I have a beef with our state’s math policies.
Yesterday in a meeting with several
other math and science teachers we talked about how we have a HUGE behavioral
issue, refusal to do homework. This brought up a discussion about whether or
not we really should assign homework. As a high school math teacher, I strongly
believe that we should because students don’t have enough time in a 50 minute
class to practice enough problems to become proficient. I was asked, why don’t we just practice
more tomorrow in class? The answer is because we have to move on to another
concept tomorrow, one that builds on what we learned today. Then I was asked
why don’t you just spend more time on each concept? Of course the reason we
don’t is because the state has said we MUST cover certain concepts. Well, why
not be a rebel and ignore the state? I would LOVE to. However, if I do then I
am denying my students the ability to graduate from high school. If they don’t
pass an end of course exam on this material, they don’t graduate, period. Yes,
they have more options to take the exam, but they also have to take three years
of math, so they really can only retake one course and they have to pass the
end of course exams on two courses, Algebra 1 and Geometry. I don’t feel I have the right to not
teach some of that content, so the students must practice it at home. I view this as a behavior issue for the
simple reason that they are choosing to replace homework time with something
else, usually TV, computer time, game time, or talking on the phone. None of
these are important activities in the long run. No one will be deprived if they
spend a minimal amount of time doing these activities for 4 years. They can sit
in front of a screen for 8 hours a day for the next 80 years. But not learning
high school concepts will hurt them for the rest of their life. Not everyone
gets the opportunity to go back to school later to fix their mistakes, so they
are stuck in a low wage job, or no job at all.
I would love to "flip" my classroom, but how can I trust my students to prepare by watching videos each night, so we can spend most of our class time practicing and discussing what problems are causing difficulty, when I can't trust them to do problems that don't require the internet? But that's another discussion, for later.
