No homework ever! Grades 1-12 Here's why-

[SQUACKEE]

I hate homework, My son hates homework. My wife hates homework.The teachers hate homework. Everyone i know hates homework.

Now, im asking you to open your mine. Weve been brainwashed into thinking there must be homework. It hit me one day that its all a lie.

Why,why, WHY does there HAVE to be homework. THERE DOESNT!!

I get home from a long day at work and you know what i dont have to ship packages all over the world for another 3 hours. Same with the wife. But someone as decided that Chad needs to continue what he should have DONE IN CLASS until freaking midnite. WTF!

If you teachers cant get Chad to remember all of the Presidents term years, ( which he'll forget in a few months or years) then keep him longer in school. Work till six, i dont care but get it done and send my son home. Im not anti- education.

Homework has caused-

Me to hate school and hate having a son in school -because its completely useless!

My son to hate school!

My wife to hate school!

And cause 12 years of needless tension and grief! " What do you mean you have to make a volcano out of newspapers that spits fire by monday!"

As Lennon might say-

HOMEWORK IS OVER IF YOU WANT IT.


I HATE HOMEWORK AND I WILL TRY NOT TO HATE PEOPLE WHO ARE FOR IT, BUT NO PROMISES.

[bad hammy]

My favorite is seeing all of the little kids carrying backpacks bigger than they are. Things have changed since my one-room log cabin days . . .

[SQUACKEE]

My favorite is seeing all of the little kids carrying backpacks bigger than they are. Things have changed since my one-room log cabin days . . .

I always knew deep down you were brillant Hammy.

[bad hammy]

My favorite is seeing all of the little kids carrying backpacks bigger than they are. Things have changed since my one-room log cabin days . . .

I always knew deep down you were brillant Hammy.

And I didn't get this way doing homework until midnight! (Or much homework at all, for that matter. Although I did do a Krakatoa model in my day . . .)

[SQUACKEE]

[quote=bad hammy]

My favorite is seeing all of the little kids carrying backpacks bigger than they are. Things have changed since my one-room log cabin days . . .

I always knew deep down you were brillant Hammy.

And I didn't get this way doing homework until midnight! (Or much homework at all, for that matter. Although I did do a Krakatoa model in my day . . .)[/quote:12sw8z93]

But just think what wonderful things you learned by forming that triangle mass out of clay..... huh...........what did you learn?

[SQUACKEE]

Hey Hammy what are the odds that Tafnut will agree with me? 10 to 1? 1000 to 1?

[tafnut]

Re: No homework ever! Grades 1-12 Here's why-

Now, im asking you to open your mine.

Why? Do you think there's gold or diamonds in there?

[low blow on the kid who OBVIOUSLY hated Spelling Class!]

Since you are asking a question I really DO have some expertise in (as opposed to all the other topics where everyone tells me how naive, misinformed, deluded or just flat-out wrong I am), I can say without ANY fear of contradiction - if you had had ME as a teacher, you would have loved homework AND school!! No brag, just fact.

Homework (I assign about 20 minutes a night, which I realize adds up to 2 hours total for each student's six classes) allows a student to prepare something for the next day's class discussion. If there were NO homework, we'd only be able to spend 20 minutes talking, while my students, on an AVERAGE day, are still going strong at the end of the 40 minutes discussion. I try NOT to teach them anything EVER - I lead them to discover the answers themselves. That way it is internalized, rather than 'remembered' (i.e. 'forgotten').

It's all in presentation, squack. If a student is properly motivated by the teacher, it's ALL GOOD. Otherwise, as you say, it's ALL BAD.

[bad hammy]

But just think what wonderful things you learned by forming that triangle mass out of clay..... huh...........what did you learn?

That when you put some kind of powder in some kind of liquid sitting in the bottom of a fake volcano, it erupts. Something like that. Maybe it was the other way around.

Hey Hammy what are the odds that Tafnut will agree with me? 10 to 1? 1000 to 1?

Pretty high odds on that one. Maybe when he is done with that emergency pieholectomy he can come back on and let us know.

Edit: I guess the emergency surgery finished while I was posting.

[SQUACKEE]

Re: No homework ever! Grades 1-12 Here's why-

Now, im asking you to open your mine.

