My oldest son is in the third grade at an exemplary school and is pummelled every night with approximately 2 hours of homework 5 nights a week. On top of that, if I don't sign the appropriate papers and turn them in on the appropriate day, he gets points deducted. Wow. . .and he's only 8!
I have heard that all of this ridiculousness is due to the TAKS test. The teachers spend most of third grade readying the children to take (and pass) this test. Alex's school wants to retain their "exemplary" rating, so the students have to do well on the test for that to continue. As a result I have to be the homework police. Did you do your reading log (mandatory reading for at least 20 minutes a night)? Did you do your math log (at least 10 minutes of math practice a night)? What about other stuff (poem memorization, cursive, spelling. . .)?
The reading log has it's merits, but overall I don't like it. He MUST read. He actually enjoys reading and does it very often on his own. I am worried that he will become burnt out on reading and not want to do it anymore.
The math log REALLY pisses me off. The teacher says to find your child interesting math practice to do for 10 minutes a day. Oh, really. Am I a teacher?? Do I have a teaching degree?? In my opinion, if she wants 10 minutes of math practice a day, send home a 10 minute math worksheet. If I had the patience and knowledge to home school, then yeah, I would come up with the creative math.
Yes, this is public school, and reportedly one of the best in our area. Is there a perfect school? No. But this kind of workload for an 8 year old is ridiculous. He spends almost all day at school sitting in a desk behaving himself, and then has to come home and sit at the table and do even more schoolwork. Yeah, that's natural for an 8 year old boy. He needs to come home, have a snack, and run around and play whatever he wants, not do 2 hours of homework. This and the chicken nugget may be why American kids are so fat! Don't even get me started on school lunches. . .
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2 comments:
Amen sister!
I teach in British Columbia and this is exactly what we are worried is going to come here. Only no one believes it could happen. Thanks for the comment. Keep up the blogging.
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