I have spent an enormous amount of time with issues related to education.  Basically, my entire 41 years.  My father was a teacher, I was a teacher, I have owned a daycare and now I am a parent.  And, thus far, I’ve been far more influential in the education arena as a parent than I ever was as a parent.  My father, he was all about doing great works on a local, state and national level, but me, it was all I could do to survive day to day when I was a teacher.

And, I’ve been quite vocal about my disdain for homework.  However, when I approached my son’s teacher, she was extremely open to my thoughts.  For one thing, my son is running the edge of being gifted in some ways.  He seems to prefer numbers.  And, I have always believed in reading to my children.  But, some of the other stuff we were doing every night seemed pointless.

And, without question, his teacher knew his skill level and immediately said that my son was probably fine to only do the full course of homework a couple of nights a week unless we saw problems.  And, with that, we’ve knocked off several nights of whining and complaining.  Even still by Thursday night, my son is reciting the spelling words and spelling them without me ever opening the book.

I can’t impress enough how much it meant to me to know that not only did she recognize his skill level, she was hyper-aware of his skill level and had a solution to what I was proposing to be a problem.

Indeed….the good teachers are still out there……..

This post is part of the MAT@USC Hope for the holidays event. Did you have an experience or witness something in 2009 which gave you hope for the future of American education? If so, please see this post for more information on how to share it.