Homework rant - revisited

[KitchenWitch]

My daughter gets, in my opinion, way too much homework for a first grader. This has come to be a real problem because we are playing catch up from when she was out for a week with pneumonia. We are still not caught up, and will not be until the end of next week because she gets caught up. We have been doing homework every day this week for three hours a day. Last week we did homework for an hour and a half every day after school. She is 6 years old and in first grade.

It is getting more and more difficult to motivate her, because all we do is work. I am totally at my wits end.

[Gormy Cuss]

1. Daily homework for lower elementary school students is asinine.

There. I said it. For that matter, daily homework for upper elementary school students is pretty asinine too. Once or twice a week and a few special longer term projects is about right.

[KitchenWitch]

3. My sentiments exactly.

The thing that sucks is that here in California, none of the kids ever has what I would consider a full school day. Four days a week they are in for 5-1/2 hours and one day a week they only have school for 4-1/2 hours.

Back in Minnesota, the school day was 6 hours and 15 minutes long, every day.

[Gormy Cuss]

6. My local USD has longer days and the income demographics are probably similar

We also pay a bunch of extra school bonds and parcel taxes. I'm not complaining and I'll never have a child in these schools. It's just common sense to pay for a good education program.

[KitchenWitch]

13. Our community refuses to pass the parcel taxes.

:grr:

Our district looks like it is going to have to cut 250 teachers.

x(

[LeftyMom]

2. There is no reason a kid that age should have any homework at all

except a few minutes of reading. Kids need time to be kids.

[KitchenWitch]

4. Preaching to the choir here.

I am so upset. This is work for ME! And I graduated elementary school some 30+ years ago.

[LeftyMom]

10. It's so developmentally inappropriate it verges on abuse.

LK's the same age, and there's absolutely no way he could manage to sit down and pay attention that long, and he'd be miserable if I had to try to make him.

Moreover, there's absolutely no reason a competent teacher can't cover the rather simple material for that age group- with time left over for art, lunch and recess- in a school day. Sending that much work home means something is either seriously wrong with expectations or time management in that classroom.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

5. She gets homework in 1st grade?

How is that even possible? Granted, I don't remember much about 1st grade, but I DO remember hating the 2 hours, tops, I had of homework in all my primary school (K-2) days.

:wtf:

[BarenakedLady]

7. My son is in first grade

The only homework he gets is the occasional small project and easy reader books.

:shrug:

[KitchenWitch]

9. Oh gods, I wish.

She is supposed to, on top of all the homework, read for 15 minutes each day. Needless to say, she has not accomplished that since we have been trying to get caught up for the last 2 weeks.

[NMDemDist2]

8. you should speak with the teacher, then the principle if needed

that's ridiculous

I'm wondering if the teacher has too many students to cover all the material they need for NCLB

:shrug:

[KitchenWitch]

11. Class size is only 20

I am thinking the school day is way too short.

[youthere]

12. That's outrageous...

my oldest is in seventh grade and doesn't get that much homework! I'd absolutely talk with the teacher AND the principal to find out why they feel a first grader needs that kind of workload.

[KitchenWitch]

14. I almost wonder if our district is operating under the ancient OBE model

OBE = Outcome Based Education.

[youthere]

15. Well this is a good time to find out...

Really, I would meet with the teacher and the principal together and discuss your concerns.

[KitchenWitch]

16. Thankfully I am friendly with the principal

I like her teacher as well. I may do that next week, after life calms down a bit.