Kip Powick Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 YZ is considering lowering the amount of homework foisted on the students attending all levels of school in the YZ area I think decreasing the amount of homework is a great idea as it will allow kids more time to be in the malls, more time on computer with games, more cellphone chats, more surfing the web for useless info, more time to get into "trouble" due to boredom, and the lack of "direction". It's bad enough going in a store and having some zit-face not able to comprehend why you gave him/her $6.17 for an item that only cost $5.17, now we'll have a load of our future leaders who have no idea of what is involved in establishing work ethic. Yes, I don't have any kids at home but when they were here they did ALL their homework, did not have the luxury of handing in assignments when they wanted to etc. etc., and they are all professionals with good jobs. My daughter and her husband are both involved with education and both state that the education system is crumbling because of.......a sense of entitlement by the "students" as well as the prevailing attitude of , "who cares - I'll be looked after". The link is to the Toronto Star front page .....check out the .pdf file to see the graph on just how much time these overworked kids spend doing homework....how pathetic .. Edukasion in Trontoe Rant over.......going to do my taxes.....because I can !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadaEH Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 Hey it'll give them more time to smoke weed, deal drugs, hang out, fight, and shoot one another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deicer Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 Woodnt wont to hert thare self esteem buy making dem lurn anyting now wood we? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Hudson Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 What does this society want out of its education system? Do we want "instrumental" graduates competent to both reify and fit into a purely-skills-based economic system which fits nicely into the needs of business, (corporate entities, not mom-and-pop's)? Do we want graduates to be able to think creatively and critically to come to terms with human values, spiritual and philosophical complexities and perhaps come to terms also, with what our activities are doing to our collective home? Do we want graduates who can live in both worlds and still remain leaders in their fields? Do we want truly "international" graduates who are at home here, in Asia, in Africa, and Europe and can move easily through different world views yet remain true to their own? Is "work ethic" all we want in our graduates? And if we want more, such as their "satisfaction", what does that look like? Who's needs are served by "work ethics" and what is the nature of the reward expected? What is "success" when we won't have trouble feeding, clothing, sheltering and keeping healthy our, and other populations, or, as was widely, and in quarters, vehemently expressed when the small pox vaccination first came out that "we were messing with nature's "controls" and that death of populations was natural in the cycle of life? Is the "prevailing attitude" of our young people truly "who cares? - I'll be looked after" or is it the ever-present "public" brashness of youth we see on the outside while in those human places where it is more difficult to come to such easy conclusions, in the "long line" as they approach the end of high school and post-secondary institutions are they, deep down, really looking ahead and solving the problems that were once ours to solve, (and our parents to worry and sometimes whine about)? I don't want to ruin the fun of the thread, (guess I have already), but I'm curious...what do we want, and why? I've posted this link to Ted before; the site is worth taking a look at - try this presentation! Other presentations may inspire answers as well - all we need is imagination and will and it begins in kindergarten or grade one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super 80 Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 I really don't think the teenaged drug dealer near my office is out selling crack, heroin and extasy at all hours of the day and night because he is short on homework or structured activity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deicer Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 Look at this link and imagine what they would have done if they had to do *gasp* homework Third Graders in Georgia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RGT Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 Homework in high school is one thing, but I really did not think my 8 year old son needed to be doing close to an hour and half a night. THAT is why I put a halt to it. If the teachers can not get a days worth of teaching done in 6 hours, they better change how they are doing things. Dont get wrong here either. I do not think it is a teacher problem as much as a system problem. As usual it seems to be one extreme to the next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.O. Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 We were discussing this subject with our sons last night. They have always been able to complete their homework assignments and still have time for other things (friends, karate classes, guitar lessons, etc). The subject of favourite teachers came up, and our oldest was recalling the teaching style of his favourite teacher. "She always took the time to show us where we had made our errors and gave suggestions about how to improve. She tried to get us to use logic to come to a successful conclusion". Call me crazy, but isn't that a good definition for "teaching"? He made it sound like this had been the exception, rather than the rule. I remember this favourite teacher quite well from our meetings with her. She'd probably been teaching for over 20 years, but you could tell that she genuinely enjoyed her vocation. It's fair to say that too many of the others seemed to be just putting in time towards a pension. