My children began P.S. 11 over 20 years ago. It had a T&G program to attract the small group of middle class families in Chelsea (have times changed!). T&G began in kindergarten and the result was a segregated school. The entrance to the program was an IQ test administered at a cost by an outside tester. Naturally, all these kids tested high across the board. Not all middle class parents subscribed to this silliness. Still, there were times there was contention. Individual class fundraising in the T&G classes was out-of-sight. The T&G parents always wanted more and more for their kids ' classes. The irony of being in a Title I school and receiving generous Federal funding was completely lost on this group. This homework diagreement shows that little has changed at P.S. 11.
As a parent with a child in a park slope elementary school I cannot imagine anything worse than a presentation on a vacation. I am frequently explaining to my child that we are not poor even though we don't travel to the Caribbean or Europe several times a year. I really feel for the lower income families portrayed in this article. Schools need to be aware and sensitive to these issues.
2
I'm fascinated that it's the less well-off parents who object to minimizing homework, because homework is one of the great drivers of the educational divide.
Yes, it's good for students to have time to reinforce the work they learn during the school day. However, it's not so good when students lack the means to do homework: whether that means a parent present to answer questions, a wearing off of the AD/HD medications, a busy after-school schedule or anything else.
Homework today is used as a means to extend the school day, but without the support of a teacher. And it takes the place of all the other skills that children need to succeed, particularly the social and emotional skills that younger children -- the K-5 crowd -- used to learn on the playground or hanging out with friends.
What I'm saying is backed up by study after study. It's too bad that school administrations don't always do THEIR homework, which is reading through the extensive literature about homework, then educating parents about what they should expect of their kids outside of school in order to help them succeed, and then putting the plan in place.
Maybe the problem is that the wrong kind of homework is being assigned. Instead of worksheets, tackle the issue of being a friend, understanding emotions, handling anger.
Now, THAT is homework that could really be worth the time.
Yes, it's good for students to have time to reinforce the work they learn during the school day. However, it's not so good when students lack the means to do homework: whether that means a parent present to answer questions, a wearing off of the AD/HD medications, a busy after-school schedule or anything else.
Homework today is used as a means to extend the school day, but without the support of a teacher. And it takes the place of all the other skills that children need to succeed, particularly the social and emotional skills that younger children -- the K-5 crowd -- used to learn on the playground or hanging out with friends.
What I'm saying is backed up by study after study. It's too bad that school administrations don't always do THEIR homework, which is reading through the extensive literature about homework, then educating parents about what they should expect of their kids outside of school in order to help them succeed, and then putting the plan in place.
Maybe the problem is that the wrong kind of homework is being assigned. Instead of worksheets, tackle the issue of being a friend, understanding emotions, handling anger.
Now, THAT is homework that could really be worth the time.
2
As a science teacher who has taught grades 4-12, I feel that purposeful and well-designed homework shouldn't take more than 15-20 minutes / class / night. Yes, over 6 six classes, that comes to 1.5-2 hrs/night, but in high school, students need to be reinforcing content through independent work. They can't afford to wait until college to develop this skill. In middle and elementary school, less total time is required, but the need for consistency in some subjects, particularly math, is very important. I wonder if the lengthy homework assignments some students are receiving, perhaps especially in math and English, are attributable to the curriculum acceleration of the transition to Common Core?
It is obvious to anyone in a quantitative field that the benefits of homework carry forward. For example, even traditional middle school rate word problems, such as finding time traveled given distance and speed, contain about a dozen separate conceptual arithmetic, algebraic, and unit-cancelling steps. (Challenged yourself to identify the steps) If a student has not developed fluency with AND understanding of the rules of arithmetic with fractions, they resort to solving these problems by rote without an ability to justify their mathematical underpinnings. The tragedy is that these rote-solvers do become "calculators on legs", unable to bring any insight into more complex problems / applications that the promising STEM careers address.
It is obvious to anyone in a quantitative field that the benefits of homework carry forward. For example, even traditional middle school rate word problems, such as finding time traveled given distance and speed, contain about a dozen separate conceptual arithmetic, algebraic, and unit-cancelling steps. (Challenged yourself to identify the steps) If a student has not developed fluency with AND understanding of the rules of arithmetic with fractions, they resort to solving these problems by rote without an ability to justify their mathematical underpinnings. The tragedy is that these rote-solvers do become "calculators on legs", unable to bring any insight into more complex problems / applications that the promising STEM careers address.
1
No homework? So YOU want your kid to remain a dummy!
1
In helping children succeed in all academic subjects, there are alternatives to doing worksheets at home. The traditional concept of "work, study, play" still works well at home or in a classroom. At home, the burden is on the parent(s) to determine the type, amount and order of each activity. As the word suggests, play has its own rewards, especially when a parent can also take a few minutes to play with their children!
Lacking homework, most kids will spend their time watching TV or using online social media. Formal learning is work, so most kids will gravitate to activities which provide them with the most pleasure.
2
Maybe the issue should not be homework, but what kind of homework.
Reading assignments, creative writing assignments, open book "structured review" type take home tests. 50 repetitive math problems or rote memorization seem less worthy of the child's time at home.
A bigger change that could help our kids is getting rid of the long summer break and replacing it with a year round model with nice breaks in December, Spring Break and Summer of about two weeks. That allows for family vacations but would help education greatly. Teacher can tell you that kids regress over the long summer break, forgetting what they were learning just months before.
Reading assignments, creative writing assignments, open book "structured review" type take home tests. 50 repetitive math problems or rote memorization seem less worthy of the child's time at home.
A bigger change that could help our kids is getting rid of the long summer break and replacing it with a year round model with nice breaks in December, Spring Break and Summer of about two weeks. That allows for family vacations but would help education greatly. Teacher can tell you that kids regress over the long summer break, forgetting what they were learning just months before.
5
Getting rid of summer break would require compensating teachers to make up for what they currently earn in the summer jobs they take to cobble together a living wage.
5
Depends on the State.
Here the teachers are paid 12 months a year and there is no reason the year to year contracts they sign have to be increased a dime. I work 52 weeks a year and Holidays and weekends, and we do not close the Hospital on account of weather.
The job pays what the job pays and nobody is twisting anyone's arm to sign a teaching contract. If they wish to walk, list their job and hire someone else. Teachers are a dime a dozen.
If an individual school board wants to increase pay that is up to them.
Here the teachers are paid 12 months a year and there is no reason the year to year contracts they sign have to be increased a dime. I work 52 weeks a year and Holidays and weekends, and we do not close the Hospital on account of weather.
The job pays what the job pays and nobody is twisting anyone's arm to sign a teaching contract. If they wish to walk, list their job and hire someone else. Teachers are a dime a dozen.
If an individual school board wants to increase pay that is up to them.
1
Many years ago, I worked in an elementary school in a neighborhood populated mostly by the families of professors who taught at the university in town. The school had a "no homework" policy. The rationale was that the students had enough academic pressure/encouragement at home. In the same neighborhood, another elementary school assigned homework routinely. The students from the two schools went to same middle school and it is my understanding that there was no discernable difference in achievement. I believe a no homework policy would only work when there is an environment at home which encourages learning - I doubt it word work in a less privileged school.
1
Designers of homework, have the biggest responsibility, the student/student's family are next. It is sure a challenge to have me willing to accept small steps in any direction, and homework is exactly that.What does this mean? A classroom that engages attention can design homework with assigning a thing, the mind is worthy and gifted, reveal that and laziness is the next big task on the list.
My bad luck to grow up in the 50s and start my teaching career in the 80s. Homework should not produce stress, and kids, just like their working parents should be protected from too much unpaid over-time. The longest hardest days I ever worked were when I was 12. I did it, got my grades and went on. But a lot of my peers gave up, dropped out and got stoned. Truth is, a good education is expensive and Americans don't pay enough taxes.
3
I think that if parents realized how structures their small children's time in school is how many worksheets they are already doing they would realize that homework worksheets is just overkill. Reading is so much more important and for the parents who worry about their children. It doing well on standardized tests maybe there can be better homework assignments by teachers giving the children worksheets for school to redo if they don't understand or didn't do well at school.
This again. It's not all or none. As a long-time teacher (high-school English) I have used homework for a variety of purposes: to get kids to think about an upcoming issue we'd be reading/writing about, to re-inforce something we'd learned in class, but most of all to read or do research.
The reading for a high-school English class cannot and should not be done during school time; it's too extensive and would take too long. Aside from reading excerpts or some genres (poems, etc.) out loud in class, class time should be spent on discussion or writing about the literature. In earlier grades, however, reading in class may be the only reading a child does, alas. When I was young we did what was called "sustained silent reading" (SSR) and having that quiet time to delve into a book was instrumental in making me fall in love with reading and literature. No one rule fits all.
The reading for a high-school English class cannot and should not be done during school time; it's too extensive and would take too long. Aside from reading excerpts or some genres (poems, etc.) out loud in class, class time should be spent on discussion or writing about the literature. In earlier grades, however, reading in class may be the only reading a child does, alas. When I was young we did what was called "sustained silent reading" (SSR) and having that quiet time to delve into a book was instrumental in making me fall in love with reading and literature. No one rule fits all.
2
While high school English reading obviously should be done at home, the kids in the poor schools aren't going to do it. Which is one reason (obviously, there are others) that those kids fall behind: all the reading is done in groups, in school, and that greatly limits the amount.
2
The problem I find with not reading in class is that the teacher has to show the students HOW to read. I don't mean the words, It is assumed that students read the way we do, but they don't.
Although I love the idea in theory--reading and fun enrichment activities for homework--I have a few questions.
Are most parents successful in getting their children to read nightly? Bookworms, yes, but reluctant readers? This is as hard as those useless worksheets.
What about maths? Clearly basic arithmetic is fundamental and repetition is important. Those dastardly worksheets are important in reaching those goals and helping children get math fluency. It just should not be too much.
What about those enrichment activities? Would playing soccer in the street count or only swimming or gymnastics, activities that cost money. If the schools offered free after-school programs that helped families with the reading and enrichment activities (and perhaps a worksheet or two) that would really help but that comes with a financial burden. Allocation of resources is important.
Younger kids really need physical activity to burn off some energy after being in school all day and to stay fit. But they do need a bit of reinforcement of what they learned during the school day. It is all about balance and the baby (homework) shouldn't be thrown out with the bathwater.
Why does everything in this country have to be large pendulum swings? Homework or no homework isn't the answer. It is reading and reasonable homework, on occasion, that also allows kids the time to explore and express themselves.
Are most parents successful in getting their children to read nightly? Bookworms, yes, but reluctant readers? This is as hard as those useless worksheets.
What about maths? Clearly basic arithmetic is fundamental and repetition is important. Those dastardly worksheets are important in reaching those goals and helping children get math fluency. It just should not be too much.
What about those enrichment activities? Would playing soccer in the street count or only swimming or gymnastics, activities that cost money. If the schools offered free after-school programs that helped families with the reading and enrichment activities (and perhaps a worksheet or two) that would really help but that comes with a financial burden. Allocation of resources is important.
Younger kids really need physical activity to burn off some energy after being in school all day and to stay fit. But they do need a bit of reinforcement of what they learned during the school day. It is all about balance and the baby (homework) shouldn't be thrown out with the bathwater.
Why does everything in this country have to be large pendulum swings? Homework or no homework isn't the answer. It is reading and reasonable homework, on occasion, that also allows kids the time to explore and express themselves.
3
Categorical all-or-nothing answers to the question of homework or not in the elementary grades reflect an ideological, not an empirical, approach to the issue--not what one would expect from educators. Homework need not be drudgery or excessive; it can be constructive and supportive of classwork. I find it hard to understand why practice in the acquisition of athletic skills is necessary, but practice in the acquisition of academic knowledge and skills is not. Can educators, instead of seeking headlines, try constructing guidelines for homework assignments, perhaps differentiated by subject.
3
Most of the all-or-nothing policies are forced on educators by non-educators. Left to their own devices and empowered to make the decisions that were best for their students, most teachers would probably give a manageable level of homework.
4
Glad I don't have kids...Yikes
We should all take a moment to appreciate just how terrible the argument for homework is between K-3. The advocate being cited FOR homework has research that shows a negligible impact on test performance.
The funny thing about data and education research is that despite data-driven evidence that charter schools do not perform better than public schools with equivalent students, and that homework does not improve testing, we still ignore all the data and engage in practices unsupported by empirical evidence.
If we're not even going to use the data we collect to make meaningful changes, then let's call the whole thing off. My kids don't need to waste their time taking tests to make people FEEL better about educational performance.
The funny thing about data and education research is that despite data-driven evidence that charter schools do not perform better than public schools with equivalent students, and that homework does not improve testing, we still ignore all the data and engage in practices unsupported by empirical evidence.
If we're not even going to use the data we collect to make meaningful changes, then let's call the whole thing off. My kids don't need to waste their time taking tests to make people FEEL better about educational performance.
3
I remember having several teachers, that would load us up with lots of homework on Friday, to keep us busy ALL weekend. so we would stay out of trouble. This was in the late 50's and early 60's, in a small town. Our parents loved it, NOT! It kept them from planing family things for the weekend!
When do kids do things like memorization (or is that now passe)? I remember learning things like times tables, capitals of Europe, and spelling, then later foreign language vocabulary or declensions. Some decry memorization as drudgery, but some things cannot be learned any other way. We also did book-reports. It's a long, long time since grade school, but it seems to me that practice, drill, and some integration happened at home - as did parental participation.
It was also a time when study habits and learning 'tricks' were developed. I never think of Sophia as the capital of Hungry without remembering my Mom & I in my parents bedroom. She tied the name of that capital, Sophia, to the name of the woman next door, Sophie.
A small sub-set of children who are bright and have home resources may make productive use of that time, but I'm betting that far more kids simply stare at the TV longer.
It was also a time when study habits and learning 'tricks' were developed. I never think of Sophia as the capital of Hungry without remembering my Mom & I in my parents bedroom. She tied the name of that capital, Sophia, to the name of the woman next door, Sophie.
A small sub-set of children who are bright and have home resources may make productive use of that time, but I'm betting that far more kids simply stare at the TV longer.
3
Sophia is the capital of Bulgaria, not Hungary.
3
Practicing is for sports not academic subjects!
1
The amazing thing about this comment is that I can't tell whether it's sarcastic or not.
6
That depends... I am being sarcastic... but it rings more true when one considers the country as a whole with high schools that build multimillion dollar football stadiums (no I am not kidding - a school in Texas I think - look it up!) and the general worship for all things sporting.
"favoring families with time and money to provide their own enrichment"
I am actually not following this.
This sentence is written assuming no homework, so who are these mythical families that not only have hours every day, but also know how to provide an enriching environment?
Is the nanny in charge of providing this enriched environment?
Exploring the environment a bit more, there are some mentions of educational computer programs. How do we know that a computer program is better for a nine year old than spending a couple of hours outside playing with his friends or, alternatively, just reading a book?
These activities should not be too hard, regardless of income.
I am too old to have a relevant opinion, but I am fairly sure that my son would have benefited mightily from time away from the computer.
I also have news for you if you think you can control your child computer activities, especially for boys.
I am actually not following this.
This sentence is written assuming no homework, so who are these mythical families that not only have hours every day, but also know how to provide an enriching environment?
Is the nanny in charge of providing this enriched environment?
Exploring the environment a bit more, there are some mentions of educational computer programs. How do we know that a computer program is better for a nine year old than spending a couple of hours outside playing with his friends or, alternatively, just reading a book?
These activities should not be too hard, regardless of income.
I am too old to have a relevant opinion, but I am fairly sure that my son would have benefited mightily from time away from the computer.
I also have news for you if you think you can control your child computer activities, especially for boys.
4
When my daughter had homework, it was always busy work, coloring, silly reading stories, simple math problems – all of them below her level. She battle with me to complete them as she was bored. The new homework policy at PS11 allows for creativity while promoting rading and critical thinking as reading for 30 minutes a day is still required. The voluntary projects do not have to be elaborate or require a huge amount of cost. They do however require a little imagination and learning about what your child likes and need. The time I normally would have spent on making sure she completed her homework assignments I can now direct to engaging her in projects she actually enjoys participating in resulting in more meaningful.
2
I am firmly in the anti-homework camp. If I wanted my son to do homework I would homeschool him.
I resent being forced to spend my limited time with my son cajoling him to do mindless worksheets. We both have better things to do. And I'm more than capable of coming up with my own educational enrichment. I don't need a workbook telling me what to teach my son outside of school.
I'm actually fine with the reading assignments and book reports and a handful of math worksheets now and then, but these huge packets of math worksheets that he's getting - in first grade - is just too much.
My husband and I already decided: we're done arguing with teachers and administration who can't be bothered to educate themselves on the lack of benefits of dumping piles of homework on elementary students. If homework continues to take up too much of our son's after school time and if it continues to create family life conflicts, then we're just going to do the worksheets ourselves for him.
