France Plans To Ban Homework

"How do you think this would go over in the United States? French President François Hollande has said he will end homework as part of a series of reforms to overhaul the country’s education system. And the reason he wants to ban homework? He doesn’t think it is fair that some kids get help from their parents at home while children who come from disadvantaged families don’t. It’s an issue that goes well beyond France, and has been part of the reason that some Americans oppose homework too."

French president pushing homework ban as part of ed reforms

So, how does this make disadvantaged kids do better? You know, how does making non-disadvantaged kids do worse, make disadvantaged kids do better?

I know every kid in the country would be happy if they did it here. Can't rightly say if it would make any difference one way or the other. Schools just pass everybody so they don't have to put up with anyone a second year so what difference does doing or not doing the homework that is or isn't issued make in a situation like that?

A reasonable amount of homework should be given to reinforce what was covered in class or to prepare for upcoming lessons and parents need to make the time to check the work not just ask if it was done. But hey, if Frace wants to get rid of homework maybe that will help us move up a few spots in the rankings of industrialized countries .

Alan Smithee wrote:A reasonable amount of homework should be given to reinforce what was covered in class or to prepare for upcoming lessons and parents need to make the time to check the work not just ask if it was done. But hey, if Frace wants to get rid of homework maybe that will help us move up a few spots in the rankings of industrialized countries .

Hey, that's on them....but I wouldn't support the US following suit.

France is much more progressive than the U.S. The U.S. education system is a cesspool and whether we have homework here or not we will still be pretty low on the totem pole.

I guess.

I'm a teacher and homework is necessary.... to a degree. The type matters too.

It is asinine that teachers assign stuff like "Do this homework which has no connection to the real life and learn from it!" Kids dont learn that way.

Assign something that connects to the real world and they will want to do it AND it will actually teach them something. For example... I taught a poetry class and instead of having them analyze poems from dead white guys, I had them view the music they listen to as poems and analyze it. Talk about the rhyme, the rhyme scheme, the metaphor, etc... found in a song and deeply analyze it. EVERY STUDENT turned in their homework. And it was amazing! They put so much thought into it because hey... music is in all of their lives. And as much as I love Robert Frost, if I had them analyze him they probably wouldn't of turned it in! I assigned my Hunger Games class to make a CD of how they thought the soundtrack should go, and relate it to key scenes in the book. They did their homework! Every day we had a debate topic about the Hunger Games... like one topic was drugs in the book. Relate drugs to the real world. We had a discussion on that and every debate, every day, kids didn't want to leave class because it was so interesting.

So give them something that relates to their world and they will do their work. Assign them a spelling list or 50 math problems... be lucky if half the class looks at the homework.

O/T:
Welcome to the Chamber EnglishButterfly!

Chris wrote:O/T:
Welcome to the Chamber EnglishButterfly!

Thank you! I love message boards and love debates... so expect to see a lot of me around here

Welcome indeed (but I'm going to have to be careful not to think you're Supernova because of your avatar.)

Alan Smithee wrote:Welcome indeed (but I'm going to have to be careful not to think you're Supernova because of your avatar.)

Indeeed, holy crap, we're twins.

Supernova wrote:


Indeeed, holy crap, we're twins.

Haha, sorry I just needed to change the stock avatar and I LOVE Stitch. I will change it soon, I have lots from my Livejournal. I might change it to Meeko the raccoon (it's my nickname) or something to represent my daughter. We shall see, but I don't want to step on the toes (or keyboard) of a regular on the board with the avatar

And thanks for the warm welcome... I hope to get to know ya'll round here

TheEnglishButterfly wrote:
I'm a teacher and homework is necessary.... to a degree. ...

Oh sorry! I just see things like that.

I did my homework for the most part, but never got a degree.

TheEnglishButterfly wrote:
Haha, sorry I just needed to change the stock avatar and I LOVE Stitch. I will change it soon, I have lots from my Livejournal. I might change it to Meeko the raccoon (it's my nickname) or something to represent my daughter. We shall see, but I don't want to step on the toes (or keyboard) of a regular on the board with the avatar

No need to change your pic if you don't want to. Supernova, you've had it long enough...pick something else.

































































I think we can deal with twins.

I think a lot of homework's just pointless but not sure "banning" it helps much. And the reasons it's banned are incredibly stupid. (If that's how "progressives" think, it's more proof how regressive they actually are. lol)

Of course, I rarely had homework for most of my school years cause I didn't need it.

You know what bugs me the most about homework.... is the fact that a lot of parents dont take the time to help their kids exceed in it so they don't need to do the homework anymore.

For example, as stated I'm a teacher. My daughter comes home and she's allowed a snack, unwind for a bit, then it's homework time if she has any. But she's above her class so she rarely has homework. When she does, it's something quick to do. We work on it together, tackle the problems, it's done. She understands it not because she's ahead... but because we work as a team in the way I think parents should help their kids.

I babysit her good friend and she lags behind in class. Her family does NOT help her. I try to help her when shes over here but she has this "learned helplessness" attitude so when she needs help and can't get a problem, she acts as if she can't get it on her own and pushes for others to basically do the work for her. It's as if her family does the work for her finally so she is "out of sight, out of mind." I don't allow that in my house and she gets upset. I will check answers to problems, I will not give the answers though. I see the problem with parents not working as a team with their kids, because it not only sets up problems with getting homework done, it is a problem in school too. Teachers can not teach if students expect the teachers to do the work for them. And if a student does the "learned helplessness" attitude in school, it takes time away from the class as a whole and then guess what... homework is assigned!!!!

I just feel that if more parents sat down and helped their kids achieve the targets of what needs to be accomplished, homework won't be needed. If you succeed in the classroom, you won't need the extra benefit of homework as much. If parents do help at home (and actually help... not just do the work for the kids) then it transfers to the classroom. Parents can do a lot more at home 1 on 1 than in a classroom where a teacher can overlook 30 kids.

I just feel helpless with this little girl, she seriously has EVERY excuse in the book not to do her work and try to get others to do her work for her. I am NOT a hardass on her but she still gets upset because something as simple as "What is 35 minus 27?" Gets her upset because I make her try it on her own before I help her 1 on 1. Then she cries. I once again show her how to do another problem, tell her to try to solve that problem, she cries and says she can't do it.

It sucks having to do homework in the first place, but it also sucks when parents don't help their kids excel at home so they excel in the class.

Shale wrote:

Well, I find it quite confusing. I hope we have just one Supernova Av again.

Yup, clearly you have an issue with it, thanks for the PM





I did find a downside for students who aren't used to homework. The school I taught at rarely had homework, unless it was "real world experience" type stuff.

A student of mine (2 actually) switched schools and it was a huge adjustment for them to do homework that was due for a grade every day (the other school didn't do grades), and while one person is dealing with it okay, the other student is on the verge of failing the entire year already. It's sad, but I just try to express to them that they need to do their best.

Don't see the point, but oh well....their country....