10 year old boy stowed away on a train to get away from too much homework...

I am an elementary education major and I have a strong belief in keeping work in school and not giving students a lot to take home. Some teachers do give way too much homework. Kids sit in school all day...let them go home and let them be a kid and not a student! I worked in a school and their policy was that no teacher could give homework on Friday. LOVED that policy. Poor kid...I don't blame him. lol

Yes I think kids get way to much homework. Thats a kids job, school. After school, should be time off. Unless for special projects or maybe studying for a test, spelling words, etc. Parents go to work, they come home they are off work. The same should be for kids. Homework can interfer with home life too much. Kids have family things and after school things. Kids should be able to be kids.

Here is another thought to chew on. They say that video games and such are causing obesity in children. What about the fact that they have to come home from school and sit at a desk for hours on end? The rule in Ontario is 10 minutes for each number of the grade they are in. That means my grade 8 should have no more than 80 minutes of homework. I actually time her. If she doesn't get it done I will write the teacher a note. She has a nasty teacher this year. She won't even return my calls now since I called to the mat the first week of school WITH the principal. LOL! When my first daughter (now in grade 8) first started homework it was actually a fight. All she had to do was read a very small book aloud. She struggled with it and a yelling match would start in our home. I got frustrated with her. In grade 2 she got an ulcer from math. I know that for a fact because she got a stomach ache doing math homework. Then I called the teacher and said that she seemed to have her stomach aches the same time every day. What were they doing at that time? Math! My daughter no longer has an ulcer but she has much anxiety over school and is on medication. Yes, my 13 year old daughter is on anti-anxiety medication. Recently we went to the high school she is preparing to go to next year. We watched a presentation and I thought, "Poor kids. I wish they didn't have to go through this." I was actually sorry I had kids because I hate what they have to face in school alone, let alone life.

Absolutely- I posted a discussion about this a couple weeks ago-- Too much homework for kids. My daughter is also 10.. She brings home so much homework- that most days she sits doing it from the time we get home 4:30- until dinner time 6:00.. and then has to still read each night and study spelling words.. This is the normal homework-- not including the extra projects-- Right now she has 1 project on Montreal, 1 for Band ( a written report on the flute), and bicycle safety one for gym?? So her weekends will be full for a bit- Its just too much! And on top of that-- they are learning things in 5th grade that I'm sure we as parents didn't learn until 7th grade-- they are pushing the kids harder-- "No children left behind". I say too much homework!

that is quite sad..maybe they should give the kids one hor more in school and so when they get home they can chill and have time to rest..just like adults like to rest after a hard day's work..this is so sad..

I do think that kids are getting a lot of homework these days. I'm not sure about worldwide but where I am in the states it seems like the increase in homework is due in part to teachers being forced to teach to the test. They don't have any time to actually teach on their subject matter so they have to give out more homework in a hope that kids can teach themselves or get their parents to help them actually learn the material not just how to pass the test.

I have 4 kids and I do believe they have too much homework, but the other problem is it seems they are learning things that I learned at a much younger age, they are like trying to "info overload" our children. They don't seem to take much time on one thing either, and if the children have trouble with a certain method of learning, they move on anyway. I just don't think they really care if they are learning anymore or not. It's all about their curriculum and getting the numbers they need, and that is sad too.

After reading the story, I have to say, That Poor Boy!!! that IS way too much!!! Two books of 100 pages each of math problems? And if he got it wrong his mother made him write the answer 100 times!! That is just insane and too much pressure for a child!!! I would have wanted to run away too!!

i really do think they have too much. As a mother of a 5 year old and a 7 year old i think the homework they bring home for mummy and daddy to help them with is excessive. It isnt just the child who has their time limited because a teacher cant do their job properly, it is also the parents. If the teacher cant get all the teaching a child needs in the school day, either extend the school day or get teachers who can blessed be

I definately think the pressures of the kids today when it comes to school is far too much...not just with homework but the level of learning as well....my son is doing math work that my hsuband and I were doin in high school and its insane....My mum is a teacher (high school) in Canada and my sister was a teacher (elementary gr 5 and 6 I think) but is now vice principal and they both feel the kids are overloaded with work too...In fact a study was done a couple yrs ago that showed not only are the kids today suffering more physical issues (due to the wt of the books they ahve to lug around) but also mentally the pressure and demands are so high is a leading cause of the mass teenage depression we see today compared to 20yrs ago....