I resent being forced to spend my limited time with my son cajoling him to do mindless worksheets. We both have better things to do. And I'm more than capable of coming up with my own educational enrichment. I don't need a workbook telling me what to teach my son outside of school.
I'm actually fine with the reading assignments and book reports and a handful of math worksheets now and then, but these huge packets of math worksheets that he's getting - in first grade - is just too much.
My husband and I already decided: we're done arguing with teachers and administration who can't be bothered to educate themselves on the lack of benefits of dumping piles of homework on elementary students. If homework continues to take up too much of our son's after school time and if it continues to create family life conflicts, then we're just going to do the worksheets ourselves for him.
6
Parents doing worksheets for their children is no solution. Change of school or Homeschooling as mentioned by you is the best option.
1
Heavens are not going to fall if homework is not given to the elementary school students. Some practice in the class and at home will suffice but I fail to understand the significance of compelling elementary kids to lean computer programming. For God sake keep the school kids away from computers.
2
My second grader is supposed to read for 20 minutes a night (which she does), do a set of 10 double sided worksheets a week , write all her spelling words 10 times and do two at home pre spelling tests. I told the teacher at the beginning of the year that she would only be doing the amount of "homework" she could do in 20 minutes, not including the reading. She tests at the top of her class, but the worksheet attitude is making my kid -- who loves to learn so much she did her own non mandatory science fair project -- hate school. Which is why next year she's attending an elementary school with a no-homework policy (though they do want kids to read nightly).
Homework in middle school I understand, but making it so that kids don't have time to play and start to hate school at a young age... that seems like it goes against learning.
Homework in middle school I understand, but making it so that kids don't have time to play and start to hate school at a young age... that seems like it goes against learning.
5
While I am all for cutting down on excessive and duplicative busy work, the extra practice and reinforcement that comes with homework is an important part of learning. It is possible to assign such work and leave kids plenty of time for daydreaming, doodling. playing with toys, chatting with friends and all the other activities that allow human beings to,discover their passion. All of that fancier stuff is one of those things schools cook,up to torture single parents and two career housholds of all income levels, but especially those without the means to have a nanny or grandparent to oversee all that "meaningful passion-finding."
11
I'm a high school senior and I think the motive for so much homework is to inflate our grades. Everyone earns 100% marks on homework assignments as long as it's "done" (it's not actually graded), then you can bomb tests and exams and still end up with a B overall in the class.
Homework is needed, but it needs to actually be graded to prove students are following along while studying & understanding the concepts. I know so many peers that loaf through homework (or copy someone else's) to get 100 percents, but then average Cs and Ds on quizzes and tests. Their report card shows all As and Bs!
These students use the fact they have all As and Bs to beg their parents for money & loans to go away to university. They don't have any study skills. No surprise, Michigan's public university drop out rate is about 50%. It feels like a con to me...
Homework is needed, but it needs to actually be graded to prove students are following along while studying & understanding the concepts. I know so many peers that loaf through homework (or copy someone else's) to get 100 percents, but then average Cs and Ds on quizzes and tests. Their report card shows all As and Bs!
These students use the fact they have all As and Bs to beg their parents for money & loans to go away to university. They don't have any study skills. No surprise, Michigan's public university drop out rate is about 50%. It feels like a con to me...
15
Homework is a) unpaid overtime and b) a guarantee that students with parents at home willing to be their kids' tutors and taskmasters will complete their homework and get better grades. Students with working parents and a normal child's preference to do anything but homework will not complete their homework and get poor grades. Kill the homework, lengthen the school day, provide life skills classes and social time/physical activities that are fun.
4
For homework to be "unpaid overtime," wouldn't students have to first be paid for the work they do in school?
I think our increasing tendency to confuse schools with businesses causes lots of our education problems. The work students do in school isn't paid because it doesn't benefit anyone but the students themselves. Homework, if it's not simply busywork, means more opportunity for students to learn (or, as homework is more likely to be practice on skills learned in school, to cement their learning).
By all means, object to meaningless busywork. And certainly, there needs to be a balance between learning (in and out of school) and other activities. But by equating homework to "unpaid overtime," I think you've demonstrated some major misconceptions.
I think our increasing tendency to confuse schools with businesses causes lots of our education problems. The work students do in school isn't paid because it doesn't benefit anyone but the students themselves. Homework, if it's not simply busywork, means more opportunity for students to learn (or, as homework is more likely to be practice on skills learned in school, to cement their learning).
By all means, object to meaningless busywork. And certainly, there needs to be a balance between learning (in and out of school) and other activities. But by equating homework to "unpaid overtime," I think you've demonstrated some major misconceptions.
4
You forgot ensuring and enforcing classroom discipline so that every school hour is productive.
1
At a minimum, homework has always been the physical vehicle available to parents to use as a tool to connect with their childs "learning day". Not to mention, a check to know if your child actually learned/retained material from their "day". Its also an opportunity, without the pressure of the classroom mates, to make mistakes and have them corrected and understood before the next "learning day".
Parents of means should stop trying to reinvent the wheel and get day jobs. John Glenn, Barack Obama, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein among others and myself all did homework and OMG! didn't have a breakdown.
Parents of means should stop trying to reinvent the wheel and get day jobs. John Glenn, Barack Obama, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein among others and myself all did homework and OMG! didn't have a breakdown.
7
My child had homework every day. She was in the afterschool daycare program in elementary school and often as not she'd have finished it during the afternoon, working with her peers. In addition to assigning homework, her schools taught the children how to use agendas to mark down the work with the due dates and have a plan for completing it. This discipline was fantastic. Homework never took over her life, but for some students who found it difficult it was a chore. There should be a graduated homework system. My girl found it easy, enjoyable and breezed through it - all students should have the same feeling of accomplishment so if they are struggling it is a sign that it isn't to their level and needs to be pared down. It never got in her way and I was very thankful for the discipline that was reinforced through the agenda every year. She learned to start her homework as soon as it was assigned so it never became unmanageable. She has carried this agenda discipline all the way into medical school and continues to map out for a month at a time all the work she needs to do to achieve mastery of the subject. Seeing how some students thrive and some don't on the same material gives rise to the thought that every student has a different need and education needs to become more nimble if every student is to succeed. Otherwise they just become discouraged when in fact a different approach is all that is needed.
7
You can't win. Teachers all over the country have been moving from worksheets and essays to projects in order to allow kids who have trouble reading and retaining facts as well as writing to become excited and to show what they know; hence, "passion projects" (some new jargon from educators, and I thought I'd heard it all).
Homework can be bothersome when assigned by dull people -- but it can also be beneficial when it has a clear purpose.
Homework can be bothersome when assigned by dull people -- but it can also be beneficial when it has a clear purpose.
9
There's no education without reading. maybe pure Math. Kids who can't read need to be in special schools on separate track. They should have education, but not drag down the class for the kids who can read.
3
Homework should be meaningful, and not merely "busy work." Though I ended up becoming a professor at a major university, I taught public high school for several years, and I learned very quickly that students with parents who were overworked (and often working evenings) often had responsibilities of caring for younger siblings, and simply didn't have the home resources to launch independent projects. Here's what would be a better idea: have each child choose a book or two from their school library (if such a thing exists anymore) and assign them pleasure reading. What a quaint idea! Have them keep journals, have them write poems and stories, etc., and find class time to share and encourage. I stopped teaching public high school because we were expected to "teach to the test." As a child who did not test well, I balked at this greatly. I had many smart students who needed so much more for their developing brains and souls than a ridiculous test. One of the most fun things I did with high school kids is assign a textbook (provided by the school) on vocabulary-building. It was fun and hilarious and informative, and their vocabularies and their writing improved greatly. Many of these were poor kids, and only 20% of the kids at the school would actually graduate from that school (meaning their lives were in flux and families had to move a lot for blue collar jobs). Put another way, give kids things they can do with minimal involvement from overwhelmed parents.
7
How did you determine that their vocabularies improved greatly?
The quantity of homework should be appropriate to the student's age, certainly. And for really little children (up to grade 3) it makes sense for there to be very little. The youngest children should be spending most of their time on things that are outsized needs for them - movement for growing bodies, sensory exploration and development through art and nature, the rudiments of language, social skills.
But how do you learn well if you don't spend some personal time practicing what was taught in school? No one would say practice isn't necessary when learning a musical instrument. Finland seems to have figured it out, turning out kids that are not only high achieving, but seemingly well adjusted. Can't we just imitate what works?
But how do you learn well if you don't spend some personal time practicing what was taught in school? No one would say practice isn't necessary when learning a musical instrument. Finland seems to have figured it out, turning out kids that are not only high achieving, but seemingly well adjusted. Can't we just imitate what works?
3
My son, who is by all accounts a darn good student has become incredibly frustrated this year with 4th grade homework. I adore his teachers, but their expectations need some adjustments. My son can not do the projects independently. I always end up doing a good share of the work. I think it would be much better to break a large project out into steps at this age, thus teaching them how to tackle a task. Learning would occur and the stress at home would be greatly reduced.
2
There are legitimate concerns about what kind home work schools are assigning. Are kids learning, or is it busy work? But these "at home passion projects" are not the answer.
It's very hard to break class and other social barriers using education when you rely on things like "at home passion projects." This will be tough on low-income families where parents need to work irregular or long hours, and especially tough on single parent households. It's also going to be difficult on immigrant kids whose parents may not be attuned to American culture or be very fluent in English, or families where the parents did not have a lot of education.
Basically, it's yet another barrier for folks on the margins to try to better themselves through education.
It's very hard to break class and other social barriers using education when you rely on things like "at home passion projects." This will be tough on low-income families where parents need to work irregular or long hours, and especially tough on single parent households. It's also going to be difficult on immigrant kids whose parents may not be attuned to American culture or be very fluent in English, or families where the parents did not have a lot of education.
Basically, it's yet another barrier for folks on the margins to try to better themselves through education.
3
I teach English at a public high school and have taught English at a public middle school. I haven't taught in an elementary school, but the great communicators and thinkers we expect children to be one day must start in elementary school. Teachers can't cover everything in the school day. Teachers (as proxies for administrators) can't lower the bar by being too sensitive about giving homework. Today's kids will just grab onto the bar and pull it lower. Some are learning this from their quick-to-protest-everything-parents. Some are learning this from their too-busy-to-care parents. Some are learning this from no parents. That's becoming their homework.
3
A create-your-own-enriching-after-school-experience policy clearly favors more wealthy, educated parents over less educated and financially strapped ones. If we want to move further towards a society polarized by wealth and education, leaving homework to the discretion of parents is a sure way to do it.
6
Maybe there should still be homework, but less of it. Three to 4 hours every single night is too much. But some homework is a good thing.
4
I appreciate my kids homework as an opportunity to understand what they are learning and how the processes differ from how I was taught at the same age. They are only in third grade, so I am sure the worst years are ahead of me, but in many ways I am learning along with them, so that hopefully I can be helpful as their work becomes more complex.
Also, I feel that if they see homework as a natural thing that they should be taking care of - if it is a part of their norm - I am hopeful that t will be more of a habit and less of a struggle later in life. But I can see the appeal of having more recreational time.
Also, I feel that if they see homework as a natural thing that they should be taking care of - if it is a part of their norm - I am hopeful that t will be more of a habit and less of a struggle later in life. But I can see the appeal of having more recreational time.
6
I don't believe in excessive homework, but I don't understand how anyone could argue against students reading every night.
2
I am a parent and an educator. Homework is not absolutely necessary in my opinion, but if schools want to give homework they should give assignments that are age appropriate and easy for the children to do independently. As a college student, we were told homework should take 10 minutes per grade to complete. For example, 1st=10 minutes, 2nd=20 min, etc. That is not the case these days. My son is in first grade and usually homework takes 20 to 30 minutes, sometimes 40. Often times, he required my full assistance because the math is already very confusing. It can get very frustrating. I would like there to be a balance. Maybe one page of math to review what was learned that day (that the child can definitely do with minimal help), then some independent/family reading. This is something all families can manage, no matter what economic status. There should not be this expectation of purchasing software and doing elaborate projects. That just defeats the purpose. The one parent in the article who said they do the software program for HOURS?! Who has the time for that? Are they doing that with their child or is the child basically just playing an educational game on a tablet? I have nothing against educational apps, but hours seems excessive. Can we just let kids be kids after school!? Let them have a snack, play with their toys, play outside with friends, and dare I say it- watch a little (age appropriate) TV!!! Everything in moderatiion.
7
The people who are concerned about the disparity in opportunities are right...to an extent. I was interested to see that the presentations that "even the poor kids can do" still require access to a smart phone, or a computer with PowerPoint.
But we have to hold parents somewhat accountable for their children's learning. Parents are responsible for providing an atmosphere at home that places values on learning and, in an ideal world, schools would be places where parents can find resources to help support their child's learning, both on "school" and "non-school" topics. There's a well-documented decline in children's motivation to learn from the preschool through elementary years, as toddlers' questions are supplanted by teachers' questions, and teachers spend the next 12 years trying to "trick" students into learning things (and doing those darned worksheets!) in which they would otherwise have no interest.
Personally, I don't believe that the curriculum-based learning that underpins homework is enabling our children to develop a love of learning or learn how to learn. I'll opt for homeschooling, which parents of all incomes can do - I created a course to help parents decide whether homeschooling is right for their family ( www.yourhomeschoolingmojo.com ), for which I interviewed more than twenty homeschooling parents - including single parents who successfully homeschool on a low income.
When a child loves to learn and knows how to learn, there's no stopping them .
But we have to hold parents somewhat accountable for their children's learning. Parents are responsible for providing an atmosphere at home that places values on learning and, in an ideal world, schools would be places where parents can find resources to help support their child's learning, both on "school" and "non-school" topics. There's a well-documented decline in children's motivation to learn from the preschool through elementary years, as toddlers' questions are supplanted by teachers' questions, and teachers spend the next 12 years trying to "trick" students into learning things (and doing those darned worksheets!) in which they would otherwise have no interest.
Personally, I don't believe that the curriculum-based learning that underpins homework is enabling our children to develop a love of learning or learn how to learn. I'll opt for homeschooling, which parents of all incomes can do - I created a course to help parents decide whether homeschooling is right for their family ( www.yourhomeschoolingmojo.com ), for which I interviewed more than twenty homeschooling parents - including single parents who successfully homeschool on a low income.
When a child loves to learn and knows how to learn, there's no stopping them .
1
"But we have to hold parents somewhat accountable for their children's learning."
How are you holding parents accountable when in effect you are only punishing the kids. t's great if every child has parents who are up to the task of being involved and helpful in a child's education. But the fact is that's not always the case. Yet, when you hinge the kids ability to learn and perform in school on what they parents bring to the table, all you do is punish kids whose parents aren't up to the task. It's easy to say, for example, "parents and kids should read together." But there are, in today, parents who are illiterate or semi-literate. We should not shrug and say, "well that's their problem. Too bad for their kids."
How are you holding parents accountable when in effect you are only punishing the kids. t's great if every child has parents who are up to the task of being involved and helpful in a child's education. But the fact is that's not always the case. Yet, when you hinge the kids ability to learn and perform in school on what they parents bring to the table, all you do is punish kids whose parents aren't up to the task. It's easy to say, for example, "parents and kids should read together." But there are, in today, parents who are illiterate or semi-literate. We should not shrug and say, "well that's their problem. Too bad for their kids."
3
Homework is for children not parents! Parents 0f elementary school kids should not be doing their projects or making a powerpoint. Kids need to know how to read and write, to do puzzles and hands on activities - art music, cooking, a sport! Socialize, talk, be creative. But then the parents are so involved with their cell phones they have little time for their children - therein lies the problem.
The children whose parents prefer they not do homework will be working for my children after graduation.
6
Not if a robot is more capable.
4
Kids learn by the 7th or 8th grade that homework is for copying. A few kids do the homework--they and their parents see the value. The rest of the students put pressure on those kids to hand it over and then it gets copied. Just before school or during lunch. Beginning teachers interrogate students and hand out zeros to prevent this from happening, but they eventually realize that the huge amounts of time necessary to scrutinize homework, track down copiers, and interrogate them is a largely futile waste of time. Journaling is good. Having kids interview their parents about issues brought up as part of curriculum is good. But worksheets and problem sets get copied from the kids who already know how to do the work anyway.
4
oh that it had taken until 7th grade to copy homework, this gets to the root of the matter. For math as an exception, homework, is simply essential, development of an ease with problems of a math nature comes with practice. The time I spent copying math assignments, was lost, except it developed the habit of settling for less.
You certainly offer other good ideas too, though, caution in any interview scenario will leave those with unwilling informants with little results.
You certainly offer other good ideas too, though, caution in any interview scenario will leave those with unwilling informants with little results.
"Homework spiked again in the 1980s with the release of the now-famous “A Nation at Risk” report, which indicated that American students were falling behind their peers in other parts of the world."
