A serious rant about homework
It’s one of those perennial subjects that causes consternation in homes and schools across America, decade after decade: homework. In this post, a former teacher and mother offers her serious rant about homework her children are getting. Blaine is now a full-time practicing attorney in New Jersey, and she has written several popular posts, including “Pearson’s wrong answer–and why it matters in the high-stakes testing era” and “You think you know what teachers do. Right? Wrong.” This post first appeared on herparentingthecore blog.
By Sarah Blaine
My family is fortunate to live on one of those old fashioned blocks that is truly a neighborhood. There are about a dozen families on our street with elementary school aged children, and during their free time, the children run in a pack around the block with the big ones looking out for the little ones. Their games are incredibly creative: I’ve seen these kids write a script to film a movie, engage in elaborate games of “family” and sword-fighting, climb trees to fantastic heights, and design amazing obstacle courses. They have their arguments and spats, but overall the culture we’ve watched them create is one in which everyone — from the child with autism to the nerdiest of the nerdy — is accepted. My girls are glad to have a street full of brothers they know will have their backs.
What I cherish more than anything about this neighborhood is that the kids are able to run around independently. There are adults around in the afternoon — a combination of parents and babysitters — but once their homework is done, the kids are pretty much on their own until dinner time. This year, however, my older daughter has not been able to join the gang much at all after school. That’s not because I over-schedule her: after school she has a half-hour trumpet lesson once a week and religious school on Wednesdays, but rather because homework has become a monster, devouring childhood.
My kids’ schools have a late start (late bell is at 9:20 a.m.) and a late finish (they don’t get off the bus home until about 4 p.m.). We are an all-choice school district, so many kids on the street have significantly earlier schedules, which admittedly compounds the problem.
E leaves for school at 8:15 three mornings a week because the school band A serious rant about homework - The Washington Post:
