Homework -- useful?

[heart of peace]

"An entire public school day can be accomplished in less than 2 hours at home.

Homeschooling versus institutionalized learning is like comparing apples and oranges. In one setting the pupil:teacher ratio is much smaller and that does help target the lessons appropriately as well as assist the child in remaining focused. It is not realistic to financially expect public schooling to fund such small ratios in the classroom. If that was feasible, I am certain that the school day could easily be shortened.

Now if we are referring to a homeschool classroom set up with the same teacherupil ratio as what is common in the public schools, could the day be shortened?

 

[Leanna]

Homeschooling versus institutionalized learning is like comparing apples and oranges. In one setting the pupil:teacher ratio is much smaller and that does help target the lessons appropriately as well as assist the child in remaining focused. It is not realistic to financially expect public schooling to fund such small ratios in the classroom. If that was feasible, I am certain that the school day could easily be shortened.

I don't disagree with anything you said here.

Now if we are referring to a homeschool classroom set up with the same teacherupil ratio as what is common in the public schools, could the day be shortened?

Wellllll... the closest we could get to that would be a mega-family but then the children would be differing ages and older children more capable of doing "school" with less assistance. So even then, not comparable, which is probably why I think it is inherently better than school in every way. But alas, all this came of one tiny little comment tacked onto asking Andry how he feels about thinking schools are a day care.

When I was growing up I found homework to be a lot of wasted time because it was a repeat of what was done in class and what was done in class was repeated, repeated, repeated.

If homework is to be a norm, I would be really interested in seeing the schools shorten each subject down to 15 minutes, without a break between each subject... just go straight from 15 minutes of literature to 15 minutes of history related to the literature. Then send home something to read. 30 minutes for mathematics. If they shortened the incessant lecturing and expecting these children to sit sit sit, then the kids could get out by noon and go home and have hours to play and THEN do homework.

 

[Andry]

How do you feel about this belief? Do you think it is a good thing that they drag it out for convenient day care? They say that an entire public school day can be accomplished in less than 2 hours at home.
...

While I'm a product of the public school system also, I don't have any preference between it or homeschooling; rather, each parent has to weigh the pros and cons as it relates to their personal circumstance.

That said, while my parents pushed academics, I as a parent now also equally value some of the less tangible social and character skills that can often only be found and developed amongst their peers without the "intervention" of siblings and even parents. So while the formal scholastic pursuits can probably be taught in much less time, peer to peer interaction in developing and defining relationships simply take time.

Just my 0.02.

 

[CelticRose]

OK, I have an older child & the realistic time factor for homeschooling is 3~4 hours a day to cover the main academic subjects. (Some of that is partly due to our curriculum choices which are literature intensive & require large amounts of reading time.) That does not include music practise which is 2 hours in the afternoon...& please, can we not do the whole socilisation thing? Ditz socialises plenty, just not in a school setting.

 

[Leanna]

I as a parent now also equally value some of the less tangible social and character skills that can often only be found and developed amongst their peers without the "intervention" of siblings and even parents.

Like what? (not snarky, just really curious what you might think would be the benefit)

 

[Andry]

Like what? (not snarky, just really curious what you might think would be the benefit)

Wow...that'd be volumes...

Problem solving, leadership, cooperation, intervention, fairness and justice, competitiveness, grace in winning and losing, understanding (though not necessarily agreeing to) the caste system between haves and have nots or jocks and geeks or older grades and younger grades, peer pressure, sense of identity in Christ and not in our friends, a fad, or a trend (things that we as parents often try to shield or at the very least delay our child from experiencing), evaluating and choosing their friends (which may be lifelong), seeing and experiencing the world that is apart from the Kingdom of God and what to do about it...etc etc. You get the drift. All without our intervention.

Although these are things they can do and experience outside of school, I think interacting with their peers in such a setting is an important developmental step to their eventual independence.

So when my son comes home from school, part of my role as a parent is to help him digest and process that experience from a Godly perspective, and provide Christian guidelines. Without this important part of parenting is where we turn out 'bad kids' as they will simply formulate their own value system without our input.