And it seems to have come true. It is the 'why and how' that require innovative solutions -- and one size does not fit all.
Homework is essential to inbue the concept that achievement does require effort. It need not be onerous but it needs be pointed. As far as time is concerned my rough gauge is 10 minutes per grade - all subjects. This equates to 10 minutes for first grade, 120 minutes (2 hours) for 12th grade, (HS Senior). Regarding outside activities, there remains sufficient time for a variety of activities --if it is properly apportioned. Dinners with family can be accommodated (an integral part of the day). And it must be noted that while we all would enjoy to live in Thoreau's world of a different drummer, there is a reality that must be faced.
Obviously this discussion is more complex than is allowed in this space or forum but it is -- now - one of the most essential given the generally sorry state of our Nation's education.
And it seems to have come true. It is the 'why and how' that require innovative solutions -- and one size does not fit all.
Homework is essential to inbue the concept that achievement does require effort. It need not be onerous but it needs be pointed. As far as time is concerned my rough gauge is 10 minutes per grade - all subjects. This equates to 10 minutes for first grade, 120 minutes (2 hours) for 12th grade, (HS Senior). Regarding outside activities, there remains sufficient time for a variety of activities --if it is properly apportioned. Dinners with family can be accommodated (an integral part of the day). And it must be noted that while we all would enjoy to live in Thoreau's world of a different drummer, there is a reality that must be faced.
Obviously this discussion is more complex than is allowed in this space or forum but it is -- now - one of the most essential given the generally sorry state of our Nation's education.
US students score better on international tests than comparable students in almost all other countries. The problem is that the population as a whole isn't comparable: look at the number of US kids living in poverty, and you'd think you're looking at a third-world country instead of a developed nation.
Our nation's schools aren't in a sorry state. But that claim is often made to distract from the fact that our nation's economic distribution IS. It's analogous to blaming hospitals for illness.
Our nation's schools aren't in a sorry state. But that claim is often made to distract from the fact that our nation's economic distribution IS. It's analogous to blaming hospitals for illness.
1
What most children need is actually more sleep. A child who is attending an after school daycare program and being picked up at six, going home to eat and then finish worksheets, is probably not getting to bed early enough.
Her parents aren't getting enough rest either - that's why they're upset over having to put in any extra effort.
It's a crazy society we've built here, folks. Hardly anyone is getting what they need to lead a happy, productive life.
Her parents aren't getting enough rest either - that's why they're upset over having to put in any extra effort.
It's a crazy society we've built here, folks. Hardly anyone is getting what they need to lead a happy, productive life.
19
My son's homework is thankfully reasonable now that he is in middle school. When he was a five-year-old first grader, however, (December birthday in a district where grade placement is by calendar year of birth, so he turned 6 over winter break), his typical week included a daily page or two of math, a daily page or two of ELA, reading 30 minutes a night and keeping a log/writing in a journal about what he read, weekly spelling lists with sentence writing, weekly choosing, reading, writing about and preparing a class oral presentation about a current events article, occasional worksheets or readings in science or social studies and periodic major projects like science fair or elaborate social studies reports. It was absolutely ridiculous. The teacher agreed it was developmentally inappropriate, but stated that there was a ton of pressure from parents to give even MORE homework.
6
At age 10, this is my son's last year at a small, progressive private school. The freedom and lack of work were great for the early years, but became detrimental the past two years, and I've decided to send him to a traditional public school next year.
Early on, the lack of structure and lack of homework, the emphasis on creativity and being a child did exactly as the philosophy predicted: he was engaged in his interests, which I pursued with him. He is an avid reader, and has learned so much about his loves - more than he'd have had time to discover otherwise. He's adored every minute and loves his school.
There came a point, though, when he needed an education, a real one. Academics, structure, homework, discipline. I now see in him a child whose brain is a sponge and has no work to learn and absorb.
So, from my own experience, all good when young, but by third or fourth grade - a year or two ago for my son - they need more. (I am a single parent, but even if I weren't, I would think he needs work that I can't provide.)
Early on, the lack of structure and lack of homework, the emphasis on creativity and being a child did exactly as the philosophy predicted: he was engaged in his interests, which I pursued with him. He is an avid reader, and has learned so much about his loves - more than he'd have had time to discover otherwise. He's adored every minute and loves his school.
There came a point, though, when he needed an education, a real one. Academics, structure, homework, discipline. I now see in him a child whose brain is a sponge and has no work to learn and absorb.
So, from my own experience, all good when young, but by third or fourth grade - a year or two ago for my son - they need more. (I am a single parent, but even if I weren't, I would think he needs work that I can't provide.)
8
The problem is worksheets: they are soul-killing. If HW were about reinforcing learning in a moderate way (see "nowadays " commenter), it would be fine. There needs to be time for play and relaxation! The 10minute rule is great! And no at home projects until HS!
1
For busy, working parents, homework is one of the only ways to get a window into your child's school experience.
Not everyone has the luxury of always managing to chaperone field trips and attend PTA meetings.
Not everyone has the luxury of always managing to chaperone field trips and attend PTA meetings.
You have the children for seven or eight hours per day.....can you not teach them what they need to learn for that day in that amount of time? More work when they get home just makes them feel like slaves......
2
Equating skill practice with slavery, or suggesting that the need for practice means there was something wrong with the instruction, is pretty ridiculous.
4
Here's who does and turns in the homework: kids with engaged parents.
The kids with absent or neglectful parents don't do the homework (bc they're 8 and very few in dysfunctional environments have the maturity or resources to make themselves do the work).
HW becomes yet another area where they "fail."
And if a mother needs the authority of the school to force her kids to do something, that's an ineffective parent.
The kids with absent or neglectful parents don't do the homework (bc they're 8 and very few in dysfunctional environments have the maturity or resources to make themselves do the work).
HW becomes yet another area where they "fail."
And if a mother needs the authority of the school to force her kids to do something, that's an ineffective parent.
5
My daughter is a school teacher.
40% of the students are from subsidized housing.
She thinks those parents need to be taught how to be parents.
They rarely return papers that need signing, rarely go to parent teacher meetings, rarely sign home work.
Sad
40% of the students are from subsidized housing.
She thinks those parents need to be taught how to be parents.
They rarely return papers that need signing, rarely go to parent teacher meetings, rarely sign home work.
Sad
13
Many of those parents are working 60 to 80 hours a week at minimum wage. I agree that these parents aren't doing what your daughter requires. But taking time off from work for PTA meetings means fewer meals to eat, etc, as minimum wage jobs don't include time off for illness let along PTA meetings. Many parents read at the third grade level, so your required papers are not going to be read and signed.
Your daughter is thinking middle class. Those poor children are the most in need of this home work, but their parents are the least able to comply.
It would be much better to provide after-school homework time AT the school with appropriate supervision and instruction, not just for the 40% who are from subsidized housing.
Your daughter is thinking middle class. Those poor children are the most in need of this home work, but their parents are the least able to comply.
It would be much better to provide after-school homework time AT the school with appropriate supervision and instruction, not just for the 40% who are from subsidized housing.
5
I am upper middle class and always-I mean always forget to sign stuff. I work many hours and tired when I get home. Good thing my kids are responsible! They force the paper under my nose to sign!
2
Mary Ann, My daughter has friends in the county social services.
They were over the other day and this subject came up.
These folks are not working your hours, as a matter of fact most are not working at all.
Males and females, home all day.
This is the truth that society is not willing to talk about.
They were over the other day and this subject came up.
These folks are not working your hours, as a matter of fact most are not working at all.
Males and females, home all day.
This is the truth that society is not willing to talk about.
1
Some learning needs the practice that homework provides. Math worksheets may seem like busy work, but I don't think they are. Same with some grammar worksheets.
I still remember in high school, translating Latin with a classmate, on the phone, at night. We so enjoyed it! (This was 55 years ago.)
And I remember making a list of fire prevention rules. The students who had the most fire prevention rules got a ticket to the Pirates ballgame, a bag lunch (sandwich, apple, candy bar), 50 cents, and a bus trip to the ball park. I still remember some of those rules. Yes, my dad, a volunteer fireman (they paid for the prizes -- and most of the kids won), helped me. But that was homework. It was fun. I know not all homework is fun.
I still remember in high school, translating Latin with a classmate, on the phone, at night. We so enjoyed it! (This was 55 years ago.)
And I remember making a list of fire prevention rules. The students who had the most fire prevention rules got a ticket to the Pirates ballgame, a bag lunch (sandwich, apple, candy bar), 50 cents, and a bus trip to the ball park. I still remember some of those rules. Yes, my dad, a volunteer fireman (they paid for the prizes -- and most of the kids won), helped me. But that was homework. It was fun. I know not all homework is fun.
Wow, I can't believe some of the comments on this board. "I pay my taxes, why can't schools do their job and educate my kid?" Respectfully, that's not the point of homework. Successful students have involved parents, who engage with them on their homework, encourage them, and discuss their schoolwork and learning. On a daily basis. That's the point of homework. There is not enough parent involvement with kids or schools, and this points to the problem. If you are just paying your taxes and your PTA fees, no, you are not doing enough to educate your kid. Even if it is just ten minutes of homework (for younger kids), it's enough to engage and educate the parents, and to establish a routine. I'm not a teacher, I'm a parent, and I'm glad that homework is part of the daily schedule.
4
Bryan-- I did better in School than my Parents. (a lot better). I am glad that they didn't insist on helping me because I would have written the Essay their way, not my way.... and I wouldn't have been Valedictorian of my High School, for sure. Actually, an "All Academic Student" is supposed to be learning individual, independent skills that enhance the probability of originality and brilliance. Working alone is especially emphasized in Higher Education, and it becomes more and more individualized as a Student moves-up through the Hierarchical Degree Structure.
I'm 68 we never had homework. I was supposed to learn a spelling list that was it.
in 4th grade I remember projects and they were interesting and fun. That was also about the tine we had to memorize the multiplication tables, ( not fun)
But it never felt like homework
in 4th grade I remember projects and they were interesting and fun. That was also about the tine we had to memorize the multiplication tables, ( not fun)
But it never felt like homework
1
Not all Children learn at the same rate and with the same ability to
memorise and, thus, integrate new information.
Worksheets might prove very helpful to those children to renew
their ability to understand what they have learned that day.
However, if only a few children are doing such worksheets they may
feel stigmatised by the assignments.
Why the "All or Nothing" approach to learning and thus work at Home ?
memorise and, thus, integrate new information.
Worksheets might prove very helpful to those children to renew
their ability to understand what they have learned that day.
However, if only a few children are doing such worksheets they may
feel stigmatised by the assignments.
Why the "All or Nothing" approach to learning and thus work at Home ?
1
15 minutes or so of homework a night in early elementary school is a good thing. It helps to reinforce what is being taught in the classroom, gets kids in the habit of doing homework, and can be used as a bit of after school quiet time. My son does best in a highly structured environment, so actually enjoys most homework - if it was "optional" he would be much less enthusiastic.
It is the creative "projects" that are mentioned in the article that tend to be more onerous. Half the time the parents end up doing the work, and these are difficult for families with multiple children, single parents and/or parents working non-traditional hours or multiple jobs. Homework should be work the student can do on their own, in a reasonable amount of time, applying knowledge they have already learned.
It is the creative "projects" that are mentioned in the article that tend to be more onerous. Half the time the parents end up doing the work, and these are difficult for families with multiple children, single parents and/or parents working non-traditional hours or multiple jobs. Homework should be work the student can do on their own, in a reasonable amount of time, applying knowledge they have already learned.
11
Sometimes it seems that teachers forget that the child may have homework assigned by other teachers in those schools where chlldren may have multiple teachers. As a result what should be a reasonable amount of homework per night turns out to be several hours worth. Home work is important but it should not be so onerous as to stress both child an parents to the point that school becomes the enemy.
The "projects" mentioned are still homework. Just because the parents participate does not mean it is not homework. My objection to the types of projects mentioned is that I feel like the school is trying to tell me how to spend time with my kids. I might have my own "projects" planned for them that can get pushed aside by the ones the school comes up with. I might consider my projects to be better and I don't need the school stomping on my time with the kids (I might want to show them how to make protozoa while the school wants a toothpick wigwam). Aside from that, many kids (I say most), hate a time consuming project for a book report, say, when they could just sit down and write it, while making a video or a faux newspaper or a cartoon strip (or whatever) can be much more time consuming. Perhaps kids should be given a choice that fits their aptitude or propensity. You can do the project or you can write a standard report or just do the math problems, etc. (more work for the underpaid teachers, though).
2
I think homework in elementary school is a dreadful waste of time, causes needless problems and stress in the home and sends the wrong message to our kids- that work from our jobs must be completed at home. Elementary school should be about socialization and basic literacy and numeracy and for learning how to learn. Finland seems to have discovered this. Students there score the best in the world.
2
I have two children who attend PS11. I chair a program there, have served on the PTA board, and volunteer for both children's programs and adult socials frequently. There is no war between parents at this school. There is enough actual divisiveness right now, shame on you for creating it where none exists.
9
Homework or no Homework - either way, your child will likely develop into a mentally confused adult by continuing with Common Core. That is the bigger danger.
1
I don't think homework is so bad. You sit down by yourself, hopefully the TV is off, you work on your own and see how much you can do without help. Year by year, you build up the discipline and self reliance that you will need later in life for college or work or whatever it is you are interested in. Where else would those qualities come from????
11
I agree with the schools that are trying to replace homework worksheets with reading at home. But doing that successfully is very difficult, takes so much leg work. It's especially difficult to implement in homes that do not have a reading culture. Teachers need to enable that reading culture to flower at home. A vibrant in-class library needs to be provided with an easy checkout system. Books need to be high interest, current, attractive, and constantly replenished and sold to the students (this is expensive). And teachers need to allow time to read at school, at least a half hour a day, so the non-reading kids can find the magic in books in a safe, quiet place. Educating families on how to create a reading culture at home is a huge project too, but it starts with making reading fun for students at school so they are CHOOSING to read when they get home.
20
My son had 4 to 5 hours of homework every night in high school-- that was after he got home from tennis matches. The school assumes that the students have no chores or responsibilities at home. Neither do the students have any time for family or for curiosity. My son was exhausted for 4 years. I remember one August on vacation my son picked up a novel. Later that evening he remarked "I'd forgotten I liked to read." Reading had become work, something he had to do to get a good grade. -- I have wondered if my problems with the amount of homework is a class issue. I'm middle class and went to public high school, my husband went to prep school away from home. He did not expect my son to do anything but schoolwork. Housework and/or time with family had no priority.
18
Yup. I went to private school. 4 to 5 hours a night is normal
the homework wars in elementary school through middle school poisoned my relationship with my children. And in a lesser way the problems began when they were in kindergarten. I would pick them up when I got off work. We would be home by 6:00 PM. With the stupid worksheets and other garbage there was now no time for a puzzle, a board game, or anything else, including chores. As they were loaded with reams and reams of work, reading and projects there was more and more contention in the home. It was a nightmare. The work did not help in any way, it was actually very destructive. The child who hated it the most later graduated with a double major from a prestigious college. Once I vowed that I was out of the homework business forever, somewhere along the way, we began to repair our relationship. The pediatrician said that the kids should have ten minutes of HW for each grade. So, for example, 30 minutes in third grade. They had something like two hours of work assigned to them for every evening by the time they were in second grade. Some nights I didn't even want to go home from work.
23
In grades K-2, I would write the teachers notes stating that "Johnny will only be doing as much of this assignment as is reasonable for a child his age to complete between when a parent gets home from work and bedtime. We will also not be skipping dinner or bath to do developmentally inappropriate work". Mostly the response from teachers was "thank you, the hypercompetitive parents MAKE me assign it."
3
Unless the schoolwork and the homework are useful, i.e. teaching the children something or reinforcing the lessons of the day, I see no value in giving daily homework assignments to students in grades K-4. I grew up getting no homework until 4th or 5th grade and even that was occasional. It wasn't until I was in 7th grade that we started to get more homework assigned to us. It was always something that could not be completed in class or in one day. We had to do some research for a report, look up information at the library, or try to understand how the theorems in geometry worked to help us prove an answer.
Unlike today, when we were in elementary school, we had recess at least once a day for 30 minutes. We also had phys. ed. at least 3 times a week. After school, because we didn't have homework we played outside, read books, took lessons, or just relaxed. Homework, when the assignments are not beyond the students capacities or current level of understanding can be an invaluable tool. But all too often, like tests, homework is misused and frustrates students who cannot do the work or follow the lesson.
When we look at other countries practices in school what we see is that teachers are revered, teaching is considered an important job, and the teachers themselves want to teach, are mentored, and are among the best in their college. Furthermore, the culture truly values intelligence, hard work, and doesn't expect children to learn instantly.
