School Family

This story half-intrigued me and half cracked me up. We’ve all heard about kids staying after school to get extra help, right?  Well, here’s a twist — this Ohio district is giving parents the extra help, so that parents won’t be so flummoxed by the kids homework!

I must admit, I can see the need. My oldest is just in 4th grade, and I had to do some serious thinking last night about compound subjects and predicates while helping with homework.  I’m already a bit worried about those word problems with the trains heading in opposite directions.

Do you need this kind of help?  Are your teachers providing it?  Is it a trend?

A high school English teacher in New Jersey is making waves for requiring parents to read the same assignments as their kids and comment about them on his blog. The teacher explained to The New York Times that because parent involvement in education tends to wane as kids become teenagers, he decided to make it part of the class. Parents complain about never getting to see their kids work, he said. Now they have to.

The article has stirred up debate about just how much schools should expect from parents. (Blogger Uncertain Principles makes a good case for parent homework, while LT Strickland argues that this approach is unrealistic for many families.) What do you think? Is it unfair to ask parents to ponder Kafka after a long day at work, or is it just part of the job of being a parent?