Your child wants to get into a competitive college. Would you recommend that (a) your kid cut back on running track, or performing in the high school play, the better to focus on academics; or (b) the school assign less homework, so that your kid has time to "chill"?
If you said (a), boy, are you behind the times:
Lynbrook High School in San Jose will kick off school today with new guidelines that discourage teachers from assigning homework over weekends and holidays. And Palo Alto High School, which welcomes students back Tuesday, is granting its first homework holiday at the end of the semester to give high-gear students some time to chill.
That's right! Because, you know, chilling all weekend is more important than working on substantial research projects, or extensive essays, or anything else that can't be done overnight. This may ease student stress, but what about the stress of teachers who want their kids to do some substantial work in high school, and don't see homework as "busywork" that kids should get mandated time off from?
The gestures acknowledge that the intense competition to win admission into elite universities by cramming teens' schedules with unwieldy amounts of academic classes and extracurricular activities may be taking a toll on students' physical, mental and emotional well-being.
Um, is this change taking place at high schools in the same state where the exit exam, which is at the 10th-grade-level, was recently postponed, because only a little over half of the class of 2003 were passing the math section, and almost 20% were failing the English? Yep, it's the same state.
And, yet, these high schools think the problem is that elite students are working too hard? And they want to set an example for other schools in the state by reducing the workload?
Lynbrook High administrators said they have been working on reducing academic anxiety for a while. Students attend only half of their classes Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and they jump on trampolines and blow soap bubbles during the school's annual stress-free week.
Oh, for crying out loud. How much hand-holding do these kids need? Joanne doesn't believe the figure that these kids are doing an average of 7 to 10 hours of homework a night, and neither do I. The ones who are working probably have to do so; I doubt many are "padding their resumes" with jobs in high school.
Among other things, the guidelines recommend students be given reading and practice problems on topics already covered, instead of homework assignments dealing with material that their teachers have yet to explain in class.
Wow. Teachers had to be told to do this. That explains a lot. I remember well that my worst teacher in high school always gave us homework on what we were to cover the next day, because it was easier for her to make us figure it out, rather than teach us the material. And this was in AP Trigonometry, no less; not exactly a class in which students should be expected to do long problem sets on material they've not yet covered.
Yep, that was 18 years ago, and I still hold a grudge. Back to the story:
Henry Dreyfus, who will be a senior at Palo Alto High, is not looking forward to the homework respite. "There are ways to limit stress, and I don't think a homework holiday is a good one,'' said Henry, 17. "We need the homework for reinforcement. I think as a result, we're going to get behind, and teachers are going to have to go over the same thing in class.''
Henry has his head on straight, and he doesn't sound stressed out by too much homework to me. If anything, I think the thought of falling behind - or not learning enough material - is what would stress out a truly competitive student.
And this part is just priceless:
The science department at Cupertino's Monta Vista High School thought more students would enjoy football games if they didn't have to worry about turning in lab reports the next day. So last year, science teachers attended many sporting events and handed out passes allowing students who stayed for the entire game to turn in any assignment a day late.
But after the first semester, "it just kind of fizzled,'' said biology teacher Lani Giffin. Some students still sat in the library instead of in the bleachers. And others whined about inconsistency because teachers didn't attend junior varsity events.
"We tried to do something nice,'' Giffin said, "and all we got were complaints.''
Where to begin?
(1) Newsflash: You're dealing with teenagers. Of course they're going to complain.
(2) You're science teachers who are giving students leeway in class for - no, not even for participating in sport events, but for being a spectator. Why the heck would I, as a good student in science, want to see people who sit in the bleachers get extra time for homework just for sitting in the bleachers? Why would a good student view a reward for anything other than classroom performance as fair? It's not.
(3) Does anyone other than me find it creepy that science teachers bemoaned the fact that some kids chose the library instead of the bleachers? I thought science geeks weren't supposed to be into sports anyway. Is this social engineering on their part? I'd resent like hell being expected to be at the game rather than hitting the books.
Joanne Jacob notes: "If the homework is busy work, don't assign it at all. But if it's meaningful, then students should make time to do it."
As an addendum, I'd add: And don't give students credit for things that have nothing to do with homework. You might be reducing the stress on the bad students, but you'll be increasing the stress on the good ones. They're the ones who will realize that they're learning less material, and if that they don't go to the football game, they'll actually have to turn their assignments in on time.
Posted by kswygert at August 26, 2003 03:50 PM