Unlike today, when we were in elementary school, we had recess at least once a day for 30 minutes. We also had phys. ed. at least 3 times a week. After school, because we didn't have homework we played outside, read books, took lessons, or just relaxed. Homework, when the assignments are not beyond the students capacities or current level of understanding can be an invaluable tool. But all too often, like tests, homework is misused and frustrates students who cannot do the work or follow the lesson.
When we look at other countries practices in school what we see is that teachers are revered, teaching is considered an important job, and the teachers themselves want to teach, are mentored, and are among the best in their college. Furthermore, the culture truly values intelligence, hard work, and doesn't expect children to learn instantly.
2
What Homework Track produces the Brilliant IQ Score? Is your kid on the Brilliant IQ Score Track? Or, is your kid's brain just filled-up with a bunch of junk Extra-Curricular activities created by "self-labeled expert" people who didn't do very well in Traditional Classic School, and are just trying to sell their plastic "all-too-expensive" product?
This article highlights the lack of Formal Direction that these Schools have, and that they are still, trying to find the "Winning Formula." They are still experimenting on your kids, driving Parents and Kids into circus-trick exhaustion. If you are a Parent who chose not to: "In one third-grade class, a boy recently wrote, directed and recorded a “fireside chat” with his father, who played President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A girl arrived at school ready to showcase a PowerPoint presentation on Greek mythology. And Mia Bornstein, 8, showed up one morning with a broom handle bearing an oversize scroll that outlined life in Ancient Egypt. Mia said she had worked on it with her mother, an artist."
Don't Stress About It !!
This article highlights the lack of Formal Direction that these Schools have, and that they are still, trying to find the "Winning Formula." They are still experimenting on your kids, driving Parents and Kids into circus-trick exhaustion. If you are a Parent who chose not to: "In one third-grade class, a boy recently wrote, directed and recorded a “fireside chat” with his father, who played President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A girl arrived at school ready to showcase a PowerPoint presentation on Greek mythology. And Mia Bornstein, 8, showed up one morning with a broom handle bearing an oversize scroll that outlined life in Ancient Egypt. Mia said she had worked on it with her mother, an artist."
Don't Stress About It !!
this is absurd. loading up the homework for young children is a mistake. you don't need lots of money for additional enrichment. go to the library take out books and read to the children. all it costs is time, and you need to give time to your kids in any case
1
“It’s a small part of a larger conversation about how kids should spend their time.”
Wonderful thoughts. But let me suggest that a key way that kids can make a difference with other kids is by SHARING helpful ideas and school lessons.
As students, we spend years absorbing knowledge, without giving much back. This can create feelings of worthlessness and stress. But, if students are encouraged to share with other students something of what they learn, then they know that they matter, RIGHT NOW. They don't have to wait until they graduate to teach what they know.
I believe that many failing students can become motivated to succeed in school by constantly sharing with other students. But this is not taught...
==========================================================
I call it the GOLDEN RULE for SCHOOLS
Let Students teach other students for motivation...
www.SavingSchools.org
Wonderful thoughts. But let me suggest that a key way that kids can make a difference with other kids is by SHARING helpful ideas and school lessons.
As students, we spend years absorbing knowledge, without giving much back. This can create feelings of worthlessness and stress. But, if students are encouraged to share with other students something of what they learn, then they know that they matter, RIGHT NOW. They don't have to wait until they graduate to teach what they know.
I believe that many failing students can become motivated to succeed in school by constantly sharing with other students. But this is not taught...
==========================================================
I call it the GOLDEN RULE for SCHOOLS
Let Students teach other students for motivation...
www.SavingSchools.org
2
This discussion is ridiculous. The real issue is what is education, what should it do, who should set the policies and who are really the experts? We know hat good education looks like and very few are willing to spend the time or money required to educate children.
1
We were always the "no homework" parents in our kids' elementary school (an urban public school). I didn't mind homework that had actual content; what I objected to was busywork disguised as homework. And my kids could tell the difference - lots of arguments that started with, "This is stupid". Once they got into middle and high school, I still felt like they had too much homework, but at least it had some relevant content. The problem then was that the school day had to be devoted to so many other things that sometimes homework was the vehicle for teaching new material, not reinforcing what had been taught that day.
14
At what point are public schools going to be accountable?
If PS 11 is going to leave it up to parents to scout out "tips" from recommended websites, then no wonder the Teachers' Unions are so against school choice.
Is PS 11 saying that homework got in the way of what parents really wanted their kids to do or study? Since when must everything have an entertainment element to it?
It seems that the goal is to make expectations extinct in public schools in order to scream about "unequal opportunities and unfair advantages" when later compared to private schools with high expectations of self-responsibility.
If PS 11 is going to leave it up to parents to scout out "tips" from recommended websites, then no wonder the Teachers' Unions are so against school choice.
Is PS 11 saying that homework got in the way of what parents really wanted their kids to do or study? Since when must everything have an entertainment element to it?
It seems that the goal is to make expectations extinct in public schools in order to scream about "unequal opportunities and unfair advantages" when later compared to private schools with high expectations of self-responsibility.
5
PS 11 said kids should READ! That free reading was a more worthwhile activity than homework.
1
Public schools are currently held accountable not only for teaching but for parenting. More accountability isn't needed.
Teachers' unions generally oppose school choice because teachers' unions are made up of people who actually understand education. School choice is the sort of thing that seems, to the ignorant, intuitively to be a good idea, but makes things worse in practice.
Teachers' unions generally oppose school choice because teachers' unions are made up of people who actually understand education. School choice is the sort of thing that seems, to the ignorant, intuitively to be a good idea, but makes things worse in practice.
1
@Eric, the only thing that school choice "makes worse" is ending the gravy train for tenured teachers. Detroit and Chicago have the worse public school systems in the country. Only the ignorant and selfish believe that kids should be ball-and-chained to horrific failing schools. Not all the public schools are bad, but many should simply be shut down. Billions of dollars have been poured into broken schools with no expectations, let alone results. And I was a tenured teacher. In a different state. Save the sanctimony.
As a retired elementary school teacher, I am ambivalent about worksheets as homework.
In our school, students in kindergarten to grade three were encouraged to read nightly, both silently and aloud to a parent. Home reading books were provided by the school and chosen by the student from the school library. Parents were strongly encouraged to read aloud material of their own choice to their child.
Students were also expected to work on memorizing their spelling words and memorize number facts. Occasionally, they were asked to complete math assignments begun in class. Once in a while they might be asked to complete a science project at home and bring it to class to share.
To me this is about the right amount of homework for a little one.
In our school, students in kindergarten to grade three were encouraged to read nightly, both silently and aloud to a parent. Home reading books were provided by the school and chosen by the student from the school library. Parents were strongly encouraged to read aloud material of their own choice to their child.
Students were also expected to work on memorizing their spelling words and memorize number facts. Occasionally, they were asked to complete math assignments begun in class. Once in a while they might be asked to complete a science project at home and bring it to class to share.
To me this is about the right amount of homework for a little one.
6
Reading is most important. Reading is almost everything at age 6.
2
Let's take into consideration the whole picture here. Elementary kids get too many projects and longer written assignments to be done at home which as we all know are often done by parents. Just give them some math problems for practice and some reading each night for each discipline. Do writing in the classroom so the teacher knows what a kid can actually write. Mini projects can also be done in the classroom although high absence rates in some schools may make team projects unfeasible. Secondary students in our country, however, do not receive enough homework. While the higher achieving high schools that offer lots of AP courses and Honors tracks can expect students to do homework, students in poor districts often bring with them lots of problems , such as no parents at home, more drug use, etc. Teachers assign homework, but it doesn't get done. For these students, after school homework hours could be a solution. Schools could provide tutoring and perhaps get volunteer help from educated community members.
6
The challenge in schools with diversity in their student population is to have flexibility and work with parents regarding homework. If teachers insist that time management and organizational skills need to be exhibited, not taught directly, it's a recipe for disaster for many kids who do not have strong executive function. Stigmatizing them as lazy kids with lazy parents doesn't help, and that's too often what happens in our communities. They may not remember where their worksheet went, but they may know how to get their younger siblings fed when the parent is not functioning.
Administrators need to support teachers and students by listening to many different voices. Perhaps making high quality homework assignments tied into daily living can help--being respectful of cultural differences and what kids have at home. An assignment to "draw a picture or print out one, in color, from the Internet" is not going to work for kids with no crayons, markers, or color printers and Internet connection at home. Worksheets with poor quality information, ungrammatical writing, confusing instructions, and no writing space are too common. Schools could work with public libraries to make quality educational videos and games easily available to kids after school and on weekends. Make sure parents and students have access to the support materials they need and stop making homework so important. Learning is what matters.
Administrators need to support teachers and students by listening to many different voices. Perhaps making high quality homework assignments tied into daily living can help--being respectful of cultural differences and what kids have at home. An assignment to "draw a picture or print out one, in color, from the Internet" is not going to work for kids with no crayons, markers, or color printers and Internet connection at home. Worksheets with poor quality information, ungrammatical writing, confusing instructions, and no writing space are too common. Schools could work with public libraries to make quality educational videos and games easily available to kids after school and on weekends. Make sure parents and students have access to the support materials they need and stop making homework so important. Learning is what matters.
1
Amended. Read 'How children learn' (1967) by John Holt. It's by the far best tract on learning of the many that I consumed during the years I taught school and college students, and my own kids.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Children_Learn
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Children_Learn
5
Gee, another forum for above-average people to brag about their brilliant children creating the next energy source or a new computer language? I volunteer with a homeless children's after-school program, and these kids are mostly reared by single mothers, and sometimes call home a hotel room. How many of these youngsters have parents available to spend hours after school working on fantastic projects?
I see a lot of traditional math and spelling homework worksheets. At least with take-home papers, an adult sees what's being taught and if their child understands. Of course, we always make time for play after all homework is done.
I see a lot of traditional math and spelling homework worksheets. At least with take-home papers, an adult sees what's being taught and if their child understands. Of course, we always make time for play after all homework is done.
12
Read 'How children learn' (1968) by John Holt. It's by the far best tract on learning of the many that I consumed during the years I taught school and college students, and my own kids.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Children_Learn
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Children_Learn
1
Common Core is not the problem here. The problem is the lack of qualified teachers to teach it. In spite of spending more per student, USA, has some of the worst performers in standardized tests when compared tro countries like South Korea and Singapore. The reason is that nowhere in the world is it easier to become a teacher than here. Often times you see ill qualified people teaching science and math courses in school. My suggestion is ti fire the entire teacher population. Rehire the ones who have demonstrated mastery in the subjects that they are supposed to teach ( at least a masters degree) at a base salary of $ 100,000/year. Get rid of the teacher union and tenure. Then we will see the school as an exciting place of learning.
7
"Rehire the ones who have demonstrated mastery in the subjects that they are supposed to teach ( at least a masters degree) at a base salary of $ 100,000/year."
considering the violence and lack of discipline in inner city schools and the fact that schools in suburbs are made up of spoiled brats, would $100,000 be enough to deal with the students and parents?
considering the violence and lack of discipline in inner city schools and the fact that schools in suburbs are made up of spoiled brats, would $100,000 be enough to deal with the students and parents?
2
In reality, US teachers are generally more effective than those in most other countries (though US teachers often have a harder job to do). Tenure and the teachers' unions, where they exist, tend to have a positive impact on school quality.
That suggestion is basically the surest way to make things worse.
That suggestion is basically the surest way to make things worse.
3
This is a silly debate couched in generalities. Homework or "at home assignments" are useful life learning tools, even if not geared directly to the at school curriculum, though all the better if they are. Kids at an early age need to learn about respect, organization, personal pride and accountability--homework does that and parents should be unyielding in their demand that junior do his work and be ready to present it the next day. An effective technique is to structure homework into interdependent segments, so that children understand that the work they are doing is part of a broader project that each child is part of, i.e., a critical part of the work is to do your part so you don't let the your friends and the team down. Parents who complain about homework are shortsighted, work away from the structured environment and the discipline of school is an important learning tool about individual effort, self-relliance and initiative.
5
It always seems to be the affluent parents who are so against homework. They put their kids on prestigious (and expensive) travel teams. If extra, independent effort is so useless, why not skip weekly practices and go directly to the game? Every player gets a trophy anyway!
The truth is, parents are too invested in living through their kids. My (single mom) never did homework with me...she just expected me to do "my job" getting a good education.
I had the same expectations for my daughter. We both found college to be comparatively easy after the rigors of a demanding (public) school.
I am tired of the humble-brag about how "busy" parents lives are ferrying kids to expensive, extra curricular activities that take up all their time.
A little homework and then entertaining yourself worked for generations. Extra cost- zero; rewards- priceless!
The truth is, parents are too invested in living through their kids. My (single mom) never did homework with me...she just expected me to do "my job" getting a good education.
I had the same expectations for my daughter. We both found college to be comparatively easy after the rigors of a demanding (public) school.
I am tired of the humble-brag about how "busy" parents lives are ferrying kids to expensive, extra curricular activities that take up all their time.
A little homework and then entertaining yourself worked for generations. Extra cost- zero; rewards- priceless!
8
I had no idea public schools still gave out homework to K-5 graders. My kid went to a private school with no homework until grade 6 and all the kids do very well in HS and then go to great colleges. It's interesting to hear that so many want their young kids to be doing math at night but it makes sense when teachers do not have the time to give individual attention to students because of class size. But, perhaps the issue is the way public schools are structured. The kids go to school for 7 hours a day so it is curious why they need ot do another hour at home. There seems to be an inefficiency there.
12
"And Mia Bornstein, 8, showed up one morning with a broom handle bearing an oversize scroll that outlined life in Ancient Egypt. Mia said she had worked on it with her mother, an artist.
How much time had she spent on it? Hours."
How many of those hours were contributed by her mother? I find at my son's school that the parents contribute/do all of the heavy lifting with these so-called student passion projects.
How much time had she spent on it? Hours."
How many of those hours were contributed by her mother? I find at my son's school that the parents contribute/do all of the heavy lifting with these so-called student passion projects.
19
The number one benefit to homework lies ingraining an independent work ethic and personal responsibility in kids. Other than studying for tests, more than an hour of homework and projects often become the parents homework and projects .
9
While the amount of homework was starting to border on excessive, there should still be some homework to ensure students can re-produce what they have learned outside of the classroom, and also, importantly, enable parents to obtain greater insight into the student's current curriculum/work.
3
The gap between average students and the students of wealthy or educated parents continues to grow. If schools assign less homework, that gap will grow more quickly because educated parents will continue giving their kids math and reading assignments.
However, there is no question that schools can do a better job of assigning homework that is more focused on critical skills like English and math. No one likes kids getting time consuming homework assignments that have very little relevance.
However, there is no question that schools can do a better job of assigning homework that is more focused on critical skills like English and math. No one likes kids getting time consuming homework assignments that have very little relevance.
1
No one likes kids getting time consuming homework assignments that have very little relevance.
so fields outside of English an d math have little relevance (I.,e, history, chemistry, etc.)?
so fields outside of English an d math have little relevance (I.,e, history, chemistry, etc.)?
No homework is just dumb and defies common sense. Too much homework is too much and none is not enough. Of course, different kids learn differently and each child may learn different things differently. There is no magic solution. There can be little doubt that either extreme is suboptimal - everything in moderation.
9
I've battled with my daughter over homework, too. But I was thankful that she had it. I could catch the fact that she couldn't multiply two digit numbers by two digit numbers and re-teach it at home. Her teacher certainly wouldn't have bothered to do so. He was happy to give everyone As and call it a day. Less parent complaints that way.
10
The problem is that one-size fits all will never fit all. There are too many students in public classrooms to tailor assignments for students. Ten minutes of homework for one child could be hours for another who is tired, confused about the work, speaks a different language or has dyslexia or ADHD. I tutored kids with ADHD that spent hours on what seemed like a simple reading assignment. One of them said that's why she's lucky her adderol keeps her awake. Some kids have such demanding extracurriculars they have no time for long busywork. When I taught high school I decided to go the middle road. I assigned homework every night. The kids had to turn in a homework folder to me every couple of weeks and there had to be at least five assignments done. This gave them the choice to do work they wanted to or on days when they had time, but there was always an assignment for practice. Kids that did all the homework got extra credit. It turned out to be very popular with kids and parents, and I didn't have kids flake out on homework anymore.
13
School should be a level playing field because home is not. If there needs to be independent work after class it should be done at school so each child is working in the same environment.
My grandson is in first grade at the local public school. The homework is often moronic and sometimes the instructions are nonsensical and ungrammatical. If my daughter who is a Stuyvesant/Princeton/Columbia educated lawyer, cannot make sense of the homework how can someone for whom English is a new language help their child? My parents were immigrants so I know how tricky that can be. Plus, it takes about an hour to get the homework done and my grandson isn't struggling.
It would add significantly to the quality of all our lives if there was no homework until middle school.
