This month's
Atlantic has an article about
excessive homework. It has all the usual suspects and some other stuff too.
For example, the author's daughter also loses points on her homework if she doesn't put her answers in the right places. This suggests to me that teacher is only looking at answers and not at the process used to get there.
For math class, his daughter had to calculate the distance from Sacramento to all other state capitals (in miles and kilometers). When dad protested that the assignment seemed somewhat less than useful, the teacher argued that his daughter needed to learn her state capitals. When he said, "But that's not math," she told him that combining subject areas is popular these days.
Looks like my DD's Ms. T. isn't the only one. How sad.
Yes, part of my son's math and science classes this year includes spelling and vocabulary. I suppose I can see that, in part, for science but in no way should it be considered math.
And yes, he loses points for not titling the page, showing work, putting answers in the wrong place, etc. This year (4th grade) seems to have kicked those kinds of nits into high gear. While I understand it is important to follow rules to an extent, it does seem trivial as well.
More importantly, though, my son has a fabulous teacher this year who seems to get him (esp with regard to math). More than makes up for the other trivial issues so far.
