It seems a bit odd to see "standout" students with full schedules complaining about too much homework:
...when Norton, Mass., Middle School officials eliminated two study halls each week, three seventh-grade girls decided they had had enough. erryn Camara, Lynsey Kearns and Audra Schlehuber gathered more than 150 signatures on a petition to restore the study halls, which were scaled back to fulfill state requirements on classroom time..."I know two classes a week doesn't seem like a lot, but a lot of kids are staying up until midnight on their homework," Kearns said. "We don't have enough time to get it all done."Complaints about homework are a time-honored tradition, but today's protests may be more than idle grumbling. With teachers and schools under increasing pressure to cover more topics and raise standardized test scores, even young students at many suburban schools are saddled with a heavy load of nightly assignments, teachers and parents say.
The complaints seem to be about the loss of family time together, with students complaining that all the time from dinner to 10 pm is homework. But what about before dinner?
Parents have greeted the trend with a resounding chorus of complaints, saying the hours spent on homework are detracting from normal family life. Students are sacrificing sleep to finish work sheets and projects -- and robbing families of what little relaxation time together they have, they say.The three Norton seventh-graders -- bright, articulate girls described by their principal as standout students -- bounce from activity to activity after school, then study for about two hours each evening, more if they have a test or a project due the next day. "As soon as I finish dinner, I have to start my homework," said Kearns, who goes to basketball practice and theater classes after school. "That takes me till about 10 p.m., and I go right to bed. What ever happened to relaxing?"
Ah. I see (emphasis mine). Spending a couple hours a day on basketball and theater class - that, they understand. That time spent away from family is apparently fine with everyone, and only the time spent on homework is sticking in the parental craws. This seems odd, and I wonder how many parents out there would be willing to tell their younger kids to pick just one activity, and leave the rest of the time for schoolwork.
Posted by kswygert at December 27, 2005 03:15 PM