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AIBU?

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Original poster

To tell teacher " we were having far too much fun in the garden this weekend to do homework!!!!

92 replies

stoppinattwo · 12/05/2008 08:15

Or does the truth hurt??

They have SATS this week and again DS has been stressing about it on friday . He got very upset and worried. So i Thought bugger it... no homework this weekend and lets all play in the garden ....so we did

Im in the process of sending teach a letterr explaining that DS hasnt done his hwork and that is my fault not his, and I thought he really neede to chill out this weekend after being so upset.....and leading up to a busy week this week.

Please dont bite me about it

OP posts:
TsarChasm · 14/05/2008 13:10

Who on earth would ask for more homework?? Why oh why?!

AbbeyA · 14/05/2008 13:22

I think why oh why?! However I can assure you that there are a lot of parents who want it - and I have attended a lot of meetings over the years.

Fennel · 14/05/2008 13:24

That's the case at our school, the only homework dd2 (yr 2) does get is when parents keep pressuring the teacher so she gives in, for a few weeks, to keep them quiet.

Skimty · 14/05/2008 13:25

When I was teaching we would have to check every pupil wrote down homework in planner so that the parents could see that it was set. As a secondary school teacher, I sometimes set some pretty pointless h/w just to pacify parents.

Apart from extended writing pieces and some reading I never saw the point in h/w. I also think it was socially divisive. Of course the child with the well-educated parents who have time to sit down with him/her will do better in h/w. The child who has both parents working very long hours, no adult at home, looking after siblings/elderly relatives and no internet access is unlikely to do as well at h/w. It just exacerbates pre-existing social divisions.

Skimty · 14/05/2008 13:28

Plus in secondary (off subject I know but I'm on a rant now) children are often overloaded from subject to subject. I would always ask my yr 9-11 students what other subjects had given them. One time they had work which would have taken them at least 8-9 hours to do over the next 2 evenings. And I was supposed to set them more? Frankly, I would rather they were awake in my class and i had quality work to mark rather than wasting my time looking at rushed rubbish done after 10pm in front of the television.

Skimty · 14/05/2008 13:28

Hate SATS too

madness · 14/05/2008 13:30

(slightly irrelevant: I hate working in the garden/being outside too much: worms, slugs/hayfever/too hot/rainy...)

TsarChasm · 14/05/2008 13:35

Maybe all these parents asking for homework think it makes them look like better/more interested parents to the teacher and to other parents. Competetive parenting? Gah!

fembear · 14/05/2008 13:57

"I never saw the point in h/w. I also think it was socially divisive. Of course the child with the well-educated parents who have time to sit down with him/her will do better in h/w. The child who has both parents working very long hours, no adult at home, looking after siblings/elderly relatives and no internet access is unlikely to do as well at h/w. It just exacerbates pre-existing social divisions."

So we all dumb-down to the lowest common denominator!!?? Wonder why people people go private instead ...

Skimty · 14/05/2008 14:04

No, of course not, but why provide IMO pointless work to be completed in situations that are unfair. If, in secondary, the school days aren't long enough then make them longer. IME teachers would set homeowrk for the sake of setting it and then have all the problems and time wasting chasing it up and marking it.

Taking into account different social circumstances is not dumbing-down.

FWIW I was educatedly privately and rarely had homework...

casbie · 14/05/2008 14:17

and at primary level i think it's more important that children enjoy the process of learning...

children should be excited about learning a language, or doing maths (puzzles in our house)...

a good teacher understands this and makes the subjects interesting for the children to learn.

at home, i make sure that cooking is fun, cleaning is fun and gardening is fun...

i don't think we appreciate that we are trying to make well-rounded and intellectually open children, who then can find out stuff for themselves and what interests them, find out what they want to learn.

(climbs of soap box)

casbie · 14/05/2008 14:19

off soap box - opps!

