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Out elementary and middle schools have a no to low homework policy. By high school the most they assign to non AP courses is 15 min per class. Only assignment

Out elementary and middle schools have a no to low homework policy. By high school the most they assign to non AP courses is 15 min per class. Only assignment is reading 30 min a night, any book they want (including graphic novels). Yet that does not foster a love of reading. I had a ton of homework, but still read a book a week (though I did not do sports, only band, so had way more time than most mainstream students in that regard). My reading waned when I had kids, basically as working parents I am always too exhausted to read, I always doze off. So I can’t set a good example, which I wonder if that is part of the problem — my mom was always reading.

btilly 2y ago
Our? Where? My kids had far more than that.
- gnicholas 2y ago
  Not GP, but that's what we see in Menlo Park public schools.
- prawn 2y ago
  My 9 and 11 year olds have no real homework (primary school in Australia) which seems to be public school policy for this age group. Rarely, it's 10 minutes on one night in a week; they often ask for homework and are enthusiastic if given worksheets. They read for literally hours a day. I read huge amounts as a kid but then lost the habit as an adult. It takes any number of habits and tricks to try and get it going again. Like someone upthread, I'm often fighting tiredness, and one trick that can work is prioritising reading in the morning and leaving news and social media for when I'm tired.
  - btilly 2y ago
    At the same age in southern California, my kids had what was supposed to be 1-2 hours of homework a night. Which was made worse by ADHD. And, additionally, I had to teach my son basic skills that school failed to teach him. Like spelling and his times table. It was a disaster.
    - RoyalHenOil 2y ago
      I attended school in Georgia (the US state) and it was similar for me at that age; their goal was to assign about an hour of homework each night. By the time my sister reached that age (she is 10 years younger), it had gotten so much worse: they were aiming for about two hours of homework. It realistically took closer to 3 or 4, and with many tears shed, even with me and both our parents helping. (She has since been diagnosed with ADHD.) Perhaps unsurprisingly, she and I have both decided to not have children. Being a kid really fucking sucked then, and it's probably even worse now.
calvinmorrison 2y ago
15 mins x 7 periods so 2 hours of work after working from 7-3, some light sport or after school activity until 5. Home, dinner, and more work? Absurdity.
- TheCoelacanth 2y ago
  Yeah, and the worst part is that 15 minutes per class isn't enough to actually do any useful learning. It's just going to be two hours of pointless busy work.
  - lazyasciiart 2y ago
    I wouldn’t expect it to be 15 minutes from each class each night - more like a weekly assignment from each class that means each night you do 1 hour of one class, half an hour each of two others, rotating. For many classes though, 15 minutes/night would be very useful. Language learning, for instance, or music practice. Most kids would benefit from 15 minutes of writing prose for any reason, and I think even high school math topics could provide 15 minutes of worthwhile practice questions each evening. All of these are things that you get better at with repeated practice.
- bruce511 2y ago
  This isn't really advice, because ymmv, but young me just ignored homework (with minor exceptions). I started programming at age 12, and that was more interesting. School was mostly boring so I didn't feel the need to extend it at home. Looking back I recognise I was fortunate. My teachers didn't seem to over-mind (perhaps because I was well behaved and engaged in class, and did ok in tests). My parents didn't seem to mind as long as my teachers didn't complain too much. I also now recognise that I went to a school with progressive values, good teachers, and a focus on flexibility (to a point). I used to joke afterwards that I had a "unspoken agreement" with my teachers. They could hand out as much homework as they liked, and I would quietly ignore it all.
kqr 2y ago
> My reading waned when I had kids, basically as working parents I am always too exhausted to read, I always doze off. So I can’t set a good example I don't know if you want to set a good example so this advixe is certainly unsolicited, but in my case reading really took off after having children. First when they were tiny and needed to be carried/pushed around which is great for reading, and now that they're toddlers and I'm in the habit, I squeeze it in where I can. I hope we can read together more as they get older. I'm really looking forward to re-reading some classics like the Hobbit and the books about Narnia. For every year, the space of literature they are capable of expands massively.

btilly 2y ago

Our? Where? My kids had far more than that.

gnicholas 2y ago
Not GP, but that's what we see in Menlo Park public schools.
prawn 2y ago
My 9 and 11 year olds have no real homework (primary school in Australia) which seems to be public school policy for this age group. Rarely, it's 10 minutes on one night in a week; they often ask for homework and are enthusiastic if given worksheets. They read for literally hours a day. I read huge amounts as a kid but then lost the habit as an adult. It takes any number of habits and tricks to try and get it going again. Like someone upthread, I'm often fighting tiredness, and one trick that can work is prioritising reading in the morning and leaving news and social media for when I'm tired.
- btilly 2y ago
  At the same age in southern California, my kids had what was supposed to be 1-2 hours of homework a night. Which was made worse by ADHD. And, additionally, I had to teach my son basic skills that school failed to teach him. Like spelling and his times table. It was a disaster.
  - RoyalHenOil 2y ago
    I attended school in Georgia (the US state) and it was similar for me at that age; their goal was to assign about an hour of homework each night. By the time my sister reached that age (she is 10 years younger), it had gotten so much worse: they were aiming for about two hours of homework. It realistically took closer to 3 or 4, and with many tears shed, even with me and both our parents helping. (She has since been diagnosed with ADHD.) Perhaps unsurprisingly, she and I have both decided to not have children. Being a kid really fucking sucked then, and it's probably even worse now.

calvinmorrison 2y ago

15 mins x 7 periods so 2 hours of work after working from 7-3, some light sport or after school activity until 5. Home, dinner, and more work? Absurdity.

TheCoelacanth 2y ago
Yeah, and the worst part is that 15 minutes per class isn't enough to actually do any useful learning. It's just going to be two hours of pointless busy work.
- lazyasciiart 2y ago
  I wouldn’t expect it to be 15 minutes from each class each night - more like a weekly assignment from each class that means each night you do 1 hour of one class, half an hour each of two others, rotating. For many classes though, 15 minutes/night would be very useful. Language learning, for instance, or music practice. Most kids would benefit from 15 minutes of writing prose for any reason, and I think even high school math topics could provide 15 minutes of worthwhile practice questions each evening. All of these are things that you get better at with repeated practice.
bruce511 2y ago
This isn't really advice, because ymmv, but young me just ignored homework (with minor exceptions). I started programming at age 12, and that was more interesting. School was mostly boring so I didn't feel the need to extend it at home. Looking back I recognise I was fortunate. My teachers didn't seem to over-mind (perhaps because I was well behaved and engaged in class, and did ok in tests). My parents didn't seem to mind as long as my teachers didn't complain too much. I also now recognise that I went to a school with progressive values, good teachers, and a focus on flexibility (to a point). I used to joke afterwards that I had a "unspoken agreement" with my teachers. They could hand out as much homework as they liked, and I would quietly ignore it all.

kqr 2y ago

> My reading waned when I had kids, basically as working parents I am always too exhausted to read, I always doze off. So I can’t set a good example I don't know if you want to set a good example so this advixe is certainly unsolicited, but in my case reading really took off after having children. First when they were tiny and needed to be carried/pushed around which is great for reading, and now that they're toddlers and I'm in the habit, I squeeze it in where I can. I hope we can read together more as they get older. I'm really looking forward to re-reading some classics like the Hobbit and the books about Narnia. For every year, the space of literature they are capable of expands massively.