How much homework is enough???

[dixiechick]

I am a principal at a public elementary school and I, too, have a 5th grader. I do believe that homework should be an extention of learning and education, but there ARE LIMITS! 3 hours is excessive. As a principal, I would appreciate a concerned parent making an appointment to see me and discuss these concerns. Often, principals don't know the particulars. And I would respect the opportunity to investigate and correct these kinds of practices (homework length).

You can also talk to your School Improvement Team; PTA/PTO; or School Advisory Council meetings....all schools should have a parent led team. I am sure this can be worked out.....just keep a level head and explain the exhaustion your child is going thru. Be seen as a pillar of strength and calmness...not a raving parent...and people will rally to work with you

PS. My fifth grader has on average has about an hour of homework a week....


Good luck to you!

 

[joebryant]

Something's really amiss here. If the students are doing all of that homework, how on Earth does the teacher grade it all? Did I miss something? If she has 20 students... x 3 hours work... equals at least 10% quick grading time ... equals a minimum of six hours to grade it all... I'm betting money that she ain't doing HER job.
If she's assigning all that work and only putting a check on it to show it's been done, I'd be raising hell and half of Georgia. Start insisting that she personally checks EVERY problem and adds comments, then check her checking; otherwise, what good is it doing them to do all the homework?

Ya know what? Thinking about this, I'm really having a lot of trouble believing that you aren't exaggerating the case. I can't believe ANY teacher would be allowed to continuously give THREE TO FIVE hours of homework EVERY night for years and get away with it in a small town. THIS IS NONSENSE.

 

[key west chick]

Thats insane. My sons in all honors classes (8th grade) and he maybe has an hour and half of homework at night. And to answer joebryant, sometimes teachers just check to see if the students did the homework and check it off, no grading involved. We had that problem a few years ago. Son was in 6th grade and was on the soccer team and tried to have a life outside of school. His math teacher gave an ungodly amount of "busy" work to be completed at home. It took hours, not hard stuff, just time consuming. We got to the point where if he knew how to do it and could show us he did, DH would finish it for him. This was a teacher that never graded it, just would check to make sure it had been done. It was pointless. He got so frustrated he wanted out of that class, but we made it through the year.

 

[momto2]

In our school we have guidelines to how much homework the children should get. We get these guidelines in a parent handout at the beginning of the year. I believe 5th grade is 20 minutes per night. But sometimes it is longer if they were not able to finish their work in class. 3 hours is WAY too much. I would not put up with it!!! When my kids sometimes get an hour (4th and 6th grade) of homework, melt-downs start to happen. They have enough presure to begin with!!!!

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

I'm with Joe on the checking issue. My one dd had over an hour of homework every night in FIRST grade! I thought it was just that my daughter wasn't bright and it was taking her longer than it was the other kids, but it wasn't that. I later started checking the homework as it came back and saw that errors had not been corrected.

I did a TON of on-line research and the homework issue has been studied ad nauseum. Currently, the "tons of homework school" has been debunked; and the recommended amount by "most" researchers for grade improvement is ten minutes times the grade level.

I gave the whole packet of research with a cover letter to the teacher. I told her I respected her desire to do what was best for the kids and thought that perhaps she hadn't been able to find the current research which showed that this level of homework was counter-productive. I gave a copy of it to the PTA and the principal. The amount dropped to fifteen minutes a night within a few weeks. I don't know exactly what happened, but it let her change while saving face.

 

[mom'sfolly]

Your child's teacher is out of her freaking mind. My fifth grader has too little homework, but that is an exception. Your child's sleep should never suffer for school work. Her health and attitude are more important than grades. This teacher is damaging your child's attitude toward school and learning. Most of her day is spent at school and if it becomes a place she hates, she will end up a very unhappy child.

My advice is to find out how much of the grade is homework. For my son's fifth grade it is 10% of the grade. If the number is something you can live with, let the homework go. Get other parents to do the same. Maybe a mass homework strike will make the teacher see reason (from what you have said, she sounds like a total control freak). If your daughter aces all the tests and does well in class it will also p$ss the teacher off, which if it were me, would be all to the good.

Even if the homework strike isn't the answer, as my son's teacher said this week in conferences....Cs and Ds in fifth grade aren't going to change your life. It doesn't go on your permanent record, and nobody looks at it again.

 

[horsejody]

Talk to the teacher. If that doesn't work, talk to the principal. If that doesn't work, demand that your daughter be moved to another class. Yes, you can do that. If they say no, be persistant and insistant. If enough parents stand up and make demands, things will change.

 

[the1much]

tell the teacher she gets paid for her work,,, and ask if she would work 15 hours a day for nothing,,, < no dont,,,, i just cant stand it that our kids get up early,, then have a 15 hour JOB and then expected to be "nice" kids ,, i know after a 12 hour day, noone wants to mess with me.

 

[Fudgie]

Quote:
AMEN to that. I had to be really Biotchy with our administration to get my daughter into a different class for the same reason. We have a small school 3 5th grade classrooms. 2 classrooms NEVER had homework the 3rd had loads. the teacher would not back down. SOOOO I made them move her to another classroom. She did awesome and had A's and B's instead of c's and D's!

Not to mention the fact that those little tykes have to lug every one of their books home at night to do the homework. Have you ever felt a full backpack. OMG my daughters weighed more than she did! LITERALLY, we weighed it! I made the principal pick it up and he yelled at me for making him pick it up and asked why she had every book in there. I said she has HOMEWORK 3-4 hours every night. You gonna pay the dr bills for her back surgery for having to lift this.

 

[MamaDragon]

Suggestion - get a group of the parents together, and each of you spend one day a week Auditing the class. See for yourselves just WHAT is Going on, that 3+ hours of homework are assigned daily. You'll NEED that information when dealing the the Bureaucrats! That may also be enough to get the teacher's attention, and put across the point that this situation is NOT going to be ignored or allowed to continue any longer.

Talk to previous years' students and parents.... get written statements where-ever you can. The more of you that speak up, the better.

Skip trying to talk to the teacher - she's already heard it, heaven only knows how many years' worth of parents have had the same complaint.

Skip going to the principal and district supertendent - same thing.

Go straight to the State Department of Education! There are guidelines and regulations regarding all this in the State Regulations. This is obviously a violation of those regs, and since "Poop Runs Downhill", it sounds like it will take some pressure "from the top" to get any action about this.

I had some similar issues with our school system, and ended up having to get an Advocate for my DD. Once the district was notified that an advocate was coming to the conference, everyone was bending over backwards to "play nice" and finally listen.

I don't know how or where to get an advocate for children who do NOT have learning / physical challenges, but you might contact your state's Disability advocates, and see if they can steer you to someone who can help, and put some pressure on the teacher and district to stop this abuse! And yes, this IS abuse of the teacher's position of authority, and a failure to comprehend the health and welfare needs of the age-group involved.

My 5th grader is in honors classes, and the most homework he EVER has is 1 1/2 hours worth (and most of that gets done on the hour-long bus-ride home).

Good Luck!

Kathy