That’s the title of the NY Times article where a NJ teacher is assigning parents of his students homework that has to be completed or else it may lower the child’s grade.
My partner and I have three kids ages 6,7, and 14 who all have a bit of homework every night. The 6 year old is learning how to do tally marks, the 7 year old has been improving his reading skills, and the 14 year old is reading Antigone. I spend about an hour and a half every weekday night working on their homework with them. Whether it’s tracking down the clocks on a score sheet, having words spelled out so the book’s story can continue, or a quick note on the difference between man’s law and “god’s” law is being portrayed by Sophocles. I feel like I have to read the books and know the homework myself to be able to help with it. Then again, I’m intellectually curious and love to help them learn so I’m happy to do it. But is this teacher going too far?
I don’t think so. I think that there needs to be accountability for the child’s learning on the parents more than just food and shelter. However, I think there should be some “out” for the child if their grade suffers too much.
As a matter of principle, I would notify the teacher at the first of the year that I refused to comply with any expectation that I would read any of the texts assigned to my children, much less comment on them as demanded. I might read the texts anyway, but I’d be damned if I’d be forced to do so by the teacher. The article says that he does not in fact penalize students whose parents flat-out refuse, so looks like we wouldn’t have a problem.
It isn’t my job to sit with my child when she does homework nor is it my job to DO homework. As a parent, it is my job to make sure my child is doing her homework and be available for any questions.
Are they going to far? I think that is a silly question. Any teacher that ever “assigned” me more work to do on top of the two full times jobs I have is out of his mind.
The article also says that in the one case where the teacher penalized the student for parental non-participation, he didn’t penalize them enough to change their letter grade. So the whole thing seems pretty toothless to me. I have no problem with a teacher trying to encourage parents to be more involved in their child’s education.
What a douche bag. If my kid was in that class I would tell them as long as they passed the class I don’t care what grade they get. If they got a “D-” but still passed then I would be happy. Because unless you want to major in literature in college then 9th grade english class means diddly-squat once you get out into the working world.
Homework assigned to the parents is a better idea (in my book) than homework assigned to the child which requires parental involvement to be completed. That reads funny. Parental involvement isn’t all bad, it’s a question of how much time and effort. Asking the parent to practice spelling words for the test is OK/good, but I’ve heard of situations, especially with Science Fair-type activities, where it seems like how much time and energy the parent is willing to put in determines the child’s grade.
I like the guy’s idea of encouraging parent/teen interactions by promoting parent/parent/teacher involvement and asking the parents to read some of the works read by the students.
I don’t like the idea that the teacher gets to be the arbiter of how much time the parent should spend doing homework for this class, irrespective of the rest of the parent’s responsibilities.
I’d categorize it as “nice idea, but…” I bet he doesn’t have any children of his own. A parent’s only real responsibility re: homework should be to make sure the child spends time doing it. Beyond that, if a parent has time and motivation to be more involved and look at the assignments, etc. then that’s wonderful and to be encouraged. But not all parents have time, energy, motivation, education, etc. What about single parents? What about parents with two jobs? What about parents with too many children? What about parents who think their high-school-age child should be able to work independently? It’s optimal for the parents to be involved, but when it comes down to it, it’s the school system’s responsibility to make sure every child, whatever his/her background, has the best education possible.
But, as we recently hashed and rehashed with cites and everything, the single most important variable in student and schoolwide success is parental involvement. Money, faculty experience, shiny new computer labs, whatever - none of anything within the school’s normal control has as much of an impact as Dad saying, “Y’know, I was thinking about the symbolism of the rain in Faulkner’s work - what do you think he meant by that?” And, frankly, there’s not much my kid is reading that I’m conversant on anymore. (He’s 14, a freshman, and they’re using different books these days.) I’m enough of a book nerd that I’ll often ask to borrow whatever it is and discuss it with him out of my own curiosity, but I bet I’m in the minority there.
So yeah, I totally get why he wants to get the parents involved. And this is something they can do without, say, taking a day off work to come to the Open House, or baking homemade cupcakes for the swim team’s bakesale. It’s not really a lot of work, it seems - a chapter here and a poem there; just enough to keep the parents involved and sharing with their kids.
Honestly, it’s just my own laziness and hatred of authority that has my ears steaming. It’s incredibly immature on my part, I get that.
THe extent of my parental help with my homework was occasionally carrying my book pack in from the car while my brother and I schlepped in bags of groceries. They might have passed me a dictionary or notebook upon occasion.
