What ever happened to the enforced homework due dates that I remember when I was a student at DHS? The only time we were ever given extensions was because of snow days or maybe if the teacher was out sick. Today at DHS, homework due dates are just some hazy, amorphous, unenforced time in the distant future.

DHS has established a well-publicized tardiness policy with the publicized intention of promoting promptness each morning, but no importance has yet been placed on meeting deadlines for homework assignments and longterm projects. Staff members have told me that too many parents would get mad and complain if their students lost points and/or received bad grades for late homework, so homework due dates are not enforced by all teachers. A few do, but not many that I have encountered in the past 3 years.

Some teachers will accept any late homework until the last day of the term. How do they think a student struggling with organizational or executive-function skills problems handles that type of flexible deadline?
I'll tell you that many of them, with the teacher's permision and support, let all the homework build up until the last day of the term and then become
"overwhelmed".

My son's AP History term paper was due last Thursday. He and his classmates have been organizing this longterm project for many months to be ready to turn it in on the stated due date. A few
days before it was due, all of a sudden, the teacher extended the deadline to Tuesday for no reported reason. How does this teach the importance of a deadline to these students? (Most of them were ready to turn the paper in on the day it was due and they were ready to get it over with. They didn't really want to have five more days and another weekend to work on it.)

Last Fall, the due date of a longterm English essay assignment was postponed over and over again for week after week. Was this due to the teacher's organizational problems?

I can't even begin to estimate how many quizzes and major tests dates have been postponed over and over again? I don't know why teachers do this other than because of poor planning on their part, but I think it makes it very difficult for students to plan their school work and their lives. High School is the time that our teenagers should be learning to meet homework deadlines as this habit will be required in college, in the work force, and even in daily life - in real life, do you think a banker is going to keep extending the deadline for a mortgage payment like a teacher keeps extending the deadline for a term paper?

It seems to me that every student needs to learn the importance of handing in their homework/term papers/projects on time, but how can they do that when they are not given enforced, consistent and honest due dates by their teachers at DHS?

Having not attended DHS in over ten years, I'll accept that my response is largely unfounded. Yet, I've become energized more and more with my hometown and this post has dozens and dozens of reviews with no one showing the courage or interest to reply.
It's 0315 right now, but I'll give it my best shot (that's 3:15AM for non 24-hr clock types).

I attended DHS from 1992-1996, and I hardly turned in assignments on time. So, I'm not sure at what period of DHS history the blogger refers to when describing strict policies. Then again, I wasn't exactly in an honorable percentile of my graduating class either. My preliminary point here is that I suspect this is not a new problem.

Next, however, I want to play a little devil's advocate. First, is the blogger a member of DHS staff to be able to describe its policies with authority? Next, has the blogger addressed the concern of "hazy, amorphous, unenforced time[s] in the distant future?" Lastly, is it possible that the blogger's son's experience are not typical of other students or of other teachers?

It seems by the content of the blogger's post that either he/she is unaware of the son's potential issues with late submissions, or that posting these concerns on a blog that likely gets little attention by senior administration or school board personnel should be readdressed to those parties directly.

For all the blood, sweat, and tears that my siblings and I dealt with through the years of Deluxbury schools, it was our Mother taking it right to the face of the people who mattered that got the job done when problems arose--not complaining about in a public forum not intended for such issues.

That all said, I've come to know and accept that Duxbury schools are not what they were when I attended; nor should they be.

Hi Other Guy,
My experience as a student at DHS was back in the early 1970's with a thirty year gap until my own sons started school there. If anything, over those thirty years, our society has become much more focused on meeting deadlines and this is not a habit that is being taught, rewarded or prioritized in our schools, either in the students or the staff.

I can assure you that I have run this issue up the chain of command. As is standard procedure, the “people who mattered” automatically turned it over to the school attorney which turns out to be a very expensive way of justifying the administration’s inertia in dealing with problems and does absolutely nothing to help the student. My issue will be addressed at a higher level related to my son, but I believe it needs to be addressed on a systemic level as it does affect all of our students at DHS. It was also a problem at DMS.

I do disagree with your comments about this forum. One of our sub-topics on this forum currently has over 18,000 hits. I assure you that this blog is getting attention by senior administration and the school committee. Based upon the confidential and “insider” information that has been posted by some of the anonymous bloggers (some of it in the form of riddles), senior administrators and/or school committee members have posted anonymously right here - they are watching, maybe not listening or planning to take action, but they are watching.

I also disagree with your comment that this public forum is “not intended for such issues”. Duxbury Public School issues are exactly what this forum was designed to discuss as there are very few other avenues for discussion and assuring accountability within our school system. Over the past 12 years that my sons have attended the Duxbury schools, I have repeatedly been given the standard DPS administrative response that “nobody else ever complains about this issue” and then later found dozens of parents who had complained about the exact same thing. As long as parents are kept separate and unaware of each other’s observations, concerns and problems and when we are repeatedly told by administrators that “you are the only one that has this problem”, then the pathologic status quo is maintained by the powers that be. This forum provides a new way for parents to connect and hopefully we can actually cause some much needed changes for our children. The fact that people can post anonymously also limits the potential Brunt of the school administration’s retaliation against the parent and their children.

Sandy White
P.S. Keep blogging - we need more people like you to become energized about our hometown