downtime to decompress and regenerate (both parents and children)? Then there is clean-up, preparing for the next day, and it starts all over again.
Home is our sanctuary. When you come home, you should be able to deconnect - draw a blank! This is vital to emotional, mental and physical health. Our children are totally stressed out!
School finishes mid-afternoon - parents are not home to welcome them anyway. Why not extend school hours. After a 15 minute break, there could be a compulsary one-hour supervised homework session with qualified help available. Sidebar - please, do not bring daycare up as a solution! Daycare is a competive, stressful, noisy environment, far from ideal for homework. Personnel do not need and are not trained for the added pressure of helping with homework.
Jack Downes - 12 years ago
How can it not add value for the student, if they are learning something.
Marty - 12 years ago
First off the comments about teachers getting a day off before thanksgiving are both wrong and out of place. On PD days teachers are expected to put in a full day of work, they do not get the day off, PD days are designed to give teachers and administrators time to perform administrative and proffessional development functions, a neccessity in any proffesion. Just like you have staff or team meetings every so often at your work PD days are there to allow teachers and principals the same amount of time. As for teachers getting the entire summer off, this is both incorrect and foolish. Unless you support moving to a full year school year with no summer vacation your comment only goes to show your lack of understanding of the way contracts work.
Teachers are renumerated based on a set number of working days every year. Those working days are days that the teacher is in the classroom weather the students are there or not. Over the summer, these days are not considred working days, technically they are unpaid vacation. Teachers are paid year round however, because they have a portion of their monthly salary WITH HELD. I repeat they are not paid over the summer because they are paid vacation, some of their salary IS NOT PAID TO THEM during the year and then they get it doled out over the summer.
In the end none of this really matters because the vast majority of teachers I know, including the one I am married to spend vast amounts of unpaid overtime at their place of work for the sake of their students because they know they are doing the right thing. When I see teachers sewing their own weighted blankets for their autistic students because the school board can not pay for one and the parents do not have insurance, or see my wife going to work every other saturday to prepare manipulatives and additional programing for students that require help I know some teachers are being paid for only a fraction of the time they spend at school.
The actual topic of this discussion, not the usurped grandstand that was posted, is on homework. I personally believe that there is no reason for children under grade eight to have to do homework, the only exception is for students that require extra help with a topic, they should be able to ask for additional work or extra-credit assignments if they feel they need additional development. Students that young should not be bringing home the anxieties and pressure of homework, especially when some children will come home to an empty house (through no fault of their parents) and will not get the assistance other children have access to at home.
Homework is an outmoded model of study, it works for some and not for other but in the end those students who diligently would do their homework at night just spend less time on the activities they need more time on (family and friends) and it does not benefit the students that need help the most (as they are often not able to do the homework or will naturally chose not to do it at home).
Spleej - 12 years ago
School needs to be hard in order to build character and responsibilty in the good young folk.
shaun - 12 years ago
Why do teachers get an entire day off, like the Friday before Thanksgiving? Really, another PD day to make it a 4 day weekend? What does that teach your children about the real world?Nice for them, they dole out tonnes of homework yet take PD days? Why do they also wait for the school year to start before threatening to strike? So they can get paid to be off all summer too.
me. - 12 years ago
School and homework included needs to evolve just as society does. I'm not 100% opposed to homework, however if the teachers are assigning it to catch up from a day where they were unable to instruct properly then we need to look at the school system. As a parent of 3 I feel very much 'held at hostage' by homework some nights. And when my daughter tell me she wanted help but the teacher was busy with disclipline and non-school work issues I get frustrated.
If we had more teachers, and teachers aides the time at school would be more efficient and the work could get done in school. There are many more lessons to growing up than just the ABC's, it is important kids learn how to strike a balance between, school, homework and life.
Ken Brunn - 12 years ago
Homework is not about 'more' work. It is a necessary step to review and reflect in order to understand difficult concepts. It is also a time to memorize facts and formulas. Most students can't do this in a class room.
Pinkiepie - 12 years ago
Last year, my daughter had HOURS of homework literally every single night, even on Halloween! Her workload was so huge, we never had ANY quality time as a family.....most days she came in the door at 2:30pm, and was working on her homework until midnight....she was in Grade 6 last year!! We had no family life, we were all missing out on our required amounts of sleep... she never had a friend over during the week, all of us were overwhelmed and overworked, trying to help her just get caught up, it was crazy and totally and completely uncalled for. So far this year, things are much better, with a different teacher who obviously makes better use of her class time!
Terence Evans - 12 years ago
As much as I hated homework, it is something that is necessary if we are to become/remain competitive with China and many other countries. Many countries require students to do lots of homework and even attend classes on Saturdays.
Dan Kurchak - 12 years ago
Homework is about social control. It does not create any education advancement. Homework is an outcome of the imperfect science upon which today's schools are built.