My grandson is in first grade at the local public school. The homework is often moronic and sometimes the instructions are nonsensical and ungrammatical. If my daughter who is a Stuyvesant/Princeton/Columbia educated lawyer, cannot make sense of the homework how can someone for whom English is a new language help their child? My parents were immigrants so I know how tricky that can be. Plus, it takes about an hour to get the homework done and my grandson isn't struggling.
It would add significantly to the quality of all our lives if there was no homework until middle school.
14
why should it be a level playing field? School exists to educate children. It does NOT exist to make people equal or to average-out society. Equality before the law is the goal of fair government, but law touches only a portion of life. Most of life is competition. Competition for jobs. Competition for mates.
3
LIFE should be a "level playing field", but it never has been. And it never will be. I am sorry to say. But that's is just the way it's always been. As the Temptations sang a long time ago, "its a dog eat dog world and that ain't no lie'.
One does the best one can for one's family, and if any thing is left over, and there usually is something, anyway, left over; for one's community and country. And call it a day.
One does the best one can for one's family, and if any thing is left over, and there usually is something, anyway, left over; for one's community and country. And call it a day.
but if you don't have level playing field, the competition wil be unfair. who want to play the game where some have huge advantages, and other only shackles?
Anyone who has taught, whether in the Public Schools or Private, knows that often, when it comes to Homework many students, wind up copying from a fellow student they can take advantage of! The goal of Homework, especially in the middle and high school years is to reinforce that day's lesson! If they copy there's no reinforcement, and if there are no consequences in not doing it, the worth of Homework is negligible! Most learning takes place in class.
2
I think different people learn differently. During my time in high school and college, you could say I was an infrequent visitor to the classroom. I mostly played handball all day and hit the books at night. Why bother with 8 hours of class when maybe 4 hours of intense concentration with textbooks written presumably by masters of their subject had the same effect? Also, bully's copying from the class nerd? More myth than reality I think.
I am glad that my kids have lots of homework. It gives them something to do after school, and lets me see what they are struggling with. I don't have time in the afternoon, since I work, to come up with lots of creative and engaging projects to keep them busy. So if they didn't have homework, I suspect they would just surf the web and play video games all afternoon. And I bet most other kids would too.
10
My child attended a no homework school through 8th grade, although there were minimal assignments in middle school. The school fostered a love of learning, curiosity and hands on classroom projects which studies show foster deeper learning than traditional homework. My child survived the rigors of high school and homework quite well, went on to an elite college and did not spend his one and only childhood stressed out about tests and homework. I personally wish that for every child.
24
Homework isn't a waste of time unless it is the type of assignment that the student is required to do entirely at home. The best kind of HW sent home from school is the kind that begins in the classroom and then must be followed up at home. It reinforces what was studied that day and it requires the parents to take ownership of their child's education. It doesn't have to be given everyday, but parents should want to know school is trying to teach and also be interested in the type of learning going on. That's all the school asks.
3
Hmm, just as I suspected homework really isn't about the kids. As the working mom of 4 kids, I wanted my kids free time to be FREE. Free to spend time with our family, go to museums, go on a walk around the neighborhood. I resented "making" my kids do mindless pages of addition, subtraction and multiple choice questions. I railed against having my kids doing this ridiculous pastime. The teachers told me it was the PARENTS who demanded homework. This has been the norm since I was a child in the 50's. Homework in math (endless pages of figures) made me hate math and never want to learn it. I avoided anything to do with math like the plague. Nowadays endless hours are wasted in school teaching kids to pass standardized tests. Wonder if spending time actually learning anything would benefit them…
6
I hope that the trend towards not giving homework isn't because teachers are concerned that needy students won't have the help that advantaged students do. The amount of homework should be grade appropriate, reinforce what one is learning in class and maybe be a little fun. What I fear is what happened in my children's economically and racially diverse school when field trips were eliminated because they were expensive. The administration decided this although the PTA and many parents were willing to subsidize the trips for all the children. The administration claimed it might make some children feel bad. How ridiculous and all the children lost out on the enrichment that field trips could give. So is the "no homework " trend a way of leveling the paying field for children who don't have parents that can work with them? I hope not.
4
Doing homework - whether worksheets or creative art projects - is an essential part of parenting. It affords some time to spend with your child, getting to know what learning habits they need to improve on and if they've picked up habits that aren't any good for them. Drills and repetition are completely necessary for learning certain skill sets (math and reading comes to mind). Learning to play a musical instrument or excel in a sport also requires drills and repetition along with the fun stuff. Academics should be no different if one is to excel in those as well. As in all of life, some of our work is boring and we don't like it and sometimes It is fun and engages us to the point of forgetting to look at the clock. What's wrong with helping children learn this at age appropriate levels? Some of my most cherished time with my daughter was in crafting homework projects with a hot glue gun and scissors at the ready. I miss those days now that she's a high schooler and studies mostly on her own or with friends on Skype, so I jump at the chance to help quiz her when she asks for it. I'm sorry for the parents who resent this time spent with their kids because they are overworked and overscheduled, or impatient and would rather watch tv or hang out on FB. Yes, having kids takes time and requires a lot of effort. But if you're not willing as a parent to figure out how to minimally support them with their homework, then what do you expect will be the result in the long run?
3
"I'm sorry for the parents who resent this time spent with their kids because they are overworked and overscheduled ...."
I resented the time spent on my daughter's homework because with very few exceptions it had no educational value for her, although it might have done for students who were struggling to master the curriculum. I never understood why kids who weren't struggling were saddled with work sheet after work sheet, not of enrichment material, but more of the same. I left it entirely up to her whether to do it, with the understanding that if she chose to do it there was to be no grumbling about it, and that if she chose not to do it there was to be no grumbling if teacher marked her down. Her homework, not mine, teachers' rules, not mine.
I resented the time spent on my daughter's homework because with very few exceptions it had no educational value for her, although it might have done for students who were struggling to master the curriculum. I never understood why kids who weren't struggling were saddled with work sheet after work sheet, not of enrichment material, but more of the same. I left it entirely up to her whether to do it, with the understanding that if she chose to do it there was to be no grumbling about it, and that if she chose not to do it there was to be no grumbling if teacher marked her down. Her homework, not mine, teachers' rules, not mine.
Whether the homework is mandatory or voluntary, it will only be a success if the parents participate with the child. If the parents fail to help because they are too busy with work, partying, or just don't care, the child will fall behind. The success of students in Denmark, Japan, etc. has nothing to do with less homework and more to do with the family. The fault, dear Brutus, lies not with the homework, but with ourselves.
3
Nonsense. My parents never had time to help me with homework, but I voluntarily did far more of it than most of my classmates did because it was a way to move on to the next level. I was able to complete two grades in one year twice during elementary school, and would have graduated high school at 15 or even 14 had I persisted. My daughter, having no such incentive, mostly didn't do reiterative homework, and didn't care about marks, either, knowing that they really didn't reflect her mastery of the material but how much boredom and stress she was willing to bring home.
1
We eliminated youth sports to get PDF time. I highly recommend it. You do need other kids in the neighborhood to do the same, but the self-led activities look way more fun than chasing a ball around a field while being yelled at by a coach. The kids learn to work out their own problems.
One of our children derives no benefit from homework; the other needs the practice and watching him practice lets us see where he needs additional attention.
One of our children derives no benefit from homework; the other needs the practice and watching him practice lets us see where he needs additional attention.
5
While a child is in elementary or middle school, turn off the router, hide the cable remote, take away the phones, let the kid see us reading, and bring the kid to the library every three weeks to take out the maximum number of books. The child will learn, no matter what the SES, race, or ethnicity.
17
I began boarding at the age of eight before colour television started to become widespread. Alone amongst my peers, I loathed watching the idiot box. I preferred to read, daydream, or be outside building dens, playing two-a-side football, or three-person cricket against the buttress of a high brick wall.
I was incapable (still am) of learning anything in a formal, classroom setting. I was too restless, always questioning, always contradictory and full of energy. I remember that the faces of my teachers would go very small as if I were looking at them down the wrong end of a telescope. My classmates irritated me intensely and evidently I irritated them. Nothing I was taught aurally or visually seemed to stick. I couldn't understand what was being said. The simplest concepts puzzled me and made no sense.
I had no talent except a talent for hard work. So that what's I did. I worked and I worked away at tasks that I had set myself, endlessly going over the simplest concepts until after hours of work the proverbial light bulb went on. Finally, a thing that had baffled me would make sense. Nobody else directed me, neither my parents nor my teachers. Despite being a very slow learner, I won prizes for ten years in almost every subject (except for French and German) — including Latin, mathematics, chemistry, English Lit and Lang, and a scholarship to my next school — until it all became too much for me in my late teens.
I was incapable (still am) of learning anything in a formal, classroom setting. I was too restless, always questioning, always contradictory and full of energy. I remember that the faces of my teachers would go very small as if I were looking at them down the wrong end of a telescope. My classmates irritated me intensely and evidently I irritated them. Nothing I was taught aurally or visually seemed to stick. I couldn't understand what was being said. The simplest concepts puzzled me and made no sense.
I had no talent except a talent for hard work. So that what's I did. I worked and I worked away at tasks that I had set myself, endlessly going over the simplest concepts until after hours of work the proverbial light bulb went on. Finally, a thing that had baffled me would make sense. Nobody else directed me, neither my parents nor my teachers. Despite being a very slow learner, I won prizes for ten years in almost every subject (except for French and German) — including Latin, mathematics, chemistry, English Lit and Lang, and a scholarship to my next school — until it all became too much for me in my late teens.
3
The dumbing down of public schools continues. Soon, class will be optional for kids in public school and everyone will get an "A" just for showing up. By the way, since when are t-shirts the usual dress code for principals in the New York city public school system?
14
She is clearly wearing a school T-shirt which is usually to show support for the school and to get kids to buy the shirts since they are always a fundraiser for underfunded schools.
I thought at first glance she was s student.
1
How is a crown with the word "wild" written under it clearly a school t-shirt?
I think quick worksheets that review a new skill are pretty important for retention--remembering the skill later, in another setting, deepens the neural pathway.
Students of all ages must be reading at home.
I find it pretty funny that one mom was quoted as hoping her son would find "passion" with his new no-homework free time: and he found "innovative software", ie video games. The same "passion" as every other American child who's been glued to a screen since babyhood and now lacks the focus to complete a simple analog worksheet.
Students of all ages must be reading at home.
I find it pretty funny that one mom was quoted as hoping her son would find "passion" with his new no-homework free time: and he found "innovative software", ie video games. The same "passion" as every other American child who's been glued to a screen since babyhood and now lacks the focus to complete a simple analog worksheet.
20
So a class is 55 minutes long, attention span of a child for a lecture is around 25 minutes. So why can't they be doing part if not all of the homework/repetition in the classroom. Those are facts, deal with it.
2
Our "affluent" surburban public school district ruined my younger son's life from kindergarten through 8th grade with hours of homework nightly (teacher annually regurgitated assignment sheets) endless multi-step "projects"- many of which are often easier for those with artistic inclinations and penalty of no recess for missed assignments. Recess is medically necessary.
9
Children in the early grades should play, learn basic reading and math, and have plenty of gym, art and music. Doing exercises over and over res not Improve performance; it just makes kids hate school.
And the complaints about costs of materials are bogus. The best way to help children at home is to read to them and encourage them to read. Libraries are free. They also have computers.
And the complaints about costs of materials are bogus. The best way to help children at home is to read to them and encourage them to read. Libraries are free. They also have computers.
8
when Israel adopted the new math, an american invention their international ranking dropped from the top 10 to somewhere in a middle ranking. look for US education to drop into an abyss if a no homework regime is adopted nationwide.
1
". . . Engaging after-school activities, extra workbooks, or software programs to supplement enrichment . . . " is what my two sisters, retired school teachers, used to call "extra credit" to help enhance a student's overall grade.
2
I do not intend to sound mean or cold or heartless, but when a headline like this one reads, "Never Mind the Students; Homework Divides Parents" I fear kids are already getting the short end of the stick without the NTY more or less brushing them aside as if they don't matter. The students should always, ALWAYS be paramount in any and all discussions when it comes to their education. And homework is a major ingredient to their education. I read the article. I vehemently disagree with the "no homework" concept. I think eliminating homework in the early years will eventually have grave consequences for any kid down the road.
5
Eliminate homework. Great idea! The US is currently ranked 14th in education behind countries like Japan, South Korea, Canada, Finland, and the U.K. Possibly with this new original idea we can drop below the top 20. Do you think they are abolishing homework in these higher ranked countries?
Do we think that abolishing homework will increase the pathetically low percentage of US students that are currently prepared for the competitive job market of the future? Or teach them the about responsibility, following directions, or completing tasks?
They should just go home from school and do things that are entertaining? Seriously? This is just totally laughable. Another step in the complete breakdown in our public school system.
Do we think that abolishing homework will increase the pathetically low percentage of US students that are currently prepared for the competitive job market of the future? Or teach them the about responsibility, following directions, or completing tasks?
They should just go home from school and do things that are entertaining? Seriously? This is just totally laughable. Another step in the complete breakdown in our public school system.
11
Did you read the part of the article where it states "nations like Denmark and Japan, which routinely outperform the United States on international math and science assessments, often give their students far less homework."?
10
"He noted that nations like Denmark and Japan, which routinely outperform the United States on international math and science assessments, often give their students far less homework." --the article
So...what was that you said about completing tasks?
So...what was that you said about completing tasks?
6
Yes I read it, and it's a meaningless comparison. No data is given, the statement says often, what does that mean? These are smaller homogeneous countries with totally different economic and social structure.
I discount it. I went to public school, was barely challenged, got into an Ivy League school and was lost for the first year. The work was 10 fold what I was used to, it took me awhile to understand what you had to do there to succeed, I almost failed. I sent my two kids to private school, luckily I had the means. They worked all the time, loads of homework, they both were admitted to top schools, had no problems with the workload in college. Students who do not learn good work habits when they are young will not succeed. Going home after school and playing games on your computer is not going to prepare anyone for any demanding career. It's pretty simple.
I discount it. I went to public school, was barely challenged, got into an Ivy League school and was lost for the first year. The work was 10 fold what I was used to, it took me awhile to understand what you had to do there to succeed, I almost failed. I sent my two kids to private school, luckily I had the means. They worked all the time, loads of homework, they both were admitted to top schools, had no problems with the workload in college. Students who do not learn good work habits when they are young will not succeed. Going home after school and playing games on your computer is not going to prepare anyone for any demanding career. It's pretty simple.
1
My kids (K & 2nd grade) are in school seven hours a day. If their school can't get the job done in that amount of time and must rely on me to pick up the slack then clearly there is a bigger problem to address than lack of consensus on homework. Besides, most of the homework assignments we get are nothing more than pointless busy work. There have even been assignments so useless that I have wondered if I should allow my kids to just ignore them. Personally, I think the 45 minutes to an hour we spend reading at bedtime and doing Bedtime Math questions are far more valuable, and I would love it if our school stopped assigning homework.
48
Schools don't "rely on you to pick up the slack". As a teacher I take offense to that statement. Schools want parents involve in their child's education. Period. For some parents sending HW is the only way. But you seem like a super-parent.
If you're looking for the root of the problems in American education, look no farther than the parents who complain that the schools "can't get the job done in that amount of time" and have the temerity to ask parents to be involved in their kids' education.
3
I disagree completely that busy work is pointless. All of the worksheets I had to do for homework in elementary school - spelling, multiplication, simple addition and subtraction - helped me a lot when we went back in the next day and had to do it again. Busy work is fundamental. I even enjoyed doing it because if I understood the lessons in school and could repeat them on my own, I felt really good about myself and gained confidence. The problems I struggled with on my own were frustrating, of course, but I have vivid memories of the times I sat at my kitchen table and figured out long division problems on my own. Vivid memories! I graduated college two years ago and even in those classes lessons were taught that others struggled with (simple math, simple spelling) and I actually thought back to the days where I sat at my kitchen table and figured it out. I'm not exaggerating for the sake of this post.
A half hour of "busy work" for elementary school students after school is reasonable and fundamental. I attribute my success to the public school system I grew up in where this was a tenant.
A half hour of "busy work" for elementary school students after school is reasonable and fundamental. I attribute my success to the public school system I grew up in where this was a tenant.
2
no matter what the issue (i.e., too much homework, too little, etc.) the NY Times always finds a way to blame the affluent. Money does play a role in many things but in homework does not make sense.
4
I'm not sure what article you were reading. There's no blame in the one I read, just an acknowledgement that parents in different circumstances have different amounts of time and expertise to devote to helping their kids with homework and/or offering them enrichment activities.
5
News stories about education trends always strike me the same way. Educators - well-educated, generally well-intentioned people - can't come to agreement on the best way to educate.
4
Educators are often in rough agreement. The problem is that the media and the politicians who make education laws tend to ignore the educators and listen instead to economists or other non-educators.
