Call for homework to fall

Geez the headline posters around durban were stupid.

#home
work must
fall.

thought some people were campaigning for no more

namzsteve said:
Kids can be kids over the weekend.

Have you seen how lazy these new breeds are, always looking for an easy way out?

My brother's kids would feel this in my house, those little bastards always ask to be fed, at 12 years old? They arrive home from school at 2:30pm, watch tv all the way to 9pm then fight their parents to help them with homework... They can't even clean a dish. Lazy as hell.

I don't want a 27 year old child roaming about in my house because he/she is lazy. Feed them with more homework, they need it.
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If that's the case, I've got news for you, it's not the kids fault and it's not their laziness...
 
Positive move. Most homework in the early school years is more a means to grind a child into the ground and break their will than anything of practical value.

Sugarman said:
But for this to work, children need to be tough from a young age to do revisions of learnings done during the day.
At the present time the homework is for the learners to do just that, because getting to university the need to revise the days work is even more of importance
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That's exactly what primary school homework is not, especially in the earlier grades. Its tedious busywork that is in fact a waste of the child's time. There is basically nothing to revise in the early school years. If the goal is to prepare them for potential university study then the primary things they need to learn are independence and self-motivation. Traditional schools absolutely loathe independent children who think for themselves. They want nice little conformists. And they do nothing whatsoever to engender self-motivation (of which homework is the absolute antithesis).

Cr419 said:
Homework is important, especially for the smaller kids. It shows you as parent directly what your kid is struggling with and what you must concentrate on.
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Smaller children are the ones for whom it is the least important. It's typically just a means to waste a child's, and their parents', time.
 
Mila said:
What happens to them in university?
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They become part of the FMF bunch of snowflakes who will demand that their tests be made easier to accommodate their feelings.

Our society requires adults that are able to do a piece of work by themselves without constant supervision. This is one of the things that homework gets kids to do. It also teaches kids to delay gratification, which is one of those things that is absolutely critical for people to be able to function.

The other thing is that in certain subjects like mathematics, you have to get regular and constant practice. Homework provides this type of practice. Some kids (like yours truly) will not learn anything until they have practiced it properly.

edit:
that being said, I think homework should be coordinated between classes such that primary school kids don't get anything longer than an hour.
 
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Only needing 30% to pass a subject.. I would not drop homework.
 
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Nicodeamus said:
Education is also becoming the next best business in the world. The reality is that kids have different ability. A private school is not going to make your son or daughter more intelligent. I am yet to be convinced that SA's private schools provide a better education than the good (read good) model C schools. The only difference is that they pay more money.
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There are some other factors beyond the purely academic. Things like no uniforms, not forcing the children to sit behind desks for hours on end, encouraging self-reliance and independent thinking.

Trompie67 said:
Disagree. They provide a better (read that as also more rounded) education simply because they have better facilities & provide more opportunities.

Show me a government school in Gauteng North (within a sensible drive from Kyalami) that provides the following: (These are what our children participate in).

Advanced Program Mathematics
Advanced Program Science (Physics & Chemistry)
Sound & Lighting
Sound Tech
Equestrian (does not take place at school, but they support the school league like any other school sport - master in charge is at every event etc.)
First Aid
Investment Club
School Paper
Photography
Debating & Public Speaking
Robotics

These over & above the norm like cricket, rugby, hockey netball, basketball, tennis etc.

Then show me a government school where the teachers make themselves available for extra lessons at no additional cost.
Example: Mathematics & Science (Normal or AP) - teachers are available every weekday morning from 06h00 to 07h15 by appointment. Same during lunch from 12h50 to 13h30.
And on a Saturday. At 06h00 to 08h00. Every Saturday.
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Yes, in fact teachers at good public schools are willing to go out of their way to help, which includes coming in early if needed, missing their lunch breaks and staying after school. There is no need for any formal system. First aid, investment and other clubs are the norm, typically with teachers happily volunteering their time. And this is nothing new either. These schools already offered much of this decades ago. Overall no child is truly going to be compromised by not having access to all you mention. In fact having to actually put some effort into getting access to things that interest them could be argued to be more valuable. With modern technology they can learn almost anything they like, with a little effort.

namzsteve said:
Have you seen how lazy these new breeds are, always looking for an easy way out?

My brother's kids would feel this in my house, those little bastards always ask to be fed, at 12 years old? They arrive home from school at 2:30pm, watch tv all the way to 9pm then fight their parents to help them with homework... They can't even clean a dish. Lazy as hell.

I don't want a 27 year old child roaming about in my house because he/she is lazy. Feed them with more homework, they need it.
Click to expand...
None of which has the slightest thing to do with homework or the value thereof. Sorry to have to burst your bubble, but homework does not encourage children to help around the house, make their own food or even to work hard.
 
Mila said:
What happens to them in university?
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You really think enforced homework helps when they get to university and no-one cares or checks whether they do assignments? If so I have an excellent bridge to sell you. Barely used, just needs some polish.
 
