Don’t Sign Your Kid’s Reading Log!

🙂 This sounds like Hubby and Step-son. When my three were going through school, I just did as I was told. Only one was a big reader, so requiring me to sign off on it nightly was a good reminder for me. When I began to disagree with the school, I began homeschooling.

My step-son, however, is younger than the others. He is also an avid reader, reading well above his grade level with keen recall and comprehension, all supported by testing and evaluations. For a while he pushed Hubby to sign his reading calendar (only required once a month) so he could get a free pizza, but the agreement was always that he kept track of the day-to-day. Hubby’s explained this to the various teachers throughout the years and didn’t receive any pushback that I’ve heard of. Several months ago the step-son must have decided the pizza wasn’t such a big deal. There are now 3 months worth of empty calendars hanging on the fridge and books are still moving from the ‘to read’ pile to the ‘read’ pile (and I get to listen to long, drawn out stories about characters I don’t know in situations I don’t understand, but at least he’s reading. 🙂 )

@dmg
“I see so many kids ask their parents to set the timer and then quit when the time is up. Takes away the getting lost in the book for hours.”

Sounds like a good way to get kids to hate reading.

If I were a cynical person, I might even think this was intentional.

What is the difference between signed and unsigned word list? What is signature supposed to prove? Isn’t done homework sufficient proof of homework being done?

A licensed professional and business owner, I spent about 4 years feeling like a complete failure over reading logs, planners, homework assignments, and sticker charts. Then, one parent conference day after a 4-hour liability insurance seminar, where I was reminded that a signature implies responsibility and liability, I started asking teachers what my signature on the planner/reading log/homework sheet was supposed to represent. If they said anything resembling “accountability”I asked whose responsibility homework was, and that I don’t sign things that I’m not responsible for. I also asked if children’s grades should reflect the failure of others (their parents). The orchestra teacher who said I was “certifying” that the practice minutes were accurate and properly done got an earful, let me tell you …

i didn’t win many of these conversations, and my kids’ grades have not always been terrific, but I did make a lot of people think for a minute.

I’m definitely going to read this book. My son is in kindergarten, so these are issues I’m just starting to deal with and have been wondering about. Glad to hear the different perspectives here. I do think if I chose not to sign a reading log I would send a note to the teacher explaining why, and perhaps suggest to my son that he sign his own.

Perfect timing.

We got an email from my son’s kindergarten teacher telling us that he will occasionally not turn in his homework, or that it’s wrong. I had a hard time responding because my reaction was “So what?”

I haven’t signed his reading log since the first week of school, when it was clear that the reading assignments were meant for the bottom performers. Nothing wrong with being at the bottom, but my son is already an advanced reader, and will do it on his own without an issue.

@workshop

Two weeks before school was out last year, I got an email from his teacher that said he wasn’t doing his homework regularly or that it was wrong. I emailed back that I don’t correct homework. That’s her job (although I didn’t say that.). I had to bite my tongue because I wanted to say that with two weeks left in the school year, I didn’t give a crap if he did his homework or not. What I did say was that I have to live with him and I’d rather send him outside to play than keep him indoors on a beautiful day to complete what I felt was a pointless waste of time.

whenever my kids (or grandchild now) complained about their homework I always did (and still do) tell to go ahead and skip doing it. Just remember to tell the teacher that you chose not to do it. I tell them I didn’t assign it, so it is of no difference to me.

They didn’t like that answer, but it at least established our roles. Willing to help, but will not engage in a “war” over getting it done.

Talking lower grades here where homework assignments can be disruptive to whole family.

Oh God, the homework. (Pause for large amounts of antidepressants)

I have one child who does most of his homework with minimal grumbling and turns it in on time for the most park. His brother is, and always has been, an utter demon about all homework. He is in 9th grade now, and is in danger of repeating 9th grade primarily because he hasn’t turned in work. We have nagged, had teacher conferences, made sure he had a desk and a laptop – we did all the right stuff. And now, he’s on his own. If he asks for help, resources, whatever, I will gladly provide same. But I refuse too take responsibility for this kid’s work. If he flunks 9th grade, he is going to have a miserable time next year. That’s on him.

Frankly, I would have given up years ago, if the teachers would stop bugging me and my husband about his work. I know he’s on an IEP, due to executive function issues and dyslexia. But the not doing homework is just stubbornness and defiance. The schools have turned to this model of ‘it’s the parents’ problem’ and all that has done is make our home life miserable as we fight and nag rather than just letting the chips fall where they may. No more. I quit. I’ll love the kid regardless, but if he hangs himself with his lack of homework, he’ll have to live with the consequences. And I think if we hadn’t spent the whole grade school experience fighting tooth and nail over homework, he probably wouldn’t be digging his heels in so far now. Sigh.

Our older child is in kindergarten. We are supposed to initial the following:
Daily – behavior log, indicating that we spoke to her either about making “better” choices or praising her for making “good” choices
Weekly – nightly reading log from her reading bag materials
Monthly – daily overall reading log and homework completion

Our daughter is a bright child and a voracious reader who’s been working at a 1st or 2nd grade level since the beginning of the school year and is often bored in class. Her teacher makes an effort to provide her with more challenging materials, but in a class with such a wide variety of abilities there’s only so much she can do for one kid (especially since that kid is already meeting all of the kindergarten requirements).

The way this logging actually happens is that on the rare occasion she doesn’t have green (good) behavior I initial that day. Her only behavioral issue is talking too much in class – which happens because she’s bored – and frankly she gets so distressed at getting a yellow that we don’t want to make it worse by punishing her at home when she’s already been punished at school. I don’t log her weekly reading bag log at all; why should I have to fill out what amounts to two reading logs? Her reading bag work gets done and IMO that should be proof enough. And frankly, I sign her monthly reading and homework log without a second thought because I’m not going to make her do homework that’s too simplistic and easy for her, and she reads way more than the minimum expectation of 10-15 minutes a day.

