Speaking as a teacher AND a parent..

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Home : 2006 : November : 21

Speaking as a teacher AND a parent..
By Rubyslippers

put me on the "no homework" bandwagon. I think school should be for schoolwork and home is for homelife. I don't allow parents to call me at home and I don't give homework. (But I teach K, so it is just normal for me.)

I also hate it when I and my child spend a significant amount of time at home doing assignments and then the teacher spends a nano-second stamping it with a rubberstamper and then moves on.

I recently recieved an e-mail from my child's teacher saying he was not turning in homework (even though we do it every single night) and asking if he "begins his homework the moment

he arrives at my (class)room?" I felt like saying "HELL, NO! Because he has been spending the last 7 hours doing work (and so have I) and he deserves some free time!" (and so do I!). And if I and my child spend time everyday doing homework and she thinks it is important enough to count toward 60% of his grade, then she had better MAKE him give her his homework everyday.

And as a teacher I also have learned (through 18 years) that homework gets the same results as school work. If they do neat, complete work at school, they will have neat ,complete homework. If they really don't care about schoolwork, are messy and don't learn the neccessary skill at school, homework means nothing and will never even be returned.

I also believe in the rare cases where homework may help (a struggling student that needs that one-on-one time with a parent), it should be given on an "as needed" basis. If my child knows how to spell every spelling word, he doesn't need to do spelling homework. Let the children that can't spell them do it.