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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Homework Rant

160 replies

AICM · 23/10/2011 17:42

As a teacher I'm taking a risk ranting about parents on this site but I thought you might like to see the other side! Here goes. Some comments about my homework ALL from parents evening last week:
Homework is too hard.
Homework is too easy.
There is too much homework.
There is not enough homework.
I'm too strict about deadlines.
I'm not strict enough about deadlines.
Homework should only be academically focused.
Homework should be more fun.

I appear to have upset everyone!

On a serious point what do you want from homework?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

teacherwith2kids · 26/10/2011 18:14

Ah. OK. So you were reading a statement 'in a whining tone of voice' when it could have been written 'in an explaining tone of voice'. I can't change how you choose to read my statements, as tone of voice does not translate on-screen.

I agree that all professions work hard. I do not think that teachers moan more than others. If you choose to read a teacher explaining what they do as 'moaning', that is your interpretation. It is my general experience that everyone who has been taught, or has a child, believes that they know what a teacher's job entails. It is also my general experience that if I explain to anyone in RL what I ACTUALLY do in my job, they are amazed, as in general they had regarded the 'standing at the front of the classroom' as being 'the job' rather than 'actually quite a small part of the whole job'. I am sorry that you read that explanation as moaning.

I will discuss with a nurse friend of mine whether she encounters the same amount of 'I know what your job involves and you could do it much better if you did this and that' as teachers do. I know that I have in the past discussed it with medic friends and they say that (despite almost everyone having had the experience of being treated by a doctor) they do not normally encounter the same 'I know what your job involves better than you do' attitude so often encountered by teachers.

StitchingMoss · 26/10/2011 18:51

Pop, you don't like/respect teachers at all - that is very clear from your posts - and you are clearly helpfully passing this attitude on to your son by telling him homework is a waste of time, etc.

How you can possibly say that teachers are always moaning I don't know! How much exposure to you have to the multitude of other professions out there?! Most people have more exposure to teachers than any other profession because they have been to school and then meet them when their children go to school so, as teacher says above, you all think you're experts.

And your comment about nurses is way off the mark - my mother, brother and sister and quite a few of my friends are nurses and they rarely get told that their patients know better than them what their job entails, etc, etc.

I really think you should retrain to be a teacher, you would clearly be sooo good at it and be able to do it in half the time as the rest of us. Win win.

BoffinMum · 26/10/2011 18:58

Pop, the people who moan most in my world are:

One of the partners in the local GP practice
One of the local estate agents
Every single retail and catering worker I know
Most people who work for small businesses but don't run/own them

Nuff said.

popadop · 26/10/2011 20:04

Five of my sons good friends have parents who are teachers.

They are a headteacher two at primary and two at secondary.

Out of all the people I know that is all they talk about [or moan] they have stopped being invited out because of their excessive moaning and inability to talk about anything else except work.

So I suppose I do have experience of [some] teachers.

My other friends a doctor, a nurse, shop workers, horse trainer, etc are far better company.

exoticfruits · 26/10/2011 20:17

I don't expect that the teachers have time to go out anyway-which is why they moan.

mrz · 26/10/2011 20:18

With respect quite a small sample and they may still have been boring company [hwink] if they had chosen different career paths or they may be so committed to education they think others should be the same [hgrin]

teacherwith2kids · 26/10/2011 20:20

Pop,

I find it interesting that you conflate 'talking about their work' and 'moaning' when it comes to teachers. Is it that your other friends don't talk about their work OR that you find their work intrinsically more interesting / worthwhile so are prepared to tolerate more talk about those subjects?

I come from a family of teachers (mother retired, having worked in both primary and secondary, brother is a secondary head, various aunts and cousins also in the 'family firm'). Do we talk about work - guilty as charged. We find our work interesting, its challenges worth sharing, different insights worth gleaning, comparing practice across institutions and sectors most revealing. Do we moan - no. We all, in fact, love our work. Find it hard, yes. Find the perception of others occasionally irritating, yes. Moan - no.

popadop · 26/10/2011 20:25

If teachers are talking to teachers I suppose they find it interesting, but the rest of us are yawning.

My other friends talk about music, films, books, current affairs.

I suppose that is why teachers in my area anyway socialise with teachers and the rest of us slink away................

like I am going to now from this thread......................I am actually yawning.

mrz · 26/10/2011 20:31

I have a friend who talks about motor bikes or guitars and another who talks about shopping ... they find it interesting so think others do too.

teacherwith2kids · 26/10/2011 20:43

Pop,

You have missed the point again I am afraid.