Why? Do you think there's gold or diamonds in there?

[low blow on the kid who OBVIOUSLY hated Spelling Class!]

Since you are asking a question I really DO have some expertise in (as opposed to all the other topics where everyone tells me how naive, misinformed, deluded or just flat-out wrong I am), I can say without ANY fear of contradiction - if you had had ME as a teacher, you would have loved homework AND school!! No brag, just fact.

Homework (I assign about 20 minutes a night, which I realize adds up to 2 hours total for each student's six classes) allows a student to prepare something for the next day's class discussion. If there were NO homework, we'd only be able to spend 20 minutes talking, while my students, on an AVERAGE day, are still going strong at the end of the 40 minutes discussion. I try NOT to teach them anything EVER - I lead them to discover the answers themselves. That way it is internalized, rather than 'remembered' (i.e. 'forgotten').

It's all in presentation, squack. If a student is properly motivated by the teacher, it's ALL GOOD. Otherwise, as you say, it's ALL BAD.

Mind! Dammit! Spelling bores me to tears although i know if ya suck at it ya look stoopid!

I dont believe homework is the reason your kids can discuss for more than 20 mins. but i might be wrong . Im open to that but i stil hate homework.

[tafnut]

Re: No homework ever! Grades 1-12 Here's why-

Im open to that but i stil hate homework.

I submit you had 'bad' teachers, which I define as not understanding how to properly motivate students. Many students come into my class declaring that they 'hate poetry', till I point out that's what all the lyrics to the songs they love are. So then we 'study' song lyrics, and suddenly they LOVE poetry. It's all in presentation! Eminem, by the way, as messed up as he is (and he is . . . very) is a master poet in my book.

[SQUACKEE]

Re: No homework ever! Grades 1-12 Here's why-

Im open to that but i stil hate homework.

I submit you had 'bad' teachers, which I define as not understanding how to properly motivate students. Many students come into my class declaring that they 'hate poetry', till I point out that's what all the lyrics to the songs they love are. So then we 'study' song lyrics, and suddenly they LOVE poetry. It's all in presentation! Eminem, by the way, as messed up as he is (and he is . . . very) is a master poet in my book.

Of course your right about good teachers. I remember having around 3-4. Its an art. My dad was a teacher and id like to think id be a good one. I have a feeling your a good one Tafnut. You know why? Because your gentle when im stupid.

[tafnut]

Re: No homework ever! Grades 1-12 Here's why-

Because your gentle when im stupid.

To be serious for half a nano-second here, a good teacher loves and repects his students. As I do you, squack! (I hear mojo throwing up in the backsground, so I'll stop there)

[mojo]

Why would I be throwing up? I love the love between two consenting males. :-)

I am an ex teacher who also thinks homework( below grades 11 and 12) is a complete and utter waste of time. Children and their parents need free time- time to just kick back after a long day at work and school. I have taught in many private schools where homework from grade one and on was mandatory. So there you as a teacher scrambling to make sure the kids have homework???
It makes me very sad to see little 6 years old so exhausted from a long day at school have to spend their precious free time doing more of the same.
If homework MUST be assigned it should be something fun - reading, projects that involve nature , that sort of thing. Not more pages from the math book.

I am with you on this all the way SQUACK.

And there is a growing movement of parents and educators against homework as research is showing that there is NO correlation between the amount of homework teachers assign and good grades.

We homeschooled our daughters for three years and one of the main reasons was because we hated the idea of busy work- at school and at home.

[Daisy]

I'm with you part of the way squackee. Kids should have no home work before they are 11. Then a gradual ramp up until they are 16 and keep it at that level to 18.

Tafnut is right, keep it fun and interesting. Teaching is an art. Students are like the 'paint' as well as the blank canvas. And the 'paint comes in many many different kinds. Teachers need to be able to make pictures with oils, pastals, watercolors, charcoal, acrylic gouache etc.

Now you have got me started...

They need to get rid of the GPA in college too. the students are so obsessed with their grades they forget to learn. Worse they won't take classes they think they do poorly in. HUH???? University should be about taking challenging classes in subjects that excite you. Unfortunately, the ball and GPA, or is that the GPA and chain, does not facilitate that to happen for most students.

[tafnut]

buncha stuff to which I totally agree