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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

I. Hate. Homework.

69 replies

Doodlez · 23/09/2010 23:45

"It should only take 30 minutes per night Mrs Doodlez".

"Stop after 30 minutes and just write a note in the homework diary Mrs Doodlez".

IT.
DOESN'T.
TAKE.
JUST.
30.
FECKIN'.
MINUTES.

He won't stop after 30 minutes. It HAS to be finished. He gets upset and frustrated and tries to swear blind that if it's not finished, he'll be sent to Broadmoor detention.

He won't accept that's not the case.

He's 8 years old.

An 8 year old should not have to give a toss about homework.

AngrySad[as you were]

OP posts:
BuntyPenfold · 23/09/2010 23:47

Too true

Skyrg · 23/09/2010 23:48

YANBU (although I don't think you were asking! :) )

Kids usually don't like leaving homework unfinished, it's unfair to tell them to stop after 30 minutes, they should make sure it won't take them that long.

At 8, he should absolutely not be worrying. I didn't have homework until 11. Poor boy :(

mumof2children · 23/09/2010 23:51

my 4 year old has homework everynight, tonight i did not do it with him,he was tired and tbh after 6 hours in school he is in need of a break when he gets home

Original poster
Doodlez · 23/09/2010 23:56

I didn't have homework until I was 11 either.

It's madness.

He should be relaxing and playing, out in the garden (well, maybe not tonight as it was pishing down) but still.......

OP posts:
Skyrg · 24/09/2010 00:08

I think at that age, 6 hours in school is too many anyway, let alone having to do homework!

taintedpaint · 24/09/2010 00:46

I'm another one who didn't have homework until I was 11. I don't really understand the logic behind giving it to younger children. They don't need a work ethic (as quoted to my cousin when she questionned why her DS was getting so much at the age of five) as such at that age and I certainly don't subscribe to the notion that they need it in preparation for secondary school.

I simply don't see any real benefit from pushing children that hard at such a young age. They should be playing.

bluefinger · 24/09/2010 01:15

I agree, I don't remember getting any kind of homework at primary, not even spelling or reading. I really really think it's shite, especially homework that requires parental involvement.

We got homework when we went to secondary school and the novelty alone was enough to make us complete it. My parents had no clue which homework was due in when. We did it alone, we took the consequences when it wasn't completed. I find it odd that parents supervise/help with homework, defeats the object somewhat.

skidoodly · 24/09/2010 01:26

I got homework all through primary but it didn't take more than half an hour and I did it myself.

If parents have to sit and help every night and it's taking hours to complete the teacher is a bit shite.

Heracles · 24/09/2010 01:59

Blimey, when I was eight we had to do an hour a night.

huddspur · 24/09/2010 02:20

YABU just because it takes longer than the teacher thinks does not mean that it is a bad thing. Its probably a good thing to show your dc that perservering until the work is completed even though it goes beyond the time it should take to complete is the right thing to do particulary in the workplace.

Galena · 24/09/2010 08:16

Damned if they do, damned if they don't - teachers, that is.

A large number of primary teachers hate homework - extra hassle of trying to find something for the children to do which will (hopefully) only take 30 mins, photocopying, remembering to hand out, collecting, marking, reassuring parents whose children hate homework that it doesn't matter if it's not completed, trying to persuade angry parents who claim their little cherub has never studied that topic in their lives that you've been working on it in class for the last 2 weeks, suggesting extension activities to other parents because little Tarquin had finished with 5 minutes to spare so obviously the homework was too easy. But, if they don't give homework, a large proportion of parents complain because they feel their child should be doing some work in the evenings to reinforce school work.

SO... You give a homework which is to prepare some information on a topic which interests them... Completely open ended. Do as much or as little as you like. And parents complain because they don't want an open ended task - they want a sheet so they can see they've finished, they do half of the work for the child because "that's what the other parents are doing", they simply print out pages from the internet because then it'll look like they've done loads. And then they complain because the teacher hasn't managed to mark all the projects in detail within a few days, on top of the normal classroom marking.

[Galena gets off her high horse, and apologises for such a long rant! How can you tell it's a touchy subject?!]

curlymama · 24/09/2010 08:25

Galena, I can see your point, but the parents who want their children to do extra work so badly should getthemselves down to WH Smiths and get any one of the hundereds of book sthat are available. They should be told that and not make everyone else suffer.

I HATE having to sit my 8yo down to do homework when he has had a friend over for tea, just got back from Judo or whatever. All that stuff is important too, probably even more so after the child has just spent all day at school, most of that in lessons. Then the teachers wonder why the children look so tired every morning, and even question me on why my ds is tired!

