Do children have too much homework these days?

Question

I am reposting this question from the "Grade/Primary Schooler" forum because the answers I received there makes me realise it applies to *all* children even toddlers at nursery school/kindergarten!
I have also added additional comments over there -

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AsxG6jma9iWweRShlUXjsZwgBgx.?qid=20070616001818AAMcGbm


"Do children have too much homework these days?

When I was growing up we didn't have much homework until secondary school really (1960s) and I used to chase my boys outside or up to bed rather than have them sit doing too much homework and they did fine by it - children need a balance as in the old saying - "All work and no play ...". These days my grandsons (8 and 7) already have far too much homework - school should be school and home, home!"

Best wishes,
Joan.

Answer 1

With all the exra pressure put on teachers these days, ie the extreme behavioural issues and the full integration of all children into main stream primary school, such as Autism, ADHD etc, not to mention the HUGE rise in paperwork and the constantly changing rules, legislation and curriculum, teachers simply do not have the time to teach everything at school.

I am a teacher myself and Im sorry to say that more than 50% of the school day is spent dealing with social and behavioural problems...in some cases quite severe ones. Many schools now have such a disruptive element in each class....sometimes even as far down the school system as P2, there is more time spent on trying to calm or settle certain children so that the rest of the class can do some work without being constantly disrupted. It is a sad state of affairs, but there is very little time available in the school day that is focused simply on teaching the children. Until there is a SENSIBLE change by governing authorities then I am afrai the situation is not going to improve.

I personally do not agree with giving childen a huge amount of homework. and a child of 7 or 8 years of age should have no more than 30 minues of homework to do and that should include at last 10-15 minutes reading.

Hope this helps

xxx

Answer 2

My children are currently at school and I feel they have too much homework to do. If you take into account that school is the same as our work then it is not fair that they have to do so much when they finish for the day. If an employee had to do so much after hours work they would be wanting overtime pay!! The other thing is that the schools have so much on their list to teach the children that the home work is just to keep them up to where they should be. What they are unable to do at school because they are too busy doing extras there is the basics. Often it is the reading, writing and arithmetic that has to happen at home. These are the basic skills the children need but they are being by passed for "other stuff". Schools go back to basics, that is what the children need more than anything else. Bad spelling and the inability to do multiplications is what is being seen more and more as a result of the great education system we currently have. Give them extras and forget the basics or make them learn the basics as homework. Why do we have teachers!!!! This is a topic I find very HOT as I work in the industry and am so frustrated.

Answer 3

Yes. Even when I was growing up, most math courses were entirely homework then you would spend the class reviewing the homework, then get another assignment.

It's unfair to children and to parents when kids are loaded up with so much work that they cannot lead a life outside of school. They should be able to utilize their time more wisely to fit the entire curriculum into the day, and only send refresher questions home- not 20 page reports and 10 pages of math problems where you need to "show your work".

I doubt any child will be in a situation where their life depends on solving an algebra question without a calculator.

Answer 4

Oh, my god , I am always whinging about this! My 5 year old comes home every week with two reading books (KS2!), maths work sheets, spellings and a book in which she has to make sentences using the spellings. I am always saying that she has far too much to do, when is she supposed to play and be a child? She is very bright and capable, but does not like to be pushed. There is a very fine line between making sure her homework is done and making her do her homework.(If you know what I mean) I do not want to be forcing her to do lots of work after she has been at school all day with her tyranical teachers, I feel that she should be allowed to choose what she wants to do. At the beginning of the school year she would want to do her homework as soon as she was given it, but now the novelty has worn off a bit and she often pulls a face at the thought of it. I am a supportive, but not pushy parent and in my opinion she gets FAR too much!!
Thankyou for allowing my two pennith!!

Answer 5

I live in Switzerland, where school really doesn't start until the age of 7, the equivalent of first grade. Our community does 2 years of kindergarden, which is fab.
The rule here is roughly 15 minutes of homework per day per grade level. So by the third grade they have about 45 minutes a day. It is manageable without a whole lot of stress on the child's part, since many times the homework is still things like sharpen your pencils, clean your backpack, etc.
I know that many kids these days are involved in extracurricular activities, which could account for the time deficit and stress level for homework.

Answer 6

You are so right. It has been proved that the work kids do at home is actually of little educational value, is one of the biggest causes of arguments at home and is a pain for teachers to set and mark. A lot of homework actually goes unmarked or is returned so late that the kids have forgotten what it was all about. BUT it is a reflection of today's competitive society where many parents try to turn their wee ones into geniuses and pressure schools to pile on the homework. As a teacher myself I set the minimum of homework and try to make it a practical task whenever possible (avoiding the dreaded worksheet at all costs). I try to give kids an equal chance to be able to do it and report back to me successfully, because not all homes are equal in the support kids get. Do parents really think I don't know when a kid hasn't done his own homework? Worst of all are the parents who feel that what their kids get from school is inadequate and make them plough through all these work books and revision aids to get better SATS results. PLEASE let them be kids!

Answer 7

My daughter is 7 and gets 1 piece of homework a week and spellings to learn, and a book to read. I feel that sometimes its not enough, shes a very bright little girl, reads off the scale at school and has her maths lessons in the year above. She gets easily bored and frustrated when the work is too easy, to be honest even the harder maths classes are not stretching her as much as I would like, she comes home getting full marks in the tests they do. It should be tailored to each child.

Answer 8

No! Not here anyway. My daughter is lucky if she has homework once a week(Thursdays) and she has a very enquiring mind for a 9 year old. It's even got to the point where she asks us to write out or think of puzzles for her to solve. Wish she was as eager to tidy her bedroom!!
We constantly ask the school for more apart from what we give her to do, but it seems that they can only give her so much advanced work. I suppose I should be grateful that she is doing so well & go & look for something else to capture her interest.

Answer 9

Yes i think so . When i was in school we didn't have homework until we was eleven years old ,
We had homework every night but there was still time to go out to play after it was done.
When youngsters come home from school it should be family time
Giving them too much homework will only make the children rush to complete it so they are not absorbing anything they have done
Leave children be children

Answer 10

Unfortunately, work and play are considered separate - they should be one in the same thing. There is far too much 'formal' homework which isn't fun for children and even less fun for the parents and it stems from a very narrow minded view of learning. If only a teacher said, 'Your homework is to build a treehouse' , 'bake a cake' - our children would learn so much more and work and play and fun would dissolve into one.
The moment 'homework' become a chore it is too much and of the wrong kind.