Conversations

During the presentation at the high school, the principal said that they thought doing homework was very important, and that they had found that most of the time, when students have problems with tests, it's because they didn't practice the material -- and that homework is intended to do that. This made sense to me, and I was thinking about it when my daughter told me that she'd done all her homework before we went out to the bookstore -- but later told my wife that she still needed the laptop in her room because she had some studying to do.

I asked her if she didn't consider studying to be part of homework.
I asked her why I should believe her in the future if she said her homework was done.
I told her that in the future I'd be looking for proof of what's been done, and whats required.

I didn't tell her that the only flaw here is that I don't really know whats required. If she doesn't write it down in her assignment book, I don't know that its required. The middle school people seem to think that this lack of a secondary way to check what's required isn't a problem, and the high school people share that view.

Nevertheless, she didn't enjoy the conversation. I told her I didn't like treating her like a kid, but if that was what was required, I was willing to do it. She didn't like that, either.