Oh, the wretched thought of homework - especially on a Friday afternoon.
Not only do students fret over it, parents and teachers do too, as The Conversation in last Sunday's California Forum revealed.
"I can tell you honestly," Jeremy Akiyama, a high school senior in Sacramento, writes in Saturday's Letters to the Editor, "that nothing kills a teenager's weekday evening more than a dreaded stack of homework to be completed before day's end."
The Conversation delved into the amount of homework young students can effectively handle each night, and asked readers to ponder the question, "Do teachers give students too much homework?" Guidelines from the National PTA and the National Education Association say that from kindergarten to second grade homework is more effective when it does not exceed 10 to 20 minutes a day.
Akiyama implores teachers to "stop imposing a homework quota on your students," and for parents to "stop asking for more homework."
Pete Martineau of Fair Oaks has a different take on homework and the mission of education. He writes, "The chatter about problems in education is overly focused on college-bound children." His concern is about preparing those young people enter the work force once they leave school by giving them "skills and information" to make a living.
Not only do students fret over it, parents and teachers do too, as The Conversation in last Sunday's California Forum revealed.
"I can tell you honestly," Jeremy Akiyama, a high school senior in Sacramento, writes in Saturday's Letters to the Editor, "that nothing kills a teenager's weekday evening more than a dreaded stack of homework to be completed before day's end."
The Conversation delved into the amount of homework young students can effectively handle each night, and asked readers to ponder the question, "Do teachers give students too much homework?" Guidelines from the National PTA and the National Education Association say that from kindergarten to second grade homework is more effective when it does not exceed 10 to 20 minutes a day.
Akiyama implores teachers to "stop imposing a homework quota on your students," and for parents to "stop asking for more homework."
Pete Martineau of Fair Oaks has a different take on homework and the mission of education. He writes, "The chatter about problems in education is overly focused on college-bound children." His concern is about preparing those young people enter the work force once they leave school by giving them "skills and information" to make a living.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.