Three De Soto School District parents with elementary school-aged children complained at a recent Board of Education meeting about homework overload.
“Students are coming home with no understanding of how to complete the work, and as parents, we do not know how to help them,” said Ashley Thompson, a 2002 De Soto High School graduate with three children in the district – a fourth grader, sixth grader and eighth grader.
Thompson said she has a hard time helping her sixth-grade daughter with math because it’s taught differently now.
“We are spending over an hour alone just on math for sixth grade and then still having the other subjects to complete. We are spending around three hours in the evening to complete the work being brought home, staying up past our bedtimes, sometimes not completing assignments because we don’t know how.”
Thompson said students who don’t complete assignments risk losing recess.
“The kids feel they are being punished just for not knowing and getting enough help,” she said.
Thompson said she has talked to several De Soto parents who say they are facing the same problems.
She pointed out that some kids ride the bus and don’t get home until almost 5 p.m. and many students are in after-school activities, which makes it even more difficult to finish their homework in time.
Thompson said she emailed Vineland Elementary School Principal Dustin Washam and district Superintendent Josh Isaacson to make them aware students are struggling with homework.
“I did get responses back from them,” she said. “But unless we actually make a change for all the kids, this will continue.”
She said her daughter was offered tutoring but she doesn’t want to spend another hour at school.
Thompson said she doesn’t blame her daughter for not wanting to stay for tutoring because she’s at school long enough.
Thompson said she feels math teachers should spend more time going over lessons in class.
“Complete part of the homework together and send them home with maybe five problems to see if they can try to get it on their own,” she said.
Thompson said her sixth grader typically has homework every school night and even had homework in all subject areas over the Labor Day weekend.
“What us parents are seeing is our kids struggling, failing and never getting a break,” she said. “They are kids; they need that break away from schoolwork to recharge, use their imaginations and spend time with families they don’t see all day. We want our kids to like going to school, but right now they do not because they know they’re coming home with more homework every night.”
When Thompson wrapped up her comments, parents in the room gave her a round of applause.
Another mother, Sara Adams, spoke about her third-grade daughter’s struggles with homework.
“We’ve actually had to start doing parent pickup because we don’t have enough time to complete our homework whenever they’re riding the bus home,” she said.
Adams said her third-grader has ADHD and a communication and comprehension delay, so it takes her longer to complete homework.
“We are spending over an hour on each subject,” she said, adding that her daughter does homework until she goes to bed. “She’s so exhausted every single day, and it is such a fight every single night just to get our homework done. And I don’t have time to cook. We don’t have time to sit down and eat dinner. We don’t have time to do baths – we don’t have time for anything because we’re doing so much homework.”
Tabitha Henderson said she has children in kindergarten, first grade and second grade. She said her younger children receive homework packets they work on at their own pace, but second grade is different.
She said her second-grade son brings home no less than 15 to 20 sheets of homework a night, mainly math and sight words for reading.
Henderson said he’s also expected to read four to six books a night and answer questions about each. As a result, bath time is often skipped, and her son hates not having time to play with his younger brothers.
She said for the first time, he hates school.
“We get home at 3:40,” she said. “We are not done with homework until almost 9 o’clock. That should not be going on. He’s only 7 years old.”
On Oct. 25, Isaacson said the success of students is a cooperative effort, and the district personnel work to support students and families.
“I would encourage individuals to reach out directly to their students’ teachers to work through specific matters of concern related to their student and collaborate on the supports available,” he said. “If needed, families can also reach out to their students’ building principal for additional avenues of support offered by the school.”
Board of Education president Beverly Wilson assured each of the mothers that the board would take their comments into consideration.
Thompson said on Tuesday that she had not heard anything from the school board since she addressed them on Oct. 19.