Strange but true at Poway Unified School District | |||||||||||||||||
| Is the district training students to perform poorly? | |||||||||||||||||
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According to an Educational Psychologist: "The district is training the students to perform poorly on math tests while maintaining an illusion that they are trying to help them." Here is an example of an actual case 1) Sixth grade boy gets tested in California Achievement Test by private agency Here were the results: 11.8 grade level equivalent in math concepts & applications 8.7 grade level in the basic math test 2) Same boy goes to 6th grade and gets progressively worse grades on tests in school ie C's and D's. 3) On his homework he typically gets 50% of the math problems correct If the independent testing agency says the boy is at above grade level then how does the school lower his performance? Here are the details: a) Tell the parents that homework is necessary because it is drill. (Ask the experts at Kumon math about drill and they will tell you that drill should take no longer than 1/2 hour, when the kids feel fresh and is designed to promote speed and accuracy and needs to be monitored) b) Give the kids long (3-5 hour) tedious assignments that will take them until late in the evening when they are tired and worn out. c) Give students these assignments on a weekly basis to reinforce the tired feeling associated with doing the homework. d) Give after school classes in math so students spend even more time with it. e) Create stress in the home by making sure the students bring home bad math grades. f) Use the poor results to justify more mountains of homework or after school programs. g) Give these assignments along with massive other assignments so that the child will be conditioned to feeling tired when doing any type of school work. h) Be certain that the child spends inordinate amounts of time on this (20-30 hours per week is not unusual) so that they miss out on other non school activities. As a result of this system when the child takes a test in school he is then conditioned to do it slowly and get wrong answers. | ||||||||||||||||
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I live in RB and though I am currently on leave, I taught elementary school for 25 years in Escondido. I completely agree with you that young teens (and children of elementary age) should NOT have hours and hours of homework! There are other activities, such as religious education, as you mention, scouting not to mention sports, family interaction time and what about just some "down time" which we ALL need to be able to think our own thoughts, pray, meditate or stare at the clouds!?! I feel we do our youth a disservice by giving them so much homework. We make them overwhelmed and they may get burned out on school. There are so many ways to learn and if a kid has paid attention in school all day and put forth effort there, he is pretty much depleted by evening time. There IS a point of diminishing returns! I rarely assigned more than 1/2 hr. of homework per night in all my years of teaching grades 2 through 5. I had many parents who were grateful and complained about other teachers and their horrific homework assignments!! Let me know if you need help researching this - I'm sure there is something out there that supports this in current educational research. Best Wishes, S. C. Ben W. writes I have been on this soapbox for years. Still have 3 boys in Poway School District. Picture this: school asks each child to be given a quiet location with few distractions to concentrate on school work. So after school the boys complete baseball practice, swim practice or whatever then comes family dinner and clean up. Then each child goes to his own room to do homework until bed time. What happened to the opportunity for family life, family bonding? All of the family together around an activity where family values are learned? Sometimes it feels like the school teaches "tolerance" in the classrooms but don't allow for diversity of family culture at home. Homework is a must in order to learn and get good grades. When I was a child we did all of our academics in classroom until about the 8th grade. Now it feels like a log of school time is spent on social values and agendas other than traditional academics and the children bring home the academic exercises to do at home. Classrooms are grouped in tables of 4 children to a able. Then when children are distracted or disruptive it becomes a discipline problem. No wonder they focus better at home alone in their rooms. Ideally I would be happy to send my child to school for traditional and have NO homework. They are learning to become workaholics. As adults this would look like this : Working all day at the offices or whenever and then bring their work home to do at night( or go back to the office after dinner). Sound familiar to anyone? How can they be expected to be good parents and enjoy family life following this model? Lately (at least for now), why have we sat idly by and allowed the schools to dictate what happens to our children both in school and at home? Ben Dr. T.A. Wrote I read your editorial in today's RB journal and agree with you 100% regarding the inordinate amount of home work given to middle school children, especially 6th graders in PUSD. Education should be completed in the classroom for the most part, with perhaps a little bit of after school time required for practicing a concept or an occasional report. I value these precious few hours after school and work to be with my kids. Those hours should be reserved for family time, recreation, religious, education, physical activity, etc. things that no public school can provide but are required to maintain our children's health and balance. Still another parent wrote: Let me say that I agree with you. I'm a father of three which includes a second grader, a sixth grader and a ninth grader. They attend Pomerado, Meadowbrook and Poway High respectively. You are correct. My sixth and ninth graders are both are involved with our Church's youth group and Boy Scouts. Homework has always been a sore subject with me. It seems that teachers today would rather pile it on instead of efficiently using class time for this type of activity. It's not unusual for my "High Schooler" to stay up until 10 or 11 o'clock to finish an assignment that began after the dinner hour. I am blessed in the fact that they all are honor students, GATE students and are all pulling A's and B's but I really wish that they had more time to complete assignments in class. The ritual required leaves little time for family or other activities that I believe enhance a child's development. My Junior High student, a son, has a teacher that seems to understand this but from what I've experienced these last 9 or 10 years, this is the exception. It seems that most teachers that have come across our family's way, are anxious to leave once the bell rings and the answer is more and more homework. Does it seem to you that the teaching code has changed? Sometimes it seems that my wife and I are going to school all over again just to help them keep up! My mother was a Jr. High and High school teacher here in San Diego and in ten short years, I've seen major changes on the part of teachers and their responsibilities. Thanks for your letter. I'm glad someone addressed this issue. Sincerely, Christopher L. T. (Poway) | ||||||||||||||||
| What can you do? | |||||||||||||||||
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Write to the school board and let them know that our children are not to be trained as robots to work day and night. 1/2 hour of homework per night is more than enough for students not yet in high school. Thanks | ||||||||||||||||
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