How much homework is too much? High School

[SnuggleBuggles]

What's the benefit of block scheduling? I remember my friend saying that her son had math the fall of one school year and the spring of the next school year so he was super duper rusty math wise. How can that be a good thing?

[georgiegirl]

DS1's Honors English class was like this...in the first few weeks! It dropped down significantly after that. But I really think that this was this particular teacher's plan. DS1 and my DN both had her and it was the same for both of them. I would hate to make that gamble though without knowing ahead of time if this is what the teacher always intends! I will say that DS1 has had "Honors" English for every year since then (past two years have been IB) and only the Freshman year class was OOT.

I will say that around here high school AP classes are more difficult than the classes DS1 has taken at the local community college, which I realize might be different in purpose than the college that you teach at. At least comparing DS1's high school AP classes to the our local CC, the AP classes almost work to winnow kids into levels of achievement. They're looking to find "A" kids vs "B" kids and so on. The CC classes are looking to see that all kids achieve mastery and are actually much more supportive and reasonable.

I don’t teach at a community college, but at Drake University, a respected Midwestern liberal arts university.


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[bisous]

I don’t teach at a community college, but at Drake University, a respected Midwestern liberal arts university.


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I was just comparing the two experiences that DS1 has had and mentioned very pointedly that your experience might be at a different level.

ETA: What I was trying to shake out is to determine your intent when you teach. Do you try to make it difficult to attain an A grade? Do you try to "winnow out" the best students? Or do you try to challenge them and help them grow and master the material. I feel like high school classes sometimes strive to do the former. Might be still applicable to your more elite school, or maybe not.

[newnana]

It's too much. DD is in 5 AP classes this semester, plus another 2 advanced level classes. They all have this level of work. She does homework every night and weekend for at least 5 hours, weekends are significantly more because she's using that time to prep the bigger projects and test prep that she doesn't have time for during the week. She completed less classes last year than intended due to staffing shortages at school with Covid and for her program these are required. It's asinine. She dropped her extracurriculars to keep up and things are stressful enough right now without giving up the fun stuff, too.

DDs school did the block scheduling last year and DD preferred it, except that when one teacher that taught 2 of her 4 classes had to resign- which happened both semesters- those classes were no longer offered because there wasn't a replacement teacher and DD only got half the credit for the school year.

So school 8-4 every day + 5 hours of homework a night at least = 13 hour days at a minimum. TOO MUCH.

Thankfully her AP history teacher is teaching them also how/when it's appropriate to cut corners when things get to much in a smart way. DD is a perfectionist with significant anxiety, so this lesson is probably the most valuable she will learn this year: how to prioritize and gain efficiency. That teacher recognizes that most of the kids in her AP classes are in a bunch of other AP classes and is using her class to not only teach the material at hand, but also the skills they will need to make all their classes survivable.

Besides her guidance counselor and self-motivation directing DD towards these classes, the teachers of the classes she signed up for are significantly more engaging than the ones for the non-AP versions of the same classes, so DD knows she'll perform better in them because they are delivered in a style that she does better with. All the teachers here are overwhelmed right now, as are the kids. It feels like a no win situation.

[KpbS]

OP how many hours is she in class a week? 3? With 90 min of homework total? Does the class end at semester or is it a year long?

[georgiegirl]

OP how many hours is she in class a week? 3? With 90 min of homework total? Does the class end at semester or is it a year long?

She’s in class 90 minutes a day, 5 days a week. One semester. 2-3 hours of homework a night. They do not have time in class to work on homework. She’s also taking Honors biology, which has a decent amount of homework (like 30-60 min), but that seems reasonable

[KpbS]

That schedule sounds pretty miserable honestly.

I prefer the AB days block scheduling.

I would seriously weigh whether she wants to drop the class or persevere to semester’s end.

[doberbrat]

Way too much. dd1 has all honors classes except Orchestra and has 2-3h homework nightly in total. Probably less to be honest though she does manage to do some while on the bus etc.

[ahisma]

That's way too much homework. DH isn't on block schedule, but his assigned homework for honors students is mainly reading focused. Generally under 20 pages a night and occasional discussion questions that require them to pull out passages, etc.. If they're working on a paper, maybe an hour a night. That said, he strongly believes in minimal homework.

DS1 is a freshman in honors English - he has about 15 pages /night to read. Sometimes there are discussion questions - he says those take under 10 minutes total.

[dogmom]

People have given pretty good responses. The only thing I can add if you think teacher is gaslighting about how long it should take I think it’s on her to work with your child about their homework process to figure out why 45 min of homework is taking 2-3 hrs. (Or whatever it is.) Maybe she is doing to much in the wrong places, like note taking. But if she thinks is doable she should help point him in the right direction. Her reaction to the request and what her advice is will tell you a lot.