By: Harlem Parent

Harlem Parent — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 16:45:00 +0000

Totally agree w. MR. Vallone. I am disgusted w. the massive homework load and poorly conceived nonsense my daughter brings home daily from her school. My daughter is a high 90s student and is getting absolutely nothing out of all this ridiculous busy work her teachers send home nightly except bags under her eyes from lack of sleep. If this was an occasional big project it would be fine. What I am most upset about is the lack of guidelines or structure to the assignments. Sometimes she gets homework for material never even covered in class. (I read over her materials every day, so I know she isn’t making this up.) Her teachers at a supposedly well respected Manhattan high school are a joke and should all be sent back to a teacher education boot camp for some additional training. Homework should be reading and refining work started in class, not essentially teaching yourself. I may as well be homeschooling my daughter with the amount of time I spend explaining assignments and providing context for topics that have not been addressed by her teachers. Why not some guided study hall periods in the school day to allow teachers to work on improvement of writing skills, note taking, organizing a research project, internet research? Schools bury kids in Homework to give the illusion they are doing their job, which they are not. Our family is done w. allowing public school system to experiment on our child and are transferring her to a private school this year.

Comments on: City Council member takes aim at excessive homework

By: Harlem Parent