3
A century ago poor people lacking government lifelines
somehow managed--which must have included homework along with a job--to turn City College into the Harvard of the proletariat.
somehow managed--which must have included homework along with a job--to turn City College into the Harvard of the proletariat.
6
City College was FREE back then. It WAS a "government lifeline."
8
I feel your point, but I think your first sentence needs to to be amended to this: "A century ago poor Jews lacking government lifelines somehow managed..."
Sarah:
Still free today through Pell Grants, financial aid. During the depession their was no SNAP. Life was tougher. Yet City College, unlike today, had a stellar reputation.
Still free today through Pell Grants, financial aid. During the depession their was no SNAP. Life was tougher. Yet City College, unlike today, had a stellar reputation.
1
This is not a "one size fits all" kind of problem. Homework can vary by teacher, and in some cases even within sets of kids in the class. One teacher assigns 25 projects at the start of the year, to be completed any time during the year (which some kids do weekly, others on school vacations, etc.), generally in lieu of regular homework. Another teacher assigns nightly journal entries in lieu of homework. Both of those send math worksheets home every once and a while, but usually only where the class or certain kids are struggling due to lack of practice and can use that. Some teachers do more math drills in class, others spend more time in class on conceptual things and push the drudgery (yes, some learning is just drudgery) to homework. Some switch between those modes depending on the week or month or lesson content. If you hate one teacher's method, there is always the next year and a different method to follow. There is no "right" answer, and the only "wrong" answer is deciding that there is one "right" answer for all circumstances. Also, while I sympathize with parents who may say they cannot afford to buy extra learning materials for kids who are "denied" materials being sent home for homework, I have less sympathy for parents who may say both that and that they need homework because they don't have time to spend with their kids in a no-homework scenario. If you have no money for your kids and no time or your kids, what is the point of having kids?
3
As a teacher I do have a dog in this fight.
I teach high school and have taught middle school as well . I was also a parent of elementary school aged -and then beyond- children.
Excessive homework in primary grades is burdensome for families and just keeps children indoors even longer. I am a proponent of family dinners, some chores, fresh air, movement, developing physical skills and athletic competence. But if they are just sitting in front of a screen eating chips they'd actually be better off with homework.
In the secondary grades they need to do some homework. There is more than one good reason: yes, review and consolidation and independent practice. But if they did not understand it in class this is perhaps not too effective. The more important argument is that they will have homework at university, or in the military, or if they train for any licensed profession. All of these opportunities involve tests which can make or break your life . Wealthy students at prep schools have a lot of homework. If public schools do not expect any it is just one more disadvantage . Young people need some discipline and self direction. If not it sets them up for frustration, extra difficulty and sometimes failure as they try to move into skilled and /or professional work.
I teach high school and have taught middle school as well . I was also a parent of elementary school aged -and then beyond- children.
Excessive homework in primary grades is burdensome for families and just keeps children indoors even longer. I am a proponent of family dinners, some chores, fresh air, movement, developing physical skills and athletic competence. But if they are just sitting in front of a screen eating chips they'd actually be better off with homework.
In the secondary grades they need to do some homework. There is more than one good reason: yes, review and consolidation and independent practice. But if they did not understand it in class this is perhaps not too effective. The more important argument is that they will have homework at university, or in the military, or if they train for any licensed profession. All of these opportunities involve tests which can make or break your life . Wealthy students at prep schools have a lot of homework. If public schools do not expect any it is just one more disadvantage . Young people need some discipline and self direction. If not it sets them up for frustration, extra difficulty and sometimes failure as they try to move into skilled and /or professional work.
80
When I was in grade school in Brooklyn in the early '50s here's what we had to do just to even do homework: first, at the beginning of the school year, we got our books which we had to take home and make covers for out of brown paper bags to protect the books; then our teacher would write out the questions on the black board; then we had to copy the questions into our composition book--this included the "three r's" -- reading, writing, arithmetic -- including the word problems; then, we brought our books home with us so that we could reference them in order to answer the questions. That gave us plenty of practice reading, writing and doing arithmetic. When my son went to school in the early '70s, the ditto was born. So he didn't have to write out the homework questions, he simply had to "fill in the correct word or number" and poof -- the homework was done. And, he couldn't bring his books home from school! But while he did turn out to be a very successful, happy and brilliant adult, his handwriting is atrocious and he doesn't read books. You can't compare what happens in places like Denmark, Finland, Japan, because these countries have so much more for families--free healthcare, education (where being outdoors for hours in the day is the norm for young children) and good wages, vacation time, etc. We don't have that here! Most of the children in our public schools are from families struggling to make ends meet and no time to help with homework.
8
It sounds like the parents chafed by the "no homework" policies mostly oppose the new free time they feel responsible for managing their child. Then these are two separate questions: "How should my child's spend their time for their overall education?", versus "How is my child's time best spent for my sanity?"
I tend to be more on the progressive side. I think kids are learning all the time. Intuitively I know you don't need a worksheet to learn discipline, organization or time management, and it looks like the data confirms that. I'd prefer to kindly boot my daughter out into the yard and let her learn her way through a mud pie and scraped knee. But for parents that would prefer worksheets, go for it. They sell work booklets for less than $5 at grocery stores with nearly identical content to the fluff they're sent home with. But please don't force the rest of our kids to do the same!
I tend to be more on the progressive side. I think kids are learning all the time. Intuitively I know you don't need a worksheet to learn discipline, organization or time management, and it looks like the data confirms that. I'd prefer to kindly boot my daughter out into the yard and let her learn her way through a mud pie and scraped knee. But for parents that would prefer worksheets, go for it. They sell work booklets for less than $5 at grocery stores with nearly identical content to the fluff they're sent home with. But please don't force the rest of our kids to do the same!
11
The progressive parents should stop trying to turn the public schools into free Montessori schools and enroll their children in private Montessori schools. If that is the type of education they want for their children, it is available at some cost and they should go for it. Why should the other parents essentially be told to "eat cake" just because they favor a traditional form of education?
I think you are missing the point that this is about New York City public schools. Very few parents have a yard they can boot their children out into: it involves taking all your young children blocks away from home to a public park, where you are then unable to do whatever you need to be doing at home (cooking, cleaning, doing your own homework..). Knowing your child as in the apt. doing worksheets, learning English, math, science... a set of disciplines you perhaps do not, is certainly preferable to the child watching tv while you feel guilty about not being able to afford the extra enrichment programs, or family trips with parent curated powerpoint presentations the schools seem to want in homework's place. I am not arguing that homework should be burdensome -- indeed it is often busy work in the elementary years, but it cements the day's learning and makes clear to teachers whether a student has understood a concept. So many NYC public school parents are immigrants: it is really important that their children receive a thorough education from school. Reading to your child is of course so important, but in NYC this happens in scores of languages, not just English. This article is really about 2 different issues: (1) is homework useful in elementary school and (2) is it fair for public schools to require expensive enrichment programs in homework's place? It seems like the former must be answered before the latter can even be contemplated.
Homework exists to do 2 major things in education: Drill needed skills which leads to student success, or to add enrichment to subject matter which can only be covered in broadly in class. To summarily say it is good or bad is missing the point. As one progresses through the educational system less is done in the classroom and more becomes the venue of the student. That is why in college you tend to get a couple of hours of homework for every hour spent in class. The problem with this system is that society once held the student accountable regardless of situation. Now it seems that everyone has an excuse, and the institutions are only held accountable.
6
Homework- is essential! Part of my job as a parent and partner in my child's education. I can not stress how important for me as a parent is to know via the assigned work, when does my child need help or what is classroom learning. Parenting is helping with homework or looking for help!
Essential, necessary and critical.
Essential, necessary and critical.
29
When you have the luxury to do so.
2
Respectfully, homework is not a luxury, your school work is part of your work as a student and as a parent. It is part of recognizing that learning goes beyond the classroom and that the teachers, students and parents are a team
Learning does not end in school or the classroom.
A luxury- I would define as being able to live a great life with a mediocre education.
Learning does not end in school or the classroom.
A luxury- I would define as being able to live a great life with a mediocre education.
2
Agree! My elementary kids are in school for 5 - 6 hours a day, not seven as some other schools provide. My kids are normal, which is to say, they each have areas where they shine, and areas where they ... don't. And the teachers don't have time to figure out and play to each kid's individual learning style, at least not when each kid is within the broad category of "normal" even when they are "below average". So I need to help. How will I know how to help? Only if I know what's going on. Also, many of the parents who don't want homework, don't want homework because it is interfering with their already crazy schedule of extracurriculars, some of which are already rigorously academic! I'd prefer to have school provide academics, and I'll provide help, rather than have school "check on" their academics, which I have already provided via a supplementary curriculum...
I ant my kids reading Shakespeare, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mark Twain, and Emily Bronte. These are all dead white people. I want my kids taught dead white writers, because, I think, they wrote the most intellectually stimulating books. If I want this, will I have to give my kids an entirely separate at-home curriculum? Is this what kids are reading in school, or are they having very mediocre yet diversity-oriented texts taught to them in school? How many rich parents who do NOT want homework are opposed to homework, because they feel they must augment their children's diversity-oriented education with stuff they think is better? I don't know. I'm asking.
I am surprised at the naivete of some of the comments, along the lines of "homework is too oppressive and should be abolished until high school."
1. Habits of mind start early. Will high school students instantly learn organizational and time-management skills? Responsibility and research skills?
2. Classroom time with teachers are too valuable to waste on things that are better done at home. For example, my son's history teacher makes him read the relevant chapters at home before discussing them in the classroom.
3. Well-designed homework should reinforce what was taught at school. The human brain usually absorbs the material better when it "learns" it more than once. This also gives students time to reinforce the learning at their own pace, as some will need more or less time than others.
The U.S. education system is already in bad shape. I recently spoke with an exchange student from Germany (which is not even in the top 10 PISA scorers), and he said he learned what the U.S. high school is teaching his 11th grade class when he was in 8th grade in Germany. Three whole years behind!
I do not believe in children spending hours on homework every day. However, I do not believe zero homework is the solution, either. Worksheets are not inherently evil. And a project, like the scroll, can also be a wonderful homework assignment. A little bit of well-designed homework is a good thing. Everything in moderation.
1. Habits of mind start early. Will high school students instantly learn organizational and time-management skills? Responsibility and research skills?
2. Classroom time with teachers are too valuable to waste on things that are better done at home. For example, my son's history teacher makes him read the relevant chapters at home before discussing them in the classroom.
3. Well-designed homework should reinforce what was taught at school. The human brain usually absorbs the material better when it "learns" it more than once. This also gives students time to reinforce the learning at their own pace, as some will need more or less time than others.
The U.S. education system is already in bad shape. I recently spoke with an exchange student from Germany (which is not even in the top 10 PISA scorers), and he said he learned what the U.S. high school is teaching his 11th grade class when he was in 8th grade in Germany. Three whole years behind!
I do not believe in children spending hours on homework every day. However, I do not believe zero homework is the solution, either. Worksheets are not inherently evil. And a project, like the scroll, can also be a wonderful homework assignment. A little bit of well-designed homework is a good thing. Everything in moderation.
9
The last paragraph says it all. While creative projects done at home are a fun engaging way for students to learn, you can bet that none the students who recorded a " fireside chat, made a Power Point presentation to showcase or came to school with an oversized scroll routining life in Ancient Egypt" came from families in poverty. Those children had resources at home. These kinds of projects should be done at school. Access to this kind of creativity should be common place within a school curriculum, not assigned for homework that is then brought in and " showcased."
Students are very aware of who has help at home and who doesn't when the bring these kinds of projects to school. The child who comes to school in a full historical costume made by a stay at home mom feels very differently about " showcasing" a project, than a student who has a mom works long hours and can not make a costume.
The opportunity to work on creative projects such as these should be available at school within the school day and also be part of what continues at home.
" Showcasing " these projects is a great way to share, but perhaps the word in and of itself, " showcasing," is really the problem. And, if projects done at home with active parent support are graded by the teacher who has " assigned" them as homework, we then have an entirely new problem.
Students are very aware of who has help at home and who doesn't when the bring these kinds of projects to school. The child who comes to school in a full historical costume made by a stay at home mom feels very differently about " showcasing" a project, than a student who has a mom works long hours and can not make a costume.
The opportunity to work on creative projects such as these should be available at school within the school day and also be part of what continues at home.
" Showcasing " these projects is a great way to share, but perhaps the word in and of itself, " showcasing," is really the problem. And, if projects done at home with active parent support are graded by the teacher who has " assigned" them as homework, we then have an entirely new problem.
You can't uncouple the homework problem from the problem of increasing childhood paranoia. Much of what small children should be learning is how to navigate the world, how to interact appropriately with peers and adults, how to play creatively, how to plan projects and build things and take responsibility for their creations. Rich parents can promote all this - by signing their kids up for math camp, by sending them out into extensive backyards, by living in neighborhoods where it's safe to let the kids outside, and by having the cultural and financial resources to convince police that they're acting in their kids' best interests if things do go very slightly awry. If poor parents could as easily chuck the kids outside for the afternoon in the knowledge that they'd probably be poking an anthill or building a tree fort or organizing a pickup basketball game, and in the certainty that CPS wouldn't be called on them, their kids would benefit greatly. But in a world where most people (absurdly) fear letting an 8-year-old walk to the corner shop on her own, free play (with all its benefits) becomes scary and difficult. Poor parents want something safe, educational, and time-consuming for their kids to do. 30 years ago, that would have been sending the kids outside with friends. Today it's not so simple, and homework appears to be a responsible solution for those who can't afford enriching childcare.
16
This article is unfinished. It barely delves into whether or not homework is more helpful for poor children despite teasing at that fact. Moreover, this article doesn't even define what constitutes short yet engaging homework assignments despite mentioning that as the model for assignments. Finally, it barely mentions that part of parents' anxiety is that they won't know how to help their children create a project based on their interests.
6
I think most of us would agree that students aren't any smarter than 20 years ago - technology or not.
Just as adults we strive for work/life balance, perhaps we should have our kids start practicing in school. Do school at school. Young kids need recess, (just like we need time during the day to stop & read the NYT at lunch :) But when they get home they can pursue their interests whether it be reading, playing with Lego, babysitting (do kids do that anymore?), or helping out with stuff around the house. Or GASP - getting some fresh air.
Big picture, one size does not fit all, and each school board should be able to do what works for them, and not worry about following the latest fad.
Just as adults we strive for work/life balance, perhaps we should have our kids start practicing in school. Do school at school. Young kids need recess, (just like we need time during the day to stop & read the NYT at lunch :) But when they get home they can pursue their interests whether it be reading, playing with Lego, babysitting (do kids do that anymore?), or helping out with stuff around the house. Or GASP - getting some fresh air.
Big picture, one size does not fit all, and each school board should be able to do what works for them, and not worry about following the latest fad.
1
My son completed his primary education, six years, in a Montessori school. That meant no homework, no books, no uniform and no tests. No trying to be the best of the class but learning instead to work with the others as a team. When he was about to finish those six years he asked to switch to a teaditional system for high school. He did well on both systems, but the long break he got in primary left him time for piano lessons, gutar lessons, french and lots of reading.
3
As is the norm in our society, the question of homework provides an excellent opportunity for a full-scale WAR!! between the pro and anti contingents. Might it be possible to (more or less), satisfy everyone by having students tackle the dreaded worksheets 2 nights a week?
1
"...nations like Denmark and Japan..."
They also significantly out-consume the U.S. on fish - maybe we need more fish tacos in the lunch rooms.
They also significantly out-consume the U.S. on fish - maybe we need more fish tacos in the lunch rooms.
Homework is about learning to self-discipline and take responsibility. All these newfangled ideas about education come not from what works but from consultants making money.
Sure, parents have a large part to play by raising their children to accept routine. This helps the adjustment to school. The parents also have to show respect for the school, the teachers and learning.
Give good, knowledge based early education and kids become lifetime learners.
Parents who are raising their kids in poverty need special help but not dumbed down education.
Sure, parents have a large part to play by raising their children to accept routine. This helps the adjustment to school. The parents also have to show respect for the school, the teachers and learning.
Give good, knowledge based early education and kids become lifetime learners.
Parents who are raising their kids in poverty need special help but not dumbed down education.
3
All or none is just ridiculous. Homework can be a valuable tool for reinforcing skills introduced in class. It doesn't have to be burdensome if there is a judicious amount that helps the teacher and student and parent ascertain if something has been learned or if more work is necessary before moving on. Is it perfect? No,but it can provide feedback.
10
Idle hands are the devils playmate. You've got to have something to do after school. If you're well off you're doing gymnastics, tennis, ice skating, violin, piano, and usually foreign language tutorials or math. And homework. Who's really complaining here? Elite private schools are not doing away with academic work after school. The whole flipped-classroom model is based on doing something at home to free up the classroom for socratic seminars and the like. I propose having separate but equal classrooms, those for homework and those without.
