Why would he read 79 pages in one night if all he had to do was find three quotable sentences? Read three pages picked at random from that 79 page section and move on.
This isn't rocket science.
My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me
301–310 of 347 posts
Re: My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me
#302Earlier quoted context omitted.
* Kids should not be penalized for knowing which is the capital of what, nor which part of Americas grows the most bananas. It is useless information unless the kid loves that kind of stuff. * Focus should not be on memorizing anything, unless they are a building block of something which they will understand later, and better, with the memorization. May be the Spanish language verb forms are one of those, I'm not sur…
> Focus should not be on memorizing anything I have to disagree. At that age the things you memorize get seared into your mind permanently. I can still effortlessly rattle off a few Shakespeare soliloquies a teacher had us memorize, for example. I think having 13 year olds memorize things is a great idea, but the things should be important and useful. I wish we had extensively drilled on mental arithmetic.
Not everyone can memorize as well. Anything I've ever had to memorize in school I can't remember now and I was an honors student. I'm jealous of my husband who can rattle off memorizations of Shakespeare or such. There is also a difference between being able to show off that you can be an actor and memorize Shakespeare and being able to take a second and do the math mentally. Memorization does not teach what something means. When I have to memorize, I spend more time trying to find those mental tricks to remember what to memorize that what I'm memorizing means. You can have a 13 year old memorize a soliloquy, but ask them what it means.
Re: My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me
#303I was homeschooled K-12. My days consisted largely of 1-2 hours of bible study with my 3 brothers followed by a few hours on my own working through a set number of pages in math, science, literature, etc textbooks. I'd usually get done by 2 and then play Nintendo until friends got home from school. I was never tested in homeschool. There were no grades or report cards. The only accountability was mom checking that th…
I was also homeschooled: I didn't do homework either. I did have to finish each day's work that day. Over time I learned to be reasonably timely. Most days I started school at 8ish and ended 2-3ish, depending on the year.
I did get graded; my mom was meticulous about record-keeping. In terms of college applications; I put down my grade for my high school equivalency tests and that was that.
College was a relatively straightforward transfer of experience as well; I just had to walk about more.
(For the benefit of readers outside the US and outside the homeschooling mileu) Homeschooling is a very diverse set of educational approaches ranging from traditional schooling (8-3 + defined curricula + grading) all the way out to "unschooling" and Montessori-ish approaches. Popular approaches include video classes, where a classroom is taped and the tapes + books are sold to the parents. I had a traditional school experience, more or less. My mother was a teacher (both for children and in college) at times in her life, and this carried over into her homeschooling. This meant 1:1 teaching for many years for myself and my sibling.
For this modality of teaching, with a disciplined parent willing to adhere to a schedule, I suspect that the educational outcomes are very good.
Like McPhilip, I didn't have 8-12 hours of school per day (unless I dawdled), and thus had hours of time every day to pursue my own interests, hold down a part time job, etc. This is, in my biased and minimal data point, a reasonable thing.
Re: My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me
#304Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then just skip it! The lying is the issue. If you judge the homework as not being worthwhile, then don't do it, say you didn't do it, and move on.
The problem with that is that, in society currently, your grades are what matter -- at least if you want a normal job at a normal company. To get a job, you have to have a college degree and a good GPA. To get that, you have to get good grades in college -- which means doing the homework and taking the tests. To even get into a decent college you have to have a good GPA in high school -- which, again, means doing the…
Unless the homework doesn't directly affect your grades, i.e. your teacher makes sure you've done it and then throws it away, like at my school.
Re: My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me
#305The Author and his daughter haven't learnt the tricks of the trade. I was set 3+hrs of HW a day, but I certainly didn't do that much. First, they need to assess which teachers "Don't mind" if you don't do the homework. This could mean they stand you up in front of the whole class and shout at you, but if they don't give you an after school detention, don't do it. Getting in the teachers good books previously helps wi…
I did some of this too. Not everything (no crying), but I had a group who would take turns copying assignments for instance.
I particularly remember when writing long papers, I would do things like increase the character spacing, change the font size to 12.5, subtly adjust the margins, add a few words to the last sentence of a paragraph in order to push it on to the next line, etc. If I had to write a 10 page paper, I could get away with writing 8.5 pages and use these tricks to bring it up to the required length in a minute or two.
There were kids in my school who spent 3+ hours a night on homework, but certainly not me. I in no way regret getting a few Bs and Cs, coasting by with some cheating and the aforementioned tricks, and in general blowing off most of high school. I still got into a good college, in part due to SAT/PSAT scores, and I probably learned more and certainly had a better time than most of my classmates.
Re: My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me
#306"When I get home, Esmee tells me she got a C on her math homework from the night before because she hadn’t made an answer column. Her correct answers were there, at the end of each neatly written-out equation, yet they weren’t segregated into a separate column on the right side of each page. I’m amazed that the pettiness of this doesn’t seem to bother her. School is training her well for the inanities of adult life."
:-(
Re: My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me
#307Earlier quoted context omitted.
The role of public school in the United States, especially when it first started, explicitly was to churn out factory workers[1]. The fact that non-industrial knowledge is also taught is a side effect of later developments. [1] http://www.cantrip.org/gatto.html
Some public schools were started right after the American Revolution, before anything was very industrialized. Horace Mann and Booker T. Washington led a massive expansion that followed through the mid-1800's. I'm quite sure Mann and Washington were not looking to produce unthinking factory workers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Mann#Education_reform
I am pretty sure schools were started shortly after the early settlements were made in the US, i.e., 1650 or so. I don't think factories as we know them existed then.
Re: My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me
#308Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some public schools were started right after the American Revolution, before anything was very industrialized. Horace Mann and Booker T. Washington led a massive expansion that followed through the mid-1800's. I'm quite sure Mann and Washington were not looking to produce unthinking factory workers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Mann#Education_reform
I am pretty sure schools were started shortly after the early settlements were made in the US, i.e., 1650 or so. I don't think factories as we know them existed then.
Oh right, I was reading an article on "Education in the United States" which started its story post-revolution.
Re: My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me
#309Earlier quoted context omitted.
While everyone thinks "What an idiot." While you are 100% right that you dont NEED to know that Paris is the capital of France, displaying that ignorance for all to see is just bad form. While your analogy makes sense (bolivian capital no one knows about), knowing that Paris is the capital of France is incidental knowledge when you spend any time looking at western history for the last several hundred years.
The fact that you remember that Paris is the capital of France has nothing to do with what you learnt during high school. You know it, because it is general knowledge. You saw it in the movies. You had a phone call from someone living there. Only someone living in a cave would not know where or what Paris is, hence why you would call him an idiot. However, the capital of an area that isn't in the media very of ten? Y…
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Re: My Daughter’s Homework Is Killing Me
#310What stood out for me from this article wasn't the homework load, which only seems slightly more than what I remember from my own youth, but rather that: 1) a teacher can accuse a parent of "cyberbullying" for an email sent in purported confidentiality to others, and that the claim can be taken seriously. Obviously I didn't read the email, but the author seems well-read and reasonable, so I'm inclined to conjecture t…
Especially funny is criterion that makes it cyberbullying: > the teacher felt threatened Am I supposed not to sneeze if the person is afraid of loud noises? Am I supposed to say he's doing great job (if he's not) just because he feels insecure there and feels threatened by any critique? They only reason they were able to pull this of with straight face is because "cyber" becomes to mean "sinister"
"Reasonable person" standard.