Comments on: rethinking homework

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By: Shila Gobeyn

Shila Gobeyn — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 06:01:05 +0000

Paula I have two more questions. I started a generic shopping blog focused on a wide variety of niches. My first question is when you said…”When you start seeing sales for one of your product reviews, only then should you start writing another product review.” should I only focus on that 1st product review? and the second question is can I use some of the same content from one of the other reviews for another review of a similar product? i.e. The “What to Look for” Section for elliptical trainers.

By: Christopher Foisy

Christopher Foisy — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 10:18:01 +0000

Nobody really knows what Google is thinking. We get a few hints every now and then from people like Matt Cutts but other than that it is all pure speculation.

By: Jennie

Jennie — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 05:44:46 +0000

Thanks Dalia, I didn’t know they have kids doing projects that weren’t relevant to a course lesson.
I don’t remember that we ever made a castle or did projects not related to our studies. Why would they even do that? I know that’s a rhetorical question. lol If they were doing something from that time period it might be ok.
I am always surprised when chatting with younger people (most everyone now is younger) They are constantly saying they never knew that, or they don’t believe it. I ask what the heck were you doing in school, sleeping? Things I learned in grammar school they don’t know today. Recently I was talking to a young man of 21 that moved in across the street and he can’t read. I’m astounded. He can make out enough for simple things and he tries to sound out the words. It’s heart wrenching. I have no idea how to help him learn to read.
While doing some genealogy I was reading some newspaper articles from 1913 and confess that they used words in the articles I have never even heard in my life and had to look up. I have an extensive vocabulary thanks to my mother and a good public school education. But those old papers showed me that our ancestors had even better educations. So it has just slowly gone down hill.
I don’t blame the teachers as there are few that are truly bad. I blame what was posted above about the government taking over and making all these silly rules and standards and tests. It started some time ago when the government decided that too many districts and states had schools doing poorly from lack of funds. So the made the states turn over tax money to them and said they would redistribute the wealth so the poorer schools would have more money. You know the rest of the story. lol

By: delia

delia — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 02:08:59 +0000

Jennie: I think the point maggie b was making about time waster projects has more to do with projects that don’t have any reason or curriculum tie in than doing something that is actually relevant to class. There is nothing more frustrating in school (esp. middle and high school) to be given an assignment that really has no purpose but to keep you busy. I loathed those types of projects as a student.

I would agree that projects are important especially ones that use multiple learning modalities (sight, hearing, touch, etc) and learning intelligences (kinetic, visual/spatial, mathematical/logical, verbal/linguistic, etc). The more parts of your brain you use, the better you remember. I assigned projects with every unit because I think they teach important academic and life skills. However, any project that is assigned needs to meet curriculum standards and further a student’s learning process. Sure it’s great that a student can build a castle and maybe even name parts of it, but that’s not really what’s significant. Can the student articulate the 7 W’s: who, what, when, where, why, w’how, and w’significance? (Yes, I know the last 2 sound silly but it helps my students remember to include them.) That’s what a child should take out of every project or assignment. If an assignment/project can’t do that, then it’s waste of time. That’s just my two cents worth

By: Jennie

Jennie — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 07:10:58 +0000

I honestly felt like weeping, reading all these posts. I went through school mostly in San Francisco and got a decent education. I never had homework until the 8th grade. Only had homework after that for all classes that could be done in study hall before I ever went home.
Now I see little kids piling off the school bus with backpacks so heavy they are bent over from them. The poor babies are not much bigger than those backpacks. One little boy especially tugged at my heart as I watched him stagger to his front door, his dog was jumping up and down and doing the doggie welcome dance. The poor kid was so loaded down and so tired he barely could reach out and pat his dog. I’ve been a die hard anti homework addict for a long time now.
They need to quit loading these kids down with what I call (insert bad word here) and let them be kids. A lot of learning is just done in play and hanging out with friends and family. I don’t know of any person that works all day and then wants to go home and do another few hours of work. That is total b.s. Teachers, students, and parents need to band together and put a stop to this abuse and harassment. The kids are not learning half what they did years ago. They can’t make change, they can’t carry on a simple conversation or exchange thoughts. They are clueless on geography, history, and many other subjects. You must change this system yourself by forming groups online and getting support. It benefits no one as it is now. All the schools are doing is churning out puppets for McDonald’s.
I could not disagree more than I do with Dalia about time wasters. Those wonderful maps we made with flour and salt, those huge hall long banners we worked on, the little skits of history we did were all things I now remember the best and learned the most from. Those projects were more fun and we learned where countries were and states and capitols. Much more interesting than memorizing dull stats.

By: Jennie

Jennie — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 07:10:05 +0000

By: Blythe

Blythe — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 13:21:43 +0000

Having just watched my ninth grader spend 2.5 hours on a math assignment, I’d have to agree with Dabney. Though I looked at the homework, which WAS planned out ahead of time; the same paper listed the next several assignments. Still, it seemed like an awful lot of problems to me. About half as many would have made sense to me.

By: Lynn M

Lynn M — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:39:28 +0000

I would be very interested to know how countries with successful and improving school systems handle homework. I know that in many places, students have longer school years which allows teachers to spread out the learning over more days. Logically, it would seem to me that this would result in less homework on a nightly basis for students as well as more time to complete major projects. I know that extending the school year is a huge hot button issue for teachers and politicians, but it sure seems like one solution that might be in the best interest of stressed out and overloaded kids.

By: maggie b.

maggie b. — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:43:56 +0000

Delia,

Your experience certainly sounds like a horror story. Most especially the part about having to implement new teaching strategies. What’s unfortunate is that much research has been done on this and most shows that sticking with a single basic strategy is what works the best. How unfortunate your school didn’t believe in it.

I can understand your frustration at having students pulled out of the classroom to catch up on other work. Back in the old days we could do that at home but these days, with so much homework, that is simply impossible. That is one reason why I am so against heavy homework loads. It gives no time to students who are behind to catch up or for students who need extra study time to achieve it. They are already so overloaded they can’t squeeze out extra time.

When I went to college I was terrified. It turned out to be the best learning experience of my life. I went from someone who hated school to someone who rushed to class. When I switched my son to a university based high school he became a much better student as well. There are probably lots of reasons for this but one of them is the fact that you are given the work and the opportunity to learn it at your pace. There are no surprises, no time wasters (like building a castle with cardboard and tin foil which took us hours during fourth grade). Because the teachers teach from the book there is no missing information – it is there, in a solid form for whenever you need it.
I’m not sure what my school was preparing me for but it certainly never resembled college.

I am glad I had the option to send my son to a school that was more university based. I feel like it has better prepared him for a university and for learning in the real world environment.

Our public school system is plagued with so many problems. I don’t think there are easy solutions. I just know that what we are doing doesn’t work.

maggie b.