2
I've been teaching in the NYC public system for 14 years and here's a news flash: The problem is poverty. If you look just below this article on the NYTimes.com home page you'll see another article about increasing homelessness among students in the city. These two articles should not be separate.
Parents can't monitor kids when they have to work two or three jobs just to scrape by. Kids with no health insurance in their families face greater challenges. Kids who have no reasonable place to do homework can't reasonably get it done.
Eliminating homework or not eliminating homework is just a band aid on a gaping wound. This kind of thing is an understandable reaction by schools, but it's ultimately a distraction from the real conversation. Fluff journalism in action.
Parents can't monitor kids when they have to work two or three jobs just to scrape by. Kids with no health insurance in their families face greater challenges. Kids who have no reasonable place to do homework can't reasonably get it done.
Eliminating homework or not eliminating homework is just a band aid on a gaping wound. This kind of thing is an understandable reaction by schools, but it's ultimately a distraction from the real conversation. Fluff journalism in action.
90
It's hard to do homework and get ready for school successfully if you're a homeless child. There is a crisis of homelessness in this country and too much child poverty. And we wonder why kids can't keep up with school?
5
All the more reason that single-payer and non-crazy housing is important.
2
It's not a one size fits all situation. Homework K-4 is, kept simple, a great way for children and parents to connect. Discussing issues and solving problems. I always read the books my children were assigned even repeatedly to be able to discuss it while they read it. My daughter needed my help, really attention, my son not so much. It's not for everyone. The point is parents should give their kids total focus time at least one half - one hour a day.. Mostly teach them skills you have. Don't ignore them. Teach them to cook, do woodwork, read a stock page, lay tile, whatever skills you have, and values you have, etc. Teach them to your child. Checking in on homework gives you a window into your child's day — when they are away from you.
6
"...a single mother with three children at the school said the policy had created an unwelcome burden on her and other less affluent families who can’t afford extra workbooks, or software programs to supplement the new policy...."
The public library is still free. All the school suggested was that children should be encouraged to READ in place of doing homework. All you have to do is tell your children to go to the school library, during school hours, and pick out a few books each week. If you don't have time to take your children to the library, find someone who can. Yes, it's tough, and time is tight, but make it the priority to see that your children have books.
The public library is still free. All the school suggested was that children should be encouraged to READ in place of doing homework. All you have to do is tell your children to go to the school library, during school hours, and pick out a few books each week. If you don't have time to take your children to the library, find someone who can. Yes, it's tough, and time is tight, but make it the priority to see that your children have books.
39
This is a pretty unsympathetic answer to this woman's concern. First, you have no idea that this family isn't already availing themselves of the public and school libraries. Second, how does reading a series of unrelated books constitute a project? It's obviously good practice but the projects described in this article (fireside chat videos) clearly took more adult intervention and - even software!- to conceive and complete them.
5
How do you know she isn't doing this? There is no evidence in this article to support any claim that Ms. Sierra isn't reading to her children at home. Her complaint is based on the school's expectation that she supplement her children's education with programs and projects she can't afford. In addition, the other parents mentioned in this article are doing more than simply reading to their children. They're writing and directing their own versions of FDR's "fireside chats".
My parents read to me every night when I was young, and took me to the library regularly; thanks to them, I developed a strong love of books and reading. My parents were very invested in my education; however, they would have balked at the "no homework" policies presented in this article, as would the parents of almost all my classmates, save for a few starry-eyed mothers and fathers.
But "alternative" projects that aren't really "alternative" are nothing new: in high school, my French and Spanish teachers required us to cook a dish as the culminating activity for one of our units; anyone who didn't bring in a dish failed. Although I cooked the food, my parents had to buy ingredients for me to make a dish that would feed my teachers and 30 classmates. I still remember my mother complaining about how inappropriate it was for them to ask families to do this; while we could afford this assignment, I don't know how my lower-income classmates did it. I imagine some of them didn't, and probably failed.
My parents read to me every night when I was young, and took me to the library regularly; thanks to them, I developed a strong love of books and reading. My parents were very invested in my education; however, they would have balked at the "no homework" policies presented in this article, as would the parents of almost all my classmates, save for a few starry-eyed mothers and fathers.
But "alternative" projects that aren't really "alternative" are nothing new: in high school, my French and Spanish teachers required us to cook a dish as the culminating activity for one of our units; anyone who didn't bring in a dish failed. Although I cooked the food, my parents had to buy ingredients for me to make a dish that would feed my teachers and 30 classmates. I still remember my mother complaining about how inappropriate it was for them to ask families to do this; while we could afford this assignment, I don't know how my lower-income classmates did it. I imagine some of them didn't, and probably failed.
9
It's not unsympathetic at all. If you read the first paragraph of the article it says that the school suggested READING as the primary alternative to homework. (Rather than filling out worksheets, students were encouraged to read nightly, and a website offered tips for parents looking for engaging after-school activities....)
That's all they suggested. Reading. This woman responded that she didn't have the time or resources to provide workbooks or software, but all she needs to provide is books...
That's all they suggested. Reading. This woman responded that she didn't have the time or resources to provide workbooks or software, but all she needs to provide is books...
1
Homework is just another method to make it easier for kids to fail. Many other countries have no homework policies that allow students to play, explore and learn. Our whole educational system is obsolete. Perhaps administrators should do some homework on other countries systems.
7
I am not sure I have ever heard of those countries.
5
As a guy who hopes to become a parent someday, are there, educationally speaking, any benefits to public school, or educationally speaking, is private school simply superior?
1
Available evidence suggests instruction is better in public school, but private schools are far more able to selectively enroll kids. And there's a perceived superiority to private schools that, while illusory, is shared by a lot of people.
Do you want the best instruction? Public school is probably your bet. Are you worried about peer effects from the other kids, or are you looking for prestige? Private school.
Do you want the best instruction? Public school is probably your bet. Are you worried about peer effects from the other kids, or are you looking for prestige? Private school.
6
what does this mean?
After adjusting for selected student characteristics, the difference in means was near zero and not significant.
After adjusting for selected student characteristics, the difference in means was near zero and not significant.
part of me thinks the no-homework campaign sounds a little Khmer Rouge as in let's rid the world of intellectualism and make everybody into illiterate farmers.
11
I've revised my thinking on this. I misunderstood the opposition to no-homework. I wish I could delete the above comment, because I no longer stand behind it.
I loved school and hated homework. My parents would ask for the homework-load to be reduced at parent-teacher meetings, and the teachers always said that other parents had asked for the opposite!
One problem seems to be that parents don't want to let their kids to play outside by themselves. So they prefer to see them working studiously than watching TV or playing on a phone.
The reality is that most of homework was mind-numbing and not instructive. I'd rather see kids required to simply read a lot. Fiction, non-fiction, newspapers.
One problem seems to be that parents don't want to let their kids to play outside by themselves. So they prefer to see them working studiously than watching TV or playing on a phone.
The reality is that most of homework was mind-numbing and not instructive. I'd rather see kids required to simply read a lot. Fiction, non-fiction, newspapers.
21
Homework does not prevent anyone from reading books and newspapers. Children can do both. Few parents let their children go out to play these days. Now it is soccer games or play dates with friends (usually indoors). No one knows what "come home when the street lights come on" means as it is a comment from the past .
2
How much can students really learn without homework? There's only so much you can cover in class. For a subject like history, the teacher will only cover the broad strokes in class; if you want to know the real details of what happened you have to do extra reading. In math, the teacher may show you an equation or method that's difficult to grasp, and you won't fully understand it until you spend hours doing practice calculations at home. And how can you possibly study any kind of literature without vast amounts of reading at home? True, younger students may not yet be at the stage where they're doing those things, but they can still benefit from well-designed assignments that apply the theoretical things they've been learning in class to the real world. Kids have to be able to do tasks themselves, at home without the teacher, to master their understanding. And it's important for even young children to learn the value of work and discipline that they will need as they get older. College students have to have the motivation and initiative to spend vast amounts of their free time doing research and sometimes monotonous work, meaning they have to be accustomed to that in high school, meaning that in elementary school the groundwork is already being laid. It's hard to imagine that children who are used to constant play time at home, with no homework or other unwanted tasks, will be able to adapt to the demands of high school, college and the unforgiving work world.
20
You question how students will find the motivation to do research in college without having put in years of homework drudgery. All effective educators know that intrinsic motivation is the result of a few powerful ingredients: curiosity ("What do I want to find out?"), choice ("What/how am I going to proceed?"), relevance ("Does this matter to me?") and the time and freedom to inquire.
My second grade students choose from a weekly menu of open-ended Home Learning ideas, such as "Interview a grandparent and ask them how their town had changed over time" or "Estimate, then measure the weights of various objects around the house".
Believe me, they aren't waiting for college to research. They are confident and enthusiastic researchers already, following their passions and nourishing their intrinsic motivation.
My second grade students choose from a weekly menu of open-ended Home Learning ideas, such as "Interview a grandparent and ask them how their town had changed over time" or "Estimate, then measure the weights of various objects around the house".
Believe me, they aren't waiting for college to research. They are confident and enthusiastic researchers already, following their passions and nourishing their intrinsic motivation.
I completely agree that reading and facility with mathematics are very important, but I'm not sure that this is what is assigned in schools anymore. As a personal anecdote (not necessarily representative of school in the US as a whole, but it's at least true of a few thousand students), I went to higher-ranked K-12 schools within the state that were supposed to be known for their academic rigor. The reading that was assigned, for the most part, was in addition to the real "homework". Each class wanted to only assign "an hour" of work per night (7 classes, which means 7 hours which is mathematically impossible with a regular school schedule, but that's a whole other matter), except instead of reading, it was mainly forms (busywork worksheets), wrote repetition (find this in the book and put it on a form), or fill-in-the-pattern papers. No creativity nor any learning, only proof to make sure that you "did the work". If school actually worked that way, I would agree, but until the teachers/curriculum developers fix what THEY are doing, I don't think that homework will be of any benefit to students.
1
Every child is different. Some kids will sit down and do homework without a fight. My 7-year-old child in second grade gets 20 pages of homework per week. She never does her homework without a fight. She hates homework and does a sloppy job of it. Yet she happily reads challenging chapter books and likes and comprehends math. She gets Es for excellent in her report cards. I see no correlation between homework and her academic performance so far. Our homework battles may be eroding our relationship. I cannot wait for summer when we can have peaceful afternoons again, make trips to the park, and let her read as much as she wants for the pure enjoyment of it.
13
Homework can and does create battles between parents and their kids on a nightly basis. Not fun for anyone involved. Some nights I curse the teachers under my breathe. Who has the time and energy to cajole or scream/argue with their children EVERY SINGLE DAY?
In third grade (1977?), we had "contract work." "Contract work" was a week's worth of homework sheets in areas like spelling, math, and geography that were due on Friday, but which we could do any time before Friday. We do all the sheets Thursday night, or we could do some each night.
One part of homework is learning "responsibility". When I was a student, I (alone) did my homework. Similar to other responsibilities, such as brushing my teeth or eating what was served, these things were understood & you just did them. And you knew it was so that someday you could take care of yourself, be a productive member of society, accomplish something, etc.
I don't understand the idea of "protecting our children from growing up". What exactly does that message send? Being an adult sucks? Being an adult means no more fun for you? Why would we teach our kids that? Isn't the whole job of parenting to prepare your kids to be an adult someday? Why can't we teach them the satisfaction/enjoyment of doing a good job, doing something worthwhile, contributing to the family/world that takes care of them?
Surely this is better than teaching them that the world revolves around them & they should never really have to do anything cause Mommy will take care of it...
I don't understand the idea of "protecting our children from growing up". What exactly does that message send? Being an adult sucks? Being an adult means no more fun for you? Why would we teach our kids that? Isn't the whole job of parenting to prepare your kids to be an adult someday? Why can't we teach them the satisfaction/enjoyment of doing a good job, doing something worthwhile, contributing to the family/world that takes care of them?
Surely this is better than teaching them that the world revolves around them & they should never really have to do anything cause Mommy will take care of it...
6
Homework should be looked at...it is a burden for parents but I would also say that I want what works. What educates my children is what I want. I don't send them to school because it is convenient for me.
The value is of homework is easily seen in junior and senior high school relating to better organization, study habits and the ability to do something on time and as directed. That in itself is huge.
The value is of homework is easily seen in junior and senior high school relating to better organization, study habits and the ability to do something on time and as directed. That in itself is huge.
6
The "no homework" policy sounds great if you want to produce another generation of baristas, factory workers, retail clerks, and unemployed. Not so much the STEM grads needed by this country in so many businesses.
16
No jobs for those STEM grads anyhow. All going to those who had free university educations from overseas. Hard to compete with that.
5
No homework should mean no homework. The passive-aggressive "voluntary" assignments further the advantage of wealthy students with engaged parents (and their hired tutors).
Do you think a kid in foster care is going to stage a fireside chat? The children of the ruling class can do these things and get praised for them. The "voluntary" work turns into social currency --- they do wonderful and smart things.
Do you think a kid in foster care is going to stage a fireside chat? The children of the ruling class can do these things and get praised for them. The "voluntary" work turns into social currency --- they do wonderful and smart things.
43
So the parents controlling their reproductive impulses should be penalized? Ridiculous.
4
This isn't about people being penalized for having children. (And "reproductive impulses"? Please.) This is about schools not doing their jobs. This is about what constitutes homework, how it should be assigned, whether it is acceptable to ask families to purchase software and workbooks in lieu of teachers assigning work that supplements classroom instruction, and what should be done when the burden of alternative, excess, and supposedly "voluntary" projects falls on families. And make no mistake, it is a burden, particularly on the middle class and the poor.
Lindsay K: "Reproductive impulses? Please."
Seventy percent plus out of wedlock black birthrate, myriad immature single moms with poor parenting skills, incapable of doing THEIR jobs: assisting the unappreciated overwhelmed teachers educating their neglected kids.
Seventy percent plus out of wedlock black birthrate, myriad immature single moms with poor parenting skills, incapable of doing THEIR jobs: assisting the unappreciated overwhelmed teachers educating their neglected kids.
1
I had to "sign the book" on the teacher's desk 65 times in 5th grade for not having my homework done. It was mortifying. Still I have a hard time just voting no to homework. I did some homework just not all of it. I wish I did it all. I meant to but somehow there was always something more interesting.
5
My busy, successful, hardworking Asian neighbors expect academic rigor which includes challenging homework. My next door neighbor's two children attend Princeton, NYU. Another three doors down
will be attending Brown.
will be attending Brown.
9
What does being Asian have to do with anything? Aren't Asians half of the world's population? It's such a broad, meaningless category.
1
I should have been more specific, Korean. Though numerous other Asian examples would generate similar high levels of academic achievement. Making my point absolutely meaningful.
1
I think we have to look at the meaning and value of homework at the early grades versus the later grades. The purposes of homework at different levels varies.
I agree with P.S. 29's policy that homework should be "feasible, meaningful and reasonable." But homework is, without a doubt necessary, in order to re-enforce the day's lessons. Take a course in college Educational Psych 101: information that is re-enforced through meaningful homework within 16 hours has a better chance of a child's retention of that information.
I agree with P.S. 29's policy that homework should be "feasible, meaningful and reasonable." But homework is, without a doubt necessary, in order to re-enforce the day's lessons. Take a course in college Educational Psych 101: information that is re-enforced through meaningful homework within 16 hours has a better chance of a child's retention of that information.
56
I,have found that to be especially true for my child with executive functioning issues and dyslexia. Learning evaporates too quickly! The trick is getting the amount of work right.
I taught elementary school for close to 40 years and, no, homework is not, without a doubt, necessary. I taught before NCLB and after and my students always scored well on standardized tests without giving homework. There is no research that shows an academic benefit to homework in grades K-6. You also don't see much, if any, improvement in executive function. Reading for pleasure, on the other hand, does benefit kids. Any good teacher knows what her students "get" or "don't get" from the day's lessons and those issues should be addressed in school, not through homework. Kids often repeat errors on homework which simply reinforces the problems.
Muslim students are required to prostrate themselves toward Mecca in pious prayer 5 times a day.
In addition, many submit locally to at least an hour study each day in Koranic Ethics.
Why no consideration by the over-privileged white parents ruling this school, many evidently channeling the Trump hate campaign against immigrants, to these other marginalized & vulnerable minority student?
In addition, many submit locally to at least an hour study each day in Koranic Ethics.
Why no consideration by the over-privileged white parents ruling this school, many evidently channeling the Trump hate campaign against immigrants, to these other marginalized & vulnerable minority student?
Obviously satirical.
3
As a teacher, parent, and grandparent, I dislike assigning homework, especially when students put in long hours at school. Out-of-class student work should be done during study halls and library time, where students must do their own work. And outside of school, students should be getting exercise in the fresh air and doing home chores for their families.
