Do You Thinks Our Kids Are Overburdened in Today's School System?

I think there is often too much homework in elementary school. IMO there should be minimal homework until 5th or 6th grade at the earliest. Yes, I think we should fight it, by telling the teachers it is too much.

What a great question.

As a former tutor and current creator of "alternative" educational materials, this is a subject that really concerns me. Yes, I think schools are laying on too much homework, particularly in the early years. Concerned parents would do well to speak up. Find out what Alfie Kohn, a long-time advocate for sane education, has to say about this: www.alfiekohn.org/ .

On the school's side of it, less money and resources are now being stretched to cover more students. As class sizes grow, teachers spend more time on record-keeping and have less time to check on each individual student's progress. And standards testing has a great deal of effort go toward getting kids to pass the tests that will assure continued federal funding of their schools. It's a hot mess, but the schools are helpless to address these issues in a sane way if they are always playing catch-up.

All the same, younger kids don't, by any measurements available, benefit from heavy homework loads. Learn from Mr. Kohn how to start advocating for your child and his/her classmates.

It really depends on the child.
Some kids really need that reinforcement of what was learned that day - they need the practice.
For most gifted kids - homework is just busy work, and a waste of time - but fortunately they can get through it in anywhere from 15 min to an hour.

I've seen a few parents who want their kids to have FUN FUN FUN and do nothing but PLAY PLAY PLAY all the way through school - and these kids have a MAJOR shock when their eventual employer could not possibly care less if the job is fun or not - they want the work done and they don't want to hear anyone complain about it and if you do complain there's 15 people just waiting to take your job and they are not necessarily in/from this country.

A few years back I enjoyed watching some programs "Victorian House" and "Frontier House" and I can't think of the name but there was one about living in 1940's London during WWII with building a back yard bomb shelter and food rationing coupons, and a few others - where average modern people volunteered to live as accurately as possible as people did during those time periods.
One of the things I came away with from watching those shows is modern people have a sense of recreational time which simply has never existed before and some people go way overboard with it.

Around the world students have different attitudes and one extreme is the Japanese "sleep 4 hours pass, sleep 5 hours fail" meaning studying and passing is more important than even sleeping.
Do you think recreation enters into it?
How does our education system compete with that?
It doesn't and it won't until people wake up and realize what we are up against as far as what a world market place really means.

How do I know about Japan?
A good friend of mine spent a year in a student exchange program there for his junior/senior year in 1979-80.
Initially he almost had a nervous breakdown, but in a couple months he rallied and he learned so much.
He rode a bike 5 miles to school and 5 miles back every day.
School days were long and part of the school day included building maintenance (sweeping floors, cleaning windows, etc).

Too many parents are lazy about their kids' education. The result is the many stupid adults and teenagers, we encounter on a daily basis, who can't speak well, can't spell properly and can not do simple math in their heads. It's ridiculous to put it all on the teachers/education system.

Kids should be in school 30% longer than they currently are. They should have longer school days and longer school years. (This would also need to include more recess and active play time during school time.) Charter schools that are doing this are seeing fantastic results. Sending a pile of "worksheets" home does not have nearly the effect as more instruction, learning, and physically active time during a longer school day.

I don't like the amount of "homework" my daughter was given in 3rd grade. Not because it took too much time, but because the "work" was so easy for her, just a pure time waste. (Really, she could do it while eating dinner and watching TV at the same time, if I let her!) If she's going to need to spend that much time doing homework, I'd like to see some creativity and thought put into the work sent home.

On the other hand, I totally disagree that kids aren't learning as much now as earlier. My daughter is so far ahead of where I was at 3rd grade! There is so much to learn now that didn't even exist when I was that age (I'm 50). She has designed graphs/charts/databases, can use a computer to put together a Powerpoint presentation on a researched topic and present it to us on a Smartboard, the math she is learning (accelerated math) is challenging at times for me and I have a college degree in Computer Science/Math. The art projects are amazing! I am in awe of what the teachers at her school (Arts and Science magnet school) can accomplish with these young kids.

Homework should only be given on those subjects the child is having problems with. Instead of this cookie cutter homework system we have.
I did a research paper on Young kids and homework a couple of years ago for my education class. In it I found that graded homework is ineffective and homework in most cases is only effective if the child actually needs more practice on that subject. In all other cases it is busy work at home and leaves little room for extra curricular activities.
In first grade my daughter had home work in 3 subjects every night that is too much . She would ask me every night why she had to do it because she already knew what she was doing

ETA:
Also the keep up with Japan line is BS.
Many schools in Japan do not give homework.
http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/hwach.htm
http://www.physorg.com/news4333.html
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,###-###-...
If you have trouble with your school and homework please present these studies to them. And question them on why and how they use homework.

