Maybe I blanked it out, but I don't remember having to do homework in 1st grade. My daughter, Desi, has homework every night, which means her parents have homework every night...about 45-60 minutes of homework per evening. I can't believe I have more 1st grade homework at 41, than I did 35 years ago!
I vaguely recall having homework in 3rd or 4th grade, but it was pretty easy stuff, like "draw a picture of your foot" or "memorize the spelling words DOG, AT, and TO". I grew up in Tennessee, where most of the world's most respected scholars and MENSA members live. Maybe we didn't do homework in 1st grade because the schools were loaded with geniuses, who completed the necessary work during class. I'm quite sure that the teachers thoroughly tested my classmates' gifted minds during the school day, so later we could cool down our brains at home and enjoy HeeHaw (or write lyrics to a country song about a tractor).
Tonight, we practiced spelling words, did sentences with our spelling words, and completed a worksheet on spheres and cylinders. Desi doesn't go to some fancypants private school, just your average Florida elementary. Even if she doesn't learn, the good news is that my tax dollars are going somewhere: the re-education of ME. I needed some work on my spheres.
Let's end with one of the assignments from Desi's homework. If you get it right, I'll send you a sticker! If you get it wrong, I'll send a suggestion to your employer that you should repeat 1st grade. Are you smarter than a 1st grader? Here is your assignment: Draw a triangular pyramid. No cheating or googling!
Depending on the result, email your address for your free sticker or email the name of your boss & his/her contact info. For the record, I did it right but I won't win any awards for prettiest triangular pyramid. I'll settle for my participation ribbon at the triangular pyramid banquet.
Until next time, buh bye.
Know what's funny? A grad student and I were trying to help with a math problem in the homework of one of the children at my home stay in the Philippines. If memory serves it was the 9 year old. We knew the answer to the problem but couldn't figure out how to do it the way the instructions asked you to do it. One college senior + one Masters student = unsolved 4th grade math problem.
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