It’s not enough to run out and buy all the materials for the science project, make sure the kid has breakfast and his clothes are clean and ironed (if necessary), send in the $5 here and $8 there for “materials” and “lab fees,” bring a snack in on the assigned day (elementary school only, thank goodness), but now I have to write essays on what my kid is studying?
No. When this came up with his big brother–parents were supposed to keep some kind of journal–I sent a note saying I was a professional writer, my established rate was $1/word, and how many words did the teacher want and when was my deadline. (Special discount, I did not charge for the note.) I am now on my last kid and have even less patience than I did ten years ago when this happened, so it better not happen again.
It’s the teacher’s job is to provide educational instruction and guidance at school. It is not the teacher’s job to dictate and rate what the parents do at home.
Now, if a particular student is having trouble learning, a consultation with the parents may well be in order. Information about and suggestions for said parents’ involvement at home may be appropriate.
Grades, however, should reflect what the student can understand and accomplish. Grasp of the material is one key criterion. Development of reasonably applicable study/work/social skills is another. Those skills may include doing homework, completing projects, and cooperating with other students, but certainly do not include compelling one’s parents to do certain tasks. When the school system starts giving grades to parents, we can talk about the parents’ assignments. Till then, grade the kids on what the kids do, not what the parents do.
I would have hated it, too. For my entire school career, I’m not even sure my parents were aware I had homework. I don’t think the words, “Did you finish your homework?” ever passed their lips. I’d occasionally thrust a paper in front of their faces to sign, they’d sign it without question, and I’d be on my way.
I would have viewed any attempts to involve my parents in my schooling or my life as obnoxious and tedious and a gigantic pain in my ass.
I’m against it. If I were the parent of one this teacher’s pupils, I’d probably call or e-mail him and tell him, while I appreciate his intentions, I’m not going along with his policy. Part of what I think a parent should do is teach his child how to work on his own and become a responsible person. Yes, parents should help children with their homework, but the work should be the child’s not the parents.
What’s worse about this policy is I don’t think it will be as productive as the teacher would like it to be. There are good parents out there who are involved in their children’s lives and education, but there are also a fair number out there who aren’t. Trying to force them to become more involved won’t necessarily work. It may make them only more resentful of one more unreasonable demand placed on their time. You can’t force a parent to be a good one.
When stuff like this happens, it results in an email to the teacher with a cc to the counselor and the principal. If that does not work, a follow-up call to the principal requesting a meeting between all of us on a mutually acceptable schedule. When they discover how difficult it is to find that mutually acceptable time, we have a conversation about how scheduling my time is not something the school should be involved with and then we discuss assignments being for the student and not the parent.
We are on our second child’s trip through the public school system. There are a few principals that recognize my last name now & we never get to step two.
I am a royal pain to my son, always asking about his homework (he has ADD and needs reminders). I ask to check it, I will help him study for tests, I’ll proof read papers, I’ll be his audience for speeches and will assist (to the best of my ability) with math problems. These are all the ways I can help with his assigned work.
One Sunday night at 9 PM he came to me with a magazine article and told me that his teacher wanted the parents to read it and write a few paragraphs about how it made us feel. I was royally pissed that 1) he waited until the last second to give it me and 2) that I was being made to do homework. I’ve been out of high school for 22 years and didn’t think I would ever be forced to do a late night paper again.
After I reminded my son about last minute homework I did sit down, read the article and then wrote a two page paper. My son brought it to school where he found that over half the kids couldn’t get their parents to participate. The teacher asked my son to read it to the class.
The teacher gave me an A+!
I then sent a note to the teacher saying that I didn’t think it was right for a student’s grade to be impacted by parental participation. She responded that this was actually an extra credit assignment and could only help, not hurt the grade. ADD boy forgot that part of the instructions and thought that it was a requirement.
I don’t mind helping and consider it part of my responsibilities as a parent. Just make it a bonus, not a potential negative.
I am all for encouraging parent involvement, and making a student’s success in school a family endeavor. But the scenario described in the OP is the wrong way to do it.
I heard of something similar recently…I know a parent whose teacher announced that children would be “fined” $1 for any week their parents did not return a signed form indicating they’d supervised their child’s completion of homework. Yeah, they were punishing the kids, supposedly with a cash fine, for what the parents did or didn’t do. I have no idea how they intended to collect it. These were 3rd graders, incidentally.
I haven’t asked her for an update but I believe she was not the only parent to question the wisdom of this plan.
Last year, my son’s teacher (2nd grade) said it was not our responsibility to make sure he finished homework. She asked us to make sure we set aside time and a good place for him to do it, and to be there when he needed help. But getting it done was his job. If he elected to not to, it then he had to answer to HER, not to us. That was awesome.
This year, having reviewed some theories and research about homework and its effect on learning, his school has elected to cut back on assignments. No regularly-assigned homework for K-2. Only optional homework for Grade 3, with the occasional extra at-home project assigned. Moderate homework for 4th through middle school. This has actually proved controversial in that some parents think this is an awful development. Our family is delighted.
The only thing I miss about homework is knowing what he is studying. However, his teacher does send home a report each week talking about what they are studying, plus the optional homework packet (whether or not the kid does it) gives us an idea.
I agree with the idea of what the teacher is trying to do, but the implementation, in any form, is going to be difficult at best.
I knew a few teachers in NJ who would tell me that the second week of school, every year, some kids are added because their parents didn’t know that school had started and only noticed when all the other kids were not out on the street playing. They had done no back to school shopping or any other prep for the school year.
So you can see a problem but not much in the solution area.
Yeah, between my job, my own schooling, running kids to activities, my own bookclub (which I haven’t finished a book for in months), and, of course, spending time on the Straight Dope - I’m all over deconstructing Kafka for my kid’s English class.
Its a facininating idea, but its very disrespectful of my time to say “this needs to be done.” Put it in place as “we provide this blog space and highly encourage parents to read and comment along with the students” and I’m all over it - probably would even cut into my Dope time. Tell me I have to do “homework” and you are losing me.
And how about active parent participation bringing the whole class’ grades up? Instead of being all about 'my parent has time/reads/doen’t feel stupid talking about Walt Whitman so I get credit. Say instead “if we have active parent AND student involvement on the blog, the student’s paper requirements will all be shorted by a page.” Students can get extra credit for individual blog contributions, but nothing individual for their parents being literate.
I don’t have kids, but if I did, my homework would be to pay the mortgage and the electrical bill and put food in their mouths. Seriously, the gall!
I mean, involved parents, yadda yadda. But of course the only people who are going to be bothered to do their “homework” are the ones who are already involved, duh.