 

[Adela]

I'm speaking from a student's perspective. For young students it seems pointless and excessive. I think it's too much for elementary kids to go to school 7 hours a day, then come home and do homework.

Most schools start around 8:00 a.m and get done around 3:00, right?

So that means kids probably leaves home at 7:30 a.m. and gets home at 3:30, (if they don't have to go to some after school day care while their parents work) then come home and do a couple of hours of homework. There whole day is pretty much spent after that point. When do they have time to do things like sports, play, or just chill out?

However...I'm planning on teaching high school English and from what we have been discussing in our classes, because of the terrible education system there is no other way than to assign homework. There aren't enough good teachers to go around. The sad fact is that students don't get as much attention as they need at school.

 

[Leanna]

Wow...that'd be volumes...

Problem solving, leadership, cooperation, intervention, fairness and justice, competitiveness, grace in winning and losing, understanding (though not necessarily agreeing to) the caste system between haves and have nots or jocks and geeks or older grades and younger grades, peer pressure, sense of identity in Christ and not in our friends, a fad, or a trend (things that we as parents often try to shield or at the very least delay our child from experiencing), evaluating and choosing their friends (which may be lifelong), seeing and experiencing the world that is apart from the Kingdom of God and what to do about it...etc etc. You get the drift. All without our intervention.

Although these are things they can do and experience outside of school, I think interacting with their peers in such a setting is an important developmental step to their eventual independence.

That's interesting.... I don't agree, but its interesting! I am reading a book on our culture's "peer orientation" phenomenon and what the authors are saying tends to ring a little more true with what I have seen and experienced and it really surprised me.

 

[-~Truth_N_Trust~-]

well, without getting into homeschool vs institution school, just talking about homework from a traditional school institution view point, I think it has it's place. I think children do need to learn to do their homework, to push themselves outside of a class, to prepare for college (at uni lecturers have no probs failing you, you have to push yourself). Also to practice, I actually found practicing math questions/sheets really helpfull, it took a lot of practice for the concept to stick with me.

So I think homework is most helpful when the child is older, upper highschool, but the concept introduced younger so homework is a part of life by the time they get there...

JMO - which is pretty moot cos we homeschool anyway!

 

[Birbitt]

As a student I did not like homework. It was pointless...read the chapter and answer 20 questions about what you read.....POINTLESS. However I am one of the strange ones that liked doing research papers. So my opinion on homework is this....if it is productive, and if it furthers the interest of the child...then homework is ok.. Page after page of dull, dry reading followed by boring questions...not ok.

 

[heart of peace]

If homework is to be a norm, I would be really interested in seeing the schools shorten each subject down to 15 minutes, without a break between each subject... just go straight from 15 minutes of literature to 15 minutes of history related to the literature. Then send home something to read. 30 minutes for mathematics. If they shortened the incessant lecturing and expecting these children to sit sit sit, then the kids could get out by noon and go home and have hours to play and THEN do homework.

I am loath to admit this but I was reprimanded when I first began teaching because I did not dole out enough homework ! I was considered the "pushover" teacher on staff because I believed that homework should serve some meaning other than an arbitrary measure of the child's progress in school. There is quite a bit of pressure to administer homework more than just the sake of practicing what is done in school

That's interesting.... I don't agree, but its interesting! I am reading a book on our culture's "peer orientation" phenomenon and what the authors are saying tends to ring a little more true with what I have seen and experienced and it really surprised me.

What book is it?

well, without getting into homeschool vs institution school, just talking about homework from a traditional school institution view point, I think it has it's place. I think children do need to learn to do their homework, to push themselves outside of a class, to prepare for college (at uni lecturers have no probs failing you, you have to push yourself). Also to practice, I actually found practicing math questions/sheets really helpfull, it took a lot of practice for the concept to stick with me.

I think that is Kohn's point, that homework should pose some meaning. If the child needs to do some individual math drills then that would make sense but to give homework because kids "should be doing homework" is a weak reason. If it makes sense to extend an assignment to a child outside of the main lesson and intended for the child to work on the item alone, then homework would be ok. But most of the time, homework serves no useful purpose other than "busy work".