Well thank you all for your outpouring of support on the ‘too much homework’ subject. I really don’t know how many of you might be chomping at the bit to hear some follow up, which really wasn’t much, or terribly exciting, but I would feel remiss if I didn’t let you in on some of my findings.
1. Well miracles never cease because the principal did respond to me, but only to refer me to someone else, or as the case may be, quite a few someone elses. He told me to talk to someone who worked at my sons school district and also to consult the teachers. So….
2. I wrote to this someone at the school district (same letter pretty much) and maybe miracles never do cease, because he wrote me back as well. He said that the policies of how much homework was being given to the students were recently reviewed and currently, students in my sons school district, should be receiving 4-8 hours of homework a week. He also suggested contacting the teachers re the homework. So…
3. Now actually the teachers for me are a bit of a touchy subject. As I mentioned before, my son was missing some assignments and the teacher’s had been very helpful to me in helping him catch up so I thought it might not be the best time to completely piss them off. However, I could not resist writing one of my famous strongly worded emails to his honor’s math teacher who is a constant culprit of over-homeworking.
This particular letter was brought on by a pre-algebra math sheet that nearly brought my husband and I to tears and took about 2 hours to complete, including corrections, causing my son to stay up 15 minutes past his bedtime completing assignments. The result of the letter was a very angry teacher who denied that the homework assignments were so time consuming and suggested that my son request to transfer out of honors math, which he does not want to do.
4. I did also write back to the man at the school district to tell him that I did actually consult one of the teachers regarding the homework policy, and that the teachers seem to be underestimating the homework assignments and I asked him how, exactly the current policy was being enforced. This time the man who seemed so open and helpful to my questions and correspondence did not get back to me, so I guess miracles do cease.
As for me, I will continue fighting the good fight and, if anything interesting comes of it, I will let you know. But what I am really dying to know is, why kids do have to rewrite entire text book questions when all that is needed is the answer? Seems excessive to me. That’s one for the social studies/science teacher, when the time is right, unless any of you know… thanks.
Related articles
- An Open Letter to The Principal (rockandrollsupermom.wordpress.com)
- Teacher evaluation scores now available to parents of students (poststar.com)
- District and critics at odds over ‘new math’ in Mercer Co. schools (wqad.com)
- Homework, homework, homework. (burtphysicsonline.wordpress.com)
Glorious Results Of A Misspent Youth 
Hey Marissa –
Loved the letter and hope you are getting some relief in regards to the homework. As a teacher – let me just say – that we need the feedback. Keep sending those letter and emails.
As for why they have to rewrite the questions…. I myself have been guilty of that one. There is a good reason behinds it actually. Back in the 20th century, students needed to write the question so they could have the question in their notes. Now that we have things like google docs – such a time waster should be a thing of the past.
Thank you so much for your reply. I’m so glad someone finally gave me some insight on the whole rewriting of the questions. Funny because the same say I posted that blog my son’s history/science teacher told him he didn’t need to rewrite the sentences anymore which cut down his homework time on those particular assignments by about 10 minutes each!
It’s so great to be getting teacher feedback!
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