Lupus said:
Sounds like a good plan. Homework often is almost as long as school. Kids should be kids. I've seen grade 2 pupils who have more homework then they should've.
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This can only work if the shortfall is made up during school hours - namely you have to fix the education system first! We already have illiterate matrics who are being brainwashed by the EFF (mind you, the EFF is full of guys doing their masters degrees).
 
konfab said:
Our society requires adults that are able to do a piece of work by themselves without constant supervision. This is one of the things that homework gets kids to do. It also teaches kids to delay gratification, which is one of those things that is absolutely critical for people to be able to function.
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One of the things homework specifically does not do is teach children to work by themselves without constant supervision. It cannot because homework is typically monitored and enforced. It doesn't really teach delayed gratification either and you have bigger problems if you're relying on homework to do that, even if it did work.
 
noxibox said:
One of the things homework specifically does not do is teach children to work by themselves without constant supervision. It cannot because homework is typically monitored and enforced. It doesn't really teach delayed gratification either and you have bigger problems if you're relying on homework to do that, even if it did work.
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Homework is only monitored at the end when it is checked by either the parent or the teacher. That is not constant supervision. If the kid in question needs an adult to sit next to them to do their homework, that is evidence of bigger problems than homework.
 
The Finnish education system is so much more than just no homework. Teaching is an highly coveted course at universities with just 10% of the applicants being accepted into the programme. All teachers must also have masters degrees and they typically stick with the same class of children throughout primary school.
 
konfab said:
Homework is only monitored at the end when it is checked by either the parent or the teacher. That is not constant supervision. If the kid in question needs an adult to sit next to them to do their homework, that is evidence of bigger problems than homework.
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The homework my nephew gets is impossible for him to do on his own. It took almost 3 hours for him to do when I was there to help him (and I am sure he is the smartest kid in his class). How long would he have taken if I wasn't there. My smaller nephew is 3 years (turning 4) old and his homework is also crazy, there is no way he can do it - so it by default becomes the parents that have to do it and him just doing the things that is within his means. Preprimary/primary school is not supposed to be this intensive in my opinion.

When I was in school, we had a lesson and assignments. If you didn't finish your assingments in class it was homework (and this was in high school) - so there was insentive to finish it as quickly as possible and use all the resources available to you in class. If I look at my colleagues with kids, they have to help their kids up until high school now and they complain about being tired because they had to spend so much time helping with the homework. Giving that amount of homework is lazy teaching in my opinion. If the kids have to that amount of work, I expect it to be marked and points to be given. If it is too much for the teacher to mark, it is too much to give to the child.
 
phoneJunky said:
My smaller nephew is 3 years (turning 4) old and his homework is also crazy, there is no way he can do it - so it by default becomes the parents that have to do it and him just doing the things that is within his means.
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Jeez what school is that? :eek:
The state school in fish hoek is apparently seeing very positive results since they did away with homework. Which is kinda obvious because all research done into primary school homework shows no benefit.
https://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/HWK01/HWK01.pdf
 
Why cant we just go back to the pre-OBE curriculum? It worked by far the best. Matric pass rate of 50% was also believable back then. Now we have 80+% pass rates yet any matric these days cannot write or speak a simple sentence in English (which is the first language).
 
phoneJunky said:
Giving that amount of homework is lazy teaching in my opinion. If the kids have to that amount of work, I expect it to be marked and points to be given. If it is too much for the teacher to mark, it is too much to give to the child.
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I fully agree with that. There is no point in giving homework if it isn't marked.
 
I worked in Singapore for a while, and mingled with some local families. Those children operate on another level completely. They work up until 8pm most nights, which consists of a day at school, followed by a combination of music, sports, language lessons and/or additional maths, etc, then homework, then off to bed. Those kids seemed happy and well adjusted. They are going to deliver results above and beyond any other children who work half or less than half a day as they picking up skills and knowledge faster than any other kids. We also learn to adjust and adapt to a higher volume of work. The top performing children will be doing these long hours, and will probably be highly effective adults.

A heavy homework load for little ones younger than 10 is rough, but they should not be sitting in front of the TV or computer after school all day. They should be out playing sports, learning a language, doing arts or crafts, etc. Why waste those formative years when a child's capacity to learn is so big?
 
Nicodeamus said:
Education is also becoming the next best business in the world. The reality is that kids have different ability. A private school is not going to make your son or daughter more intelligent. I am yet to be convinced that SA's private schools provide a better education than the good (read good) model C schools. The only difference is that they pay more money.
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Good luck getting your child into a good government school, especially if there aren't any in your area, the closest is just out of catchment and the only schools are private.
 
konfab said:
They become part of the FMF bunch of snowflakes who will demand that their tests be made easier to accommodate their feelings.

Our society requires adults that are able to do a piece of work by themselves without constant supervision. This is one of the things that homework gets kids to do. It also teaches kids to delay gratification, which is one of those things that is absolutely critical for people to be able to function.

The other thing is that in certain subjects like mathematics, you have to get regular and constant practice. Homework provides this type of practice. Some kids (like yours truly) will not learn anything until they have practiced it properly.

edit:
that being said, I think homework should be coordinated between classes such that primary school kids don't get anything longer than an hour.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately homework requires constant supervision nowadays as the amount they are getting in primary school is immense, I'm seeing kids doing homework from when they get home till bed, which is sometimes almost 3 hours. This is after they've gotten home from an extra mural.
When do kids actually get to go outside and dig a hole, swim, climb a tree?
 
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