It's just plain wrong.

kreecherlivesupstairs · 24/09/2010 08:30

Another homework hater here. DD is 9 and has 40 minutes of homework a night to do. She is remarkably different to the OP's son, she will quite happily not hand it in and suffer the consequences. I will support her in this, I really think she should be playing after her long day at school.

Appletrees · 24/09/2010 08:32

Primary homework as presribed teaches reluctant children these things:

it's horrible and boring (almost always)

parents always help you (in most households)

you don't have to do it (almost sanction free)

you don't have to finish it (so says teacher)

ime they have learned these lessons well by secondary (or at least one of them has --- bitter, bitter experience) and you then have a job to unteach these lessons and the poor child just feels more and more miserable and put upon

your lo's level of stress is unfair after six hours of school

clam · 24/09/2010 08:39

What galena said.
Hate it as a teacher. Hated it as a parent, when my kids were still in primary.

amothersplaceisinthewrong · 24/09/2010 08:43

Homework should only start in senior school. I remember once my son then in Y2 came home with some Maths which neither DH nor I could do (and we each have an A level Grade A in Maths!!). We had to phone my Dad, a Maths teacher in the end.

Galena · 24/09/2010 09:04

curlymama Trust me, I agree with you. However, our dear friends Ofsted like schools to show that they listen to parents' wishes. There are usually more parents who shout FOR homework than against it (Not saying there are more pro-homework parents, just that they tend to shout louder), so if a school doesn't provide homework it's not listening to parents.

The solution that the majority of schools have found is to provide homework, but if it causes a problem then to say it doesn't need to be completed.

I tell the children that they are to spend no more than half an hour on it and that at that point their parents are to write that they had spent 30 mins and they could stop - hopefully preventing the 'But it's got to be finished' arguments. However, I also tell them that the half hour doesn't include whingeing about having to do it or sharpening pencils, etc!

The easiest homework to mark are the 'draw a picture/map/wanted poster/character and write a couple of sentences describing it' I'd like to think that those homeworks are the ones that don't cause arguments!

cory · 24/09/2010 09:12

Agree with everybody else. Homework is great stuff for a 13yo who can research an interesting project over a period of months, not for an overtired 7yo who should be out kicking a ball.

Marjoriew · 24/09/2010 09:20

Mine never did homework in Primary school - I didn't allow it.

Secondary is fine, but again, it should be limited to about an hour.

hackingandhewing · 24/09/2010 09:20

I feel for teachers. We have a huge gaggle of homework demanding parents at the DSs schools.

They go to infant and middle schools next door to each other so it's all pretty much the same parents.

DD is in yr 7 and they seem to have struck on quite a good system this year for literacy.

Instead of getting homework each week, they are getting a writing project every half term. The current one is to write a journal as if you are one of the characters in the book they are currently reading. DD hates creative writing usually but she seems to be enjoying this.

Having said all that, DS in Y1 has never had homework other than to read and prctice phonics in reception.

DD gets maths and literacy and the odd project. She never spenss more than an hour at the weekend (after the whining and pencil hunting!)

Am Shock at a 4 year old having homeowrk every night!

jem44 · 24/09/2010 09:21

In The Times:

Kirsty Allsopp; she defeated HIPS - now Homework.

www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/families/article2738598.ece?CMP=INTleg191

She has started a campaign on Twitter. Perhaps we should join?

ShrinkingViolet · 24/09/2010 09:24

difficulty with the "draw a picture" type homework is when you have a DC who doesn't draw very well, and knows that their homework is never going to be chosen to put on the wall because it's scruffy/doesn't look like anythign in particular.

DD2 is suffering a lot with "make a poster of.." homework at the moment (she's Y8) as she really struggles with drawing, but several of her teachers have specified not to do it on the computer. So she has lots of stick men and stick animals on her posters Grin.

DinahRod · 24/09/2010 09:25

I am a teacher. I hate h/w.

knitpicker · 24/09/2010 09:32

Seems to me as everyone on this thread has different experiences of homework as a child we could do a little survey to see how it affected their education/ achievement/ life. I'll start - not much homework in primary, 20mins or so, 3 1/2 hr supervised study 6 nights a week in secondary (including sunday nights). Don't think it made me a particularly high achiever - yes, I've a degree but a low paying job (after years of running my own business, damn recession) - and my concentration is rubbish.
I hate my kids doing homework! Next please ... anybody got a Phd...

Merrylegs · 24/09/2010 09:35

"Galena, I can see your point, but the parents who want their children to do extra work so badly should getthemselves down to WH Smiths and get any one of the hundereds of book sthat are available. They should be told that and not make everyone else suffer."

IME (primary school) parents who demand extra homework aren't doing so because they are interested in furthering their child's education. They are doing it because they want their child's cleverness to be validated by the teacher.