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest rattler Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 RGT How did you put an end to your son's homework? Not allowing him to do it or ? Reason I ask is if the work is not done, would that not impede his learning and in later years hold him back?? Way back when (no Kip, there were no dinosaurs) , I remember having home work grade 3 and up but the days when I had lots of homework in the early grades were those when I didn't do my work in class. Not saying this is the case here but even though the teacher had more power in those days (over the student's behavior), we did goof off from time to time. Today the teacher has little or no "real" power over a student that does not want to work. Also, today's classroom is / can be quite different than in the past. It is normal now for the average class to consist of many more ESL students along with one or more students with learning disabilities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kip Powick Posted April 2, 2008 Author Share Posted April 2, 2008 It would take more time than I want to contribute to this thread to explain why I think we, as a society, are moving in the wrong direction and the "homework issue" and a "separate school for Blacks, (YZ)", are just additional cracks in the mortar of this countries foundation. Suffice to say, I feel that the Legal system, including the Young Offender Act, the Immigration system, and the Education system are slowly moving away from what many consider as the line of reasonable accommodation. Rights and Freedoms seem to be trumping common sense and there appears to be few, if any, consequences for those that stray afar from those attributes we hold dear as responsible individuals in one of the greatest countries in the world. I do not advocate draconian/Stalinistic measures but there has to be a time when someone stands up and says "enough is enough". When the hot button topic on the news, and the centre of attention in our elected Houses of Parliament is whether we should fly the flag on the Peace Tower at half mast everytime one of our young people is killed over in "Canada's Vietnam", (we should not, IMO), then I think it is safe to say that this countries priorities need realigning. Shot fired.....back to other things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RGT Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 rattler I/We went into the school and asked if there was anything we could do to ease up on the amount of homework. We ended up modifying the homework. If it seems the little guy is doing good we just let him keep going, if he is having trouble, we put it away. Basically we spread it out over 7 days instead of 5. Both of my sons have other things to do after school. (Karate classes, guitar lessons, and or speed skating) They have to make it to the Olympics some how. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest rattler Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 rattler I/We went into the school and asked if there was anything we could do to ease up on the amount of homework. We ended up modifying the homework. If it seems the little guy is doing good we just let him keep going, if he is having trouble, we put it away. Basically we spread it out over 7 days instead of 5. Both of my sons have other things to do after school. (Karate classes, guitar lessons, and or speed skating) They have to make it to the Olympics some how. Makes sense. The other major difference between then and now is of course the extra activities (ours were not as organized) along with the fact that way back, we started our schooling in Grade 1, now it seems that the average child has 1 or 2 years of preschool plus a year of kindergarten before entering grade 1. I imagine therefore the expectations of what can be accomplished in grades 1 to 3 have risen along with the workload. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Cronin Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 It would take more time than I want to contribute to this thread to explain why I think we, as a society, are moving in the wrong direction and the "homework issue" and a "separate school for Blacks, (YZ)", are just additional cracks in the mortar of this countries foundation. That separate school for Black's issue... !! I'm not sure I can yet talk about it without getting angry, but ... geeez Louise!! What do I tell my kids now? I've been telling them their whole lives we're all the same. Skin pigment, that's all. No difference. Cultures are different all over, but black, white, yellow, red, brown... small, tall, skinny, fat, hairy or bald, all of us are the same kind of creature. Now it seems there's some official designation of a serious enough difference between "blacks" and ...? - everyone else? whites? - that "they" need "their own school"! OMG! What freakin' lunacy is that!! I reckon there's a lot of racism out there, and at least as much as otherwise is from blacks. Add to all that the much hated era of being "politically correct", which often only means over-compensating for past errors, and you evidently wind up with an opening for this lunacy. How moronic can we be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RGT Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 Rights and Freedoms seem to be trumping common sense and there appears to be few, if any, consequences for those that stray afar from those attributes we hold dear as responsible individuals in one of the greatest countries in the world. Last year my sons grade two teacher had so much trouble with ONE student she was crying at her desk. Having the teacher crying at her desk was very upsetting for my son and other students. What did the school do? Not much. They can not do anything. As it turns out the trouble-makers seem to have more rights then the other (good) students. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deicer Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 Another part of this that I have seen is the fact that teaching is getting away from being a profession where an individual wants to teach, to becoming a good job with lots of time off and a good pension. Please, don't get me wrong, I do acknowledge that there are good individuals out there who still carry the torch. They are getting fewer and farther in between. In March, my sons only had 12 days of classes. I know it was March break and Easter, but there were PD days thrown in so that they only had three 4 day school weeks. And that was after two shortened weeks in February. On top of that, the number of teachers who are actually in the school 15 minutes after the final bell, well, their parking lot looks just like the garage at T2 at quittin' time. These are all issues that we have to address to make our school systems better. IMHO Iceman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Say Again, Over! Posted April 3, 2008 Share Posted April 3, 2008 We've been homeschooling our boys, aged 11 and 8, for 5 years and wouldn't go back to the public school system. It IS a lot of work but soooooo rewarding. Plus, I get the best grade 5 grades ever! Felix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Specs Posted April 3, 2008 Share Posted April 3, 2008 Just reading between the lines here but I imagine Big classes = less 1:1 teacher time = need for more homework Reduce the homework = increases requirement for more 1:1 teacher time = smaller class sizes = more teachers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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