Holiday Hobgoblin : Homework to Be Part of Christmas Vacation for Some

For many people, Christmas means roasted chestnuts, yule logs and peace on earth. But for a lot of Orange County schoolchildren this year, at least part of their Christmas vacation is going to mean homework.

“You expect it. You have to accept it,” said Fountain Valley High School senior Matt Kish. Since the semester ends in January, soon after the Christmas break, he usually spends time on term projects during the two-week vacation, he said. “It used to bother me. But I’d rather spend two weeks doing a project than spend weeknights working on it.”

Although teachers “tell us their punishment (for assigning homework) is grading it,” Kish said he doesn’t buy it. “They don’t work during Christmas vacation.”

“I do give kids some homework,” said Jay Thacker, a fourth-grade teacher at Prospect Elementary School in Orange. “But I don’t give so much work that it will ruin their holiday.” Thacker is making up “a little packet” for his students to take home, which will include map work, some reading and exercises in double-digit division, he said.

Because double-digit division “is a roadblock for some of these kids,” Thacker said, he gives homework that will reinforce the math they’ve learned.

Homework during the holidays is important, especially for children with poor retention skills, according to Jerry Cowdrey, a counseling psychologist for the Newport-Mesa Unified School District. Such children make up a small percentage of every classroom, Cowdrey said.

“They lose things over the summer and the holidays. When they come back on Monday morning they require until Wednesday afternoon to get back to the Friday (before vacation),” she said. Homework may help these students with retention, she said.

Another reason Thacker assigns holiday homework is that children often “don’t know what to do with themselves after Christmas, and they need some structured activity,” he said. “A lot of kids just die to have work.”

Waiting Until Last Minute

Not Lia Fukumoto, a freshman at Fountain Valley High School. She said she and her friends would rather spend their vacation skiing or shopping, but she expects to receive some homework assignments. However, she said, “We’re not gonna do it till the last minute. We’ll spend the last day (of vacation) reading a book.”

Fukumoto’s friend, Donna Godwin, added: “We’re going to need all that time to go Christmas shopping. And (to go to) after-Christmas sales.” But some students may be enticed by opportunities teachers are offering those who want to improve their grades.

Larry Wilgus, a math teacher at Kraemer Junior High School in Placentia, said he will not assign work over the vacation but will accept missed homework assignments after the holidays. Although, he added, those making up work “won’t get as good a grade as someone who did it on time.”

Mary Adams, a fifth-grade teacher at Prospect Elementary School in Orange, said she will not give scheduled assignments over the Christmas holiday but will encourage students to read library books and work on subjects they find difficult. “If a child has been absent a lot, usually (he or she) would want to take work home,” she said.

Oral Reports on Travel

Students who travel during the vacation may earn extra credit when they return by giving an oral report, she said. One student last year shared her experiences on a family trip to Alaska, Adams said. Children also may receive extra credit by writing reports about the books they read over the two-week break, she said.

Dave Geffeney, a freckle-faced sixth-grader at Mariners Elementary School in Newport Beach, said he plans to spend a good part of his vacation on self-improvement. “I’m going to be working on book reports because I want to move up to a higher reading group.” He wants to get good grades now to get into a good college, he explained, because “I want to be an anesthesiologist.” Al Ziedman, principal of Mariners Elementary School, said he doubts that students will be assigned much homework over the break. And that might be wise.

“I’m sure the sixth-graders would be angry,” said Shiloh Uhl, a sixth-grader who recently led a movement at Mariners that just about eliminated weekend homework for the upperclassmen at the school.

Petitions Against Homework

In mid-October, after finding that a lot of her friends had four hours of weekend homework, Shiloh, together with a friend, started a campaign for homework-free weekends. They posted about 30 signs that read “No Homework on Weekends for Sixth-Graders” and collected about 80 signatures from sixth-graders on a petition that was presented to teachers.

As a result of Shiloh’s efforts, most homework assigned on Friday is now due on Tuesday instead of Monday, according to sixth-grade teacher Kay Long. And teachers will try to confer with each other before making the big assignments that, Long said, caused most of the complaints. She said sixth-graders might in one week have as many as six different teachers, all assigning homework.

Shiloh said sixth-graders will get some homework over vacation, but not too much. “I’m sure if we did, we would get a petition.”

Shiloh said she wants to be an actress or a businesswoman, although her father, she said, thinks she should be a politician.

The bigger kids, students at Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine, will not have holiday homework because both schools end their terms right before Christmas.

More Than Month Off

Cal State Fullerton students will be studying right up until Dec. 20, the last day of final examinations, but will be rewarded with more than a month’s vacation, according to Christine Waday, Cal State Fullerton public affairs assistant. Spring semester will begin on Jan. 23, 1986, she said. “They’re all kind of looking forward to that big intersession, the semester break.”

At UC Irvine, the last day of final exams is Friday, according to university spokeswoman Linda Granell. Students will begin the 10-week winter quarter on Jan. 6, she said. The break gives students a chance to earn some extra money at a time when retail stores are hiring extra help, she added.

Students in Phyllis McKown’s advanced placement American history class at Costa Mesa High School, however, will be doing college-level work over their vacation. Junior honor students in the class will be expected to write a five- to 10-page, typewritten paper on the question, “Was the 1860 presidential election a mandate for the abolition of slavery?”

Payoff for Extra Work

Students will sift through “primary documents” such as campaign speeches, congressional speeches and statistical information of the time to support their arguments, McKown said. However, the extra work does pay off, she said.

If students in the class pass a test at the end of the year, they can transfer the class to their college unit and reap “an incredible financial benefit,” she said. “What does a unit cost at USC these days?”

Although the students “don’t say anything” and “don’t whine and complain” when McKown gives them homework, she said that for all students during the holidays, homework “is always devastating.”

Students “have had it easy for a long time in the ‘70s, but it’s changing. And it’s good it’s changing.” She said that she has seen some evidence that students are planning to study over the holiday. “I’m a librarian for one period a day, and I know the kids are checking out books like crazy.”