Christmas Vacation?

When we moved to Illinois 11 years ago it had been a long time since we lived in a neighborhood. The last two places we lived (Dover, Delaware and Sacramento, California) we lived out in the country with plenty of land and not many neighbors, and we loved it. But at that time we didn't have any children. So, when we moved to Illinois we had two small children and we thought for their sakes, and against our own desires, we should move into a neighborhood so that they would have an easier time building friendships as they grow up. We looked in several neighborhoods and finally found one we thought was good. And to top it off it was in the school district of the top rated elementary school in Illinois, Wolf Branch Elementary School. The elementary school taught students from grades K-8 and then passed them on to the local high school.

Wolf Branch is a great school with some wonderful teachers. But one of the reasons the school district was rated so high is because they pile on the homework.

The neighborhood has grown quickly and two years ago, right across the street from the elementary school Wolf Branch Middle School opened. My children moved right across the street, along with about half of their teachers to the middle school. The middle school has had a couple of problems with misuse of funds by the administrators (like purchasing PalmPilots for every student and then realizing the students can cheat by using the IR beaming function and as a result not handing the PalmPilots out, but keeping them in the book storage room) but in general it is the same high quality education that we found at the elementary school. Unfortunately, along with the teachers the pile of homework followed the students across the street too.

I am not against homework at all, but the school has gone way overboard. Almost every night I come home from work and my wife and I spend from dinner until bedtime helping my son and daughter with their homework. It has gotten to the point where I am seriously questioning my ability to finish my PhD dissertation. This year on Christmas vacation my son has been inundated with projects that are due the day the students return from school. I'm sorry, but it isn't much of a vacation for the students or the parents if there is 4 hours of homework to do every night even when school is out.

Anyhow, I am ranting. but if you can't rant on your own blog where can you rant?