In the perennial discussion over how to get parents more involved in their children’s education, one teacher has arrived at a solution, according to the New York Times. Damion Frye, a 9th grade English teacher from Montclair High School in New Jersey, has been asking parents to read and respond on his blog to their children’s classroom reading assignments or face a consequence—their child’s grade could be lowered. Says Frye, who is a Montclair alumnus, “Parents complain about never getting to see their kids’ work. Now they have to.”
Parent response has been mixed. Some are happy to do the work, others not so much. Lydia Bishop, whose daughter was in Frye’s class last year, balked, “When my daughter told me about the homework, I looked at her and said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. I graduated. I’m done.’” Issues have arisen in the three years since Frye began spreading the homework around, but so far neither busy schedule, language fluency, nor computer access has been a deterrent.