Boy Sues Math Teacher Over Summer Homework

<p>The kid didn't have to take the advanced course. When my son wanted to take AP English, he had to do an entire year of extra work (essays) in order to qualify - at his school the way into the 11th grade AP class was the extra work in 10th grade -- the kids were told that they would be expected to do an essay every week in AP, and the 10th grade work was a way of demonstrating their mettle. Usually that procedure washed out enough students so as to keep the AP class reasonably small, but during my son's year there were still too many AP candidates by spring, so at the last minute he was told that he ALSO had to get an A on the final essay (he did -- but he certainly did sweat it out, knowing that he had so much competition).</p>

<p>As far as I am concerned, this kind of lawsuit is an abuse of the court system. I notice that this family is representing themselves in court, so I guess other lawyers feel the same way. I bet the judge on the case will really appreciate the extra paperwork this one entails ..... judges really like it when people file ridiculous lawsuits over trivial matters and then the judge and court staff have to spend hours reading and researching all the paperwork filed so that the ruling they make when they throw the case out of court will stand up on appeal. Given the number of hours lawyers and judges spend working late on weekends and holidays to deal with garbage like this, I doubt that this case will garner any sympathy at all in a court of law.</p>

<p>I'd note that law schools typically assign several hundred pages of summer reading which is to be done by the first day of class.</p>

<p>The judge threw out the case today, saying that local school boards had been granted the authority to make these decisions.
<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/03/09/homework.lawsuit.ap/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/03/09/homework.lawsuit.ap/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I am opposed to summer and break assignments for middle and high school students. And we've had alot of them! It seems reasonable that an AP course may have a summer assignment, but on the other hand, does an intellectually gifted kid need no time to relax and just be a kid? Can't they have that time to unwind and nurture other areas than the intellect? Or maybe even read a book that THEY choose, or learn about something NOT in the curriculum? We have had holiday breaks ruined by research papers, essays and projects. And the icing on the cake is when the kid spends many hours on an assignment and it is given no more than a cursory review by the teacher. Hmmm. I really see no benefit in this.</p>