I was talking to my mother this evening, who was a teacher for years upon years, about the amount of homework given to kids, and complaining how ridiculous I thought it was. It seems each and every year the kids have more and more homework, and the age at which homework is appropriate gets younger and younger.
Those people on the pro-homework side of the argument always say the same thing- kids don't have enough time during the school day to complete all their work, therefore they must bring a large bulk of it home each day.
And on the surface, that is a reasonable argument. But only on the surface.
My response is this- WHY?
If there is not enough time to finish their assignments at school, and its impossible to reduce the amount of work, then why don't we increase the length of the school day? As a logical problem solver, this makes a lot of sense and I don't see why anyone wouldn't implement it as soon as possible (read: TOMORROW!).
First, as a general rule, American school days are some of the shortest on the planet.
Second- Why do we send the kids home to be taught by people who are not professional teachers? These same people who pile homework on and expect the parents to help their children complete it are the same ones who have a stroke at the mere mention of a child being home schooled. So do they think its okay to homeschool part of the day, just not all of it? It makes no sense.
If it is necessary for an 8 year old third grader to have two hours of a homework a night, why not just increase the school day by two hours and let them finish it there, under the supervision of professional teachers? The child has to do the work anyway, and the school should be more conducive to learning than a living room. So why send them home to do it, where they are distracted, tired, and feel as though they are done with their day?
And most parents would love it, as it would save enormous amounts of money in daycare costs. Where, by the way, most of the kids are doing their homework. Duh!
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