Re: Frustrated Teachers - Reply Rant

[Anne Howard <AEHow@AOL.COM>]

I am a 4th grade teacher who recently completed SLM certification and hopes
to be a media specilaist next year. Homework is the bane of classroom teachers!
Parents run the gammut from making their children do extra homework to those
who never enforce homework completion. We have tried to explain to parents
that there is not enough time in the school day to reinforce skills, so the
students have to practice at home. Students are dropped a letter grade for failure
to complete homework. For many students and parents this doesn't matter.

What we did this year was to send home a copy of the county's homework
policy. Parents were required to sign this and return the tear off portion, keeping
a copy of the policy at home. This way, we have documentation that the parents
are aware of the consequences of non-compliance with the policy. Students are
given two days to complete and return work without penalty. After that,the
student earns a 0 for the work. Some teachers will accept the work later, until
the end of the semester. If the work isn't in at that time, then they assign a
grade of 0 for the assignment.

Here's my rant: I think allowing and/or forcing the students to make up the
work after a grace period does a disservice to the students who did the
homework. We coddle the parents and the students. This has led to a decline in
respect for our profession and the sense among parents that they have the right to
dictate classroom policy. Are we doing these students any good by granting them
additional time? When they go into the workforce, will their employers allow
them to not complete assigned tasks within the given time frame? I think not.
We are not preparing them for later life. What a rude awakening many of them
will have when they no longer have a parent who was willing to intimidate the
teacher and they have to account for themselves to an employer.

Does your county have a homework policy and is it being followed in your
school? If there is one, you may then have backing in holding students accountable
for their failure to do work. If not, maybe your school can develop a
school-wide homework policy. Either way, taking students out of the classroom to
complete missed work is not productive. There has to be a solution that does not
penalize the teachers. Is there any type of extracurricular penalty for
students who consistantly miss work? Would the administration support this type of
penalty rather than sending these students to the office?

I wish you and your teachers good luck with this. Sadly, this is a problem
that plagues everyone in education.

Anne E. Howard, MS, MA
Elkridge Elementary School
Elkridge, MD
anne_howard@hcpss.org

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