Forums » Smalltalk » Do schools still require students to do homework?

Hi,

I was wondering, if you U.S. public school person or recently were, did/does your school require you to do homework? What type?

I ask because the inner city schools I work at in Texas no longer usually ask students to do this, and I wonder if that's typical of the whole country?

When I dropped out of high school a few years ago, homework was still required in my school district in Michigan, but now in my district they usually offer 'homework' as extra credit work, and general practice. It doesn't go towards your grade unless you turn it in, but doesn't negatively impact your grade if you don't.

I will say that even though it's not required, a lot students still end up doing their classwork at home because so much classwork is given that even though it's not technically labeled as 'homework' there isn't enough time in the school day to do it without being stressed or having to lower your standards and possibly get a lower grade.

They still do here in Michigan, in my school district at least. When I was in school almost every night we had something to do, particularly in math classes.

my school not only requires homework but pretty much demands it. it all depends on the class and the teacher but i have yet to have a class that didn’t have any homework. when i was taking three math classes and an AP class last year, i had probably around 2+ hours of homework every night. this year i don’t have a lunch so i can fit in more classes that i need for my credits, and i usually have an hour or so of homework.

Thanks y'all. Interesting. Yep I expect it with AP classes but not regular classes here...unless classwork doesn't get done. Thanks this is what I was wondering. So it's not typical necessarily. Ok.

Really?! Crap, I would have loved that, not doing homework is one of the 2 reasons I flunked out of school. How unfair.

I have homework, sure!

But, do I always do it?

Nope.

All a part of being me, I guess! 😝

Well damn, I would have been able to stay in IB classes if not for the homework! Three page essays due every other day was murder, and that was just for one class. In the metroplex I live in homework is still a mandatory part of public education, unfortunately... Obviously college here still has homework too, but I can't imagine college without homework.

AMERICAN SCHOOLS DON'T HAVE A REQUIREMENT TO DO HOMEWORK?

With the IB program, I can believe that. With the regulars classes, that's what I was wondering. Thank you for letting me know!

Hahahahahaha. I made it sound that way, didn't I? Well...honestly, in some school districts...not really, but...thankfully (in my opinion), what I'm gathering from this thread is that it depends on the school.

At the school I work at, it's rare.

From what I've seen in the schools I work in homework is an exception...occasionally maybe math, and occasionally maybe if a project wasn't finished in class, but mostly the administrators and teachers and...the whole philosophy in some of the schools I've seen is that the kids whose parents both probably work, and who are probably taking care of younger siblings do not have time to do homework, and that even if homework is assigned, if it's not done it shouldn't affect a student's grade much, because that would be unfair to them. Now -- I see both sides of this, but I was worried because I really think, in some of those schools, they're expecting too little.

There's a popular book, in the teaching field, called My Posse Don't Do Homework, and it urges teachers not to give kids homework (among a lot of good advice about relationship-building and such). But that goes to show you--the drive to get rid of homework? It's a thing. It's a controversial issue--but it's a real thing.

I was a bit worried that the culture had changed and that this lack of rigor in school was going to be a problem for our country when the next generation comes to power (I worry about weird things that are really a waste of my brainpower sometimes...lol...like that have no point to worry about because you can't do much to change them anyway...the big-scale stuff, because it's interesting than the puny, everyday life problems that I might actually be able to solve lol). So I wanted to know if it was the same all across the country. I'm glad to see that it's not. However, I agree hours and hours every night of homework is crazy. Like...maybe one assignment per week per subject or something...except math more often cause practicing what you just did later after you learn it is the way to get it into long-term memory so yeah, unfortunately with that I can understand it...but like one assignment per subject per week seems roughly reasonable, but I was just worried that no one was doing homework anymore, that it was a dead concept, so I'm glad to see that is not the case!

With my school at least, it really depends on the teacher. I went through my whole sophomore/ junior year without a page of homework (I did every now and then when I was absent to make work up)