Too Much Homework

I would like to open a discussion of the amount of homework assigned. My daughter (a BHS freshman) struggles with quite a bit of homework each night and is already falling behind and feeling overwhelmed. Mostly because of her own poor study habits, but partly because I work and she isn't able to get to a "disciplined" place to do her homework until 6:00 pm or so, she ends up being up until 11:00 or later almost every night and each morning it is harder to get up and she still doesn't have the work done. She routinely has homework in Math, Spanish, English, History, Intro to Comm Tech and Drama, almost every night. Weekends are a drag because we have so many errands to run and other things to do and we never get to plan any fun days because the homework is always hanging over us. I'm tired of seeing my kids having bags under their eyes and being as stressed out as I am. They work a pretty long day at school and then devote almost all evening to more work. Anyone else think it is too much? At least in Junior High, the classes were staggered so they had homework every other night in each class. I'd love to hear your opinions.

You say that your daughter can't get to a "disciplined" place until 6:00. I'm not sure exactly what you mean. Is she coming home by herself or is she hanging out somewhere? Could she go to the Berkeley Public Library? If she is waiting until she's tired to do her homework, no wonder she's having problems. I don't have any suggestions. I just want to say that I don't want to see less homework. I hope you find a solution.

There are various "homework clubs" that I have seen mentioned around the city. Is there any such thing at BHS? Perhaps one could be started if lack of a place to do homework is a wide-spread problem.

Jenifer

To be honest, I don't think high school students are in school long enough. What should they be doing, in any event, if they spend less time in school? High school teens are the very best at wasting time doing what they do best--"kicking" it with friends. My feeling here is if they were in school all day (not just hearing lectures but given assignments to work on in class) with the proviso they not get homework except for reading and/or special projects, then they could come home and pretty much leave the classroom behind them. I just saw an interesting story on "60 Minutes" about a public middle school in South Bronx, New York, where they "contract" with parents, teachers and the student to be in school all day (at least 8 hours) and on weekends. The achievement level of these students has skyrocketed, especially impressive is the number of novels/books they read in a school year (over 20, I recall). This idea sounds extreme, but for many minorities who feel Caucasians have an academic edge, it is on target for catching up and going beyond in academics, targeting junior high school age kids whose intellects can be shaped to work hard and absorb knowledge. In Japan, they have always had a tradition of long school hours, but the problem is there are no alternatives to this tradition. I don't like seeing my child stressed, but I feel for her future it's up to me to focus on the long vision and hers to deal with the now and to learn to deal with stress. I keep the long vision in focus by reminding her often that academics is the priority over sports and a social life (she may not see this as helpful, but I enforce this philosophy). There are no easy solutions really, just the knowledge that hard work will eventually bring great results, in anything, including academics. "Fun" is no longer a priority but becomes the reward for working hard.

Here's my question: how do you get kids to get motivated to do more than what's required, extend themselves, when they get such good results (A's) from doing so little? I have never (in the five years I've been a Berkeley High parent) had any success in getting poor or mediocre teachers (and my children have had a few, some with many parent complaints and still teaching) to change ANYTHING about what they were doing in the classroom.

My daughter, who graduated last year, took AP courses, had high test scores, and great grades. However (for an example), she NEVER wrote a research paper at Berkeley High. Most of my conversations with various people about this over the years (teachers, department chair, counselor, vice principal) were unsatisfactory. Research papers (since I'm using this example) are definitely required by the curriculum. Everyone assured me that the kids were doing them (and probably some kids are). I don't know, I figure a research paper is something that is longer than 3 pages, has some footnotes, a bibliography with a number of sources, a topic. My daughter never did one and my son didn't do one last year. (And knowing his current history teacher, he won't do one this year, either.)

On the other hand, my daughter was always a reader and on her own took some outside-of-BHS courses. (The kids do UC Extension concurrent enrollment, Vista and sometimes Laney). My son is not at all interested in doing anything like this. I definitely feel the burden is on the parents to do some of the school's work, but what to do when the kids don't see it that way? (Of course, I believe in parent involvement and, in the long run, and as a committed member of the community, that's the most important thing we can do. However, I'm worried about the education of this particular child at this particular time.) I'll be a BHS parent for another six years so I am really interested in both long term and short term, right now, approaches to poor teaching. Emily