It’s Homework Time Again!

Students across the country have either started the new school year or are about to. With this nationwide event, thoughts begin to turn to homework. It is an issue for students, their parents and for teachers as well. How much to give, when to give it, what is its purpose- and so on.

The homework debate continues to rage on. In a recent issue of Time Magazine

 (Sept. 7, 2015), an article about making schools better for students suggested that homework should be reserved for middle and high school students. The article noted that current research pointed to the fact the elementary students did not gain anything significantly from homework. One school district in Maryland has switched to a reading for enjoyment option rather than the dreaded homework assignments.

That being said, for those who are stuck with assigning homework or helping children with their assignments, here are some suggested web sites to help reduce the frazzled nerves of anxious parents.

Math.com- offers help and tutorials for a variety of grade levels on numbers math topics.

Discoveryeducation.com- Great help with science projects and more. Spend some time and explore.

Loc.gov- The Library of Congress is wealth of information about famous Americans, American History, cities, and historic events. You need to learn how to navigate the site first, but it can be a great help.

Factmonster.com- is a great all around site for homework assistance for a verity of subjects. It is especially useful for English grammar and language arts.

There are dozens more sites that that are helpful to both students and parents. Please let us know if you come across one you would like to share.

C .2015 J. Margolis

The High Cost of School Supplies

A recent report on CBS News indicated that parents of elementary school children spend an average of $580 on school supplies.  What was more notable in the story was what items were on the supply list. In addition to things like four boxes of crayons, pencils, notebooks and a backpack, the list in some schools included hand sanitizer, zip-lock bags, Clorox Disinfectant wipes and even bathroom tissue. When interviewing classroom teachers who were preparing for the upcoming school year, many had commented that they spent as much as $500 a year for classroom supplies out of their own pockets. Apparently this is a growing trend across the country. As school districts pared and pruned their budgets, many items were excluded- things that schools used pay for. Now the burden is being shifted to the parents and the teachers.

Coincidentally, an article appeared in the Naples Daily News on August 15^th about the “World’s Finest Chocolate” factory and other fund raising organizations who collectively generate over $3 billion in sales from projects in schools, churches, civic organizations and such. All of this points to one central issue, America’s schools are grossly underfunded and parents and teachers must resort to a wide variety of initiatives to be sure that their children have everything they need to be successful in school. I attended a community meeting not long ago and met a woman who was the local PTA representative from an affluent public school. She remarked to me that whatever the school was lacking, the “ well-heeled” parents were more than willing to make up the difference. Burt what about children who come form socio-economically disadvantaged schools- what happens to them? They don’t have the use of the latest computers and technology. They may not even have the most recent textbooks. And forget about field trips.

The issue is education equality. How are we going to achieve it? Who will lead us in that direction? How are we going to pay for it? Until these questions are answered to the satisfaction of all of the parents of all of the children, we will continue to have a two-tiered system of public education in this country. One system for the affluent schools districts where parents can afford to pay and are willing to pay for a superior education and another system where there are shortages of books, not enough computers, and not even enough bathroom tissue.

c.2015 J. Margolis

Too Much Homework?

How much homework should a student have? It is a topic that has been debated for decades with different sides to this hot button issue – teachers, parents, administrators, and students themselves, have weighed in on.  A study conducted a number of years ago by the National Education Association (NEA) came up with a formula that suggested 10 minutes of homework for each grade level. Using this ideology, a first grader would get 10 minutes of homework; a second grader would get 20 minutes nightly and so on up to twelfth grade. Homework was not recommended for children in kindergarten. (There are a number of kindergarten students across the nation that do, in fact, get homework.)

A recent student published in the American Journal of Family Therapy suggests that students are receiving three times as much homework as recommended. This has created a great deal of family stress from parents who are trying to get their children to sit still, without distractions and complete assignments to the students themselves who feel that after spending six hours in a classroom, the additional burden is unwelcome and unnecessary.

Once central issue that keeps surfacing is “what is the purpose of homework?” Is it to reinforce concepts presented during the school day?  Could it also be used to present new topics? One issue that most experts agree on is that homework should never be used as punishment.

Wirth the new school year upon us, it is an appropriate time to revisit the issue. Homework must benefit the students and provide a continuum of the curriculum.

There are those who believe that in view of the changes in American social dynamics over the years, that homework has outlived its usefulness. What do you think? Readers are invited to join in the discussion.

c.2015 J. Margolis

Teaching Tolerance

The teaching of tolerance is not usually part of a school curriculum. But it should be. We live in a hate filled world and with the meteoric rise of social media, it is far too easy to spread vitriol about any individual or group. Fortunately there are organizations out there that have programs and facilities to spread the teaching of tolerance. One such organization is the Museum of Tolerance in New York (MOYNY). Built as an east coast offshoot of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, the museum serves as its educational arm and acts as a global human rights organization that educates to confront hatred, terrorism, and anti-Semitism. The Museum produces the web site Globalhate.com that monitors Internet hate from around the world. Visitors to the museum can participate in interactive activities tat include the “Point of View Diner” which serves as a cyber café that engaged students and adult visitors to vote their opinions on such current issues as bullying, free speech vs. hate speech.

For those teachers in the New York City vicinity, I would strongly recommend a field trip for middle and high school students.  The museum is located at 226 East 42^nd Street in New York. Contact the museum at 212-697-1180.

For those away from the Museum, The Simon Wiesenthal Center has a film division called Moriah Films, which has numerous well-produced films on many of the same topics as the Museum. For more information check out the web site at www.museumoftolerancenewyork.com

c.2015 J. Margolis