She attends the before/after school program and after school the students spend the first 45 minutes having a snack and doing their homework. She was helping her 1st grade friend with homework and now she reads quietly or plays a board game with one of the staff members.

She attends a Title 1 elementary school, and some of her classmates are from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds and do not have an involved/engaged parent at home (much less two). That’s sad and unfortunate that there are parents out there who need to be asked to initial a log in order to have any awareness of their child’s education. But that’s not our kid and we don’t see a need to log what she does every freaking day like we’re the homework police.

We did reading logs in early elementary school as well, and I never really thought anything of it, because I liked to read, but my brother cheated on his in grade two, and won all the prizes. He also liked to read; he just exaggerated on how much he’d read. Anyway, I agree that just having the parent sign off and hand it to the teacher sends the wrong message–it takes responsibility and ownership away from the child, and puts it on the parent, and a lot of kids just rush through to be finished, so they can finish their reading logs, and get their grade/prize/reward/whatever the incentive is, so comprehension is lost. However, having to do book reports or long analytical essays can take the fun out of reading, so that’s a problem too. When I was in grade ten English, I was in a split Advanced/Enriched class. The Advanced people had to read 1500 pages of “free reading” that year (at an appropriate grade ten level), and the rest of us in Enriched had to read 1800. We didn’t have to write reports or essays or anything about our free reading–instead, we’d tell the teacher individually what we’d read, and she’d ask us questions about it. The whole process took maybe five minutes per student each time, and it was always done during “seat work” time, so it didn’t take time away from the lessons. I think this approach was a good compromise.

Editing note: The first two links are set to “Mail to”, not “ahref”, so if one clicks on them it tries to send an email to a website.

I LOVE Heather Shumaker. She is my hero. I think I’ll take a copy of this book with me when I take the kiddos to the park.
As for signing things, I have always told my kids’ teachers, “If they said they did it, then it’s done”. How infantalizing and insulting to our children to require our signatures. Also, I already went to school. I didn’t help with homework (unless asked a specific question) or supervise it. Not my responsibility.
Great story: I volunteered at my daughter’s 4th grade Valentine Party. The talk among all the parents was a giant project that they had stayed up all night to finish. Me? I had a vague idea a project was due. I assumed my daughter had done it. (She had). That was 15 years ago. I can only assume it’s gotten worse.
OY!

i am so sick of signing things for my kids! Last week it was a permission slip for my eighth grade daughter to have Oreo cookies at a school function. I have a recurring nightmare that they will come home from college every week and insist that I sign their “Tuesday Folder”.

@dmg
“I see so many kids ask their parents to set the timer and then quit when the time is up. Takes away the getting lost in the book for hours.”

This happens to my son, he likes to read but its hard due to his dyslexia, he will read the “school book” he chose for the teacher ONLY when the timer is going. Outside of that he goes through many other books, or sits with an audio book, even when the teacher and I have both told him that he can read outside of the log times. I was excited when he finally started getting into a series and devouring books, but I think this nags on him and is turning him off slightly.

This heavily depends on the school. I would guess that when most people on this site think of a school they picture a middle-class school, in a safe neighborhood, with involved parents, and more good teachers than bad. That isn’t the reality for many in this country.

This:

>> Requiring a parent signature on homework papers — anything from reading logs, spelling, daily planners and online portals to music practice sheets — sends a clear message to kids: We don’t trust you.<<

Could mean something very different: not that the school doesn't trust the student, but that the school is trying everything it can to reach out to parents to become more involved in their kids' education. For many middle-class parents, this isn't an issue. Questioning our kids about how much homework they have, if they've gotten it done, and making sure they have a quiet time and place to do it are a natural part of our homes. That is far from being universally true, and schools have to find ways to deal with it.

My son never asked me to sign it even though it was required because he quickly figured out that if it wasn’t signed, he got to read during recess. He enjoyed reading instead of dealing with some of the bullying that was happening, so he figured out how to get his preferred activity.

Thank goodness my daughter was at a small private school for elementary! The requirement of filling out reading logs (no signature needed) made her so anxious. Luckily when we told her teacher that our high school level reader didn’t care about free pizza, it was fine. They knew our main challenge was to get her nose OUT of a book! I joke that the good thing about younger son’s IEP is that he doesn’t have to finish his homework (because we, too, support learning but hate the dubious value of homework)!

In my experience, the socioeconomic issue almost doesn’t matter. Now, this could just be my school, where a good percentage of the parents do not speak fluent English. So one could argue that that having parents sign something ensures the parents are being made aware of what’s going on. However, various things over my time teaching at this school has made me think that the same parents we’re trying to reach with these signature-stuff are just seeing a piece of paper from the school and signing it without knowing what it’s about.

So… for me, the argument is rather lost.

“What’s more: Your parent is your Homework Patrol Cop.”

These homework logs and organizational tools started out with good intentions (writing down assignments to ensure work gets completed) but somewhere along the way the burden of responsibility shifted from the most important person, the student, and off to the parents. Sorry, wrong person.

I have not signed a blessed reading log in many moons. My daughter has one (and it has a signature and comment section) that I never sign. She knows how to write my initials.
She also knows these books/logs are a good resource to stay organized. Her biggest flaw is not having the right books and materials to do the assignments. She’s been able to get back up worksheets online and call friends, but this is her work. It’s on her and has been since she started school. She has one job as a 9 year-old and that is her school work. I am happy to help, but she is ultimately the responsible party. Not the signer.

Reading requirements and parent signatures. Way to kill the love of reading!
How about reading in school, outside under a tree, and let them doodle some deep thoughts for their parents instead of another box for mom to check?

Don’t get my started. I *hate* the signing. It means nothing. Signing agendas, especially. Yes, I saw my son has homework.And the fact that he can get points off because, oh, Wednesday was crazy and I didn’t do it.

