This book, The Case Against Homework - How Homework Is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It, just came across my radar and I look forwarding to picking it up. Here’s a key paragraph from the description provided by the publisher, Crown Publishers:
- “In The Case Against Homework, Bennett and Kalish draw on academic research, interviews with educators, parents, and kids, and their own experience as parents and successful homework reformers to offer detailed advice to frustrated parents. You’ll find out which assignments advance learning and which are time-wasters, how to set priorities when your child comes home with an overstuffed backpack, how to talk and write to teachers and school administrators in persuasive, nonconfrontational ways, and how to rally other parents to help restore balance in your children’s lives.”
I think about homework many times a week, as both my kids are in middle school. Certainly I am a supporter of *some* homework, especially research reports and math practice (it’s way easier to memorize math concepts in a quiet room where you are the sole occupant) and such. However, as my kids get older, the amount of homework they get gives them the equivelant of an 8 - 10 hour work day.
What do you think? Has homework gotten out of hand? Is it necessary at all? Is it just a subtle form of baby-sitting, like parking your toddler in front of a Blue’s Clues video?
*Editor’s note - I’m really interested to see the discussion on this one (I find the discussions in our comments to be invaluable).
Parenting In The Media:
City Goes On A Diet
Post Partum Depression Bill
Dads Contribute To Childhood Obesity - Mom’s, Not So Much
`
10 responses so far ↓
Erica // May 29, 2007 at 12:27 pm
I have said before that many children are probably working more than working time regulations when you consider
School time - 6-7 hours a day
Homework 1-2 hours a day
Paper round/part-time job - an hour a day??
t-bird // May 29, 2007 at 12:31 pm
I think there has to be some degree of self directed study which inevitably means homework. However I don’t think homework should be dished out on a “just because” basis. I know of a local school that sends 6 and 7 year olds with over 20 spelling words to learn every week plus reading practice plus maths several times a week. This school doesn’t have significantly higher results than another local one where they don’t drill spelling anywhere near as much, allows the child to dictate how much reading they do (as long as they are making honest efforts!) and sets assignments and challenges relating to “real world maths” rather than pages of sums. Which sort of suggests that all the extra homework isn’t all that essential excpt for making it look like you are a more accademically demanding school (which attracts hoards of pushy parents who do lots of lovely fundraising for you - me? Cynical?)
Slouching Mom // May 29, 2007 at 1:10 pm
We are giving out too much homework in American school districts. And has it improved our high school graduates’ performance as compared to that of other countries’ graduates? Are we turning out citizens highly skilled in science, math, and technology?
Not in the slightest. And no.
So what’s the point?
Thordora // May 29, 2007 at 1:38 pm
I haven’t gotten there with my kids yet, but knowing how little of the homework I did as a student and how well i did despite that, I know I won’t be big on enforcing homework, and will likely have a few conversations with teaachers about that. I never have, and still don’t see the point of homework.
I want to pick this up as well, so I have the right ammo when school does arrive.
InTheFastLane // May 29, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Homework itself might not be so bad, if the teachers didn’t make it such a HUGE part of the kids’ grades. I see so many kids that know how to do the work yet are failing because they don’t do homework. What a great way to teach kids not to like school and what school stands for. Really, if you give a class a worksheet - the kids that already know how to do it, will either choose to do it or not and the kids that don’t know how to do it will end up either supremely frustrated in the attempt or they will just give up trying. Who wins here?
Michael Smalley // May 29, 2007 at 6:51 pm
Don’t even get me started on the issue of homework! I think it has gotten completely out of control, and frankly, I believe I’m doing more of the teaching than the teachers are. Most of the time my third and fourth grader bring back homework that should be accomplished in class so the teacher can actually “teach” about it.
By the way, great site! Wonderful posts and very practical help for parents.
Thimbelle // May 29, 2007 at 8:29 pm
Thordora - good luck. If your children’s schools are anything like the ones here, they won’t budge on homework. If it’s assigned, it must be done, or the grade will suffer. If the grade suffers, then your child may (ultimately, in the long run) be denied access to certain extracurricular activities, and it certainly will affect their chances for the all-might scholarship $$$. Welcome to the American Public School System.
Our daughter Twinks is at the end of 7th Grade, facing 8th grade next year.
The district that we live in has long had a reputation of “academic excellence”. Meaning that the teachers teach to the mandated state tests to insure high state scores, and that the students are constantly under pressure to score higher than last year…
The homework loads are *incredible*. My Mom was a teacher (retired now) and she has been horrified by the amount and kind of homework that Twinks brings home every day. Some of the assignments that Twinks has had to complete this year are fully equivalent to college-level coursework that I completed back when I was in college. Granted, she’s in all “Honors/Advanced Placement” classes, but the *volume* of homework is the same for all classes at her school.
With all of Twinks medical issues, she does NOT need the additional pressure of the staggering homework loads that we have seen (literally) since 1st grade. The crushing amount of homework has made it nearly impossible for her to enjoy extracurricular activities like Girl Scouts; she worries the whole time that she won’t be able to get her homework done. Most nights, she comes home from school, has a snack, works on homework, eats dinner, completes her homework, and tumbles into bed, exhausted. There is no time for anything else; no leisure time, no reading for fun, there just isn’t time.
Don’t *even* get me started on the “AR” (Accelerated Reader) system. I am so sick and tired of that nonsense; once a child is reading at or above grade level (Twinks has been reading at 12th grade level since the end of 4th grade) there should be no further need for this child to have to take mandatory tests, and score “points” for reading books. They have nearly ruined reading for my child by “forcing” her to read, even though she clearly can read well, and with full comprehension.
Is it any wonder that The Wrench and I are *seriously* considering homeschooling Twinks next year?
(sorry for the rant. :::whew!:::)
Whitney // May 30, 2007 at 4:47 am
Mark Blevis and Andrea from Just One More Book just tagged me in the new 8 things meme, and I am tagging you in return- this should be fun!
Here are the rules:
Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged.
My list is on the LD podcast blog at Mark Blevis and Andrea from Just One More Book just tagged me in the new 8 things meme, and I tag you in return.
Here are the rules:
Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged.
My list is on the LD podcast blog at http://gnmnetworks.com/ldp/?p=74
Congratulations on #200- You guys are the best!
Whitney
The LD Podcast
http://www.ldpodcast.com
Whitney // May 30, 2007 at 4:56 am
On Homework:
Research shows that Homework done at home is more reinforcing for learning that homework done at school or on the bus- big surprise there, huh? Yet our school district provides a last period of the day study hall for kids to get a head start on homework, meet with teachers, go to chorus, etc. The kids I was tutoring got really huffy about missing their regular homework time.
I have seen assignments that have been just plain stupid to those that really make kids think and engage.
I hate the projects that will make me spend over 45 minutes in Michael’s or AC Moore acquiring craft supplies. Yet, how else do you get kids to engage in those early book reports without encouraging them to do something other than a dull, formulaic report?
Homework should be about building study skills over time, building responsibility, practice, and not about busy work. It should be reinforcing. That page of math problems is not busy work, it’s giving your kid practice to do it on their own and reinforce what was allegedly taught during the day. And remember, it is their homework and responsibility, not yours.
That said, if I have to help with one more “Make a baseball card of your favorite historical figure” I may rebel.
And lastly- Does anyone else feel that the obesity in kids epidemic may be tied to the amount of homework given in the early grades? I never remember homework until middle school; an occasional book report or large report starting in 4th or 5th grade, but that was it.
Sara Bennett // May 30, 2007 at 10:03 am
I’m happy to see the homework issue being discussed here and wanted to let your readers know about stophomework.com.
Leave a Comment