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CBC News Calgary: Calgary family negotiates homework ban

I'm not sure who to be more shocked with. The family for negotiating a ban on homework, or the School Commission for actually having a formal process and legal paperwork for these kinds of things.

glendalais wrote:CBC News Calgary: Calgary family negotiates homework ban

I'm not sure who to be more shocked with. The family for negotiating a ban on homework, or the School Commission for actually having a formal process and legal paperwork for these kinds of things.

Its unfortunate that they had to do this, however there are many teachers of a certain vintage who believe strongly in lots of busywork as a supposed learning tool. Pointless repetition in areas that need no reinforcement is a waste of time. banning the homework allows the student to actually study and clarify those concepts they are weak in.

Also, when homework limits are set per grade , some teachers believe that the 30 minute home work quota per night is per subject, not per student. Big problem when they move to sperate teachers per subject, as each teacher tried to assign that 30 minutes of work.

My daughter is at an enlightened school, where even grade one students get homework, but the quantity is strictly limited.

Her usual homework is to read one book of her choosing per night to us. She must log the book in her reading log. some nights she reads 3 books, by her own choice.

This gets her in the homework habit, without making the work onerous for the students. So far we are quite pleased.

One of my cousins insisted on going to college in England. They attend lectures, but if I remember right, there's no homework, but they do have to write a paper on what they learned at the end of the term. This goes against my personal grain, as I believe homework , especially in subjects such as math and English, helps reinforce what was learned in class, and provides practice. To this day, whenever possible, I practice my math by giving myself problems to work on in odd moments. Now, if only I could get myself to do the same in spelling, because there are some words I have trouble spelling correctly in a consistent manner.

When I was in college, they gave us a sheet in every class, detailing reading assignments, papers to be done, as well as expected test dates. I quickly realized that if I did my assignments in advance for the whole semester, that gave me plenty of time to do the reading and study for the tests. It worked great.

felinefan wrote:When I was in college, they gave us a sheet in every class, detailing reading assignments, papers to be done, as well as expected test dates. I quickly realized that if I did my assignments in advance for the whole semester, that gave me plenty of time to do the reading and study for the tests.

Feline, how organized! But when did you party?

glendalais wrote:CBC News Calgary: Calgary family negotiates homework ban

I'm not sure who to be more shocked with. The family for negotiating a ban on homework, or the School Commission for actually having a formal process and legal paperwork for these kinds of things.

I'm with you on this one glendalais. What are these kids gonna do come Collage or at their jobs? "Oh, my parents said I didn't have to be bothered with doing this".
Do the teachers just 'stop' what they are doing at the end of the school day? They have 'homework' too,grading papers,setting up class schedules,that sort of thing. I have a bad feeling this is going to come back and bite them in the ass.

I heard the catholic church won't let home schooled children into the church without some catholic school classes. wow, they don't even trust catholic parents to home school thier kids properly.

I used to be a traditional thinker on this point, UNTIL I attened courses that we studied one subject for eight hours per day for several weeks. There DOES come a saturation point where continued study is pointless. I think that limiting homework at the eariler grades, and then slowly increasing it during the high school years would be a much better idea.

and for heavens sake, get the teachers together and coordinate it.

It would be very simple to combine science and math homework, or history and english, and so forth.

I think this family most likely has non- homework-compliant kids....My Younger Son figured out how to hide his homework assignments from us about 2nd grade We've been all over him since (now in college). He is paying for his lack of homework discipline now.
Homework Sucks but you have to do it in traditional schooling, anyway. Of course, if we could all have creative parents with oodles of time to provide unique learning experiences, that would be preferable. I wonder if the economy is affecting the number of home-schoolers.....

Main Streeter wrote:Feline, how organized! But when did you party?

I don't do parties. I used the rest of the time studying, or watching T.V., etc.. Tripod wouldn't let me do much else! :D: :p: She wouldn't even let me sleep with the bedroom door closed (keeps warm air in during the winter, plus an extra layer of protection in case of fire). Yesterday I went out most of the day, and when I got home, she was all over me! Little kitty clinging vine....

drcorey wrote:I heard the catholic church won't let home schooled children into the church without some catholic school classes. wow, they don't even trust catholic parents to home school thier kids properly.

Total bull!!! That doesn't happen. Just more anti-catholic crap.