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Sarah79

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Schools in the US are to lenient on children when it comes to learning and homework?

I still recall when I was a 4th grader, we where already doing complex algebra, geometry, etc. We started doing fairly complicated physics in 6th grade, general and organic chem in 7th and organic chem in 8th grade. We had at least three hours of homework per day by 5th grade. In the US, many parents are actually COMPLAINING that kids are getting TOO much homework. I can not believe how stupid the people in this country are. I have recently heard of parents who take their children out of school and do "home-schooling" because they feel that their kids are "unnecessarily tortured with homework." These parents are just complete idiots. In fact, as an attorney, I honestly believe those parents should be charged with endangering the welfare of a child. I actually proposed a BAN on home schooling. It should be ILLEGAL. All children should be forced to complete high school and the US education system must be strengthened. Did you know that almost 25% of American high school students recently surveyed could not identify Adolf Hitler, and almost half could not guess, within 50 years, when the Civil War was fought, THAT is very sad!
My recommendation are as follows
1. Homework should be assigned on a regular basis by grade 2, if anything maybe an hour each night with no homework being assigned for weekends.
2. By 5th grade, they should be doing at least 3 hours of homework per night with weekends being free.
3. There HAS to be more emphasis on history and geography. Americans no NOTHING about the world around them. When 25% don't know who was Hitler, something is very wrong. Even if they do not have homework, they should be studying at least for 4 hours a night, on weekdays of course.
Maybe they will have less time to play violent video games and smoke pot.
4. Outlaw any and all home schooling or at the very least make sure that those who are doing home school are evaluated regularly for their knowledge.
What do you parents think?
My bad, miss-spelled "to" lenient, it should be "too" lenient.
What do you parents think about my proposal???
At the very least kids should have more homework
Mia's mom: "They need time to be CHILDREN." They DO have that time Friday, Saturday and Sunday, that is enough time for them to be kids!
If they have 2-3 hours of homework a night, they come home by 3, they STILL have time to go out and play and if they sit down at 6 to do their homework, they are done by 8 or 9. They can relax for another hour and go to bed.

513 day(s) ago

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suz893 		I am sick of American History. I only got to learn a little World History in beginning of 6th grade before my mom pulled me out and transferred me. The rest of my middle-high school years were spent learning American History, which happens to be biased against minorities and women. All it talks about is dead men, never mentions women leaders or minority leaders. You obviously don't have children, because you would have realized that it is stupid for childen to go to school for 8 hours a day, then come home and do 4 hours of homework/studying, which gives them no time to interact with family before having to go to bed. And they would have homework on Fridays as school in America is Monday-Friday. This is America, parents have every right to home school their children as they see fit. Also children need 8 hours of sleep, how are they supposed to get those 8 hours of sleep if they are in school for 8 hours, study for 4 hours, and then have 3 hours of homework on top of that? When will they find time to engage in family time, relax, engage in sports and extra curricula activities? What about the children who live on farms and have to help bring in the harvests and sow the fields?

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jerry87384 		3 or 4 hour of homework a night seems slightly excessive, there is no way my children have enough time after school for that amount of homework. My 16 yr old son & 14 yr old daughter leave for school at 7.45am & start school at 8.20am and don't finish school till 5.30pm so aren't home till 6pm. They start their homework at 7pm as soon as dinner is finished and spend at least 2 hours on homework/studying that usually leaves about an hour before they have to start getting ready for bed. They also go to school on saturday from 8.20am till 3.30pm and get between 2-4 hour of homework on saturday.

My 7 & 5 yr old son generally send an hour doing homework which also includes 15-30 minutes on music practice. They get home at 4.30pm (start school at 8.30am) start homework at 5pm have free time at 6pm till dinner at 6.30pm and then once dinner is finished they have to start to get ready for bed and then read between 7.30pm-7.45pm before lights out. They don't have school on weekends but have other commitments on the weekend(sports) also they need time just to be children.

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suz893 		I actually think they are teaching harder subjects earlier than they used to. The problem with the public school system is that the teachers are not getting paid enough and the classrooms are filled to capacity. Parents send their unruly children to school and leave it up to the teachers to do the discipline (which robs the other students of their learning time). I have a friend who graduated college and has elementary school grammar at best. Now the public schools are getting offered millions in federal funding to raise test scores and I think we all know how that will end up. I don't think that homeschooling is the problem being that the majority of school aged children are in public schools. In fact, home schooled children have statistically higher test scores and GPA's than the average public school child. It is ultimately up to the parents to work with their children (and the teachers) to give their child the best education by being involved and interested in what goes on in their academic education. By the way, I think it very closed minded that you group all Americans into a category of being ignorant of History when I am sure you do not know all Americans, it may be just the Americans you associate with.