AbbeyA · 14/05/2008 14:19

When my DSs were at primary school they were very fond of giving topics, such as a country to research and write about.The end results, for my DSs, were lovely because we went to the library, used the internet and I suggested headings, subheading etc.When they did a picture we went to the National Gallery DS2 chose a painting that he liked,bought a post card and researched the artist. I pointed out, at a meeting, that it wasn't fair because some children just didn't have that amount of parental interest and were unable to visit the library etc. The staff could see my point (a school with a great mix of social backgrounds)and they stopped.It wasn't dumbing down fembear, parents can easily do their own project at home. You need to imagine how you would feel as an able 9 year old whose parents don't read, never visit the library or have paper and coloured pens etc at home, you are then forced to go into school with a scrappy piece of paper and compete with ring binders,photographs, typed pages etc.

Skimty · 14/05/2008 14:23

I also think AbbeyA that you probably would have done similar things without it being set homework IYSWIM.

DH and I are already excited about spelling Wednesday as it's going to be in our house- poor DS is only 20mo and DC2 is not even born!

AbbeyA · 14/05/2008 14:31

I thought it was a better homework than boring worksheets and I would have liked to have had the sort of DSs who would produce it for fun but the fact was they only did it because it was for school! The end result was good but it was blood, sweat and tears to get there-mainly mine!! I don't think it was worth all the trouble it caused!

StarlightMcKenzie · 14/05/2008 16:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

AbbeyA · 14/05/2008 16:43

I think that you will find that the poor teacher doesn't want to give it in the first place!

ash6605 · 14/05/2008 16:50

I agree with you,well done for taking the balls to put it down on paper to the teacher.

MrsGuyOfGisbourne · 14/05/2008 16:59

HAve not read the whole thread, but IMO you are NOT being unreasonable. We did the same - went ot the beach, had an amazing time, kids played ALL DAY in & out of the water - that is what childhood is predominately for! They will do their homework later, and tey understand that, but sometimes you have to seize the moment!! Admittedly my rationale was coloured by the fact that one of my colleagues died unexpectedly last week, at the age of 42 , which helps to get things inot perspective.

noddyholder · 14/05/2008 17:11

I kept ds home one day when it was thick snow He was about 7 and I thought as he ahd never seen or played in snow i couldn't resist,I can never lie about health things though so sent a note to school telling the truth and never heard a thing.Some things are more important.

trulymadlydeeply · 14/05/2008 17:16

We live in France, and my dcs get too much homework imho. My ds1 is in the equivalent of Y5 and gets up to 1.5 hours a night + projects in the holidays.

It makes me really cross that so much empahsis is placed on it - he gets extra homework if he misses or forgets any, and his school bag is so heavy I struggle to pick it up!

Original poster
stoppinattwo · 14/05/2008 17:18

oh Mrs Guyofgisbourne that is very sad but true....My dp is very live for the moment type where I am more of a sving for a rainy day type....but we work well together and usualy meet somewhere in the middle.

Death however unexpected does make things seem more "live for today" and you only get one go no rehearsal. Children dont get hte opportunity to be kids for long enough, I am gald you had a lovely day at the beach....it is one of my favourite ways to waste my day

OP posts:
Original poster
stoppinattwo · 14/05/2008 17:19

TMB that is a lot of work.....would they not compromise???

OP posts:
Original poster
stoppinattwo · 14/05/2008 17:19

TMD even
+

OP posts:
robinia · 15/05/2008 13:51

I didn't even know my kids had SATs until the beginning of the week However, ds in yr 6 said that all they'd been doing since Easter was mock tests

I do think SATs are a good thing but I hate all this teaching to the test stuff. If the teaching had been done properly in the first place then they wouldn't need to spend so much time teaching the kids how to answer the questions. Or perhaps the SATs themselves need to be looked at. Whatever, I think it is a good thing to have test results as one of a large number of things that prospective parents can consider whenchoosing schools.

Homework - nothing should be set as far as I am concerned except reading, spelling and times table practise. Oh .... and times tables should be taught, properly, in schools - not wholly by parents.

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