Kids & Homework

I really have to agree with this article I read today. Check it out and then come back here:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/28624181/

I am on-board, man. I recall when Sloan was in elementary school how much homework they piled on her and what they also expected parents to do. And yet I see teachers walking out on strike to get more pay and benefits? Um, shouldn't you be more concerned about doing your job and actually teaching my kid? It is a near constant struggle to make sure Sloan completes her assignments. And we have actually found that she does better grade-wise, when she is allowed to attend a "homework center" after school three days a week to complete her homework and interact with teachers and students there. Its easier on all of us and she gets her shit done and doesn't bug us with any "I hate school" comments (we actually get "I had a GREAT day" comments....).

Even when I was in school, I knew there was no correlation between homework and doing better in any given class. Sure, one has to study for the tests, but if a teacher is actually doing the job they were hired to do, a kid - whether in elementary, middle, high school or even college - is going to learn better in an environment where they are encouraged to ask questions of each teacher and play off of their classroom peers, thus presenting their own thoughts and ideas and absorbing new ones they may not have previously considered. And how much sense does it make to expect kids to sit in a classroom for 6 to 7 hours a day and then expect them to do anywhere from 2 to 4 hours (or sometimes more) of homework each night?

I can recall in high school a teacher, an English teacher, who had a standard method to get her students to write more. Basically, we were told to write five paragraphs, one paragraph a day, and it could be anything. Basically, it was the precursor of today's blogs. While some of my friends were writing bullshit little one or two sentence paragraphs each day, I would wait until lunchtime Friday (my class with this teacher was after lunch and all weekly paragraph assignments were due on each Friday), write a five paragraph short story, and turn it in. My friends hated me. But hey, nothing was stopping them from doing the same and I think, in fact, a couple turned around and did so as well. But I regarded it as learning in class. I didn't have to stress on it at home. I was always did fairly well on test and specific projects and I think kids do in general. I may catch some grief for this and it almost pains me to say it because I do respect people who choose to be teachers....but I think many of them are just getting lazy. I work too many hours each day to be able to come home and do homework that the teacher should have been able to explain and provide time during the day for my kid to complete. That's not my job; that's their job. And they get paid for it, via my taxes.

I am going to look more into this because I totally agree. Teach kids in the classroom and then allow them to have lives. Maybe more kids would stay in school and continue on to higher education that way.....