My daughter has not yet reached the age for homework but judging by my friends kids I think that the homework level is pretty high but is acceptable. I think that maybe kids in your country get more than kids here do though. It is really sad that this 10 years old in china felt so much pressure on him that he had to resort to running away. Kids need time to be kids and enjoy themselves I think but up to an hour of homework a day dependent on age I think can help teach them responsibility and motivation to achieve. It can of course become a double edged sword though, with the kids who are doing well feeling bolstered but the kids who are dropping behind feeling worse about themselves and dropping behind further because of low self esteem. I hope this child in china can sort out a happy medium between life and homework, Tanika.

When I was at school - a long time ago - LOL! - we did not start to get homework until secondary school which starts at the age of 11. In primary school, we just had lessons during the day, and then were expected to have fun, play games, and spend time with our families in the evenings, and no homework at all. "Prep" did not start til later on. Personally I think this is better. Childhood does not last long, and we should be letting our kids enjoy themselves, before getting too competitive, and bogged down in studies, and exams etc.

It does get bad at times. Some nights my daughters doing homework until bedtime, she's only 9. By the end of the night she's not concentrating and everyone is just stressed out. Its like the schools don't think that maybe kids have a life after school or something. Maybe thats the point? Their wanting to keep kids to busy to get in trouble because their parents don't have time for them. Well we're actually active around my house. Working in homework with dance classes , girlscouts and whatever else comes up is difficult. Ok, I've ranted enough...

Yep! I agree ... too much homework. I wonder how many of the teachers would be able to handle being at their job FOR HOURS (in a very controlled environment), leaving there to proceed to do even MORE WORK for a few more HOURS! That's basically what these CHILDREN have to do. Children are people, no different than adults (just smaller in size) .... they, like we adults, have "breaking points" as well.

my situation in such cases is completely different. when i was a child, my mother used to pressurise me constantly to perform well in class. most of the time she resorted to corporal punishment. but even then i did not do exceedingly well in class. i was all along a mediocre student, and inspite of all the bitter memories, i sometimes feel that had it not been for my mother's prodding, i would not have achieved whatever little i have in life. now i have a small boy who is in standard 2. till now i have never pressurised him to excell in anything (believe me, in India, the pressures to excell academically is crushing on middle class families like us, yet most parents do just that). any time i scold him to do better, my childhood memories come back to haunt me and i firmly believe that with my limited intelligence, if i have been successful in life, so will my son be.(its another story altogether that my financial success has been very limited, but i'm content with whatever i've got.)

Well, first of all, my son get homework every single day except Fridays. It's way more than I had when I was in school I agree, But you also have to look at how the world has changed since you or I was in school. We didn't have computers, or all this advance technology. Even the criteria to pass to a higher grade has changed. I know sometimes it may seem like alot, but we have to look at advance we are compared to when we were in school.. As to the boy who stowed away on a train, I think that there is a lack of communication with him and his parents. I talk to my son as much as I can about his life in school or his friends, even his thoughts on how he feels about himself and others...If my son has a bad day or just frustrated he will come tell me about it. I believe in this case poor little boy probably wasn't getting enough attention or help possibly any concern from his parents. He got fed up, depressed, and ran away... One thing I have learned about being a parent now is communicating with my son. I believe that will go a long way and you in tack with your child thoughts, feelings, etc... This sort of story really makes you think though. I felt like I needed to just have a talk with my son about his homework..Some stories really just hit home a bit...Especially when its about children... Great Topic ShyWolf...

I can't imagine running away from home due to too much homework. Seems like something else must have been going on that wasn't discussed? I do, however, feel that homework has gotten out of hand. I know friends that spend hours each night with their child helping them do homework. If I had an hours worth when I was growing up, that was a lot. I'm not counting studying for tests, just basic homework. And they seem to be bringing more home at an earlier age. First graders bringing homework home? I don't ever remember having homework that young. I don't know what they do in school all day since they seem to bring several hours worth of work home each night. :(

I have three children (12, 8 and 7) and for the most part I don't find they get an excessive amount of homework. At the beginning of the year my son's teacher was giving out massive homework, but he's since slacked off. They each have twenty minutes of reading a day and then probably ten or fifteen minutes of homework, depending on how much they got done in school.

I do think in the past years kids have gotten more homework, a lil too much homework in my opinion. Its gotten ridicilous. Even people in College are loaded with homework. They say to pass in college for every credit hour of class u need to study at least two hours for it. well if a single class is 4 credit hours then u need to study 8 hours for that class? so if ur taking a full load thats an insane amount of studying...where does the rest of ur life come in??

this is not sad,this is stupid,i think that the teachers must be punished.