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suz893 		1. Homework should be a regular occurrence, however you are assuming that all students have an atmosphere to do it in. I know many of my students go home to empty houses where they have to take care of several younger siblings while parents are working until 10pm.

2. Students are in school for 7 hours a day, 3 hours of homework is ridiculous. I don't work 10 hours a day and do not expect my students to do it. They need time to be CHILDREN.

3. History and Geography are important. But emphasis must lie in math and science as these are the fields that will keep our children competative with the rest of the world. Again, now they have to add 4 hours a night of studying onto their 7 hour day and possibly 3 hours of homework? Get real.

4. Homeschooling has it's place. As long as a parent is committed to teaching their child and keeping them on target with others their age I see no problem with it.

You have some pretty harsh ideas on education. Expecting an 11 year old to go to school for 7 hours, study for 4, eat dinner and then go to bed is outrageous.

**You say they should be studying at least 4 hours a night. You do realize that all research points the evidence that 10 minutes per grade level is the most appropriate and effective amount of homework. My students are not home until 4 as the bell rings at 3:30 and 90% either walk or take the bus. This leaves 4-5 hours until an 8 or 9 bedtime. All there is time for is studying and dinner. No time for family, friends, free time (God forbid) or pleasure reading. Your opinions on homework would lead to burned out students by 3rd grade. Obviously you aren't going to change your opinion, but I am a teacher and deal with this issue everyday.

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ChrisPolo 		More homework isn't the answer to solving the cultural illiteracy you're mentioning. Less mindless reality TV and more reading would be a good place to start.

Most of the home schooled kids that I know are more culturally literate and have a better rounded education than many of their public school attending kids. Granted, most of the parents I know who home school do so because the schools in their areas suck. Home schooling isn't just for fundamentalists that want to shelter their kids from the outside world.

It hurts my "history and geography buff" heart to say this, but for the average citizen, there are a lot of things you learn in those history classes that are pointless. The basics of world history and US history would be great, but definitely more of an emphasis on civics and geography. FCOL, I know people in their 50s who don't know the difference between Thailand and Taiwan. I would rather that my kids know how the government of the country they live in works NOW than to know about some long dead kings.

Even if school ends at 3, not every child gets that time between 3-6 to do "kid things". Not every family has weekends free to just relax.

Posted 513 days ago

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ChrisPolo 		No, I don't really agree with your proposal.

I have to question the where you got your statistics, as they're grossly inflated. My best bet is that those who conducted the survey did a poor job in pooling their population. For those high school students that believe the Civil War happened before 1810 or in the twentieth century, I'd be interested in the other aspects of their school performance. I'm talking attendance records, the number of homework assignments completed compared to the number assigned, as well as any disciplinary history. Also, throw in the number of parent teacher conferences that their parents actually attended.

Success in education lies on student effort and parental involvement just as much as it does on a strong curriculum and a good teacher.

What the government needs to do is reverse ten years or so of bad policy and start over. The education environment is now that of teaching to test, the end result being memorization instead of absorption. We've got schools cutting out recess because it takes away from academic time, just to diagnose young children with ADD because they won't sit still through an entire morning. Some districts choose to accelerate certain material to where it's taught a grade level or two below when it used to be. That's fine for a challenge, but spending weeks teaching third graders the triple digit multiplication that a sixth grader would catch onto in one lesson is a misuse of class time.

I'm not against homework by any means, but I see no benefit in burning our children out. Two to three hours is perfectly acceptable for high school students, but that amount prior to junior high is overkill and will yield the opposite of you're trying to achieve here.

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BenTis 		It's true that kids in other countries are doing better than ours in math and science. While most other countries do have longer school days and more homework, the problem is that in the U.S., we teach 35-50 concepts per grade while those in countries who are beating us teach 5-7 concepts per grade. We have a mile-long, inch-deep curriculum that is repeated year after year with much of it being review. Before we address the issue of homework, we need to figure out if we're teaching the right things.

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Sydney 		Well, you're not in touch with what's really happening to kids, particularly teens, today.

You might want to find a screening of this film:

All the best.

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john12 		excuse me?
i do homeschooling on an online site.
its very challenging and i spend at least two hours on each lesson. the history course im in right now is actually very informative and interesting i might add. don't group Americans into one stupid stereo type because i am very familiar with history and whats going on around the world currently even though im only 16

also, don't criticize something you've never done. FLVS is an excellent school and has honors and AP options.

ALSO, homeschoolers have to submit an annual evaluation, or you get pulled out.

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