To Frustrated High School Teacher. I see where you are coming from but my son now has LESS homework in middle school than he did in 3rd grade. MUCH less. Third through fifth was crazy for homework. K-2 wasn’t great either. I honestly feel he could do with a little more homework now, but at least the homework really relates to school work and is appropriate the the subject. Much of K-5 was busy work, which an ADHD kid who was burnt from 8 hours at school including aftercare just could not focus on. Elementary was hell. Which is a crazy thing to say!

Generally speaking, when school asks me to sign something I sign it. Whether I would actually stand behind kids shoulder with timer during reading depends on whether I trust the kid, whether I actually care about that concrete homework and on similar factors. If the kid reads a lot on its own, I would sign the log based on reading the kid done anyway without any fuss or timers. I would probably get into habit of signing it without reading or thinking if it would come every week or more often.

Our equivalent of reading logs was supposed to be returned by end of semester and short description of a list of books we were supposed to read. Most kids wrote it a day before and content had nothing to do with what who read. So, I do not get offended if teacher worry kids did not done work when work is not checked. Some would, many or even most would not.

I strongly dislike if whenever school is asking me to do is actually trying to manipulate me through. Parent who don’t care wont start to care after he signed a piece of paper. And no, reading for homework is not bonding time nor pleasure reading time, it is reading for homework.

Pleasure reading is when you can stop whenever you feel like and can choose book without worrying what teacher or other kids will think about that book, whether they will mock your choice. Bonding is when we both feel fine and do what we like. When I have work to do and have to check on kids reading of book I do not care about, that is not bonding. Stop organizing it for me. I truly hate when someone adds me a chore and then manipulates me with “it is great occasion for bonding”. Like I could not bond without you organizing me occasions.

Dee@, I can see your point! I have the same experience with both my kids – my daughter, now at college, simply hated elementary school altogether, and the same goes for my son, soon at the middle school. They are responsible, critical thinking, and open-minded, but elementary school just had been suffocated them… And, common, what are they doing for 7 hours at school?! Is it really so impossible to set off some time for homework during school hours?

There are two sides of this argument (well, probably more than two) and I can come at it from both sides.

Why do teachers want you to sign paperwork (tests, spelling lists, reading logs, etc.)? Because they want you to be aware of what’s going on with your child at school and they want your child to be successful. When you ask your child, “what did you do at school today?” and they reply with the standard answer of, “nothing,” this gives you a way to have some idea what they’re learning in school (or not learning, depending on the type of paperwork you’re signing). Yes, good parents will be well aware of what their children are doing in school, either by communication with their child, other children, other parents, or the teacher. Other parents need a little push to give a damn.

As a parent, I see how this can be annoying (we’re not at the “homework” stage yet – my oldest is going into kinder in the fall). We don’t want to become the enforcement behind finishing homework, following through on projects, making sure reading happens, and the consequences (however eventual) for not doing those things. We want to know what’s going on but things like completed homework should be an indication that homework is, you know, getting done! Yes, we want to be involved and know what’s going on but we should not have to micormanage our children into doing their work. It’s going to teach them very little about the real world.

In some schools (e.g. in Germany) kids do their “homework” in school with the teacher. When they walk out the school door they’re finished studying for the day!

As a parent, I hate the signing of agendas and tests. As a teacher, I understand why teachers ask parents to sign tests. Often parents receive report cards and are shocked and outraged that their child is not achieving the grades they thought they were. It could be an B student, now receiving C’s, or an A student now receiving A-‘s. Having parents sign tests lets the teacher know that Bobby or Susie’s parents know how their child is doing and won’t be surprised come report card time.

Watching parents tell their kids not to go up the slide is one of my pet peeves. When there are no waiting kids, it’s just control-freakish and excessively conforming. When there are waiting kids, just say that or else let the kids argue it out.

This is refreshing all the way ’round.

@Frustrated High School Teacher The problem is that coloring is not that fun for many kids. There is general assumption that all kids wants to color all the time and that is just not true for many. Many would be much happier if them could just cross group of three apples and be done in 30 seconds then doing exactly same math exercise plus 15 minutes of coloring. At least, that was problem of multiple kids around us.

I think that homework yes/no is false binary. The right questions are when to start with it, how much of it for given school system (if they end classes later they should have less homework as school system that have them play afternoon) and what.

A bit unrelated, I don’t thing that every math sheet of 20 exercises counts as rote learning. It is rote learning if all exercises are exactly the same. If they are a bit different and kids need to think while applying formula or apply different formula to each, then it should not count as rote. It is impossible to learn math without solving exercises.

I used to like puzzles and had luck on teachers that taught us to approach math as series of puzzles. So for me, math itself was fun. Maybe it those who don’t like puzzles wont have that much fun with it, but it served me well later at college.

Oh gosh, how have I never heard of this blog? Sign me up for the book.

I am an absolute advocate of kids going up the slide!!! I want to sneak into playgrounds during the night and paint big yellow circles around the playground and post “parents not allowed” signs.

Let the kids reign, let them make up all the rules… and if that means running up the slide then let them!!

My daughter is in first grade and has to fill out a reading log for her 20-minutes reading homework.every day which I’m supposed to initial. I don’t sign it anymore, my daughter takes pride in forging my signature and her mom’s very well. I don’t have a problem with fist graders having some homework. Recently though the teacher sent out two days homework on one day by mistake and the parents freaked out and complained.

Much worse than homework though is those parents who “home school,” that’s a crime against children, undersocializing them and the ultimate in helicopter parenting.

@John, how is sticking your kid in a 7-8 hour class with only people his or her own age, with minimal time for free play, socializing? Homeschooled children are shown time and time again to be better socialized than other kids, largely due to their ability to converse with anyone, not just kids their own age. There are families that almost never let their kids leave the house and you’re right, that’s a problem, but that’s also the exception, not the rule.

