Just read this article. No big deal, until this sunk in:
quote:
The teachers' organization found that parents of so-called "tween" children -- 9 to 13 years old -- often share the homework burden, and most provide at least two hours and 45 minutes of help in an average week.The findings come as school districts, with children back this month from summer vacations, face renewed debates on how much homework students should have.
In the study of 500 parents and 200 middle school children, half of the students said they have been unable to finish homework because an assignment was too difficult or they could not find anyone to help.
Four in 10 of the parents surveyed said their children have too much homework to finish in one night, and a quarter said they could not help students because the work was too hard.
O. . .M. . .G. . . . 
Apparently, 40% of American parents can't hang with middle school homework. Neither, apparently, can 50% of the students.
I call dibs on the cabin in Wyoming when the apocolypse comes. Bloodsage fucked around with this message on 09-30-2006 at 02:20 PM.
--Satan, quoted by John Milton
I mean, sure I had to ask for help, but at least I was only 12. (Or whatever, making up an age.)
...wow. Sage, you're off there a bit -- 40 % of those parents can't handle 4th through 7th grade homework -- half of that is ELEMENTARY school.
This is even worse. I saw the homework given out when my brothers were in these grades, it wasn't nearly that much. Kids just want to screw off and not do the homework. This isn't the school's fault but the parents fault for "overbooking" their kids and having so much for them to do after school. Falaanla Marr fucked around with this message on 09-30-2006 at 02:45 PM.
This is horrible 
How can the children hone their bullshitting skills, if they're not given unreasonable tasks to complete?
quote:
Suddar had this to say about Tron:
This always bugged me too. I could never turn to my parents if I had a problem because pre-algebra was too hard for them.I mean, sure I had to ask for help, but at least I was only 12. (Or whatever, making up an age.)
Yeah, QFT here.
But then again, there were only 35 students in my mother's graduating class, and neither of my parents spent more than a semester in college.
quote:
"If I had to guess I'd say it's a statement from the inmates," said Collman's father, John Neace.
The parents can't be that dumb if such astute observations like this are common. Alaan fucked around with this message on 09-30-2006 at 06:29 PM.
We were just told that it's the way you multiply integers in parentheses. Willias fucked around with this message on 09-30-2006 at 08:16 PM.
And this is sad. I couldn't go to my parents either for help in Language. My mom couldn't help with the math at all (my dad was always too busy) and they both fell short on history/science.
I've also seen that parents of students that do well are actually doing the homework for them.
It's not an A for effort if mommy put in all the effort. :\
I can see how homework could be too hard for a parent. No offense there Bloodsage, But You can look at this article with the benefit of having college edjumaction, and a job that would have you use that larnin every once in a while. A majority of the parents out there do not have this, and the last time they might have been exposed to algebra was nearly 15-20 years ago when they were in high school. If you spend your day turning a wrench or hawking crapola off to suckers, you really are not using all that much math are ya? And shit, that is assumeing the parent has had anything in the way of schooling.
My little brother brought something up the other day, that all during highschool they would shove a metric fuckload of graded homework on us. Even senior year, for the "college Prep" classes, homework was like 70% of your grade. Hell most kids I know passed on homework alone. However, as my little brother noticed in a freshman class, that kids have a hard time adjusting to the idea that homework at the college level is all up to the student and is rarely graded.
Of course, that's if the parents are trying to do the homework anyway, which they shouldn't. It's bad enough parents are doing their kids' homework; it's ridiculous and sad that it's too hard.
--Satan, quoted by John Milton
Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite. - John Kenneth Galbraith
quote:
When the babel fish was in place, it was apparent Bloodsage said:
Except we're not talking about high school homework, but elementary/middle school homework. So using algebra as an example isn't representative. ....
... But they start you on algebra fundamentals in middle school. Or at least they did in mine, 7th grade they introduced 1st degree equations. And fuck I still meet kids in College who look at fractions as if they are the devil, I dunno or can even guess why, but I do know a good deal of people seem to view fractions as "hard".
In the school system I came out of, they showed a history of trying to shove higher end concepts down into the lower grades, to even the detriment of fundamentals. Think of the stunning success of "New Math". My guess is that is at least half of what the article is trying to say.
And they were supposed to be transferable to highschool, but laffo I moved to Guam nem-x fucked around with this message on 10-01-2006 at 08:27 AM.
