My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me
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My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me
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Re: My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me
#2I do not understand the authors conclusion: 'The more immersed I become in Esmee’s homework, the more reassured I am that the teachers, principals, and school-board members who are coming up with this curriculum are earnest about their work.' when his own Daughter's strategy boils down to :"
Memorization, not rationalization" - She isn't learning, she isn't becoming "well rounded", she is memorizing information that will be useless past her next year of schooling.
Some of the things detailed sound horrible, A C because there was no answer column etc. The school sounds broken.
Re: My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me
#3I do not understand the authors conclusion: 'The more immersed I become in Esmee’s homework, the more reassured I am that the teachers, principals, and school-board members who are coming up with this curriculum are earnest about their work.' when his own Daughter's strategy boils down to :" Memorization, not rationalization" - She isn't learning, she isn't becoming "well rounded", she is memorizing information that…
It sounds like most middle/high schools.
Re: My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me
#4There comes a point when an institution becomes so badly broken that the only rational course of action is to get the hell out, and look elsewhere for a solution to your problems. It looks pretty clear from this article that the US school system is well past that point.
Re: My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me
#5I do not understand the authors conclusion: 'The more immersed I become in Esmee’s homework, the more reassured I am that the teachers, principals, and school-board members who are coming up with this curriculum are earnest about their work.' when his own Daughter's strategy boils down to :" Memorization, not rationalization" - She isn't learning, she isn't becoming "well rounded", she is memorizing information that…
Two counter-points I would make to your comment, without agreeing or disagreeing overall about the effectiveness of the teaching.
The first is that it is possible for the educators to be "earnest" and unsuccessful in their attempts.
The second is that "memorization not rtionalization" could well be the opinion of his daughter, not her educators. Sure, they should do their best to prevent this, but kids with good memories will often use this to shortcut learning. I received an A* grade for my GCSE French (school exams at age 16 in UK - although I took at 15) not because I was good at French, but because I had a good memory. The written paper for example was 50% essay, and thanks to teachers preparing us on what sort of topics to expect, I was prepared. I picked "write about a recent holiday" and wrote an entire essay from memory. As in, I'd written it weeks previously (in the case of this specific essay, I'd actually written it for the oral exam, for which I had to memorize it and speak it... a nice it of duplication luck for me!), but I could write it down word perfectly without any mistakes. Coincidentally I'm sat in a hotel room in Paris right now, having spent yesterday remembering how poor my French language is.
Re: My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me
#6She is not learning about what she is studying, she is learning to become a well trained parrot. Society has no use for parrots.
These kids need to be taught to look up the words they don't know in a dictionary appropriate to their age and gain an understanding of the new words they come across as they are studying. That is the only way to understand any subject one is studying. No amount of "guessing" or "memorizing" will replace an actual understanding of the words one is reading.
Re: My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me
#7This is the official guideline from my local school district on average homework times:
K Occasional
1-2 15 minutes (M-Th)
3-5 30-60 minutes (M-Th)
6-8 30-90 minutes (M-Th)
9-12 60-120 minutes (M-S)
Re: My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me
#8The mode of homework time appears to be 3 hours a night during weekdays, this is considered unbearable/a lot? Growing up this was the norm for me. The school in question runs from 8:00 AM to 2:20 PM with a 45 minute lunch break, recesses and homeroom included. With 3 hours of studying that brings you to a total of 9 hours - breaks (I couldn't find a schedule). Assuming 8 hours of sleep, 1 hour for dinner, 2 hours of miscellaneous daily activities and 1 hour to get ready and eat breakfast in the morning you're left with 3 hours of your day left. As a 13 year old with parents that take care of a lot of your responsibilities that's not bad at all. Especially when you consider that this is a school that advertises academic rigor and not intended for your average student.
The only thing I agree with is that this school isn't doing a good job of educating if the student says "Memorization, not rationalization". While the homework appears to be monotonous my understanding was that this is because she is 13, it is important to build the foundation (i.e. comfort with numbers and reading dense literature) that will allow her to pursue more intellectually challenging courses in the future.
The only criticism I have of this system is that the author suggests none of the courses promote critical thinking and creativity. If this is the case then this is a problem, I would think at least 1/5 courses should do that. One of the biggest criticisms of the education system in China (I don't know if this is true but I hear it a lot) is that it promotes rote memorization (with exceptions), and this school appears to be doing the same.
Edit: All of this is predicated on the assumption that this student is academically capable of succeeding at this school. While it takes her 3 hours every night (5 hours max) this may not be the case for the average student, we don't know where she lies on the curve. Anecdotal evidence from some parents is obviously not enough to draw any conclusions.
Re: My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me
#9She is not learning about what she is studying, she is learning to become a well trained parrot. Society has no use for parrots. These kids need to be taught to look up the words they don't know in a dictionary appropriate to their age and gain an understanding of the new words they come across as they are studying. That is the only way to understand any subject one is studying. No amount of "guessing" or "memorizing…
I completely agree that there are much better way to teach people things, but you're exaggerating in saying that memorizing isn't useful.
Take language as an example. Sure there are better ways to learn a language than just memorizing words. (That's debatable but I think most people would agree.) However there certainly is some use, still, in just memorizing things. For example, I don't speak French, but thanks to memorizing things I can at least know the basics I might need to get by (allowing me, last night, to buy a packet of cigarettes, ask for a menu, order a meal and the wine I wanted, from a bar owner who didn't speak a word of English, and I never even needed to point at anything!)
And in the rest of life, certain things just are useful if you memorize them. I have an events manager at work who doesn't know anything about computer networking, but he's picked up bits and pieces from colleagues to allow him to do things he is likely to need to do. He hasn't gained the experience of tinkering with linux, so give him a new problem and he won't figure it out, but there are certain things he can do on a linux server easily - and that's fine, nobody can be an expert in everything, everyone has areas where you just need to be able to get by.
Re: My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me
#10I do not understand the authors conclusion: 'The more immersed I become in Esmee’s homework, the more reassured I am that the teachers, principals, and school-board members who are coming up with this curriculum are earnest about their work.' when his own Daughter's strategy boils down to :" Memorization, not rationalization" - She isn't learning, she isn't becoming "well rounded", she is memorizing information that…
Two counter-points I would make to your comment, without agreeing or disagreeing overall about the effectiveness of the teaching. The first is that it is possible for the educators to be "earnest" and unsuccessful in their attempts. The second is that "memorization not rtionalization" could well be the opinion of his daughter, not her educators. Sure, they should do their best to prevent this, but kids with good memo…
Ha! I did the same thing for History and English in NZ. We had 2 mock exams during the year leading up to the main one and I used all the same essays in all of them. My teachers weren't too pleased about it after the 2nd mock exam (and my English teacher actually failed me for it - though that didn't count) but I got a good final grade. Ironically my father is was teaching secondary school English and History at the time.