Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Do you make your kids do all their homework?

Please read my original question --- I do require my DD to complete the required assignments. I was asking if you require your kids to do the optional work - the busy work. To me, that is just a waste of time.

I have to respectfully disagree with your response. I find that the ones who do not do the tedious tasks, are more efficient. I have worked with too many people that do not work efficiently because they are doing all the busy work. For example, years ago, I had a manager quit, who was working 12 hours a day. I had to pick up all his work. I completed it in 8 hours a day. Which is working smarter: Working Longer hours to complete a task because working more hours "looks good?" OR Being efficient? I believe in spending your time doing productive work. Our society rewards "working too hard, 12 hours a day, never taking vacation" rather than having balance...and I disagree with that.

I won't make my daughter do something if it isn't productive. There is no point in doing work if it does not provide some sort of advancement (i.e. learning something new, completing a project, etc.)

I agree with you, BeckyC. I think we have to support the teacher, but if the homework assigned is generally pointless and soul-killing (and certainly so if it's optional!), making the child do it isn't always the best choice. That just teaches the child that BOTH teacher and parent are unreasonable.

Ahh, reasons we chose to homeschool...Now when he gets homework, I know it has value, and so does he!

There are certainly times when busy work is a necessity. But I have a hard time thinking that schoolwork in elementary school is that time. FWIW...

I think we had the same manager~lol! I worked with this guy who would claim many hours of work, lots of it from home (I am an advocate of wfh, btw) but I always had to wonder about his claims of checking on the system in the middle of the night because after he left I would check the system and it was always just humming along. Very stable, which is what the clients wanted. He also always had us in a chronic state of emergency this or that, sort of fluffing up the importance of his work as well as the hours, from what I could tell.

If work is tedious, folks who can will figure out better faster ways to do things. Eliminate the inefficiencies, automate the stuff that has to be done but can be done by a program or script or machine. Even just documenting stuff can improve speed: document procedures which have to be done over and over rather than seat-of-your-pants it each time and take twice as long.

In our case, the required work is usually the "busy work." The optional stuff is usually where there are opportunities for creativity and exploration. So yes, I have my kids do the optional things, too, like science fair projects, releasing trout in the lake last Saturday, writing a book for the Young Author's contest, doing art projects, writing book reports on what they've read, making a model of a California Mission as extra credit, etc.

I absolutely agree with you. I have listened to my husband complain about having to fire people who are good at looking busy but don't really get anything done. These people are good at making up their own busy work and I wonder if they are so comfortable doing busy work because they had to do so much of this in school. After the busy workers were fired, it took my husband about a third as much time as it would have taken the previous employees to finish the work they left uncompleted. He was able to do this while also doing his own job.

I think if people, kids included, are allowed to do a job in the way they find most efficient for them, whether it is learning something new or working at a paid job, as long as the really necessary work gets done and it is done in a way that meets or exceeds standards, things just work out for the best.

If people are allowed to learn or do their work more efficiently, then there will be time for doing the things they really want to do. I think being allowed time to do what you really want to do and finding balance is important for mental and physical health.

My son has heard stories from his dad, me, and other family members about working at government jobs where there was a lot of inefficiency and time wasting. He heard his dad complain recently that his fired busy workers with nice physical attributes got jobs with the federal government when he knew of more qualified veterans who could not get jobs there. When I worked for the federal government years ago, it was common to see people who couldn't really do the job getting promoted for their physical attributes and I remember thinking that it might be a better investment to get breast implants than more college but I refused to do it. But someone has to actually get the work done and they will always need smart people who can do the work, do it efficiently, and have the intelligence to make suggestions for improving efficiency. This is one reason my husband, at an age when a lot of people have trouble finding another job after retirement was able to find an even better job than he had before. He is the experienced problem solver and the designated trainer of new employees because of his ability to teach efficiently. He used to think it was important for kids to do the busy work but he and I have changed our minds about a lot of things since we had our son.

By the way, I did make my older daughter do every bit of her homework, and well, I just can't see that it did her much good. My stepson wouldn't do the busy work or if he did, he wouldn't turn it in. He got his GED instead of finishing high school. He learned much more outside of school than he ever learned in school.

Sheesh! Someone fire that woman and bar her from ever working with children again.

Sometimes the stories on this list remind me of the everyday cruelties inflicted on children in 19th century novels (ex. anyone remember the rule at Jane Eyre's school that the girls couldn't curl their hair? The headmaster cut off a girl's hair because it curled, in spite of the teacher saying that it curled naturally.).

Val

I am not requiring hours, just output. I am really speaking of the reports and other boring pieces that are to be completed after the exciting part of the assignment.

My daughter has always been expected to do any bonus work. This is due to the fact that she can do it. It is now a mindset and she sees herself as a person who goes above and beyond. If a student does not view him or herself in this way early on in their education, this is hard to instill later when the work is important.

At the age of eleven she may argue a little, but she knows deep down that she will complete it. This is now a part of her character. She even invents it if it is not there. At her parent/teacher conference last week, her teacher said that she asked if she could add a new word to their words each week. This is just between the two of them and her teacher is enjoying it and is learning new words herself. I believe this to be the bonus to everyone for instilling this in her.

I am so glad to see others struggling with this question. After a half a year of tedious required practice that my DS could have done 2 years ago, I seriously considered replacing his homework with work that I generate (and yes, I am a licensed teacher). However, we have required DS7 to do the work that is sent home while we continue to fight for work that actually meets his needs (making slow but sure progress there). We do not require the "extra" assignments because DS7 is involved in plenty of enriching activities that are usually better than what is sent home anyway...and he is slow as molasses so he seldom finishes anything fast enough to do the "extra" work anyway.

DS6 requested around Christmas "could the teacher at least give him harder homework!". Luckily, though, she agreed - even though they have so far turned down grade skip. She let us make it up, and even approved of our choices. However, now I almost feel guilty for giving the "extra work" - unless DS6 is in his happy "I want to do it mode" - and therein lies the key. I have to say teacher even let him submit those invisible ink pen puzzles, in addition to some first grade Math, English and "what your kid should know by first grade" work. You'd think they would take the hint - but no! We even included Grade 2-3 Dorling Kindersley Math - another hint- STILL no Grade skip! Writing is the big monster I can't get around - and I've yet to try typing. So, instead we tried dictation at a coffee shop 3 weekends ago. However, I realised that as he was waiting for me to write down what he said, he made his story shorter than it would have been otherwise. So now we are using vidoe camera to capture story on any topic of interest, and part II will be "type or write" it down - possibly in stages! Push to replace boring homework I say!!

It's a huge struggle to get my DS6 (in Kindergarten) to do his homework because it's "boring" (and I have to say I agree, but I don't share that with him!). But some of it is practicing writing his letters and he really does need that. So I do make him do all of the homework. But I also reward him with some computer time for completing the school work.

(By the way, I usually make copies of DS6's homework sheets before he completes them and I give them to DS3 to also do while DS6 does his homework. They are that simple... sigh! Although DS6's teacher is starting to send home some harder math every once in a while... Next year DS6 will likely be in a grade 1-2 split class, so hopefully there will be more challenges. If not, we may homeschool...)