Hi there...I have to admit, that in the beginning of my children's school careers, I felt the same as you. Too much homework, learning too many things at once, learning things earlier than we did...BUT, now that they are in 6th and 7th grade, I see that things are exactly how they should be. In fact, we are even a little behind in some areas as other local schools, and a little ahead of some. My kids have had to work hard and have, sometimes had too much homework, and we are very active in sports, band and scouts (scouts, not so much anymore!) but we make it work! It's a team effort between you, the school and your child to make it successful!

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that even though it CAN be overwhelming at times, especially when there is a big test or project and mom and dad are working 10-12 hours a day and there is practice or a game, it's stressful, but worth it! Hang in there and good luck finding a balance that works for your family!

I agree I think it is overboard.

I don't think our schools hold their expectations high enough, but I think they go about educating the wrong way. Last year in Kinder, my son had to write 7 pages of one letter; that's 7 pages of the letter G, then 7 pages of the letter Y....
He HATED it for several reasons. He already knew how to write all his letters for an entire year so he was bored, his hand would get tired and cramped from repeating the same exact motion over and over, and even though he worked so hard on those packets he never got finished in time to move on to the "fun" activity afterwards. The packets got sent home to be finished late in the year and he brought home about four packets halfway done, and his friend that I babysat brought home nine blank packets! So I know he wasn't the only one struggling (and they are both calm boys who wouldn't have had a hard time sitting still like more rambunctious five year old boys).
If the teachers want the kids to improve hand muscle coordination they could have played playdoh, used bead mazes, built with legos, and taught sign language - they even oculd have had the kids making letters with playdoh, legos, sign language... to incorporate alphabet fluency!
He had a sour taste in his mouth about school right from the first month, "It's boring, we sit down too much, all we do is papers papers papers!" School CAN be fun, we had has a summer full of science (grew a vegetable garden, caught frogs and watched them swim, made bird feeders and watched the birds eat each morning, went hiking and learned about the function of a pinecone), art (painted, chalked on the sidewalk, drew pictures, made batman masks and wings out of cardboard cereal boxes, made our own personalized rubber stamps and went letterboxing), PE (he learned to "skid" the tire of his bike, he conquered the bike trail with hills at our park, hiking in the mountains, swimming at the pool), language arts (he read the whole "froggy" series to me, my mom read an entire Harry Potter book to him and they are onto the next, we went to the library and he learned to use the dewey decimal system to find a type of book, and practiced his letters on a white board), and I could go on and on and on through every subject possible!
I honestly have NO idea how to change our public school system, but I do think it needs to change. I think that kids are capable of more than they are asked, but in different ways than they are presented with to show their talents. If I could get my husband on board I would be homeschooling in a heartbeat - but for now I will just volunteer in his class as much as possible and provide outlets for alternative learning while he's at home!

Personal I think education comes first, extracurricular comes second. To me WAY too many parents and kids are caught up in the extracurricular. It use to be that a kid goes to school and picks one extracurricular activity per season... now kids are doing 3-4 per season instead of focusing on just the education.

A child is not only taught at school but at home too, the teaching should not fall only on the teacher. As the years go by there will be more homework and that is to re-enforce what has been taught so your child has a better chance of remembering it. I got horrible grades, working many hours more then most kids on homework BUT I still see the importance of doing it AND I help any child that needs the encouragement to keep going on the homework. I was on a bowling team where a mom had 3 girls, dad was away serving his country, and two of the girls did their while be bowled. Many times I was right next to them when they were struggling and helped explain things, guess what those kids learned GOOD work ethic and are amaxing young adults now.

Our education ratings are falling fast, lowering standards and we are way below many other countires. THAT to me should point us to focus back on education and less on the other stuff.

I am all for education and think the U.S. is behind in many areas of it! I am really awful about wording things so I am hopeing this does not come out the wrong way. I think many of the Asian descents are much further advanced compared to the U.S. and they really push their kids and education. I think it shows it in technology and economies/business. I wish our kids were pushed harder and not always be about sports and extra curricular activities. Don't get me wrong... I think sports and others are very important as well, but not more important then an education.

I went against my friends "norms" and put my child into a different school in hopes that he will advance and succeed furthen then if I would have put him in the school just to be with friends. He is a kindergartener and homework takes us 30 mins to 45 mins. This includes a person reading to a child everynight. I thank the school for making the parents be accountable for their childs education.

like Cupcake - I think many parents are lazy when it comes to their child's education.