When I was in my early school years in the day, it was so different that what it is today. You were lucky sometimes when you did get homework. I am talking about from grade 1-6. Then, school curriculum was quite different. Also, there was a Jr. High from grades 7-9. Today it is called middle school. Same thing I guess. Homework was given but when I took it home, I was always hounded by my father, did you do your homework? This was constant and so annoying and eventually, I got so tired of my father asking this every single night, that I detested homework. I didn’t do my homework and my grades suffered because i wasn’t learning. The trust between us waned. Not doing my homework caused the teacher to have my father sign the paper that I didn’t do my assignment. Whether all students in the class had to do this, I don’t know. What I believe is that students should not be forced to do homework and there is no way you can instill that behavior. It has to come naturally and a good teacher should make the means to want their students to achieve and to learn by taking the initiative to have each student learn by their own accord. There should be cooperation between teacher, student and parents. It is called behavior modification and rewards should be given for the good ones and restrictions given for bad ones. So I do believe in homework assignments and students should have the means not only to do it but try to enjoy it as well. I hope what I mentioned is meaningful.

Oh, Jeez, now I can’t decide who is my BFF, Lenore or Heather.

This School Year, we refused to sign Reading Logs for my 1st Grader – after they were returned with red pen circles on empty signature spaces, we spoke up to no avail – fed up with the stress they were putting on her (not to mention the snarky red pen circles directed at us), we removed the burden from our daughter by taking the Binder, putting it in a kitchen cabinet and telling her we were holding onto it and that she could let her teacher know to call us when she wants us to return the Binder – after a few weeks of Manila folders with logs kept coming home in place of the Binder and the teacher realized she wasn’t getting signatures or her Binder back, a way was found to incorporate the work into our daughter’s school day without interfering with Recess – after a few weeks of this show of good faith, we returned the Binder in our daughter’s school bag one day never to see it again – it now stays in school where it belongs – she is no longer stressed about the work and has made phenomenal progress in Reading

Kids today are growing up to be insecure adolescents and young adults because they are conditioned not to rely on themselves or trust their own judgment – very sad

I love it! Micromanagement is in everything. Litigation prevention is in everything. (We need to get the parent’s signature or else they may sue us for not teaching properly)

However in this pursuit they forgot that the main goal is to prepare children to become adults. This points out that signing their spelling homework is counteractive to that goal. We don’t give them an opportunity to learn responsibility. We then throw them into the deep end when they are out of school. They suddenly get a crash course in repressibility. This is more about crashing than it is about learning responsibility.

“…..sends a clear message to kids: We don’t trust you. We don’t trust you really did the work. We don’t trust you care about your own learning. What’s more: Your parent is your Homework Patrol Cop”.

I’m not going to be too popular, so I’ll start with the disclaimer that I’m a hardcore free range single parent and a huge fan of Lenore’s work.
That said, I’m also a lifelong educator who is aware of something the sensible parents who post here are missing.
The signatures are not to hold kids accountable. They are to hold the lying, enabling, helicopter parents accountable.
This probably sounds unthinkable to most parents posting here, but you have no idea how many parent-teacher conferences devolve into the parent arguing that a child’s grade should not be so low because, “I was never notified.” Parents who know full well their kids have no sense of responsibility (because that’s the way they reared them) will stop at nothing to try place blame on the teacher. A parent signature proving that parent knew about a problem long before goes a long way. I’ve been threatened with lawsuits (and even with having the Pope called on me once or twice – LOL). Education in the helicopter generation has become like House of Cards meets Law & Order.
It sucks, but this is the world we live in. Are reading logs going a bit too far? Maybe. However, serious assessment grades become ammo for the blame-shifting parent. Educators have to protect themselves and their standards from ridiculous enablers who expect accountability from everyone else but their own kids. If you can’t stand your kids being part of that world, I’m a huge advocate of homeschooling – if you are physically able to do it.

There’s a pretty major void in some of the reasoning, here: as soon as it’s “parents vs. teachers” the children are going to lose. “It’s not my job to check my kid’s homework.” No, it’s your job to raise your kids–NOT the teacher’s. When the parents don’t raise the kids, the teachers have to step in. Yes, often matters like this can be *discussed* with the teacher, and often the teacher can come to an accomodation with *that* parent. However, it’s horribly selfish to want the teacher to start treating all the students differently just because *you* don’t agree with something she’s doing. The truth is that *many* parents do not get involved in their kids’ education at all–and for those kids, reading logs and homework signatures often do make some difference. Are they perfect solutions for every child? Of course not. However, the teacher’s job is to help as many as she can, and parents bickering about how she does her job is rarely helpful.

Frankly, encouraging rebellion against the system is the *worst* way to deal with problems. Sensational titles like “Don’t sign…” and “[Break the rules]” get a lot of attention–like tabloid magazines do–but at best, they encourage otherwise good parents to question their parenting, and at worst, they undermine teachers and schools (and end up encouraging future law-breakers and anarchists).

We check our kids’ homework. For one thing, it keeps us up-to-date on what they’re learning in school. It makes it easier for them to ask us questions when they don’t understand something. It may not actively teach the message “we trust you” but you know what? we’re good parents and we find plenty of other ways to teach them that–and it most certainly does NOT tell them “we don’t trust you” *because* we consistently teach them otherwise. For another thing, it teaches respect for authority–one thing that is almost completely lacking in Western schools today. Also, it supports the teachers who are (in most cases) doing their best to help not just our kids, but also the kids of parents who *don’t* otherwise get involved in their kids’ education. Your kids love reading, and hate reading journals? Great. They can go on loving reading and hating journals until they flunk out of university because “research is no fun”. My kids love reading too, and they complain about the journals (and other homework) too–but they do it anyway, and they STILL love reading… and in the meantime, we’re supporting a system that encourages all the *other* kids to read as well.

It’s easy to blame the system and blame the teachers, and it’s easy to point out the problems and advocate breaking the rules (because hey, it sells books). It’s not so easy to actually work *with* the teachers and promote *positive* change. Guess that explains why people do what they do, eh?

Oops- Point is, I sign the damn thing. I dont enforce the rules of it.

