Letters to the Editor
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complaining...
was anyone else surprised after all that complaining that the problem was spending 40 instead of 30 minutes on homework? Lots of complaining. My son is too little for projects yet, but personally, I can't wait. And yes, I work full time. I am excited to spend time with him working on things for school, and I think it will be a great way to spend time together. I just don't see where the "pain" the article refers to comes in. It is just spelling. Teach your kids THAT. It's just homework. But it can be cool and fun. Looking through lots of words can be fun... isn't that what word puzzles are?
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bullshit
A kid is supposed to do homework. And is supposed to do homework alone, and study by himself.
Where I am from (ex Communist country), I did all my homework alone, since age 6. All kids could read by the time the third trimester of first grade came around. And we lived in a Communist country with little money for education.Yet my University diploma is equivalated to an MBA in the USA. I wonder why is that.
Education comes with a price to it, and that price is work. The USA, where the author of the column is from, is the richest country in the world, with the worst schooling system in the civilised world. Also the country with the biggest parent involvement in school affairs in the civilised world. The link seems pretty obvious.
It is up to the parents to decide whether an idle afternoon is a good price to pay for their children's education or lack thereof. Also, it might be worth mentioning that having a child is a huge responsibility, and the 9 months of pregnancy are just the beginning of it. Educating the children is just as important, unless the parents are happy with us better schooled immigrants coming over and getting the good jobs ahead of their kids, maybe just because we are better educated, not to mention the fact that we had parents that knew that school is more important than anything.
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And we wonder why U.S. students lag behind their international classmates?
If a mere hour of homework is considered sufficiently unjust to induce whining, well, fine - as long as said whining isn't followed by subsequent whining on jobs and graduate school slots being filled by lower-paid but better-educated Indian, Korean, Taiwanese, Chinese, and other--rather than U.S.--workers.
For time-consuming projects that teach almost nothing, Ayelet can thank her fellow parents who, when I was in high school just a decade ago (a Catholic one, thank goodness, where no gave a damn about anyone's "feelings" about homework, precious self-esteem, or anything else), began to protest about the nature of homework. Memorization, rote learning, drills, reading aloud, competition (contests) of any kind, and other techniques were viewed as being inadequate, not comprehensive enough, biased, and so on. This changed the nature of homework which, most especially at my friends' schools, meant more "holistic, project-based learning" - those same hemp-weaving, diorama-building, map-plastering projects now causing lives "full of pain" and, again, teaching nothing of serious value.
Reading this article, and many others like it, has removed any surprise I might have felt at how far U.S. students lag behind when compared to students in other countries, well documented by numerous, methodologically sound studies (see the U.S. Department of Education website for starters). Why be surprised? When parents whine about an hour of homework, when students in other countries do far, far more, the standing of U.S. students makes absolute sense to me. I remain forever grateful for having parents and teachers who made sure I completed several hours worth of homework whenever needed, who pushed me, and who didn't assign silly time-consuming projects in lieu of genuinely difficult work with real learning value.
In closing, I have some advice for Ayelet: Check your kids' assignments on a daily basis to fend off "surprise" hemp-weaving assignments. And, should it happen again, do what my parents did the first (and last) time I sprung such a "surprise" on them: Don't help them. Let them do it themselves, and stay up until midnight to finish it if they must. That's exactly what happened to me in fourth grade, and it never happened again.
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Homework Hell
I'm amazed at the level of hostility directed toward Ms. Waldman, much from readers who do not identify themselves as actually having school-age children. Even some readers who support her sentiment accuse her of "whining". Enough with the Waldman bashing, already! My children are not yet in school, although we are currently making decisions about where my four year old son will be enrolled. One factor we will take into consideration is the amount of homework he will be expected to do (there is generally more homework from an earlier grade in private school in our neighbourhood). I hear a constant refrain of bitterness from my friends with children enrolled in these schools who struggle over homework every night and who, consequently, miss out on all of those other ways of interacting that teach and nuture a child. A child simply cannot flourish in constant state of stress generated from having too many and too great obligations, nor can a family. Thank you, Ms. Waldman for sharing your family's experience, as well as your response to it.
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Homework hell
I can't say I'm surprised by the emotional reactions displayed by parents when it comes to homework. I myself am somewhat torn.
I remember being frustrated by homework and I remember bemoaning the uselessness of busy work. I also remember doing projects until 3am because I had "forgotten" they were due the next day.
Now that I'm a teacher, I see the other side. Parents rail against us for a lack of academic rigor, unless said rigor causes their child stress. Parents lie about why their child is absent from school and back up their child's pathetic excuses about why they just couldn't get that two page essay written.
Homework is not painful in and of itself. It becomes painful when half-informed parents hover over their student, muttering profanity about the assignment. Be aware that everything you say is absorbed by your student and it is left up to the teacher to clean up the academic mess.