The Imperfect Community

peacezum · Slightly Flawed Joined: 19 Oct 2006 Posts: 8

My daughter has started GT school this year. I had some major reservations about changing her school but my main one was what I had heard about the level of homework. I truly thought it wouldn't be a problem as my daughter is very responsible and in 2nd grade was super fast with her homework, but the volume is crazy. I find that she has about two hours every night, sometimes more and is then expected to read a half an hour as well. This normally wouldn't be a problem since she reads every night before she goes to sleep but she is in a community theatre production and has been getting home too late. I find that during the school week she doesn't stop from 7:30 (when she leaves for the bus) to 9:30 (when she gets home from rehearsal). The theatre situation is of course temporary but even without it she won't have time to just play. What do you think?

Jessica · Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 4:22 pm Post subject:

Excuse my ignorance, but what is "GT" school?

MainstreamMom · Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 5:54 pm Post subject:

GT=Gifted and Talented Smile

My kids are still in preschool so I'm not really able to comment but I'm sure some of the teachers and moms here will have some good thoughts.

Petulant Pixie · Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 6:44 pm Post subject:

I posted a reply in the school/education forum.

First off, is it really homework? I touched on that on my other reply. My son will sometimes take a really long time to finish an assignment that could take like 10/15 minutes if he didn't bitch and moan and waste time sharpening pencils and shuffling papers and whining some more about how much work he has. See what is really assigned and get a feel for how long it *really* takes.

Then, if it IS 2 hours every night, I'd say that's too much. I don't see any value in that amount of homework. Actually, there was an article I found recently that found that performance decreased correlationally to the amount of homework given. Let's see if I can find that....here it is...http://www.slate.com/id/2149593?GT1=8592

I am in favor of homework that has a purpose. In Alex's 4th grade, it was preparing the kids for the big step up in junior high. Now he's in junior high and this big step is a challenge, even with the preparation. I can't imagine how he'd even survive if this were his first taste of it. But, if it's 2 hours of flat-out homework--reading, worksheets, projects, etc., EVERY NIGHT, then *I* would re-evaluate the choice to continue at that school. What is the purpose of that much homework?

Alex's school isn't "GT", it's a charter school with a very intense academic leaning. There are no sports teams, no homecoming or prom. The music and art department are huge. The robotics team competes internationally. They consistantly have some of the highest SAT scores in the nation. The majority of the kids' high school academics are completed by 10th grade and the spend the last two years of "high school" there taking classes through the local community college, so they can have almost 2 years of college credits at graduation from high school. He does not have anywhere NEAR 2 hours of homework a night. It fluxuates (again, also depending on his preparation and organization)--he'll have 10/15 minutes most nights (a math assignment, a science packet). Some nights he'll have more if there was a project he was supposed to be working on for several days that he "forgot" about. He has to read 20 minutes a night (averaged) to maintain his letter grade in english. 30 to bump it up half a grade. He also needs to practice trumpet 30 minutes a night. Sometimes he doesn't read or practice for a few days and then makes it up. He gets in a lot of reading and practice on weekends.

So, if it IS 2 hours of actual homework, I think it's too much, even for a 6th grader. But, it might not be, if she's like Alex and sometimes draws things out so they take a lot longer than they should.

peacezum · Slightly Flawed Joined: 19 Oct 2006 Posts: 8

I appreciate the response - it was very helpful. Although she is very focused and doesn't waste time doing her homework although she does has a habit of overdoing it. A 3 frame cartoon she was supposed to draw for her spelling words turned in to an art project, but I am hesistant to tell her to not do so much.

The other thing is she is only in 3rd grade - not 6th grade. She has the nightly reading requirement as well (required 30 minutes a night plus weekends)and apparently they start recorder practicing pretty soon. I am going to speak to her teacher about it at the conference but if it does continue like this we may have to re-evaluate having her in GT. She is very involved in the community theatre group and it may all just be too much. ANy thoughts?

Petulant Pixie · Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 9:27 am Post subject:

I guess my question is--why is she in this school? What are the benefits?

My son has changed schools 5 times in the 6 years he's been in school. Three of those were because we moved (dh job changes/local move to a new house), and once was because of boundary changes. WE chose the school he goes to now because the emphasis on academics rather than the typical high school stuff seems to fit with his personality (he's a little on the nerdy side), and this school goes 6-12, so if everything goes as planned, he won't have to change schools again until college. The other stuff is just icing.

Is your public school not a good fit for your daughter? What is it about this school and all its homework that is so appealing?

MainstreamMom · Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 5:12 pm Post subject:

I have a couple of questions about the GT school (and being a parent).

How did your daughter end up at the school? What was the admission criteria? Did you have GT programs at your public school? Did she have to score in the superior or above range on all parts of an IQ test or was she allowed to show giftedness in some, but not all areas?

In our state, it's not mandated that schools have GT programs. There is one private GT school in driving distance to my home, however the tuition is close to 18K per year.

Any advice you can share would be greatly appreciated!

peacezum · Slightly Flawed Joined: 19 Oct 2006 Posts: 8

Mainstream - This school is actually a public school. The County that I live in (in VA) has 4 levels of GT support for kids in the public school system. The first level is GT lessons brought into the classroom for all students and the highest level is actually what my daughter is involved in which is where they take the kids out of their neighborhood school and put them in a separate GT Center. I think it is about 1-3% of the students in the County. I had no idea about all of this stuff until we received the letter stating that her state test scores had placed her in to the consideration pool. This pool of students then goes through all these different evaluations by a committee who come up with the final invitation list. The tests she scored highly on (in the 99% nationwide) were the ones they give to every 2nd grader (I should probably know the names of them but I don't). They do consider a lot of other aspects as well. I know of a girl who I think is a lot brighter than my daughter who didn't get in because her maturity level (organizational skills and such). I found out in the researching of the school - after we got the first letter - that you can actually self-nominate your child but they have to get privately tested and you have to pay for it.

I have to say that we had very mixed feeling about sending our daughter to the school. She had a lot of friends where she was and really liked her school. I also am not sure about the whole concept of labeling these kids "gifted and talented". I know that my daughter is bright and inquisitive and loves to learn but she is no genius and I didn't want her to feel the pressure of the label or somehow feel elite or superior. We put a lot of thought int o it and talked to a lot of Parents and truth be told she was a little bored in her regular school. We decided to give it a year and see how she does but that it was probably an opportunity we shouldn't pass up. Her class has less than 20 students vs. 30 in her old school and the teachers and facilities in her new school are really great.

On another note I do know of a couple of Parents who "pushed" getting their kids in (and had some useful contacts to help them do it) - based on what I have seen so far they are doing a real disservice to their kids who are really struggling and even spend time outside of school with private tutors to keep up. With the amount of homework these kids must have no life.

If you are considering GT school I would try and be sure that this is something your child would enjoy. My daughter is not bothered by the level of homework - I am! She also loves the higher level of study and the fact that she has other kids in the class to help her.

peacezum · Slightly Flawed Joined: 19 Oct 2006 Posts: 8

Just a quick update. We had the parent/teacher conference today and spoke to the teacher about the amount of homework. The teacher agreed that 2 hours was too much and asked me to time how long she spent on which assignments so that she can try and identify where the bottleneck is. This made me feel much better. She also said that our daughter is a bit of a perfectionist (read anal retentive) and could possibly be spending more time than necessary.