And we wonder why we are behind has a nation in education? because we want our kids to be superstars in baseball, basketball or some other sport...and we wonder why our kids can't put together a complete sentence? it's because everyone wants the best - but at what cost? you want your kid to go to the best school - how did it get there? by passing the SOLs...so the kids are pigeon-holed into learning specific things and that's it.

like another mom said - Extracurricular activities are just that- EXTRA...

GOOD LUCK!!!

My oldest starts first grade in a week and a half.

He will be in public school, this time around.

For Kindergarten I was shocked by how much homework he would have EVERY night.

She would send them home with stuff and they had 2 monthly homework calendars.

He would literally be doing home work for two hours.

NUTS for Kindergarten.

I am scared outta my mind to send him to Public school.

My mom is a teacher and I hear horrible stories about kids coming to school hungry.....without supplies...you name it.

I think the system has been left behind by those who are in charge.

They dont understand or see the value in teaching our children.

No Child Left behind is a JOKE.

When I graduated in 2001 of a class of 500 only 226 kids walked.

That is a curve you dont want to read about...Less then half my eligible class made it to the stage.... disgusting!

My change will be that I am fully involved in my sons class rooms, I am in constant communication with the Teacher and School...and when there are meetings, conferences or anything else...I will be there....taking notes.

I am at the point I dont trust any of the Powers at be do any deciding for my family and I anymore. We have to make our own destiny.....They are more road blocks and red tape then help.

At the kids current school the 2nd grader is bringing home a work sheet each evening M-Th. and her spelling words. She is currently working on making sentences out of random words, like blue house I live in to I live in a blue house. Very simple and easy to do. I know as the year progresses she will have more added to it and more difficult work.

My oldest grandson went to a school across town for a semester and was in 4th grade. He brought home, each day, up to 4 hours of homework. I told them he couldn't do it, they have him from 8am to 3:15, that is 8 hours plus. He was 9 years old, he was a child that needed to play, to do activities, to enjoy being a child. The teacher told me that now days we have to keep up with China and other countries so our kids are just going to have to learn what school is about.

We were able to move him to a different school mid way through the year. In the new school he brought homework home for the weekend and it took him about an hour. His grades went up and so did his test scores.

The school we moved him to has the 2nd highest rate on test scores in our part of the state, the school we moved him from is way way way down the list.

I don't think *my* kids are over burdened but I can't speak for others because I don't know what the school systems are like in your areas. My elementary school kids go to school from 9 - 3:20. They have break time in the morning, 25 minutes for lunch, 25 for recess, and one "special subject" (PE, music, art etc.) per day. Grades K-2 are focused heavily on reading and math skills but integrate those with social studies and science. Lots of hand-on work and group work, and lots of learning done while sitting in a circle on the floor so they're not stuck at their desks doing papers all day.

Homework last year for my first-grader consisted on one math packet per week (3-4 pages) that they were supposed to work on daily but my son preferred to do it all at once (which took 15 minutes). Spelling was done in-class, and they were supposed to read for 20 minutes a day and could keep a log of their reading if they wanted to. Low pressure and no stress - I'm pretty sure I had more homework at the same age but it wasn't overwhelming.

This approach seems to work well here - our district has strong standardized test scores at all grades within a state that has some of the highest standardized test scores in the country, along with other measures of a "good" school system such as high rates of higher education, and most kids here participate in extra-curriculars as they get older.

Wait a little while and see if things settle down. If you really think that the work is too much even after a few months, get involved in your school's student council or whatever body sets curriculum and homework standards. Organize other parents who feel the way you do and get input from the teachers, the principal and superintendent regarding their thoughts on homework, the objectives, etc. and find out what other districts are doing to meet the same educational goals without excessive homework. FWIW, the general standard that I've always heard for 1st grade is 20-30 minutes per day total. If your school assigns significantly more than that, then you have a basis for an argument.

I am all for homework, let me say this. I think homework is important to reinforce things that are learned in school. But if your first grader is in school from 8 to 3 and then comes home to another two hours of homework something is wrong.
Many school districts publish homework guidelines, check the guideline for yours and whether your child work is within those guidelines.
Homework for 1st graders in our school district should be between 15 and 30 minutes a day. I think that that is appropriate. If your child's teacher assigns more than that you need to speak up! She is either a bit too ambitious or she doesn't get enough stuff done during the day!

Yes and no. It seems like they have a lot more homework than we did at the same age. On the other hand they are not learning as much as we did at the same age. Makes me wonder what the heck they do all day when a third grader has two hours of homework every night but is not taught cursive.......