OK, mom would occasionally bring us some munchies …
But they never once cracked a book, or did anything remotely helpful. They came from a time when you got home from school, did your homework, ate dinner [thye listened to the radio] watch an hour or 2 of tv [I really loved the Magician, and remember watching 6 Million Dollar Man/Woman, Incredible Hulk, Louse on the Prairie and the occasional mystery movie [anybody else remember the Snoop Sisters and McMillian & Wife?]
My parents let me do my own work in high school, and I liked it that way. I find the idea that this guy is using teenagers’ grades to force their parents to do what he wants is pretty sick. As long as the homework he assigns to the students is complete and on time, I really don’t think it’s his business to force parental involvement, whether or not he thinks it’s helpful. I understand what he’s trying to do, but I think he’s got no right.
I’m not sure parental over-involvment is good for kids that old anyway. All of my friends with parents who were really involved in their schoolwork in high school had a hard time getting their shit together when they started college because they’d never developed any study skills on their own. (Yeah, I know, anecdotes aren’t data, YMMV, blah, blah.)
I also have no children, so my opinion means precisely squat, but when I was in high school I’d have felt the same way. I had (and continue to have) a great relationship with my parents, and I hated it when meddlesome teachers tried to insert themselves into my family life. Several of my teachers tried to make pet projects of my siblings and I because of our academic performance, and it was never useful or appreciated.
No kids here, and I came out of a time when homework was basically non-existent.
What exactly is a parent supposed to do if they have multiple high school students with different teachers and all of the teachers assign parental homework?
My youngest actually had a similar situation this year, where a teacher said they were assigning work for the parents. To her credit, my kid laughed and said, “Lots of luck!”
I graduated from school many years ago. No fucking way is a teacher going to have my kid’s grade depend on my participation. Of course, I do participate in any number of ways, but not for one second am I going to consider doing an “assignment.”
To me, assigning parental homework smacks of criticizing the parents’ performance of their parental duties. Would this teacher like me to criticize their performance, and give them assignments I think would help them improve?
Another point is unfairness depending on the parents’ education, experiences, etc. My kids have 2 lawyers at home should they wish to help with subjects like English, history. (We’d both be useless in maths and sciences!) How about the kid whose parent is working 2 jobs, or is a non-English speaking immigrant?
Final thought, in my over-achieving armpit of suburbia, a more realistic problem is parents doing their kids’ homework for them, thinking they are giving their kids an edge.
If this guy would send home a weekly newsletter with information on what the students were currently studying, and maybe some suggestions of activities that a parent could use to get involved with their kids’ schoolwork, I’d give him a hearty round of applause.
But sending home required homework that impacts the kids’ grades? I’d send back a note telling him it’s his responsibility to drop off Timmy at Tae Kwon Do class this week, oh and to please remember to pick up his asthma prescription from the drugstore, kthx.
It’s pretty sad, really. Teachers are in a position to see a lot of bad parenting and see its results all of the time.
That said, we hold the family pretty dear in this society (like most societies) and a teacher ought not intrude on what is very properly out of his area of responsibility or concern.
Where that line is is fuzzy, I’ll admit. But assigning homework to parents is way over it. They aren’t beholden to him, and holding kids hostage to his pedagogic whims isn’t fair.
If this happened to me, I doubt I’d even confront the teacher, frankly. Attitudes like this need to be reined in pretty hard, so I’d call the principal and the school board. If I don’t want it happening to me, I don’t want it happening.
God, I would have hated this as a student. My mom’s sole contribution to my homework was to occasionally object to it on political grounds. The one assignment I recall requiring parental involvement was a home ec assignment to cook breakfast for the family. Food was a huge battleground in our home at the time. I forged every word of that assignment, including my mom’s signature. (If you’re reading, “Hi, Mom!”). For some of my friends, homework was seen as an intrusion on their availability to help out around the house and babysit their siblings. Yes, that is piss-poor parenting, but to lower the student’s grade because they drew a short straw in the parent lottery? Give me a freakin’ break!
And while in the aggregate good parenting is a huge determinant of school success, on an individual basis there are exceptions. It is absolutely outrageous to place an additional weight like this on those kids who are succeeding against the odds. I really hope this doesn’t catch on.
It occurs to me that maybe volunteer tutors could be recruited to work with kids whose parents just weren’t suited for this type of project. I’d actually enjoy helping a kid discuss literature.