Taking the work out of homework

Good Morning and welcome to the place you always wanted to be!!

Yes, I still remember when I was in school.
Yes, I still remember watching out my window as the rest of the children in the neighborhood played while I dilly-dallied with my homework.
Yes, I still remember the very last thing I ever wanted to do was homework.
All these years later, I still don't get the whole homework thing.
Seriously, the students are in school for long enough all day, why do they need homework.
Can anybody explain how homework is anything more than busy work? Is it the teacher's attempt to show you how tough it is to teach?
I don't know. All I know is, I'm sick of fighting the battle.
The homework will get done, but maybe not every night and maybe not to the full extent it's supposed to be.
Tell you what, if we get rid of all the testing, I'll re-evaluate the homework thing.
That's a pretty good deal.

Rise and Shine --- It's the test

Good Morning and here comes the weekend!

This is an actual conversation that happens almost daily:
'So, what did you do in school today?'
I dunno.
'Did you do anything except sit around?'
I dunno.
'Did you learn anything?'
I dunno.

Well, this week, anybody who has a student (or knows a student) in public schools knows exactly what is going on this week (and most of next week): The darned PSSA tests.
Not that the schools have any choice in the matter, but the stupid (and culturally biased) tests are given from third grade on supposedly to measure 'what the student has learned.'
In reality, they are learning how to take the test. The teachers are under pressure from the administration to make sure they teach only for the test. The students are put under pressure (more pressure?) by the teachers to do well on the test.
See, the government bases school funding on how the students do on these tests, not how happy they are or how much real stuff they've actually learned.
It's time to put an end to these things. There has to be a better way.
See, it all comes around in the end.

Rise and Shine --- Fix schools now

Good Morning and break out those winter coats once again!

Now that we have some form of health care reform (those who like to yell, well, just deal with it), now's the time to move on to other things.
While jobs and the economy will recover over time (they always do), a more pressing issue is it's time to get rid of the ridiculous 'No Child Left Behind' mandate.
Sure, we want all children to learn, but when it's forced learning it's more like memorizing.
We are quickly coming up on another round of PSSA testing.
The school administrators will hold rallies. They will first talk to the students about relaxing while taking the test, then they will quickly say they all have to ace it.
After all, school funding is based on a general test scored by a computer. The computer doesn't know if the student broke his/her pencil during the question and was too scared to ask if it could be sharpened. It also doesn't know if the child had a headache or couldn't sleep the night before because they were inundated with mixed messages.
OK, we are on the road to fixing the health care mess (although the battle isn't over because those health care companies have deep pockets and hire loudmouths). Now, let's fix the school mess.
We'll finally be on the way to knocking that last president off the books (unless it's comic books).