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How to help your kid battle the homework juggernaut

Globe and Mail Update

Latest comment posted at 6:11 PM EDT 21/04/08

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  1. Jennifer Jilks from Muskoka, Canada writes: The big problem is that the faculties do not teach teachers how, when and why to assign homework. Otherwise, there are many factors that complicate the successful homework assignment. Some parents demand homework, others disdain it. Many students cannot master the mechanics of subjects (like math) without practice, and students refuse to practice. The text books, especially in math, are not written simply to teach basics first, and then to encourage higher level thinking skills. Theya re written for high-ability learners, which confounds those who are struggling and then give up. Parents need to say NO to homework after a period of time. Parents can bargain with students: do 10 questions and we'll stop. The homework assignments can be useless for many successful students. It is a highly individualized process that is not adapted to individual learners.
  2. brokeback mountain from toronto, Canada writes: kids have too much homework in north america? you guys must be kidding, right?
  3. itsmy opinion from Canada writes: If kids/youth have too much homework, then they shouldn't have much time in front of the computer, video games & TV, right? If they have too much homework, they will have less idle time to get into trouble in and outside the home, no excuses for not getting enough sleep every night. So, there really are some benefits to homework. Welcome to the real world, kids. Get used to it and quit whining.
  4. Lou Dobbs from Vancouver Island, Canada writes: Okay, everyone, we are talking about children here, aren't we? You know, ages five to sixteen? If my kids are applying themselves in the classroom, doing well, why should they be loaded down with homework?

    Let me guess, after a grueling day at work you are just esctatic at the thought of sitting down - once you finish your hour-long commute - and doing more paperwork. Play catch with the kids? Take your partner to a movie or dinner? Do some gardening or watch the hockey game? No, no, no. Not until you've completed your 'homework'? And by the time you've finished that, it'll be too late for anything else so it's off to bed to start all over again the next morning.

    I want my kids outside after school - p.l.a.y.i.ng. - goofing with friends, reading and, yes, some computer. I don't want my children burning out when they are eight/nine or whatever age doing homework. I want my kids to ramp it up their responsibilities towards learning in a gradual fashion and be ready for the application necessary at college/university.

    We had a childhood. Let the kids have one.
  5. Journey Man from Ontario, Canada writes: I certainly wish that my four children didn't have so much homework, especially at the younger ages. But here are my observations: 1) Far too much time in the school day is WASTED by irrelevant activities. For example we wanted our kids to READ excellent books such as Charlottes Web before seeing the movie. This however is impossible because they watch movies at school on a regular basis. They are also regularly bussed off to see meaningless plays, have endless assemblies, and spend an inordinate amount of classroom time on everything but the three R's. One of my daughter's teachers was even caught watching her own movies on a portable DVD at her desk while the kids goofed around on 'free time'. 2) Homework that is assigned is seldom clearly explained. I read some of the instructions and I find all kinds of confusion and outright errors. On several occasions I've even had to ask the teacher for clarifications, or pointed out glaring errors in their content. 3) Too many of the teachers are simply hopeless at teaching certain subjects, and especially math, science, and technology. I believe that this is the end result of a liberal arts education where the teachers themselves had no aptitude or interest in these subjects. These people seem to have been drawn towards teaching at the elementary level. This end result of this is that they are relying on the parents and tutors to pick-up the slack here through homework. -
  6. Tom Coleman from charlottetown, Canada writes: I believe kids do have too much home work, but that they also spend too much time in school. School is important, no doubt, but to expect young kids to spend all day sitting in a classroom and then having to go home and work even more, is just too much. For kids in the three to four grades, the school day should be shorter and homework should be kept to a minimum, if at all.

    I agree with the comment that kids should be outside playing more and spending more time with family. In the education world two terms that are familiar are the 'December slide' and the 'June slide' in which the time spent on the ciriculum is greatly diminished due to upcoming vacations and other activities taking place. The school year can definitely be shortened or at least the school day can be.

    Expectations keeping growing on our kids and parents are very competitive about their child's development and success in school, too much so.
  7. Shaemas Lal from Canada writes: I agree with the comment of Lou Dobbs. Lets face it the last thing we want to do after getting home from work is do more work. These kids are trying to learn other things about life so we should embrace that. Life is not simply about book smarts, history, and math. But rather, learning about oneself, learning about social relationships, street smarts.

    Lets face it, those who are strictly book smart end up being the pencil pushers of the world, those who do average in school but experienced and learnt about social behavior generally become the CEO's and top managers of companies.

    So if parents are competitive in their childs development and success as Tom Coleman stated (which i agree with) then let your child figure things out for themselves, let them play and interact and stop stunting their growth by shoving homework down their throat.
  8. Adrian . from Edmonton, Canada writes: I don't have any kids in school, but my memory is fairly fresh as I graduated only 4 years ago. I don't remember these 'mountains' of homework. What I remember is that outside of the occasional large project I usually had no homework at all. none. It was assigned, but if a student applied themselves to the work during class time instead of socialising with students in the next row there was generally nothing left when the bell rung at 3:30.

    Adrian

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