What are we teaching!!!

I attended a book study this evening, arriving home at 6:45. After our book study, my boss had to speak with the group about a student in the school and not requiring homework for him and a few others. I found this hard to take.


I do not assign anything that the students don't already know how to do without help. Often I go over the assignment, giving answers to some and giving hints to others, before I give it to the students. I understand that sometimes students forget it at home or have things that happen to keep them from doing it one day. I do not begin to fuss or keep them in detention until it begins to become a daily problem.


I see homework as a way of reenforcing things that are taught in class. A way for students to remember what they learned during the day and a way for parents to help their children if they choose to do so. I grade homework for one reason, because often the grades received on homework are the only things that save many kids from receiving bad grades on progress reports.


Several of my students can do well with homework, but bomb on tests. This is not caused by them not knowing how to do it, it's because of what I call test blocking. They know the answers until the test is in front of them and then they go blank. I have had it happen myself. Many of my students will not do homework if they are not made to do so, but most do well on them.


I realize that most students today are not raised the way in which I was raised. I know that many students have very rough and tough lives when they leave my classroom, I empathise with these kinds of problems, but not requiring them to work toward their education is not going to help their situation.


When they leave elementary school, beginning middle/high school and eventually real life, people are not going to care what their homelife is like. They are going to expect them to keep up with everyone else. I do not really care for homework or paperwork either, but I can say I have problems that require me to be excused from it. I do not think I would have a job for very long. Do You?


Not requiring/expecting the same things from students that are having troubles at home, is only enabling these students to be a victim for the rest of their lives. I want to give them a way out of their situation by showing that I will not allow them to be one in my classroom. I want them to succeed and excel, and if you don't practice what you have learned you will loose it. It is not like riding a bike.


What are we teaching our kids? Do we really want a student to be judged on what they should do or accomplish by their what their parents/family do or accomplish? I don't. I will ask no child to do what I feel that they can't handle and I will not enable my students to slide through the system unchallenged.