Gee I hate what homework does to my homelife. My boys are eight and five and already I have become the family Homework Monitor. They both rely on me to tell them what and when, all under the pretence that the school is teaching them to be responsible for their work when in fact, they of course totally depend on me to keep track. And THEY lose their play time if MUMMY should forget. Such a farce. SMH

@Stef Coulombe A parent who don’t give a damm about school wont start giving damm just because he sight something. That parent will sign it regardless of what kid did most likely without reading it much.What it does is that serious rule following parents will stand with timers behind children backs. Those parents gave damm even before.

Also what teachers tend to underestimate is that kids are tired in the afternoon. It is true even during weekend when there are no classes and even worst during week. They focus is much worst. What takes 5 minutes Monday morning takes 35 in the evening. Parents role amounts to cop keeping the child on task. Because the child is much easier to distract afternoon after classes. There is no bonding, no healthy interest or caring about schools. It is just stress, arguing and keeping the child via bribes or negative consequences.

Supposedly fun tasks (cutting, coloring, etc) are no fun when you are not in mood for them. Or when kid is distracted ever 5 minutes. Parents would fuss about it much less if homework was actually within kids abilities, whether focus or technical (projects amount to homework for parents). Instead, it is unpleasant time you have to organize time around.

20 minutes of reading a day afternoon is awfully lot of 6 years old. Add to it 15 of something from math and coloring from something else and you got over hour of activities assuming kid that is distracted only a little.

When homework makes parents and childrens life more stressful every day, then of course they will have negative opinion of school and maybe even rebel. Adding me pointless stressful tasks to do wont make me like you.

Yes, parental involvement and whether parents respect teachers sends kids message about how important school is and they react on it. It just so happen that when you ask parent to do daily tasks that clearly has nothing to do with anything learning or are just pure stress, parent wont be able to pretend “school is important” attitude daily. Instead, kids will learn parents actual facts based attitude and observation that school is making them do pointless stressful tasks daily.

Sometimes I think this blog is as guilty of way over thinking and over dramatizing everything about childhood as helicopter parents.

I have a kid who likes to read, so reading homework never worried me. I’ve never timed her or kept up with it. She reads regularly on her own and at several grades ahead. As long as that maintains, we will continue to ignore reading homework. I think she had to do a reading log in A. Samoa. She put down whatever she read that day. I can’t remember if I had to sign it or not (that is how much impact this had on our life).

If I had a child who hated to read and never did so willingly, she would be required to do whatever was required by school and I would keep up with it. Not because I think this is likely to develop a love of reading. It isn’t, but it is completely ridiculous to believe that there is ever going to be something that EVERYONE on the planet enjoys doing, even reading. I am willing to accept that a person can not like to read for pleasure, but reading at an adult level is a necessary life skill and the only way to get there is to practice. Waiting around for some extrovert who hates to read (as many extroverts do) to change their personality and decide that they love to read is not likely to get you there.

I also think some here are practicing revisionist history. I remember having homework in elementary school. I remember spelling word practice, math problems, book reports, various projects in shoe boxes, science fairs, etc.. The difference is that most of us had plenty of time to play AND do homework. Most of our mothers didn’t work outside the home and those whose did were latch-key kids. We came home from school, played outside for a couple hours and then came in ate dinner, did homework and watched TV. While kids didn’t always particularly like homework, nobody was stressed out about it.

Today, the vast majority of kids today come from households were all the adults work and they are shuffled off to some organized activity until the end of the workday. They come home at dinner time exhausted and still needing to do homework. The parents are tired after working all day and still have to get dinner cooked, homework done and kids off to bed, often so that they can do more work themselves. The parents are stressed about the homework. The kids are stressed about the homework. It is generally a miserable process for everyone.

Schools need to realize that life has changed and adjust. Homework as I knew it is just not possible in current life unless we are going to somehow add hours to the day. My kid’s school does seem to have adjusted somewhat. While she has always had a small amount of homework that generally takes her 10 minutes, she’s never had a large amount or any non-voluntary projects. No spelling words outside of what you wanted to do to study for the school spelling bee. No book reports. And we have yet to build a single thing in a shoe box.

Withholding recess was one of the big reasons we started homeschooling.

Teachers and school administrators are cruel despots, who delight in subjugating their tiny charges.

Both of my daughters found daily reading logs frustrating and discouraging, and I found them a pain in my side. The alternative we were able to work out with the teachers was just a slight adjustment. The girls sat with the teacher and came up with a reasonable number of pages to read for the month as a goal. The girls just logged the books they read and page count. At the end of the month, the girls and their teacher did a quick review and set a new goal up or down for the next month.

No signing for me. A few minutes once a month for the teacher. Much less painful for the girls – and they practiced goal setting…which is a very effective tool even if you aren’t able to reach your goal. Eventually the teachers started moving more of their students to this style of log when it better fit the child’s temperament.

It is actually fun for some kids at the end of the year to see the list of books that they read and how many pages it came to.

I think required reading, homework and required signatures on everything is BS!! When I found out that my children were being “punished” because I didn’t sign one of their stupid “parent sign here lines” I threw a shit fit!!! Threatened to go over the teachers head to the superintendent. When I got to the super he told me that teachers and schools can set their own rules. He totally supported the teacher until I threatened to go to the media when got off the phone with him. Not even 5 minutes later I had a call from the teacher saying that she had received a call from the super and they would no longer punish my child. We have to not only stand up for our children’s rights to be kids but also our rights as parents to have not only time with our kids but not be told to spend the few hours we have with our children doing something the teachers should of done in school teaching our children!!!

“Was it really like that wherever you was growing up? I don’t remember anyone whose mom would not work except those who had baby siblings. I took it as standard that moms work when kids are in school age.”

If I remember correctly, you are a good bit younger than me.

I went to elementary school in the 70s. In elementary school, I can only recall one friend whose mother worked outside the home and that was in a family business. And, like me, she was a latch-key kid from a young age. On the days her mother wasn’t home after school, she either stayed home by herself or walked to the family grocery store and hung out there. By high school most of my friends’ mothers worked, but that was a slow trickle that started after the youngest kid went to middle school.