Your accusation was that teachers MOAN more than any other profession.

The only evidence you have provided says that teachers TALK ABOUT WORK A LOT.

The two are not the same.....

(Academic mathematicians, in my experience, talk about work more than anyone else. They don't moan, though.)

StitchingMoss · 26/10/2011 21:01

As a teacher I would avoid you like the plague pop as you clearly don't like teachers and life's too short.

popadop · 26/10/2011 21:16

teacher ok last word.

When I say moan I mean conversations like this.

''i've got so much work to catch up on''

''i was up til 3am this morning''

''oh no i have a meeting tomorrow and class 5a''

''when will i get a food shop with all i have to do''

''i have not picked the washing in of the line for three days i just have not got the time''

and on and on and on and on.

I like my sons teacher he is great.
Not all teachers are bad my son has had some great ones.

exoticfruits · 26/10/2011 22:20

I bet your DSs teacher is either single or he has a wife who is doing the shopping childcare etc. I don't teach anymore-I wanted a life. (loved it with the DCs in the classroom but hated the rest).

ghoulionine · 27/10/2011 07:54

I suspect you might be right exoticfruits!

I just started volunteering recently in my Dcs school and I think it should be compulsory for parents to spend a couple of days in school to see what it is really like for teachers. My opinion of them has changed a lot since I actually know all they are doing and in what conditions. As much as I enjoy helping around and working in a classroom setting, there is no way I would in a million years want to be a teacher, far to hard a job and without any recognition for it.

ghoulionine · 27/10/2011 07:58

Oh and Popadop, I heard all the comments you have said are coming from teachers from a lot of friends who are not teachers, some of them being fellow SAHMs(except the "I have a meeting in class 5a" one) so I think complaining about the workload is common trend, not only for teachers.

popadop · 27/10/2011 09:40

YES I agree the world is full of moaners, why everyone can't be grateful for what they have is beyond me.

When you have assisted in building schools in poverty stricken countries and have seen how grateful a small child is for a notebook and a pencil it make you look at life differently.

Teachers here should teacher there and then they would realise how well off they are.......one pencil between 20 kids.

Breaks your heart.

Feenie · 27/10/2011 09:46

Lots of schools raise money for Book Aid and Build a classroom, popadop - lots of teachers very aware of these issues and teach children awareness too.

Still, at least you've switched from moaning about teachers, er....moaning to preaching/polishing your halo, because I was getting very bored.

ghoulionine · 27/10/2011 09:57

I am sure it does break one's heart but I am a bit confused. What are we talking about here? I thought you were arguing that teachers have an easy job, should not complain and are boring when they talk about what they are doing. Certainly there is always a worse thing to complain about but I really do not understand the comparison of schools in poverty stricken countries and schools here as a way to say teachers have it easy. Surely any profession will stuggle more in a place where they are no resources at all? Am I missing something

mrz · 27/10/2011 10:06

We support a township school in South Africa and another in Turkey with members of staff working there free in their holidays. Regular supplies of books, pencils and even some computers are donated

mixmouse · 27/10/2011 11:01

Really don't understand why no homework in primary/prep? If a child doesn't get used to doing some work after school then when they get to senior school they have no expeience of working at home.

I do agree that work should be something that the child does alone with minimal help (the time I sat in a coffee shop with a group of dads who were comparing what THEY had done for their DC and what grade THEY would get springs to mind!) so it doesn't turn into a competition.

When my DC were at nursery school they had 'reading' books sent home, more to get them into the habit of doing something at home and bringing it back and they were 4.

snowball3 · 27/10/2011 11:24

My class raise funds for Book Aid and my colleague has just spent last term unpaid in Africa teaching and supporting local teachers. Not sure what that has to do with homework though ( although the children in the school she was at in Africa had an hours homework a night!)

popadop · 27/10/2011 12:17

The thread has just moved off topic a tad, most long threads do this at some point.

snowball3 · 27/10/2011 12:27

You're the one that moved it!

mrz · 27/10/2011 13:56

In case you have forgotten popadop Thu 27-Oct-11 09:40:05

YES I agree the world is full of moaners, why everyone can't be grateful for what they have is beyond me.

When you have assisted in building schools in poverty stricken countries and have seen how grateful a small child is for a notebook and a pencil it make you look at life differently.

Teachers here should teacher there and then they would realise how well off they are.......one pencil between 20 kids.

Breaks your heart.

some of us have [hsmile] have you?

popadop · 27/10/2011 18:55

I have a huge heart about things and people I care about.

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