How much homework is enough???

[chickens4jojo]

That is way too much for a 5th grader.

My son had a teacher like that in 5th grade~~we would be up till 11 pm and sometimes beyond doing his homework. It was unreasonable and highly depressing for my normally happy-go-lucky and basically smart son and our whole family as we had no family time whatsoever. It was just a rat race & he barely remembered anything that he learned either~we just "got through it."

I believe that your child's teacher may be a serious perfectionist/over achiever of some sort in need of some type of "correction" by the school board. I would definitely get a "support group" of parents together and if that does not work.......

You may consider homeschooling if that would fit your family's lifestyle. (This is what I did) There are some really great tried & true homeschool programs out there: *protestant, catholic and secular, etc* depending on your preference. Some will even grade your child's work for you though at that age grading yourself would not be difficult to do.

But, if homeschooling would not work, you, as a taxpayer, have a right to absolutely DEMAND that they move your son to a different teacher. I know other parents who have done this regardless of the school's excuses. And it always worked well for them.

Well, JMHO. Best wishes to you and your son. I am rooting for you both!

 

[Poison Ivy]

My son went through the same thing when he was in 5th grade. He would start his homework at 2:30 and still be working on it at 10:30 at night. He got to the point he was sick at his stomach and had developed a nervous habit of biting his lower lip. It was so bad at times his lip was raw and bleeding. We complained to the teacher and the school and they didn't see a problem with it. So we ended up helping him with some of it just so he could be done by his bedtime too. Plus the teacher would send homework home on fridays so they would have to do work on the weekends. We finally had to pull him out and send him to a private school which he loves.

 

[opps00]

lol im in grade 9 and i i get max 30 mins homework, 3 days a week. and im in a challenge program ( we do harder work). lol if i were her id get a bunch of my firneds and egg her house with organic eggs of course

 

[Bren1222]

I am glad I am not off base here with all of this.

The parents I spoke with tonight are going to start with parent/teacher conferences next week. If that doesn't change then the principal (don't hold a lot of hope there) then off to the school board I guess.

I just hate this. We live in such a small town and this could rough up a few feathers. *sigh* I just don't see that I have any choice at this point. It is starting to effect her attitude and will to do well in school. I hate to see this happening.

One of the parents I spoke with tonight is a high school teacher and she did some research and it says that kids should get 10 minutes X the grade they are in for homework. So DD should be getting 50 minutes of homework a night. Anything more then that can be harmful and make children resent school and they don't comprehend anything after that. It also says more homework does not make them any more smarter or make the test scores any better. Interesting!

Why assign all this homework when it does nothing for them.

Thanks for all the advice. I will keep you posted on how this all comes out. I have a feeling I am going to be a not liked parent in the school system by the time this is over. And to think I have a 5 yr old DS who has to go through this same thing but I am requesting a different teacher for him. Learned my lesson.

 

[Bren1222]

Quote:
Funny but she would know it was my daughter beings we are the only family around here who raises chickens. Her teacher even buys eggs from us. I should start charging her $20.00 a dozen for pain and suffering.

 

[kodiakchicken]

Quote:
Funny but she would know it was my daughter beings we are the only family around here who raises chickens. Her teacher even buys eggs from us. I should start charging her $20.00 a dozen for pain and suffering.

No, you should charge her $20.00 a dozen and when she asks why so high, tell her it's your DD's chore to collect the eggs and since she was up so late doing homework that's the overtime rate for egg collection!

Absolutely DO NOT let the teacher win on this. Even if your DD gets moved to another class, this teacher needs to go - small town or not. I've found that because someone is a teacher we all start to believe that they are superior and always right. Totally not so. My brother had a 3rd grade teacher that told him he was stupid and would never amount to anything. Years later we found out he is dyslexic, but the damage was done. His self-esteem never recovered and he dropped out of high school in his junior year.

Also, when I was in college, I had a number of friends that switched their major to elementary education halfway through school because they couldn't cut it in the other programs.

I'm not saying all teachers are bad, but not all teachers are good just because they are teachers.

 

[Linda in San Diego]

Oh my, as a teacher and as a parent I feel your pain. You heard the rumors, you now know they are true. I am certain that even if you "talk" to her at the conference time you have, it will change nothing. Teachers like her are stuck in their "right" way to do things and cannot and will not change.

Option 1 - go to the principal, the superintendent, the school board and insist that she get a change of teachers. Be the squeeky wheel. Her fellow teachers know who and what she is and what she does.

Option 2 - pull her out and homeschool - I hate that option because I am a teacher and know my kids learned lots from public school. But so far, knock on wood, they have had excellent teachers. Last one is in highschool this year, but each year there have been "no way" teachers on my list. Had any of my children been placed with them, I would have insisted on a change. I was borderline with one teacher/friend for my boys - "It won't hurt them to have so-and-so as their teacher". But for my daughter, that teacher would have been all wrong, luckily that is not the teacher she was assigned and I did not have to step in.

It is time for you to step in. I agree, she messed up by missing a deadline for some assignments. But, even if you had known about them, when could she have done them? Quantity does NOT equal quality. I can assess my students with 5 - 10 questions/problems in most any area.

Time to be the squeeky wheel! A student who loved school should not have to begin hating school!

Also, 10 min per grade level is a very normal homework expectation.

I also live and teach in a very small community. Had I needed to pull one of my kids from a particular teacher, it would have hurt my fellow teachers. Luckily, I never needed to do that. I think the admins at the two schools knew what I would expect and put my kids in the classes of the best teachers without my asking....

Good luck with your these troubling issues.

 

[newchickenfamily]

I haven't read all of the other posts, but that has happened to us too. My 3rd grader was getting up to 3 hours per night this school year. At parent conferences (2 weeks ago) every single parent voiced their concern about the amount of homework. We are now down to 1 hour per night (as it should be IMHO). Talk to the other parents, and get together with the teacher. If that doesn't work, start working your way up the ladder. Good Luck!! When the kids start dreading school, it's all over.

 

[fosterchick]

First before you talk to anybody at the school, look into the No Child Left Behind Act. Some where in there it states how much time each grade should receive for homework. Also every school system I have ever worked with has a homework policy written out some where. Ask the school office what is the policy for the length of homework a night. Then I would start with the teacher. I wouldn't wait I would call now. Then I would work my way up the line. If you are not happy with any result then ask for your child to be removed and put into another class. Also explain about all the emotional stress your daughter is now under do the fact that she no longer wants to go to school.

 

[AussieSharon]

I agree that is an insane amount of homework for any age. My son's school is in the top 5% of the State. They pride themselves on such high scores but the kids have no where near that much homework.

Good luck.