The Homework Issue

Homework is a topic that has come up a lot in class discussions and also in some blog posts that I have read so I thought that I should discuss it as well.

If anyone reading this has not heard of the homework issue in question, you can visit the link Calgary Family Negotiates Homework Ban. Basically, a family voiced their concerns about the homework load their children were receiving and signed a contract with the school to eliminate homework altogether. The students will be marked instead only on work done in the classroom. They will, however, still be required to study for tests on their own time.

This is a really interesting topic to discuss. In my experiences the deal is - if you do your work in class, you will not have any homework. I agree with this method to an extent. However, it seems that students are often sent home work that they did not (or could not) complete in class. This concerns me because this could very likely mean that the student is not understanding something. Sending more work for the child to complete at home will not help them understand the concepts. Time needs to be set aside to work with the student. If the child is not completing work in class because of distractions, remove the distractions.

In my experience in PSI and PSII, both of my Teacher Associates did not believe in sending home assignments. I feel that this made sense when working with Grade 2s. It was very apparent that those students not completing their work were struggling with the content. Therefore, as teachers, it is our job to work with the student until they understand. However, when I was teaching a Grade 9 class in a school that did not really allow homework, some problems arose. I was required to give my students way too much class time (in my opinion) to complete projects I had them working on. Often they were off task and wasted their time. I tried to have a "one student to another" conversation with some of them asking them why they were doing this. I told them that I would LOVE it if my profs in university gave me time to finish all of my assignments during class and that they should take advantage of the time they had in class. I could not understand why they did not want to participate in activities they enjoyed at home instead of doing work. Most told me they preferred to do things at home. Why... I never understood. It made me lose a lot of teaching time.

On the other hand, I do believe that homework has its place. When working on certain projects, it is sometimes easier to complete at home due to space or materials. In addition, it sort of prepares them for the future because, as mentioned, university work is typically completed at home.

Instead of sending home "busy work", teachers should encourage parents to spend time with their children and be interested in their learning. Reading together or discussing events. This could be completed with literacy backpacks, family history interviews, etc. Teachers should be careful about what sort of work they are sending home and must make sure it is not just "busy work" or work that the child was unable to complete because they did not understand. We should be enhancing their learning through homework, not using it as a punishment.

Does the "Glass Ceiling" still exist?

During the presentation yesterday, we had a short class discussion about whether or not we felt that there was still a "glass ceiling" in our society. Basically, the glass ceiling refers to a situation in which a qualified individual is essentially stopped from advancing further in their career due to some form of discrimination. In the context we were focusing on, we were discussing sexism. We were asked if we thought there was still this invisible barrier for women in the work place.

I have discussed this concept very briefly in other courses and it's interesting because I have always sort of felt that it was an outdated term. However, after reading some blogs and listening to class discussions, it seems as though that may not be the case. A classmate made the comment that men were getting paid significantly more money for doing the same job as some women. This doesn't make any sense and I was a little skeptical about this statement. I just can't see how employers would get away with that. I would agree that it is often easier for men to advance in certain careers but if a man and a woman are at the same level, they should be getting paid the same. I would say that presently, this is not as prominent as it once was although it seems that discrimination of some form in the workplace will always exists.

It still seems that there are certain jobs that are considered to be a man's job or a woman's job. I remember my first days of university at the U of A. We were placed in groups based on our faculty for orientation. I remember everyone recognizing who the engineers were because 98% of them were male. We could also easily recognize where the nursing faculty was as their group was 98% female. This is changing slightly but looking around the classroom, there are way more women than men in all of my education classes. That field is still dominated by women. However, it was brought up that although there are a lot of female teachers, most administrators were men. This is definitely not the case anymore. Both of the schools that I did my practicums in had female principals. I definitely think that is changing a bit and women are able to advance a lot more.

But is it going too far? Sometimes I feel as though certain sexes are more suited for a job BUT on the other hand, I also think that sex should NOT be looked at when being considered for a job. Employers should be looking for skills, experience, qualifications, etc. In some cases, a position is given to a woman just because she is a woman. I have a relative who is a firefighter. He says that their company is required to have a certain number of women, and also that he feels as though some of those woman would not be able to pull him out of a burning building should the situation arise. That is a little bit scary. Don't get me wrong, I am not discouraging women from becoming firefighters. I just feel as though everyone should be looked at based on their qualifications not on gender... Or race for that matter. Many companies are required to hire so many minorities and schools also need to admit so many. How is that fair? Why can't people just be looked at based on their qualifications? It seems as though everyone is trying not to discriminate but doesn't know exactly how to approach it fairly.

Things have definitely changed with respect to women and minority groups in the workplace. However, there are always still problems with the system. As you can see, I feel as though it can go both ways or be pushed too far. I like to think that we are moving in the right direction but I also know that my knowledge is limited on the subject as I have not experienced much of this first hand. Any thoughts??