Do relaxed homework policies help or hurt children?

[Watchmen]

Homework is not essential to substantive learning, IMO. However, it is vital to procedural learning (i.e. study habits). I cannot comprehend how a student can be successful in college or graduate school without learning the study habits that homework teaches.

[Panda]

Originally Posted by 9-10ths_Penguin

What do you see as the role for a test? Is it a challenge to be bested, or is it a measurement of the knowledge that the student has?

In the first case, I'd agree that it's counter-productive to gloss over failures, but in terms of student "quality assurance", if they know the stuff, they know it, regardless of the process they took to learn it. If the point of the math test at the end of one unit is to make sure that the kids know what they'll need to understand the next unit, then a pass after ten failures fulfils the test's purpose just as much as a pass on the first try.

A test is designed to show what knowledge the child has learned. In most courses there are time restraints so if the child can not keep up then they should not be in the class. There isn't enough time to retest the child ten times with the quality of everyone else's education falling. The logical conclusion is that the child who can not keep up with the course is removed.

Originally Posted by 9-10ths_Penguin

I think the big deal is that there is harm to the students associated with being held back. Personally, I don't think that just letting every student breeze by is the best way to deal with this, though.

Well then the student should have worked harder, their actions (or lack of) have consequences so they had better get used to dealing with them.

Originally Posted by 9-10ths_Penguin

I think that you can get the message through to the child that his or her actions have consequences by other means. For example, if a child is just a bit below the normal standard for one grade, passing them but with the requirement that they go through some sort of remedial program or special help (e.g. they work through their lunch getting back up to speed on the stuff they need help with) can be more effective than flat-out failing them.

Tests have pass marks for a reason, even if you fail by one mark it is still a fail and I think the student should be failed end of story.

Originally Posted by 9-10ths_Penguin

I think that failing a child is still an option, but it's an option of last resort, and not something to be used lightly.

I think if a child can not keep up they should not be in the class.

[Watchmen]

Here are some articles about the benefits of homework:

Clorox Wipes - FamilyEducation.com

The Benefits of Homework

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Originally Posted by Panda

A test is designed to show what knowledge the child has learned. In most courses there are time restraints so if the child can not keep up then they should not be in the class. There isn't enough time to retest the child ten times with the quality of everyone else's education falling. The logical conclusion is that the child who can not keep up with the course is removed.

... or is helped to keep up, which solves the problem and is much more beneficial to the child.

Originally Posted by Panda

Well then the student should have worked harder, their actions (or lack of) have consequences so they had better get used to dealing with them.

And there are more consequences available than just "pass" or "fail". Telling a kid that he loses having lunch hour with his friends because he has to spend the time taking remedial classes is a consequence, too.

Originally Posted by Panda

Tests have pass marks for a reason, even if you fail by one mark it is still a fail and I think the student should be failed end of story.

If you fail by one mark, you have failed to reach what is really an arbitrary point. Is a child who gets 52% on a history quiz really any better prepared for life or even the next grade than a child who gets 49%? I'd say probably not, and I don't have a problem with schools taking this into account.

Failing by 5% is not the same thing as failing by 45%, which is not the same thing as skipping school and missing the test altogether. They're problems of different degrees with different root causes; it makes no sense to treat them all the same.

Originally Posted by Panda

I think if a child can not keep up they should not be in the class.

Or the ability to keep up should be fostered in the child. Like I said, keeping a kid back should be a last resort.

[Mestemia]

Originally Posted by Wandered Off

Do you think these are helpful for the students in the long run?

Lets just keep lowering the standards till no one can fail.

[Panda]

Originally Posted by 9-10ths_Penguin

... or is helped to keep up, which solves the problem and is much more beneficial to the child.

If helping the child keep up damages the education of the rest of the class then this isn't an option.

Originally Posted by 9-10ths_Penguin

And there are more consequences available than just "pass" or "fail". Telling a kid that he loses having lunch hour with his friends because he has to spend the time taking remedial classes is a consequence, too.

This doesn't work in real life so it shouldn't work in schools.

Originally Posted by 9-10ths_Penguin

If you fail by one mark, you have failed to reach what is really an arbitrary point. Is a child who gets 52% on a history quiz really any better prepared for life or even the next grade than a child who gets 49%? I'd say probably not, and I don't have a problem with schools taking this into account.

Depends if you want to study history or not. Anyway the child should be used to have goals set for him, and consequences for not achieving them.

Originally Posted by 9-10ths_Penguin

Failing by 5% is not the same thing as failing by 45%, which is not the same thing as skipping school and missing the test altogether. They're problems of different degrees with different root causes; it makes no sense to treat them all the same.

Yes it does, the child still failed to reach the goal they were set. By how much is irrelevant they still failed.

Originally Posted by 9-10ths_Penguin

Or the ability to keep up should be fostered in the child. Like I said, keeping a kid back should be a last resort.

I should be, but never at the expense of others in the class.

[DallasApple]

TAKS!!!!!!

MY children..and our whole family is TORTURED BY TAKS!!! and the TEACHERS are MISERABLE!!

Talk about "guns"..They are UNDER the GUN!

Children have to be put on ANTI anxiety drugs from the pressure of the TAKS !!!..Its pass or fail no matter if you have the credits needed to graduate your grade..If I had an extra 15,000 a year I would YANK my 7th grader out RIGHT now and have him private schooled...

Love

Dallas