Dad ‘Stumped’ By His First Grader’s Homework Asks For Help – ‘I Think They Are Learning 4-Letter Words’
They should be learning to color the lines and count to 10.
CGN098 | Shutterstock If you are a parent who has found your elementary school-aged children’s homework to be difficult, you are not alone!
Nowadays, it seems like children, who cannot even tie their own shoes, are expected to understand literature that extends far beyond their comprehension of “Good Night Moon.”
One father was left completely stumped and questioning his own intelligence after struggling to help his first grader finish his homework. So, he turned to the internet for help.
A dad was 'stumped' by his first-grade son’s literature homework, arguing that it was beyond even his comprehension.
The confused dad shared a photo of his son’s homework sheet on the subreddit, r/HomeworkHelp, asking if anyone could crack the code.
The English homework required students to fill in the blanks in sentences with the spelling words they were learning. The words: fist, fast, puff, hiss, mess, less, gas, mass, and class.
Reddit
The first few sentences were simple enough (“The snake will *blank* at you and “Let’s clean up this *blank*).
However, they got harder. A few appeared to be more complex, with the possibility of multiple answers (“I love my *blank*” and “Our *blank* has white stars”).
The dad admitted that his son’s homework had left him confounded and asked other Redditors if they could complete all of the sentences.
While some people were able to make sense of it, they argued that the assignment was far beyond the scope of what a first-grader should be learning.
“Why would a first grader know a question about physics?” one user commented, referring to the word “mass.”
“This is a ridiculous assignment," another user noted.
“I think they’re supposed to be learning four-letter words,” another wrote, criticizing the difficulty of the assignment.
New Africa | Shutterstock
Others who were stumped, like the father, suggested that there may have been an error, making some of the sentences impossible to complete.
First-graders are too young to be stressing out about their homework.
According to the National Education Association, students should receive no more than 10 minutes of homework per grade level per night. For a first-grader, that means 10 minutes max. This assignment certainly seemed to require more time than the recommended guidelines suggest.
Beyond that, however, they shouldn't stress out about an assignment that might contain errors. That's not only time-consuming but also frustrating for kids just starting their educational journey.
According to a Stanford Report, 56% of students consider homework their primary source of stress (as if they do not already have to endure enough stress being in school).
Dikushin Dmitry | Shutterstock
Homework should not be that strenuous.
At most, it should be a short activity that keeps students’ minds fresh regarding the new information they learned in class and allows them to enjoy their time at home.
The only “mess” they should be worrying about (rather than the word on their homework assignment) is the one their parents are asking them to clean up in the playroom.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.