Took it again in the 9th grade because the teacher was a stupid bitch and didn't really cover much.
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Bloodsage's fortune cookie read:
Except we're not talking about high school homework, but elementary/middlie school homework. So using algebra as an example isn't representative. We're most likely talking simple math here, as in fractions and shit, for the majority of students. And it's not like parents shouldn't be able to scan the textbook themselves, look at the examples, and figure out what to do in a given subject at that level.Of course, that's if the parents are trying to do the homework anyway, which they shouldn't. It's bad enough parents are doing their kids' homework; it's ridiculous and sad that it's too hard.
Okay Sage to a degree I agree with you but around here anyway Algebra level work is a common 6th grade course used to be later but the system has been slowly moving the concepts to lower and lower grades.
For example when I went through only the best students took algebra by 8th grade, my brother went through about 5 or 6 years later and algebra was a common 7th grade course or at least all the concept work was.
quote:
Nobody really understood why Bloodsage wrote:
Apparently, 40% of American parents can't hang with middle school homework. Neither, apparently, can 50% of the students.
quote:
Four in 10 of the parents surveyed said their children have too much homework to finish in one night, and a quarter said they could not help students because the work was too hard.
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Mr. Gainsborough Model 2000 was programmed to say:
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Skaw stopped staring at Deedlit long enough to write:
Only a quarter actually said they found it difficult. 40% says it's way too much work. There is a difference, you know.
shh dont say anything else you will hurt his head more
Now, before someone accuses me of someone who didn't do well blaming the system, I got A's on my midterm and final, and got comparable grades on tests throughout the year.
But that particular project took a LOT of time. Especially for a high school freshman (IE no driver's license, no car, living in the middle of an urban area, etc etc, having to potentially venture onto the property of people you don't know). And a lot of classes had projects like that. It wasn't as if you just had to run down to the library and do an afternoon of research. A lot of classes gave credit on presentation, and the standard was naturally raised by kids who could go and get this laminated or that turned into an overhead projection or the like.
I'm not talking about...fifty math problems. That's not a big deal. I hated math (still do), but I can see fifty math problems. I never had problems with writing research papers or just normal papers with supports from a given work. There are a LOT of projects that turn up, especially in high school, that require extra work outside of the normal realm.
It's as if teachers have substituted volume for quality, in a lot of cases.
sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me
7 hours of school
About 5 to 7 hours of homework after school.
Now I'm not saying homework is a bad thing, because reinforcement is key. But kids need a chance to be kids before they have to grow up. As to those who say that this homework is a part of childhood... no. Some homework, yes. Busywork, or homework given to you just because the teacher feels pressured into overloading you, that is not conducive to learning.
It was fucking lame.
If a parent complains because a kid's got a bad grade in that grading period, it protects the teacher to say "Well he had all these opportunities to pull the average back up, but he simply didn't do the work" (man I heard that one a lot). Likewise, teachers having the ever-watchful eye of something like No Child Left Behind have to prove they're making the best use of time both in the classroom, and give proof they're giving reinforcement work outside of the classroom.
The funny thing is that with English, for instance, they're doing things practically ass-backwards. If you haven't picked up the basics of grammar by high school, you simply cannot communicate. The effort should emphasize organized writing (IE getting your thoughts in a coherent, organized pattern), and polishing grammar and spelling as you go along. But I swear...every year, right up to senior year, there were these idiotic "reinventing the wheel" type reviews of grammar. Homework you had to do to find the noun, verb, etc. It was maddening. Worse, it was ultimately pointless, especially in an honors English class.
sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me
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See, your Peter means your hair. So technically it's true.
In the school system I came out of, they showed a history of trying to shove higher end concepts down into the lower grades, to even the detriment of fundamentals. Think of the stunning success of "New Math". My guess is that is at least half of what the article is trying to say.
quote:It just seemed applicable.
Roll the dice to see if Tom Lehrer is getting drunk.
Some of you who have small children may have perhaps been put in the
embarrassing position of being unable to do your child's arithmetic homework
because of the current revolution in mathematics teaching known as the New
Math. So as a public service here tonight I thought I would offer a brief
lesson in the New Math. Tonight we're going to cover subtraction. This is the
first room I've worked for a while that didn't have a blackboard so we will
have to make due with more primitive visual aids, as they say in the "ed biz."
