im livid at teacher for telling off a 6 yr old kid for not doing her homework..

[ihatethecold]

since when did it become compulsory for a yr 1 child to do homework, i always presumed it was optional at this young age. so this last weekend we didn't do it..
she had to write a few sentences about a charity of her choice including a picture..

for the love of god she couldn't understand the concept of a charity,
so at parents eve the other night i said she hasn't done her her this week , thinking the teacher would say thats ok. but no she told me how to do it with her. i was annoyed enough at that, but then she came home from school today to tell me she got told of for not doing it..
im so cross
i really want to mention this tomorrow, AIBU?

Bikinibottom, some of those who think the OP is being unreasonable, like me, may also disagree with homework being set.

However, I disagree with parents who, rather than do anything about it, such as telling the teacher or head in advance that they disagree with homework, would prefer to become livid because it hasn't been done and the teacher has questioned why

QandA.
i told the teacher on Tues eve at parents eve that we hadn't done her homework this week.
so i was surprised and cross that she got told off today about it !

Yanbu at all. It's ridiculous.

Here's a quote from DS1 this afternoon: "It's a boring life in Year 1".

I teach year 6

I amfed up of the amount of homework my year 3 ds1 gets

each week he gets: engliush,maths science plus reading and spellings

crazy crazy crazy

Yes, I understand. You went to parents' evening on Tuesday, told the teacher you hadn't done the homework yet, she misunderstood and explained how to do the homework. The teacher then spoke told your daughter off today, as it still hadn't been done. My point still remains, you had the perfect chance to clarify things on Tuesday evening, but didn't, preferring to become livid today and post about it on MN.

YABU about the homework issue, however DS is in Y2 and has not yet been asked to do something like that. Y2 homework so far is reading every night & spellings & maths once per week.

I thought homework was always complusery????

You should have sent her with a note if you had no intention and you should have done it with her in the first place anyway.

Maybe annoyed but isnt livid OTT?

YABU

You should have made time to do the homework. It would have been a good opportunity to talk to her about a subject she did not yet know about.
Ime working in Reception, the children who don't do their homework feel embarrassed and left out when everyone else is handing it in/being praised.
I think you should have made the effort for your dd, regardless of your views on setting homework at primary level.

YABU

DS got pigheaded about his homework on Monday and finishing it would have meant a battle. Instead I agreed with him that I would put a note in his homework diary explaining that his head was full of a lego project and we would try again tomorrow.

DS happy. Teacher happy.

DS, normally a co-operative soul, still messing about by today (though on to a later batch of homework) and so the battle was had in the form of a major discussion about doing your best, listening and co-operating.

Homework is excessive in some schools, but generally those messages about co-operation and participation are ones parents want to endorse.

First of all,I have only read 2/3 of the posts as I am in a hurry, so sorry if I have missed something.

BUT

I really feel the need to say that for every parent I have had who opposes homework, I have had a parent who thinks I do not give enough homework.

Can't win.

For the children it has to be fair. They either all have to do it, all have the option whether or not to do it, or no-one has homework. You can't treat children differently.

IMHO

As another parent who can not see the point of giving homework in the infants, I asked the class teacher not to send homework home in reception. She referred me on to the headmistress.

Eventually, the headmistress grudgingly accepted that work need not be sent home for my daughter. What irritated me most was how patronising she was. I am presentable, articulate, and put my point forward reasonably. My daughter is well behaved and well brought up, and is easily up with her peers. The work could easily be done in 10mins in class time. Why not accept my point of view? But no, nanny knows best and not the parents.

Children are regimented enough as it is these days. I want time out of school to be their time.

So the teacher even went out of her way to make sure the task could be done by explaining to you what was required but it still wasn't done? Very rude, surely?

You also said your daughter didn't know what a charity was in the first place? Surely that's the best reason in the world for doing the homework?!

And you didn't even send in a note to spare your daughter the blame!

Have you thought about home educating?! Then you won't have to pit your personal opinion against the professional judgement of a teacher every time your daughter is asked to complete a task.

No wonder chasing homework is a mammoth task in secondary schools if this is the level of parental support in the early days.

Whether you agree with the concept of homework is besides the point.

If you don't agree with it in principle, to fail to clarify this with the teacher in advance is VU and unfair to your daughter.

I'm not particularly keen on homework although DS 3 and DD 4 both get reading and DD gets spellings and sometimes has to write sentences. They both love doing it so no problem - however at some point (certainly by 6) they will have to learn that sometimes they do things that they don't particularly like.

OP, I think you are getting a bit a flaming because your posts come across as if you are "anti-homework".

Having read carefully through the thread, I see that you are not "anti-homework" but that it was just this particular piece of homework that was missed out on.

A bit of a bummer that the teacher singled your child out DESPITE the fact that you had already discussed it with her. It's possible she forgot your conversation - after all parents evening is quite full on with lots and lots of different discussions and points to remember.

Don't take it personally. You sound as if you are quite level headed about homework. If it becomes a theme, then speak to the teacher, but it doesn't seem worth getting very angry about.

BTW - I fairly regularly let homework slide on busy days. We always catch up or do extra in advance but DS does go to school on some days having done nothing the day before (due to sport/work committments). So I am not a homework nazi - had to slip that one in -

I'm in two minds about homework (and I know the evidence as such is fairly inconclusive) in the UK we did it, but it was a pain. Mainly because ds being dyslexic threw huge wobblies at being asked to read or do spelling, so what should have been fairly pleasant short tasks caused hours of upset. I wasn't terribly keen on the projects either, because they ate into our weekends (and there was always a huge amount of resistance, even though I typed from his dictation). When we moved to the US the children got a good 2 hours homework every evening (they were 8 and 9). But it was very obviously extension work from what they had been doing at school, so very helpful for us to be able to give some one on one tutoring where they were struggling with the different schooling system. Then we moved again to Canada, and here homework is a rarity, generally just stuff they haven't finished, or preparing for tests. We actually quite miss the homework!

OP I can understand your irritation with having to do homework at all, and a couple of sentences is perhaps quite bit for a six year old. But it sounds as if the teacher did not understand that you were refusing to do the homework, as she advised you on how to approach it (perfectly reasonable IMO). In truth the teacher should really have been telling you off not your dd, so I understand your irritation at that. But being livid seems rather OTT. I've not come across optional homework anywhere.

You know the more I read of Mumsnet the more grateful I become that I have given birth to a nerd.

I actually don't mind DS getting told off a little for stuff I forget. It makes it a lot less likely that I am going to forget again, A: Because I don't want him to get into trouble and B: Because he won't let stuff slide. This could be cause the kid has self confidence you could bounce rocks off and doesn't take stuff personally.

Morloth....sounds like DS1. He has just started secondary but he loves to learn. He really enjoys homework we did go through a stage for a few weeks when he was 8 where he didn't want to do it but it never lasted long.

I think homework is a good thing for all children.

My 6yo dd only ever remembers her homework when it is bedtime, until then we all live in blissful ignorance.

cue: time for bed
dd: nooooooo - we have to build a dinosaur out of boxes/cook together and write about it/write out all numbers from one to a thousand in different colours.
me: well, now we know, we can do it tomorrow instead.
dd: but Miss X will be angry, and it is all your fault
me: fine
dd: I am going to have to tell Miss X that my mum won't let me do my homework..

GorgeousGirl -- on the Ofsted report for my children's school, there is a note that 'several parents expressed dissatisfaction with the amount of homework, but opinions were split as to whether there was too much or too little'.

My parents (both teachers) refused on principle to allow my sister to do homework. She would bring it home and do it in secret!