Does anyone else out there feel trapped by homework?

Tonight DD7 (3rd) had a good two hours of homework, including 43 math problems and 20 science questions (this was only the beginning). It's like teachers feel this need to fill a certain amount of time with homework, regardless of what's being done. What's the goal? What's the point? What's going on for seven hours in school that the kids need to keep on working afterwards?

My kids dread coming home from school because they have so much homework. And so much of it seems like busy work (Make a collage about yourself! Cut and glue pictures of animals! etc.). And if the kid doesn't do all the homework, they might move her to a slower-paced group. I don't get this at all. It seems to be a choice between exhaustion and doing work that is appropriately challenging. This is not much of a choice, IMO.

I feel like we're creating a nation of automatons who grind away at their worksheets while the universe speeds on by outside their gaze.




Last edited by Val; 01/12/12 09:25 PM.