Consider the following subtraction problem, which I will put up here: 342 -
173.Now remember how we used to do that. three from two is nine; carry the one, and
if you're under 35 or went to a private school you say seven from three is six,
but if you're over 35 and went to a public school you say eight from four is
six; carry the one so we have 169, but in the new approach, as you know, the
important thing is to understand what you're doing rather than to get the right
answer. Here's how they do it now.You can't take three from two,
Two is less than three,
So you look at the four in the tens place.
Now that's really four tens,
So you make it three tens,
Regroup, and you change a ten to ten ones,
And you add them to the two and get twelve,
And you take away three, that's nine.
Is that clear?Now instead of four in the tens place
You've got three,
'Cause you added one,
That is to say, ten, to the two,
But you can't take seven from three,
So you look in the hundreds place.From the three you then use one
To make ten ones...
(And you know why four plus minus one
Plus ten is fourteen minus one?
'Cause addition is commutative, right.)
And so you have thirteen tens,
And you take away seven,
And that leaves five...Well, six actually.
But the idea is the important thing.Now go back to the hundreds place,
And you're left with two.
And you take away one from two,
And that leaves...?Everybody get one?
Not bad for the first day!Hooray for new math,
New-hoo-hoo-math,
It won't do you a bit of good to review math.
It's so simple,
So very simple,
That only a child can do it!Now that actually is not the answer that I had in mind, because the book that I
got this problem out of wants you to do it in base eight. But don't panic. Base
eight is just like base ten really - if you're missing two fingers. Shall we
have a go at it? ... Hang on.You can't take three from two,
Two is less than three,
So you look at the four in the eights place.
Now that's really four eights,
So you make it three eights,
Regroup, and you change an eight to eight ones,
And you add them to the two,
and you get one-two base eight,
Which is ten base ten,
And you take away three, that's seven.Now instead of four in the eights place
You've got three,
'Cause you added one,
That is to say, eight, to the two,
But you can't take seven from three,
So you look at the sixty-fours."Sixty-four? How did sixty-four get into it?" I hear you cry.
Well, sixty-four is eight squared, don't you see?
(Well, you ask a silly question, and you get a silly answer.)From the three you then use one
To make eight ones,
And you add those ones to the three,
And you get one-three base eight,
Or, in other words,
In base ten you have eleven,
And you take away seven,
And seven from eleven is four.
Now go back to the sixty-fours,
And you're left with two,
And you take away one from two,
And that leaves...?Now, let's not always see the same hands.
One, that's right!
Whoever got one can stay after the show and clean the erasers.Hooray for new math,
New-hoo-hoo-math,
It won't do you a bit of good to review math.
It's so simple,
So very simple,
That only a child can do it!Come back tomorrow night. We're gonna do fractions.
Now I've often thought I'd like to write a mathematics text book someday because I have a title that I know will sell a million copies. I'm gonna call it Tropic Of Calculus.
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Roll the dice to see if Willias is getting drunk!
I didn't even know what the fuck FOIL was until I looked it up just now. D:
quote:Same here. The math itself was easy. Memorizing an acronym for it would have been a waste of time and mental capacity. Even if someone remembered the acronym itself, it would take the same effort to connect FOIL to the needed method as to remember the needed method by simple motion patterns.
Willias really knows where their towel is...
I mean, I've used the method before, I just didn't know it was called FOIL.We were just told that it's the way you multiply integers in parentheses.
quote:Yeesh. My science courses never gave craptastic busywork like that. Then again, I opted out of the honors biology class in highschool. When my brother took the course, we (my family) learned that the teacher running it was an
Ja'Deth Issar Ka'bael really knows where their towel is...
For instance...We had this project in my high school biology course where you had to collect the leaves from 25 different types of local (in our county) trees, then use the scientific method to discern which family, phylum, genus, etc blah blah blah it belongs under.
.--Satan, quoted by John Milton
sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me
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Die, Bloodsage! You don't belong in this world!
So I read too quickly; 25% is still ridiculous for the percentage of parents unable to help middle school kids with their homework.
You think that's bad? My aunt teaches second grade. One of the parents of one of her students complains that she can't figure out the homework. My aunt is living with us temporarily right now because she hasn't found a place to live yet, but it allows me to see what their homework is anytime I want to.
You should have seen my expression when I heard that a parent couldn't figure out how to do second grade math.
