Archived: The Educational System in the United States: Case Study Findings

Studying. 
For some students, homework and studying are synonymous, and if
there are no homework assignments, then there is no studying to be done. Or
the term ‘‘studying’’ may be used to connote the review of class material, an activ-
ity that occurs mostly at test time. A female vocational school student, when
asked if most people study after school, replied:
No, I study sometimes, like if I got a big test, but I don’t study too much,
cause you probably forget what you studied the night before. I go over what
I think I know for sure, and when the time comes, if I pass, I pass, and if
I don’t, I don’t—that’s how I feel
Many students seem uncertain about what the process of studying entails, indicate
a limited repertoire of study strategies, and appear poorly prepared to do aca-
demic work outside of class other than short assignments. An eighth-grader at Met-
ropolitan said that she didn’t take notes during her classes because ‘‘when we
take tests, I want to see how much I learned. I don’t take notes and I don’t study
for none of my tests, but I always pass them.’’ She explained that this enabled
her to see just how much she had learned directly from the teacher. ‘‘See, if I
study, I be forgetting stuff, that is why . . . . You forget cause you study and
you be like trying to think and stuff. When you don’t, it just pops in (your head)
when you see it on your paper.’’ She claimed she tried studying for a test, got
a D, and ‘‘then I decided, I ain’t gonna study no more.’’

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Other students may limit the time they spend on homework and studying because
they have chosen to focus their attention elsewhere. Some acknowledge direct
competition between homework and social life and a willingness to accept the
consequences:
For English and drafting sometimes I took the book home and studied on my
own. But not all the time. People who do it all the time might not want to
go out much. I want straight A’s, but I will settle for a B. It’s not a bad grade.
(Eleventh-grade male, Uptown)
Parental involvement in homework. 
Parents expressed concern about the near
absence of homework for some students, wondering how it is that their children
could get it done during school, a phenomenon that seemed new since their own
school days. Some seemed to feel that students would be better served by being
assigned more homework.
Parental involvement in homework declines throughout adolescence. Parents
spoke most often of monitoring time, assuring that their children were attending
to required assignments. This was most common among middle school and junior
high parents.
There has to be a homework time. There’s no TV, no radio, no anything, until
everybody’s done with homework . . . . Homework is a must in our house.
And they have to prove to me that it’s done. (Mother of four children, fifth
through eighth grade, Metropolitan)
After middle school, parents are less likely to be involved in checking the work
or providing direct assistance. This may be related to adolescents’ growing need
for independence as well as to the increased complexity of the subject matter and
the difficulty some parents may have in providing assistance. Students spoke of
the types of assistance they do receive. A 17-year-old female in East City men-
tioned a dad who ‘‘writes for a living’’ and helps with her papers, and a 15-year-
old African-American male at Hamilton spoke of the assistance his dad, an educa-
tor, had provided in math in earlier grades. Others spoke of general support from
parents, as well as older siblings, with computers, math, and writing. In a number
of cases, parental assistance and support was minimal or nonexistent.
Chores
Expectations about work around the house—‘‘chores’’ that students are expected
to perform—were generally moderate. When asked about a typical day, few stu-
dents volunteered information about routine chores, but when asked specifically,
most quickly generated a short list. This often included cleaning their own per-
sonal space, some minor help in the kitchen, other household tasks, and caring

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for younger siblings. As one mother reported about chores among the families she
knew: ‘‘If they have chores, then they are very basic—picking up garbage, taking
the dog for a walk, feeding the cat, making your bed, closing the blinds—not
major chores like cleaning the windows.’’ These chores were often distributed by
gender, with girls more likely to report cooking and cleaning, and boys more
likely to report cutting the grass and taking out garbage. Some families have struc-
tured systems, as evidenced in responses such as ‘‘this is my week to set the
table;’’ in others, tasks are distributed in a more loosely defined manner.
The type and amount of chores differed from the norm in two settings: single-
parent families and families of recent immigrants. Some high school students ex-
pressed a sense of responsibility to a single parent. One high school male com-
mented that
I cook a lot. I cook all kinds of stuff. I experiment sometimes . . . . I take
out the garbage, mop, vacuum, you know, just help keep the house clean
while she works. You know, she pays the bills and all, so I try to help, do
my part. You know, it’s just me and my mom.
In families newly arrived in this country, family responsibilities extend well be-
yond expected chores. Often the first members of their family to learn the lan-
guage of the new country, children may be thrust into adult roles, negotiating
with landlords, doctors, and government agencies on behalf of their parents. A
counselor at a high school with a large immigrant population spoke of the lost
school time among students expected to shoulder these responsibilities, as stu-
dents were regularly needed to accompany parents to appointments in the com-
munity.
Family
Many students, in describing the rhythms of their days, mentioned time with par-
ents and siblings. Although busy calendars seem to prevent many from arriving
home till late, the family dinner still takes precedence in a number of homes, at
least on certain nights of the week. As one parent of a junior high school son
and high school daughter explained:
We try to have meals together as often as we can, somewhere between 5:30
and 6:30 p.m. But I have a daughter in high school, and her schedule changes,
and that kind of changes as to when we eat. But gathering together means
kind of talking about the day as well.
In many cases it is the students’ active lives that prevent regular dinner times, but
parents also have other roles that interfere: ‘‘I’m on a lot of committees and stuff,
so a lot of times I fix food ahead of time, and my 17-year-old can feed the young-

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est one if I’m not home,’’ said one parent. Another student, an 11th-grader in
West City who has sports practice for 2.5 hours daily said, ‘‘I always come home
late. By that time they already ate. My other brother, he is older and he is going
to the university, so he eats at different times. My mother and dad eat together.’’
He also commented that the family did not spend much time together: ‘‘I think
that we should spend more. Everyone is so busy, and when my parents come
home from work, they are so tired.’’
Many younger adolescents described some regular routines with family on the
weekends (e.g., ‘‘We always have pizza together on Friday night’’). As another jun-
ior high student noted: ‘‘On the weekends . . . . I try to spend as much time
with my family as possible, because my parents are at work a lot during the
week.’’ For those whose parents are separated or divorced, the weekend is often
spent with the noncustodial parent or with other relatives. Many African-American
and Hispanic students described regularly scheduled time with their extended fam-
ily on weekends, frequently describing Sundays routinely spent at an aunt’s or
grandmother’s. A 10th-grader at Uptown commented that ‘‘Every Sunday I go to
my grandmother’s house with my mother. The whole family is there, my aunts,
uncles, everybody.’’