An elementary school in Massachusetts is eliminating homework for the entire school year. But there’s a catch – instead of doing homework, kids will stay an extra two hours at school.
The district was declared “chronically under-performing,” so the principal of Kelly Elementary School came up with the idea to eliminate homework as one way to hopefully bring about improvement in the upcoming school year. Read more about the idea on ABC.
Should Lakewood schools test out the same?
No. It will only put the burden on the tax payers, tax are high enough as it is.
Lakewood public school is not in the criteria of underperformed.
If you are asking about the yeshivas, that’s a different question.
I think it’s a wonderful idea. Only problem is they added two hours of school to take the place of the homework. We already end at four so that isn’t a possibility. We’d have to figure out how we can make sure our children are internalizing without needing homework. Home should be a safe zone. Not a place parents are constantly fighting with kids about homework.
There is nothing more destructive to a happy calm home environment then homework.
(If you do not have any kids of homework age, or if you have 1 or 2 kids with homework you cannot comment on this because you don’t understand this. If all your kids are out of school already you also do not understand this)
Home life as we know it has changed in so many ways. School life as we know it as has changed in so many ways. The pressures to preform, the pressures to know, the pressures to be considered the best out there – all of these have been game changers in Chinuch. Over the last 20 years we have added hours to what is now a ridiculously long day for children to be in school. We start teaching them limudim at a younger age then they are ready for it and we have added way too much work for even regular normal kids to handle. For some reason we no longer let children be children. Aych eleh el aviv vehanar anaynu itanu – How will we face our father when our youth was not with us – when we never had the youth years we needed to develop.
It is time to let children be children, Stop the craziness going on in schools. However, sadly this too will fall on deaf ears because there is no control over what takes place in schools. Whoever opens a school or runs a school does whatever he or she wants. The Mashgiach Shlita has said over and over – in shmusen, in writing and in private, that we need to do away with homework but nobody listens.
Here is the scene in every home with school children of all ages (especially high school). From 6pm – 11pm it is not calm, it is not smiling, it is not family time, it is not fun to be home time – instead it is homework time, while mommy, who just finally finished supper and its clean up, is now expected to also bathe the kids, get them ready for bed and put them to sleep while still juggling all the homework and test studying from all the Rabbeim and teachers (who of course won’t coordinate the amount of work going home). Oh, and all this while Tatty is BH learning at a night Kolel or night Seder.
It is out of control!
I remember when I was in school one of my teachers took the last 5 minutes out of the class and reviewed everything taught in that subject.
What’s the point in homework? To review what you learnt that day.
Another similar Idea would be take 8/10 minutes at the end of the lesson 5 minute review and a 5 minute quiz. This way the teacher can tell if each child understood that days Lesson
When the child comes home from a long day in school they are not in any mood to sit down and do more brain work. neither the parents after a long day of work.
MAYBE, BUT YOUNGER KIDS THAT END AT 4:00 NOW WILLEN 6:00 AND WILL HARDLY HAVE TIME FOR EATING AND TAKING A SHOWER (AND MAYBE PLAY A LITTLE)
ANND HOOMEWORK SOMETIMES CAN TAKE UP TO A HALF HOUR (ATLEAST WHEN YOUNGER) NOT TWO HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
EVEN HOMEWORK CAN HELP A CHILD AS LONG AS IT IS THE RIGHT KIND
Homework with a 15 min time limit (total all subjects) is not just ok but healthy for a kid to learn what responsibility means and for parents to see their childs progress or lack of. What gets me annoyed is when they come home with hours pf homework due to every teacher thinking that every other subject is secondary to theirs. Lets make a rule that total homework should be 15 min limudei kodesh and 15 limudei chol. (Approved by both principles (this way we know one teacher cant give too much)) That shouldnt take that much out of the kids play/bonding time or infringe on their availability to do household chores and responsibilties.
@anon it’s ‘than’, not ‘then’. Maybe you should’ve done your homework lol.
Seriously though, homework is already disallowed so the subject is moot.
School hours are too long and girls get too much homework. However, doing homework moves the material learned from short term memory (during class) to more long term memory, so a certain amount is enormously helpful. A short review, a few quick questions, per subject, will have that affect, but yes, it may take more than 15 or 15+15 minutes per day, in the higher grades. The most important lesson I got from school wasn’t (most of) the material we learned, but the very basic fact of life: You have to do certain things even if you don’t want to. Homework is one way of training, and Hergel na’ases teva, something you do habitually gets easier to do.