As I was listening to the conversation about homework this morning, it appeared to me that the main point is being missed. Family life is not what it was 2 decades ago. Let's get real! How much "quality" time can be spent doing homework, resources or no resources, when families get home between 6:00 and 7:00. Both parent and child is already tired out and now begin a two-hour period preparing meals, eating, doing homework, getting ready for bed. Is it surprising that homework becomes a "living hell" for both children and parents - totally unproductive? Tell me, where is the downtime to decompress and regenerate (both parents and children)? Then there is clean-up, preparing for the next day, and it starts all over again.
Home is our sanctuary. When you come home, you should be able to deconnect - draw a blank! This is vital to emotional, mental and physical health. Our children are totally stressed out!
School finishes mid-afternoon - parents are not home to welcome them anyway. Why not extend school hours. After a 15 minute break, there could be a compulsary one-hour supervised homework session with qualified help available. Sidebar - please, do not bring daycare up as a solution! Daycare is a competive, stressful, noisy environment, far from ideal for homework. Personnel do not need and are not trained for the added pressure of helping with homework.
How can it not add value for the student, if they are learning something.
First off the comments about teachers getting a day off before thanksgiving are both wrong and out of place. On PD days teachers are expected to put in a full day of work, they do not get the day off, PD days are designed to give teachers and administrators time to perform administrative and proffessional development functions, a neccessity in any proffesion. Just like you have staff or team meetings every so often at your work PD days are there to allow teachers and principals the same amount of time. As for teachers getting the entire summer off, this is both incorrect and foolish. Unless you support moving to a full year school year with no summer vacation your comment only goes to show your lack of understanding of the way contracts work.
Teachers are renumerated based on a set number of working days every year. Those working days are days that the teacher is in the classroom weather the students are there or not. Over the summer, these days are not considred working days, technically they are unpaid vacation. Teachers are paid year round however, because they have a portion of their monthly salary WITH HELD. I repeat they are not paid over the summer because they are paid vacation, some of their salary IS NOT PAID TO THEM during the year and then they get it doled out over the summer.
In the end none of this really matters because the vast majority of teachers I know, including the one I am married to spend vast amounts of unpaid overtime at their place of work for the sake of their students because they know they are doing the right thing. When I see teachers sewing their own weighted blankets for their autistic students because the school board can not pay for one and the parents do not have insurance, or see my wife going to work every other saturday to prepare manipulatives and additional programing for students that require help I know some teachers are being paid for only a fraction of the time they spend at school.
The actual topic of this discussion, not the usurped grandstand that was posted, is on homework. I personally believe that there is no reason for children under grade eight to have to do homework, the only exception is for students that require extra help with a topic, they should be able to ask for additional work or extra-credit assignments if they feel they need additional development. Students that young should not be bringing home the anxieties and pressure of homework, especially when some children will come home to an empty house (through no fault of their parents) and will not get the assistance other children have access to at home.
Homework is an outmoded model of study, it works for some and not for other but in the end those students who diligently would do their homework at night just spend less time on the activities they need more time on (family and friends) and it does not benefit the students that need help the most (as they are often not able to do the homework or will naturally chose not to do it at home).
School needs to be hard in order to build character and responsibilty in the good young folk.
Why do teachers get an entire day off, like the Friday before Thanksgiving? Really, another PD day to make it a 4 day weekend? What does that teach your children about the real world?Nice for them, they dole out tonnes of homework yet take PD days? Why do they also wait for the school year to start before threatening to strike? So they can get paid to be off all summer too.
School and homework included needs to evolve just as society does. I'm not 100% opposed to homework, however if the teachers are assigning it to catch up from a day where they were unable to instruct properly then we need to look at the school system. As a parent of 3 I feel very much 'held at hostage' by homework some nights. And when my daughter tell me she wanted help but the teacher was busy with disclipline and non-school work issues I get frustrated.
If we had more teachers, and teachers aides the time at school would be more efficient and the work could get done in school. There are many more lessons to growing up than just the ABC's, it is important kids learn how to strike a balance between, school, homework and life.
Homework is not about 'more' work. It is a necessary step to review and reflect in order to understand difficult concepts. It is also a time to memorize facts and formulas. Most students can't do this in a class room.
Last year, my daughter had HOURS of homework literally every single night, even on Halloween! Her workload was so huge, we never had ANY quality time as a family.....most days she came in the door at 2:30pm, and was working on her homework until midnight....she was in Grade 6 last year!! We had no family life, we were all missing out on our required amounts of sleep... she never had a friend over during the week, all of us were overwhelmed and overworked, trying to help her just get caught up, it was crazy and totally and completely uncalled for. So far this year, things are much better, with a different teacher who obviously makes better use of her class time!
As much as I hated homework, it is something that is necessary if we are to become/remain competitive with China and many other countries. Many countries require students to do lots of homework and even attend classes on Saturdays.
Homework is about social control. It does not create any education advancement. Homework is an outcome of the imperfect science upon which today's schools are built.