Do
you think teachers should assign summer homework? I'm talking about a
list of tasks which, for OYT, going into 8th grade, are
the following:
-
2 book reports
-
a short story
-
a 20 page math packet
-
2 current event reports
-a
science packet of undetermined length since we can't find it
-posting
opinions on various topics to several school sponsored forums
I
do understand the teachers' perspective – I WAS a teacher. Keep
the kids brains alive during the summer. Review skills. Keep them
in shape. However, the way this is being done is not fair to all the
students.
OYT's
school is the only one in the district which does this, but not all
students get assigned this list – only those on the Silver Team.
This means half the students in one school, in an entire district,
are the only ones doing these tasks.
Now
let's think about the population trying to complete these tasks. Not
all of them have mothers who used to be teachers who nag until it
gets done. Some are motherless. Some have mothers who work, some
have mothers who have no idea that there IS summer homework.
So
the students show up to school, some with it done, some not. More
time is given to complete the tasks, so the summer homework really
could have been saved until school started since this is what a LOT
of the students are doing, some on purpose, some by default, some
because of the reasons we discussed above. Meanwhile, these onerous
tasks have been hanging over the head of kids who just want to be
kids.
They
want to ride their bikes to the pool and chlorine burn themselves,
come home so tired they almost fall asleep eating dinner, and then do
it all over again the same day. They want to run around the yard and
bash each other with foam and rubber weapons. They want to go
crawdad fishing, drive their RC cars, play their video games when
it's too hot outside, and JUST BE CAREFREE KIDS. Old-fashioned,
seemingly endless, glorious summer vacation. What are we gonna do
today, Ferb?
But
no. They have work to do, and are reminded that more
responsibilities soon await. High school is almost here, then
college, then LIFE. Let them be kids for the summer. Their brains
will catch up.
What do you think? Do your kids have summer homework? Did you have it as a kid? What should be done? Talk to me.
