Something teachers are doing to students

There's a growing trend in schools across the country that should bring a sigh of relief to many students and their parents: Teachers are assigning less homework, if at all.

This comes after scores of parents have complained that their kids are getting far too many homework assignments to complete on a daily basis, preventing them from spending valuable time together.

"Kids need time to be kids," insist many of the worried parents. What they mean is that the children need time to play video games and frolic as they please.

I remember getting loads of homework as far back as elementary school. The issue is that kids are required to take so many classes in different subjects -- from reading and language arts to math and social studies -- that the work adds up. They might have a different teacher for every subject, none of whom are keeping tabs on the volume of homework assigned to each student.

My take is that teachers ought to focus on quality and not quantity. Instead of assigning different homework and reading assignments every day, they should assign one per week that encompasses and tests the kids' comprehension on the different lessons covered in that span.

I would know -- my wife's a teacher and she often assigns so much homework that she's forced to grade heaps of assignments even during holiday breaks.

Thus, cutting back on the number of assignments would be beneficial for teachers as well, freeing up time for them to spend with their own kids.

While I don't feel schools should do away with homework completely, I think lightening childrens' workload at home is in order. It's all about working smarter and not necessarily harder.

What's your opinion? Do you think teachers should assign less homework?

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