Contrast that to my brother went to elementary school in the 90s. None of his friends had stay at home mothers. Several didn’t work full time or worked flexible schedules, but all worked.

@Pentamom: “And as I said, what Jessica was responding to was highly provocative. It’s not fair to go after her for a fairly mild, positive, and general statement, while ignoring the hostile and ignorant thing she was responding to.”

Which is why I wrote that I had missed that post.

I went to school in the late 60’s-70’s (graduated from high school in 1977) and, like the others, no mom worked outside the home when I was in school (even in high school I can’t remember one friend whose mom worked). In elementary school, we went home for lunch, and there wasn’t even an option – no lunchboxes, no hot lunch- until middle school of staying at school for lunch. I had a friend whose parents were divorced and dad had full custody (very odd for the time), and he had a housekeeper during the day partially so his elementary-aged daughters didn’t have to go to a friend or neighbor’s house every day for lunch.

Different times, indeed.

I’m surprised no one has mentioned studies showing that homework before grade 6 or so is pointless. Unless, I suppose, the kid lags behind for whatever reason and really does need some extra practice – but why would you bother the whole class with work that only benefits a few?

“in the meantime, we’re supporting a system that encourages all the *other* kids to read as well.”
I’m not so sure about that… Do reading logs and timers really “encourage” kids to read? From what I read here and from what I remember about similar situations in my own school days (having to work my way through boring literature instead of devouring thrillers), I doubt it.

@Papilio Reading is not fun until you are really good at it, so I guess some amount of reading where it is not a fun is necessary just to get there.

The other thing is, kids don’t read for pleasure as much as they used nor do adults. It boils down to better entertainment being available while it being hard to recognize fun book in store. When people used to read a lot it was when cheap fun to read books with nothing deeper in it were available. That sort of fun was replaced by movies and then games.

So I dunno, even if they don’t read for fun, they still need to acquire reading skills for life and work. I think that is where logs come from.

I don’t really remember those early year reading. (K-4) I recall vaguely reading workbooks but I don’t remember being told to read at home. I could have been, but I was doing that anyway. I loved reading.

However, and I believe this has come up on this blog before…I got low grades on various reading assignments in middle and high school. Why? Every time I was assigned a book it was always a lousy ‘classic’ book. Nothing from the 70s or 80s. I realize there’s supposed to be a reason for it, but if it’s not something I enjoy reading…I couldn’t force myself to do it. I just couldn’t. The only reason I passed those English classes is that I didn’t have a problem reading textbooks and I was great at guessing the right answers on tests. Those grades made up for not completing the assigned books. If they’d asked me to dissect The Shining or IT, I’d have been there. Wuthering Heights, not so much.

I think the only book I really enjoyed in that time period, that was also assigned, was A Tale of Two Cities. I felt a connection to the Sidney character.

I think Heaven that I wasn’t forced to get signatures for everything.

David

I believe the purpose of signing the kids work has nothing to do with the kids learning or integrity. It is all about the school ‘advertising’ to the parents how much they do and what a great school they are. It is all about P.R.

Nevertheless it sends that bad nontrusting message the article decries. Not to mention it is a pain in the neck to have to sign everything. I taught my kids to forge my signature so they could sign all this stuff themselves and the school wouldn’t be on our backs.

@David (Dhewco) I think that English literature lessons are meant to teach you specifics of English literature and its history. The reading for story and fun is more of a hobby thing schools care about only lately.

“you can learn about the books without being forced to read them.”

No you really can’t. You can’t do that anymore than you can read a description of the Sistine Chapel and fully appreciate its beauty. All you learn are basic facts and those are mostly meaningless when it comes to literature. Reading current American literature doesn’t actually teach you anything about 19th century British literature. And The Shining and It aren’t even current American literature. It isn’t even Stephen King’s best writing.

I am not sure where we got this notion that the only things we need to learn are things we enjoy learning. I don’t think Wuthering Heights and Rebecca specifically are required life knowledge (although they do both usually make the list of books you should read before you die), but literature more meaningful than The Shining and It certainly is. Some of it you may have to struggle through and some you may downright hate, but that doesn’t make it lack of importance to know in order to be a well-educated person.

I don’t remember if I ever had to sign about the reading my kids, but at least in 3rd grade, we were supposed to sign their assignment book every day. Seems like there was something I had to sign before that too, weekly, about math facts?

Problem here is, if you don’t sign, the kids lose recess and then, for repeat offenses, they get discipline cards etc. I don’t know how far that would go if a parent decided to rebel. I decided it wasn’t a hill to die on. I wasn’t going to make my kids miss recess nor have a big fight with their teacher over that.

In 4th grade they don’t have anything I have to sign, other than certain tests and discipline slips. Magically, the kids do their work anyway.

I hated some of the assigned books and loved others. There is no single book in world all students would be guaranteed to like. I don’t think literature lessons in school should focus only on what is fun. It is ok to have students read various styles from various periods and countries. If you really hated all assigned books older then 30 years, then maybe you never gave them honest chance.

The teacher who recommends Stephen King’s or Charlaine Harris or Harry Potter to child is great teacher. Literature lessons focused primary on contemporary entertainment after kids already have good reading skills are not so great.

Andy, I said I loved A Tale of Two cities, and that’s older. I loved Shakespeare, and that’s way older. Rebecca is a story about a woman who impetuously marries a widower and has to live in the house with the previous wife’s memory weighing on everyone. That’s not a good story for 15yo me. Who cares, she married a rich guy…whatevs.

I don’t remember the plot to Wuthering Heights and I’m feeling too lazy to look.

There was a sequel to The Fall of the House of Usher that someone wrote a while back that I tried to get a teacher to let me do a report on…but she told me that it wasn’t possible because she hadn’t ‘cleared’ it.

@David (Dhewco) Ok, but then it makes it a book that sold a ton originally, but you did not liked. Everyone will have a book that was mandatory and he did not liked. That does not mean school failed big time for assigning it. Al least I do not think it is huge failure if mandatory reading contains less fun books if they have place in literature.

