My youngest daughter started 6th grade about 2 weeks ago. She has attended the same Catholic School since Pre-K. She has a very small class, under 20 kids and all of us parents talk to each other.
This year we have 2 new teachers that will be teaching our kids. Both of these teachers are 1st year teachers to boot. During “Meet the Teacher” we parents ganged up on the new teachers about homework. We made it loud and clear that we would not tolerate a ton of homework every night. I figure 30 minutes per subject is more than enough per night. That puts us at about 2 hours a night of homework.
This past Monday my daughter came home and jumped right on her homework. She started at 3:30 and at 5:00 I asked her what she had left to do. She told me that so far she had only been working on English and that she had Math and Science to still do. UMMM….I don’t think so!
I went straight up to the computer and e-mailed all the class parents about the complete overload of English homework. I wanted to make sure I was not alone in my opinion before I e-mailed the teacher. I was not alone at all! Each and every one of us sent an e-mail off to the teacher to let him know that this was unacceptable.
The next day we had the same problem!! So we parents got together again but this time we moved on up the ladder to the principal. Hey, we warned the teacher at the Meet the Teacher! You just don’t mess with the 6th grade parents!
I received an e-mail this morning from this same teacher about my daughter’s spelling homework. They had to use their spelling words in a sentence and he said he did not appreciate me giving my daughter sentences to write down. I replied back to Mr. 1st Year Teacher that I do not do my child’s homework and as a matter of fact, I did not even look over her sentences because I was too busy sending off e-mails to other class parents that night! I made sure I copied the principal as well!
The Spelling word was: chaos
My daughter’s sentence was: Too much homework causes chaos in my house!
I love my daughter! I have taught her well!
The Eyes In The Back Of My Head 
Joy
/ August 25, 2010Good for you. That’s way too much homework. I can see two hours but not two hours on one subject.
LOL daughter #2.
joanharvest
/ August 25, 2010I absolutely Love it. Good for you for not sitting back and instead voicing your concerns. Sometimes I just don’t understand these teachers. I wonder if this particular teacher has school age kids.
Just a Mom
/ August 26, 2010This teacher is probably only 24 and he has no family. This is his 1st year teaching and if he keeps it up it will be his last at least with us!
Tasneem R
/ August 27, 2010OK as a parent you’ve done the right thing . These days kids are having a lot of homework pressure. By the time they are done with their homework there is hardly any time left for playing or other activities. The teacher should have understood by now.
The Girl from the Ghetto
/ August 30, 2010Ugh, homework. We spent four hours a night doing homework with my stepson for most of last year because of his math difficulties. (And, he has Asperger’s Syndrome.) It amazes me what teachers expect parents to do at home.
After things were “worked out” for us we went from 4 hours to 45 minutes. I can totally relate.
Love your daughter’s sentence, by the way.