LAUSD

2-7-13

Good morning, 

I am writing to you today concerning the insane amounts of homework that our school is issuing. I currently have two children enrolled in Halldale El. One is in 1st grade and the other is in 2nd grade.

Last year, 1^st grade was a severe wakeup call in how too much homework was truly wearing down my child. My son was sent home weekly with packets of worksheets that were to be completed during the week and turned in on Fridays. It resulted in 90+ minutes of work each night. By the end of it all my son was often in tears, frustrated with having so much.

This brings us to his 2^nd grade class. 120 minutes of work per night. His packet is given to him on Fridays and is due back on the following Friday. The only real way to make the nightly sessions bearable is to have my 7 year old do work on a weekend, which is ridiculous. The work consists of:

14 worksheets front and back which often include paragraph requirements

15 original sentences

Writing 15 spelling words twice and then again in alphabetic order

1 page book summary

In addition to this, there is a goal of 10 book reports per month, which consists of a page summary of the selected book.

This week, we were given instructions for a long term project the students are working on. It is a report on a famous person that they were able to select from a list last week. The research portion of the work was for the students to go to the library and get books for information. They were not allowed to use the internet. The students were given this on Friday and were expected to have these books by Tuesday after the 3 day weekend.

I can assure you that I am a very involved parent. I currently put together all of the homework packets for this class each week along with being very active in touching base with both the 2^nd grade teacher and my other son’s 1^st grade teacher. I am a well respected and well known parent on campus. I have a full time job, as does my husband. We have been fortunate enough to have schedules that allow him to take the boys to school and I am able to pick them up from school at the bell. They are able to start work on homework at 2:30 in the afternoon. My children are lucky since they have this schedule.

I know other parents don’t have these luxuries. There are kids in the YDP program until 6 pm. There are students with parents who do not speak English in our school. Time is scarce, and as I am sure you are aware, more than 80% of our student body comes from low income situations.

All of these 2^nd grade students are being told they need to get someone to take them down to a public library, obtain a library card and check out books. This doesn’t just sound like homework for the kids. This is homework for the parents. I happen to know how to find the books needed at a library. But shouldn’t the teachers be assisting the students in their first research project? They are telling the kids that they cannot use the research medium that is accepted in most educational facilities including universities, yet they are not giving them the tools or knowledge on how to obtain useful information aside from sending them down to the public library. This is a time consuming task, and it is taxing on families. Most of the parents of the second graders in my son’s class have other students in other grades, also horribly over worked when it comes to homework. It is absurd.

I am also sure you know about the numerous studies in which it has shown that excessive homework, especially for children in grades K-5, doesn’t improve test scores. It actually is harmful to them. Yet Halldale, a school that recently dropped in their test scores is issuing even more homework than last year.

I feel that you need to research and find out why it is that the LAUSD homework policy that was implemented in May 2011 is being ignored. If a student doesn’t finish their homework in this class, they are benched. Although this may not be affecting their grade, it does affect their social learning by taking away their precious recess time, which already is scarce. Often it isn’t that they didn’t finish their homework because they are lazy. It is because there is just too much work for a 7 year old to complete.

Please respond to me ASAP as this is an ongoing problem and I am tired of having my 6 and 7 year old boys crying every night because they are overwhelmed with the amount of work they have to do beyond their already taxing day at school.

Thank you

Gena Brenan

gdbrenan@gmail.com

Halldale Elementary School

21514 Halldale Ave

Torrance, CA 90501

310-328-3100