@leanne — that’s the same system that some of my kids teacher’s used: pretest and then go from there. They also had different spelling groups to keep kids at the right level of challenge.

And it’s wonderful that your kids embrace reading and your home is structured such. The issue is that teachers have to educate all students. Students that do have many distractions or parents night not encourage reading naturally (or didn’t have time to take the kids to the library when they were little or who they themselves don’t like to read). There is nothing saying that a child can’t take the initiative and do the reading on their own and get the parents to sign off. Not every household has a love of reading (as much as I read, I’m really the only one who does it for pleasure aside from vacations) and maybe just maybe being reminded that reading is skill that needs practice actually *helps* some kids. Maybe not yours, but others.

Homework would work a lot better as a teaching tool if it were pre-work instead of post-work. By which I mean, give an assignment on something that has not been taught yet, to introduce the lesson *before* it is discussed in class. It would prepare kids far better for college and grad school, not to mention the real world, where this is how things operate: You do your reading and research *before* coming to the lecture, discussion group, red wine book club, pitch meeting, deal closing, courthouse, debate floor, etc., and everyone has a much more productive gathering, where questions can be resolved and consensus reached, because everyone did their preliminary “homework.”

Homework in high school did not prepare me well for college. My typical high school day would involve coming to class to learn a “new” concept, that I’d already picked up on my own years ago through my independent reading or just living in the world. I would then be “taught” what I already knew, for roughly one day or one week, and conditioned to give the “credited” response when asked, instead of a more complicated, nuanced, or equally accurate answer that didn’t lend itself as well to a fill-in-the-blank worksheet. Then I would be sent home with the fill-in-the-blank worksheet, to “reinforce” the concepts that I already knew in the first place. Nowhere in the process did anyone ever check to see how many of us were bored out of our minds because we were learning things we already knew. The whole time I was thinking, heaven forbid someone in this class *didn’t* already know what was just “taught” to us this past week! What if they were sent home with these worksheets, and were still utterly incapable of filling them out? Is that their “fault”? So the only people who could successfully complete homework every single day were those of us who didn’t need the reinforcement in the first place — those of us who hadn’t really “learned” anything in the past week, those for whom it came easy, because we already knew it. Those for whom the concepts were indeed novel, those who could actually benefit from more instruction on the concepts, were just “bad” students because they couldn’t finish the damned worksheets after-the-fact.

But preliminary “homework” — homework that introduces a chapter or segment — woo-hoo what a game-changer that could be! The teacher would know where the kids stood before the lesson began, the kids would come in prepared to have a conversation and lesson about the same thing, and “faulting” someone for not “doing” their homework would seem more fair. “Johnny, you were supposed to write half a page on things you’ve always wondered about outer space. Why didn’t you do it?” “Um, because I don’t know anything about outer space.” “Okay, well, then, you shouldn’t have any trouble filling half a page with things you don’t know then, should you?” “Susie, where is your list of ‘rights’ that you think should be in our constitution?” Okay, bad off the cuff examples, but you get the idea….

We study literature for many reasons, and the good reasons all cannot be reproduced by doing other things; that’s what makes them good reasons for studying literature. Of course we don’t expect that in your working life you’ll be called upon often to know the plot of the classics. We expect that in your life as a thinking, feeling human being you’ll engage with the questions behind the themes of these works, and that your approach to those questions ought to be informed by having struggled through them with the help of great thinkers over the ages. I realize that parts of the world have developed the idea that any uninformed opinion is just as good as an informed opinion, that learning philosophy is nothing more than a bull-session, etc., but that doesn’t make it true.

We also study literature as part of our rite of passage in our culture. Studying the literature that shaped your culture allows you to understand your common inheritance. It allows us to communicate better if we all understand a common set of allusions, and we don’t do kids any favors by allowing them to exempt themselves from this process.

Donna – what do you consider King’s best writing? I think I’d go with The Dark Tower, although the books that reflect on the writing process also stand out, as do a couple psychological thrillers.

Beth2 – Unfortunately, the movement seems to be in the opposite direction. My students are always shocked (and angry) that I give assignments (reading assignments, by the way) on material we haven’t covered in class. They’re shocked when I say “send me questions while you read and I will construct my lecture on that basis” because they expect me to lecture on everything that they will be “responsible” for. They are shocked that my tests don’t look like carbon-copies of the study guide, even though I write on the syllabus that this will be the case. Most of the faculty are giving them what they were conditioned to expect in high school, and those who don’t get destroyed on faculty rating websites and on student evaluations of faculty.

@Puzzled “They’re shocked when I say “send me questions while you read and I will construct my lecture on that basis””

Heh, no way I would be sending questions, especially at college level. Sending question would felt like admission that I did not figured it out by myself. I valued figuring out and plus the pride cost would be hard to stomach. I even disliked classes where teachers wanted us to ask questions in class, because most questions clearly shown whoever is asking did not put 3 seconds into thinking about the solution. I disliked asking such forced questions.

We also had that weird competitive culture where you would even lie about how much you studied – e.g. telling lesser number of days for fear of looking like someone who got things slowly. It took me a while to understand many people are lying and that my real hours are actually not too long at all.

Donna – I actually haven’t read The Stand, which I know is weird for a King fan. For books about the writing process, I’d suggest Dance Macabre, On Writing, and The Dark Half. There’s also a short story called “Secret Window, Secret Garden” which appears in Four Past Midnight.

We actually have a different take on this. We are at an urban elementary school with kids from all socioeconomic backgrounds. Our school is working hard to close the achievement gap, and we have learned that the more parents are involved in their kids education, usually the better kids do. So, having parents sign homework and reading logs is less about having parents micromanaging their kids, and more about getting more parents involved in their kids’ educations to close the achievement gap. I’m about as free range as they come, but this makes sense to me. Individual parents can always talk with teachers and come to an agreement about not signing if they want to teach their kids responsibility, etc. Overall, this is to get the parents who aren’t involved with their kids’ educations involved, and to make them aware that kids should read at night, etc. It’s sad, but some parents don’t read to their kids or make space and time available to their kids for reading.

