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Parents in poorer countries devote more time to their kids' homework

economist.com

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Re: Parents in poorer countries devote more time to their kids' homework

#81

Post by meric »

ivanche wrote: post #59
walshemj wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But India - the top on the list is not a poor country and I suspect that the really poor in India are not doing this but the growing middle class are.

Wow, bold claim. India's GDP per capita for 2017 is $7,200, ranked 156th in the world. I'd say they're not far away from being poor. Source: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/...

By poorer I mean less income counted in GDP. The lower cost of living make it more viable for parents spend more time with children. I could also argue India is rich compared to, say, Japan, who don’t have much resources to spend on having children.

Re: Parents in poorer countries devote more time to their kids' homework

#82

Post by meric »

commonsense123 wrote: post #3
meric wrote: post #2

National income is correlated with percent of population in workforce. Poorer countries are correlated with lower levels of total employment. Assuming all else being equal then parents with less time involved in employment will have more time for other activities, including spending time with children. Is this right?

please don't think about it in terms of first world problems of time management. it is more like, they are poor and they want kids to get a solid education and get good jobs and lead a happier, fulfilling life compared to them. fyi: username is a function of yours'.

By poor I mean lower GDP rather than poverty. The countries up top have lower cost of living and the bottom ones higher, the countries at the top of the table have less parents working, and the bottom, more. Therefore the countries at the top can afford to spend time with children, and the countries at the bottom, can’t afford it.

“Rich countries” are time poor that’s why they produce time related articles like these. :)

What does your FYI line mean - very cryptic.

Re: Parents in poorer countries devote more time to their kids' homework

#83

Post by paublyrne »

watwut wrote: post #75
liberte82 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Japanese, blue and green are considered the same color, just different shades. So is true in some places.

I did not used Japanese words, I used English words. And unless you are strongly colorblind, they are diferent looking no matter what your maternal language. So no, it is not true that they are same, that is frankly incredibly bullshit statement. For that matter, light green and dark green are shades too, but they are not the same color and are not used intercheably.

Downvoted for the aggressive tone of your response.

Agree that blue and green are generally different although aquamarine is contentious.

Re: Parents in poorer countries devote more time to their kids' homework

#84

Post by nicoburns »

mjburgess wrote: post #57
yoz-y wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has absolutely helped me to drill in my multiplication tables and learn to write at least somewhat legible letters. If there is one thing I regret about my college years it is not doing math assignments.

By "homework" i mean specifically comparing cohorts of students in high-school that do and do not do the homework they're set, and connecting that with long-term grade trajectories. I dont have the sources to hand, but i recall an economist talking about large studies in this area.

I think some of this might be that high school tends to be quite easy for the brightest students. I did close to none of my homework all the way through high school because I didn't have to (paying attention in class was sufficient for me to graduate with mostly A's and get into the university of my choice).

Re: Parents in poorer countries devote more time to their kids' homework

#85

Post by maire »

snarf21 wrote: post #41
maire wrote: post #38

Ideally, parents shouldn't spend any time on their children's homework. I can understand answering occasional questions and giving encouragement but nothing more. Children learn by figuring out homework on their own. Otherwise, why have homework?

I would guess that you've never been a teacher. The problem is that any teacher has a classroom with students with abilities and aptitudes that range between some Low and some High. The teacher must always teach to the middle kid in that spectrum. Going slower/lower bores the kids in the top half and going faster/higher completely loses the kids in the bottom half. Half of the kids may just "get it" and not need help…

I am not a teacher but I did volunteer in my children's classroom when they were young. I do understand what you mean by the range in comprehension.

I am not counting the other things a parent does to enhance a child's learning experience as homework time - so we all might be saying the same thing.

I will give a small example which might illustrate having an enhanced learning experience. One of my volunteer assignments was to teach children math using coins. My son and daughter were naturally motivated to understand how much money they had because I had them save money buy things at a very young age. I was shocked that some classmates did not understand denominations and others could not do the math. My husband made coin dice for the classroom kids. They rolled the dice and added the values to figure out how much money they had on the coins. This was a big hit with the kids.

What I didn't want to do was do homework for my kids or give answers. Discovery is how children learn. My kids ended up proud of what they could do on their own. When they failed - we discussed taking ownership of failure.

Re: Parents in poorer countries devote more time to their kids' homework

#87

Post by spdionis »

k__ wrote: post #29

First thought: Well, they got nothing better to do. Second thought: my mother was unemployed at least 70% of my childhood and didn't devote any time at all to my homework

Third thought: I'm glad my parents didn't devote too much time to my homework.

I was the no-effort-good-grades type. Maybe if I dedicated myself more I would've left my country and got a prestigious degree. Who cares. I'm glad I was taught independence and responsibility by my parents instead of them trying to control me.

Re: Parents in poorer countries devote more time to their kids' homework

#88

Post by astura »

mjburgess wrote: post #57
yoz-y wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has absolutely helped me to drill in my multiplication tables and learn to write at least somewhat legible letters. If there is one thing I regret about my college years it is not doing math assignments.

By "homework" i mean specifically comparing cohorts of students in high-school that do and do not do the homework they're set, and connecting that with long-term grade trajectories. I dont have the sources to hand, but i recall an economist talking about large studies in this area.

Well, yeah... sure, in high school the material is so easy and the pace is so slow that someone reasonably "smart" can do very well without doing homework.

Just because that's the case it doesn't follow that "homework doesn't improve grades."

Re: Parents in poorer countries devote more time to their kids' homework

#89

Post by aaronblohowiak »

maire wrote: post #38

Ideally, parents shouldn't spend any time on their children's homework. I can understand answering occasional questions and giving encouragement but nothing more. Children learn by figuring out homework on their own. Otherwise, why have homework?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_of_proximal_development

Re: Parents in poorer countries devote more time to their kids' homework

#90

Post by watwut »

bunderbunder wrote: post #69
CannisterFlux wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha, I think that argument is made by people who don't have kids (with homework). It's not leisure for me at all. While I worry about being branded a terrible father for this comment, I will admit that I am a terrible teacher. I have no patience for it. My kids mess around, constantly want breaks ("Well I've written a line! time for a 10 minute break!"), waste hours doing shit that should take them minutes... When the…

It's really too bad the inverted classroom model hasn't become any more popular. In a nutshell, the idea is to take the traditional breakdown of what is done in class and what is done at home, and swap it: Kids do their readings and watch recorded lectures at home. And then they work on problem sets and projects in class, typically in groups. It's a really clever idea. Compared to the traditional model, it has so man…

Most kids won't do the home part - unless parents force them. Simple as that. Moreover, traditional model defined as "kids only lis ten in school and only do exercises at home" is a strawman not really done in practice. (That is how we know they don't read if they think they can get away with it.)
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