@andy — I understand what you are saying and we kind of went thru this with the “carpool sign” about the “don’t be a crutch for your kid’s stuff”. It’s as if you believe the no parent can ever be influenced by communications from the school. Sure – working one on one with parents probably have the biggest benefit, and schools do that as well.

Raising awareness with parents and the kids in regard to expectations isn’t always “magical thinking”. Sometimes efforts do shift behaviors.

I believe there’s a difference between saying “I’d like you to read 20 minutes a night” to the kids and then leaving it there vs “I’d like you to read 20 minutes a night and log it on this sheet – get a parent to sign it”. Even if that encouraged the KID to take ownership and have the parent sign off. Some kids do want to please teachers and get positive feedback. Some parents do too. Some kids and parents don’t need the logs for ANY reason.

Are there extremes at both ends? Kids/parents that this is just a formality and unnecessary? Yes. Kids/Parents that aren’t going to follow the suggestion and read 20 minutes just because they’ve been asked? Yes. Are there a bunch of kids/parents in the middle that will emphasize this because it’s part of their “homework”? Yes.

Isn’t it possible that some kids will practice reading because a log is part of their homework? Or are you suggesting that the log is completely worthless? Because I’d love to know how that’s known.

Coming at this from the perspective of an educator: the parent signature bit is not (or at least, not solely) because the teacher don’t trust that the kids did the work. It is a way for the teacher to gauge the level of support at home. Time and again, studies and anecdotal incidents have shown that when students have strong support at home for their learning at school they are more successful, particularly in academics. Let me be clear: this isn’t teachers trying to “police” parents by inspecting their level of involvement in their child’s education, they’re not going to call CPS if a parent won’t practice spelling words with little Sam, but rather it helps a good teacher know what resources are and aren’t available at home and helps them differentiate their teaching based on that. If a good teacher sends out spelling lists to be studied and signed and students come back without them signed, it’s probably a good indication that parents don’t have the time to spare to help their child practice, so the teacher should send the students home with a different kind of practice that the student can check on their own. If a student was consistently having everything signed but suddenly it drops off, a good teacher takes that as a red flag that something is going on at home and they should reach out to see if the learning support structure at home has changed so they can make any necessary adjustments. Or, sudden dropping off of parent follow-up could be an indication that a student is experiencing some internal conflict or drama and can prompt the teacher to further check in with their student and see if they need help in other ways, such as academic support or talking to a counselor. From an outside perspective, I can see how the parent signature requirement seems like saying that teachers don’t think students are responsible, but in reality parent signature requests give teachers a lot of important information to inform their teaching, information that families might not volunteer in other ways.

@E “I’m not sure I’m following about “former parents”. Is that just saying that logs didn’t exist a few generations ago?”

I meant the group of parents that gives a damm about school. The argument I reacted to was about children of parents who give a damm doing better then those who don’t give a damm about school. A parents who care about school and whose children did good in school were not signing logs, their children simply learned same attitude from them. Plus, those parents were more educated on average and better able to recognize when child needs more help/tutoring and when child needs to grind it out a bit more. Signing logs will do zero for parents who don’t give a damm attitude or inability to know when help is needed and how to help.

In this context, having parents sign logs has even less meaning in it then cargo cults.

@Andy — I guess I just don’t operate in black/white (parents either really care about education/learning or don’t care at all). I believe, like most things, there’s a huge spectrum.

I get that we all want to be able to ‘trust’ our teachers, but I’m not going to use every small decision, among the 100s they make as a litmus test. Again, the teacher has the goal/responsibility for educating all kids in her classroom.

I won’t go on because I think Eevee has said more from an educator’s perspective than anything I could.

@Andy — I guess we’ve strung this out as long as possible. But you’ve basically called an educator a liar, so it’s pointless anyway.

I have 3 educators as sisters, one as a career, 2 that became teachers a little later in life (one in special ed) and their experiences and stories continually illustrate why/how and how serious they take their roles. Were the perfect? I’m sure not. Did they use methods that they truly thought were going to help them an their students? 100%.

My personal experience as a parent with kids that went to school indicates that most teachers (sure, not all, but in what profession is everyone the same with the same proficiencies) really DO want to see each of their students thrive. I have 1 child that is very smart, but was also the kid that was a class clown (probably somewhere in the ADHD world) and we had teachers that DID have time to recognize and craft strategies to get that situation more manageable for all of us (mostly her obviously). Some of the things she suggested and allowed in her classroom were amazing to us.

I’m sorry your experience with educators has left you so skeptical.

@andy: “Can your sisters divine that home situation from reading logs, but somehow cant from suddenly missing homework? That was assumption in Evee comment. Teachers are humans. You both seem to expect super human abilities from them — ability to miraculously fix broken home when parent stop signing whatever paper is in front of them definitely qualifies. ”

Where does anyone suggest they can miraculously fix broken homes? I took Eevee’s comments as an example of the kind of tools teachers might use. Is it the only tool? Surely not. Is it *a* tool? Presumably so because she’s deployed it.

“None of it has any impact on sign in previous discussion, whether using signatures to check on home situation makes sense.”

No it doesn’t. It means my experience with teachers is that they DO use systems/tools/methods that make sense to them in their efforts to help their class succeed. Did a signed sheet help *my* kid? Not sure. Did some of the other methods she deployed help my kid? Yup. She did have my trust so I’m not going to get bent over the request to do a rather small thing.

By all means, every parent should do what they really feel strongly about — don’t sign the sheets if you think it’s worthless or counter productive.

The reality is, we can all sit here and make a presumption about a log/signature. But it’s all pointless – they should ask the teacher themselves. Sure, it takes more time from the teacher’s time (and yours) to have that discussion, but that’s the only point at which a parent can decide if it’s worthwhile.

Thanks for the discussion. I admit that I was misguided on some of the things you were trying to say and arrived at the wrong conclusion.