10
This post definitely reveals a generation gap. Many kids these days don't even have a school library, let alone "library time," and study halls are all but nonexistent in elementary school (and decreasing in middle and high school, where most college-bound students are encouraged to add another class instead of "wasting" time on a study hall that won't add anything to their transcripts.
15
A shame. A library is foundational for any school, and students certainly need required study time. Sorry to hear from your viewpoint, though I trust it is true.
3
So much research can be done through i pad, smart phone almost making brick,mortar library unnecessary. Free online classics.
1
Homework for young students, 1st-5th grade, should focus on developing good organizational and study skills. In our school, this means maybe some vocabulary, math, and reading. There is never more than an hours worth for the older students (4/5th grade). The younger students, it's never more than 30 minutes. The lion's share of it being reading. I fail to understand the value of page after page of mindless worksheets, other then to kill the love of learning.
5
Most people now can't do basic math or spelling. I'm 47. I shock people by calculating the tip or sales tax in my head. I never got beyond pre-Cal. I'm not a math guy, but I can calculate sales tax in my head.
4
I'm confused.
When I was a kid, I attended private school. We had homework, but by 7th/8th grade it was reading Hemingway or the Great Gatsby or Romeo and Juliet. I don't think we did sheets of any sort (except for Math and French and perhaps Biology) after 5th grade. Maybe I'm talking about later grades than discussed in the article.
We seemed to have time to play and to talk with our parents are about schoolwork, but many of my friends parents were white collar professionals working 70 hrs a week. In the summer, they'd go on trips to Europe to visit museums and historical sites.
These kids area books, right? Reading is the most important homework, in my opinion. If they don't get homework sheets, but are assigned mark Twain, Hemingway, Romeo and Juliet, and other books, then it should be fine, right?
When I was a kid, I attended private school. We had homework, but by 7th/8th grade it was reading Hemingway or the Great Gatsby or Romeo and Juliet. I don't think we did sheets of any sort (except for Math and French and perhaps Biology) after 5th grade. Maybe I'm talking about later grades than discussed in the article.
We seemed to have time to play and to talk with our parents are about schoolwork, but many of my friends parents were white collar professionals working 70 hrs a week. In the summer, they'd go on trips to Europe to visit museums and historical sites.
These kids area books, right? Reading is the most important homework, in my opinion. If they don't get homework sheets, but are assigned mark Twain, Hemingway, Romeo and Juliet, and other books, then it should be fine, right?
8
I may be talking out of school here, but since when are New York students or their parents delicate little flowers, needing special and enriching school programs? Homework builds character and discipline and structure. I say keep the homework and let the parents who want to "spend hours after school with innovative software programs that enthrall" go for it. Why must it be an either/or scenario?
11
I loathe homework for my son. He gets 20 minutes for lunch and 20 minutes for recess a day. That is it. When he is home I want him playing and exploring outside. I want him to have the time to just be him-talking to himself, breaking sticks, kicking his soccer ball, trying to do wheelies on his bike, and digging up and examining worms.
Last night we went to the playground where he practiced the monkey bars and then went and had a congratulatory ice cream because he made it half way across. Kids need to use their bodies AND their brains and until schools go back to encouraging more recess I will continue to discourage time spent after school indoors doing even more busy work.
Last night we went to the playground where he practiced the monkey bars and then went and had a congratulatory ice cream because he made it half way across. Kids need to use their bodies AND their brains and until schools go back to encouraging more recess I will continue to discourage time spent after school indoors doing even more busy work.
44
How well does your son read? He should be reading every day, even Saturday and Sunday.
4
If he's playground age, he doesn't have to choose. I know of no school that gives hours and hours of homework to students in Grades K-5.
1
Unfortunately this article doesn't go into the benefits of no homework. Simply saying it allows for more family time or the possibility of longer self engaged projects does not get at the underlying reasons why homework does not help. Why send children home with more schoolwork? Why not simply make the school day longer? Because at the end of the school day everyone is exhausted. Home time should be for what you do at home. If you are a project oriented family, than yes you will do projects together. If you are readers, you will do that. If you separate and look at devices individually, you will do that. Etc. The point of no homework is to support the child and family emotionally. Mainly because homework easily becomes a burden and a struggle for the family. If it is not for your child, then you can easily ask your teachers for addition material to help further your child's curiosity - or now, in the age of the internet, discover more online to present to your child.
Of course the overarching issue in education in America right now is understanding the education needs of each individual. Some may benefit from a little extra work at home, and what that looks like should be handled by teachers and parents working together.
Of course the overarching issue in education in America right now is understanding the education needs of each individual. Some may benefit from a little extra work at home, and what that looks like should be handled by teachers and parents working together.
9
you wrote:
Home time should be for what you do at home. If you are a project oriented family, than yes you will do projects together. If you are readers, you will do that. If you separate and look at devices individually, you will do that. Etc. The point of no homework is to support the child and family emotionally.
Are you saying kids should watch TV instead of doing homework?
I grew up in an affluent, mostly Ivy league, predominantly white, liberal world. Most families had only 2 children. No more than that. Most of the kids I knew went to Ivy colleges. The family, I think, was seen as LESS important than education. Certainly teh parents loved their children and tried to make a great family, but they viewed the family as a thing that existed to help a child succeed. To them, it was a parent's duty to help their child succeed academically and professionally. This often meant putting school BEFORE the family. In other words, the family unit existed as an aid to the individual (child). A "good" family was a family that nurtured the individual success of the child. Schools and colleges were ON PAR with the family unit in terms of importance and loyalty. A child was born into a Yale family or a Cornell family. The family was, to some degree, identified with the schools the family members attended. Before a child was even BORN, s/he was (in a way) already stamped by those colleges/universities. A kid's private school was chosen almost as a surrogate 8AM-3PM family.
Home time should be for what you do at home. If you are a project oriented family, than yes you will do projects together. If you are readers, you will do that. If you separate and look at devices individually, you will do that. Etc. The point of no homework is to support the child and family emotionally.
Are you saying kids should watch TV instead of doing homework?
I grew up in an affluent, mostly Ivy league, predominantly white, liberal world. Most families had only 2 children. No more than that. Most of the kids I knew went to Ivy colleges. The family, I think, was seen as LESS important than education. Certainly teh parents loved their children and tried to make a great family, but they viewed the family as a thing that existed to help a child succeed. To them, it was a parent's duty to help their child succeed academically and professionally. This often meant putting school BEFORE the family. In other words, the family unit existed as an aid to the individual (child). A "good" family was a family that nurtured the individual success of the child. Schools and colleges were ON PAR with the family unit in terms of importance and loyalty. A child was born into a Yale family or a Cornell family. The family was, to some degree, identified with the schools the family members attended. Before a child was even BORN, s/he was (in a way) already stamped by those colleges/universities. A kid's private school was chosen almost as a surrogate 8AM-3PM family.
I was born in 1960, I had to teach my self to read. Which I did at 3 by reading the newspaper. My mother was a high school dropout. She would pretend to read the newspaper and magazine. It would take her a day to make a grocery list via pictures. I would call her out about "reading" the paper and magazines backwards. When her best friend went back and got her GED at 50, I asked her why didn't she. Not being a high school grad. Was an excuse of not being able to get a job and leave an unhappy marriage. She had excuses. My father worked two jobs.
Who was I to ask for homework help. Luckily, I went to school in the 60's when their was no homework. Then when I got to middle school and high school when we had some, we had a full period study hall everyday in the cafeteria with teachers ( union) to help with questions ( not aides). Then 3 days a week we had library period for research work with the librarians available to help do research. ( the other two days we had PE every year).
Lots of homework disadvantages poor and working class kids the most. Kids who have chaos at home. Or even kids like mine who live in upper middle class home but have ADHD. The ADHD meds barely last 8 hrs. I have pointed out over and over to my child's administration at school that you may see a calm child at school because I send her medicated on concerta, Prozac and now another mood stabilizer. But the concerta is off by the time she gets off the bus. she is distracted by gaming the School ipads.
Who was I to ask for homework help. Luckily, I went to school in the 60's when their was no homework. Then when I got to middle school and high school when we had some, we had a full period study hall everyday in the cafeteria with teachers ( union) to help with questions ( not aides). Then 3 days a week we had library period for research work with the librarians available to help do research. ( the other two days we had PE every year).
Lots of homework disadvantages poor and working class kids the most. Kids who have chaos at home. Or even kids like mine who live in upper middle class home but have ADHD. The ADHD meds barely last 8 hrs. I have pointed out over and over to my child's administration at school that you may see a calm child at school because I send her medicated on concerta, Prozac and now another mood stabilizer. But the concerta is off by the time she gets off the bus. she is distracted by gaming the School ipads.
8
I do not have a problem with some homework, I have a problem with the types of homework. Homework should be for the areas where the child needs some extra help or more time to complete the work. Homework in an area where the child already excels is nothing more than a waste of time. My son reads 5 grade levels above his actual grade and last year was assigned 30 minutes of reading and a detailed reading log for homework each night. He got bad grades for not turning the log in - even though he would devour books on the weekends. He is several grade levels behind in writing and desperately needs extra help writing. It took 2 heated meetings with the principal for them to agree to assign writing homework in lieu of reading.
11
Wouldn't it have made sense for him just to do his reading log?
After reading the article, then many of the comments, I have the impression many of the commenters (who you'd think are 'engaged with the material') have treated this article like it's homework. This article is not primarily about whether eliminating homework is good or bad; it's about the positive and negative effects of doing so.
So let's recap: Parents with more time and money resources lovea abolishing homework so they can provide alternative learning materials or experiences at home for their children. Anti-homework parents are most likely those who are stay-at-home parents (or well off enough to afford tutoring or activities). For taxed, working parents, homework elimination foists an additional at-home burden upon them, forcing them to find the resources to provide alternative learning experiences to their own children. "Busy parents" in the article aren't successful, well-off and able to provide the at-home 'voluntary' assignments. They're working parents with little extra time to come up with new home activities for their kids.
So, today's assignment:
If you're a parent concerned about the negative effects of too-much work for children, you should also contemplate the negative effects of shifting that responsibility to working parents, exacerbating social capital discrepancies, and whether what you want for your child is so much of a boost as to be worth harming those parents and children with the fewest resources to adapt.
(Does anyone like homework?)
So let's recap: Parents with more time and money resources lovea abolishing homework so they can provide alternative learning materials or experiences at home for their children. Anti-homework parents are most likely those who are stay-at-home parents (or well off enough to afford tutoring or activities). For taxed, working parents, homework elimination foists an additional at-home burden upon them, forcing them to find the resources to provide alternative learning experiences to their own children. "Busy parents" in the article aren't successful, well-off and able to provide the at-home 'voluntary' assignments. They're working parents with little extra time to come up with new home activities for their kids.
So, today's assignment:
If you're a parent concerned about the negative effects of too-much work for children, you should also contemplate the negative effects of shifting that responsibility to working parents, exacerbating social capital discrepancies, and whether what you want for your child is so much of a boost as to be worth harming those parents and children with the fewest resources to adapt.
(Does anyone like homework?)
1
I get it. There are parents who are so completely overwhelmed by the burden of just getting by that they have no time at all for their children. Not even time to take them to the public library to get a book. That, after all, is what the school suggested as an alternative to homework. Reading.
But the harsh reality some families face is not a good reason to burden all children with extra homework. It doesn't make sense to bring everyone down to the level of the families who are in bare survival mode. The better plan is to find ways to raise the standard for everyone. How can we get books in to the hands of impoverished children and encourage them to read?
How about free book fairs during school hours? Give away library discards to anyone who wants them. Ask parents to bring in books their own children have finished with and allow them to be given away to children who need them. Set up a free library at school where children can donate books and take home books at will.
If parents feel so overburdened that they can't encourage their children to take advantage of programs like this at school, well, we have a problem that homework for everyone just can't fix.
But the harsh reality some families face is not a good reason to burden all children with extra homework. It doesn't make sense to bring everyone down to the level of the families who are in bare survival mode. The better plan is to find ways to raise the standard for everyone. How can we get books in to the hands of impoverished children and encourage them to read?
How about free book fairs during school hours? Give away library discards to anyone who wants them. Ask parents to bring in books their own children have finished with and allow them to be given away to children who need them. Set up a free library at school where children can donate books and take home books at will.
If parents feel so overburdened that they can't encourage their children to take advantage of programs like this at school, well, we have a problem that homework for everyone just can't fix.
So is it OK to send home a bunch of dittos and say: do them if you want, and don't if you don't want? The "working parents" can then have the "resources" they need without having to provide "alternative learning experiences," with no "negative effects" on parents and kids who don't want to have homework for whatever reason. And hey, if homework helps the kids who do it with school, and if those kids are otherwise "disadvantaged," this would in theory help "level the playing field."
What about homes where both parents work and one picks the children up at 6 pm from an after-school program? This is my reality. There's making dinner, eating, cleaning up; chores such as taking care of pets, cleaning room, personal hygiene, etc.; and getting ready for the next day. Add on homework for young students in grades K-3 that is nearly impossible for them to complete independently... when can the family be a family during the week? When can the kids have down time?
4
"Public School 11, a prekindergarten through fifth-grade school in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, banned mandatory traditional homework assignments for children up to fourth grade."
I think this notion is like one of those ideas that sounds great in theory, but once put into practice, it could have less than optimal results. I always found homework, also known as reviewing & completing school work at home, was a refresher from what I learned in class that day as well as exercises to help cement what I learned, i.e., spelling & math. The primary grades is where kids should be learning the primary building blocks of further studies. This notion of a website that offers "tips for parents looking for engaging after-school activities" is lovely and interesting, but shouldn't that be what weekends are for? And I agree with a lot of parents who stated that they do not have the time nor money to provide such "enrichments". The after-school activities should be a wonderful addition to rather than an in place of idea. Although I would hope this is not true, it appears some teachers don't want to grade papers when at home in the evenings.
My biggest question is this - if little ones do not have to do homework any longer, what will they do in the older grades, high school and/or college? Nightly homework creates the necessary discipline required for later studies. Education should be a fun learning environment, but homework should be an important part of that equation.
7
Is there anything in this world that New Yorkers will not argue about, passionately and with conviction?
47
I would hope not Mr. Fite. It's that New York passion and conviction that makes your city great and so appealing! God I love your town so please keep yapping away.
4
No.
Homework should be an opportunity to review very briefly some skill or task learned in school -- and it should be 20 minutes weekly, not nightly. Parents can help kids learn that if you do 5 minutes a night, it gets done easier. But the key is review and reinforce. When they are older, they can do projects without parental assistance.
Aside from that, just have the kids play and read -- and take away their screens!
Aside from that, just have the kids play and read -- and take away their screens!
9
And the pendulum continues to swing... Instead of swinging wildly from the practice of "hours of homework" to "no homework"; let's try moderation for a change. Thirty minutes of homework never killed a kid. And, please, quit it with the home projects in elementary school. After all homework should be about kids practicing concepts they learned independently. Very few children can complete projects without a lot of help.
68
I completely agree re: projects. I have taught in several working class districts; I gave up on take home projects when I saw the heart breaking results. The kids with involved parents with disposable income came in with clever, creative projects that oozed with expendable income. Those who lacked...everything... were humiliated. Again. Sure, there might have been one or two who bucked the trend, or tried to - but that was hard. I started using class time to work on projects, and used my own funds to buy scraps and hardware to supply kids. Sometimes generous families contributed; sometimes it was completely on me. This was much more fair. I explained to sometimes over-involved parents why they could not help with in-class projects-unless they helped all the kids. They mostly understood. Mostly.
Now I teach underprivileged kids reading in an afterschool, nonprofit program. We're underfunded, of course, but full of heart and books. No homework issues. No project issues. I'm so much happier.
Now I teach underprivileged kids reading in an afterschool, nonprofit program. We're underfunded, of course, but full of heart and books. No homework issues. No project issues. I'm so much happier.
113
Aleseman,
Thank you for your efforts. It is folks like you who truly make a difference in children's lives.
Thank you for your efforts. It is folks like you who truly make a difference in children's lives.
Exactly! Parents end up doing the projects. So if you are an over-achieving parent, your kids projects are elaborate and over the top. If you are under achieving, it's barely done or done at all. Its sad. Projects shouldn't be assigned until 4th grade on, and should not require parents to spend much money at all.
1
For shame!
As an Afro-American, I see that this is clearly nothing but a plan but upscale white over-privileged parents to guarantee pushy minority & Muslim students have to stay in the back of the bus.
As an Afro-American, I see that this is clearly nothing but a plan but upscale white over-privileged parents to guarantee pushy minority & Muslim students have to stay in the back of the bus.
7
Umm NYT? Here's a sad revelation for you. EVERYTHING favors parents with money and time. Get used to it, its called life.
20
I'm a grandmother and I went to my daughter's house 4 days a week, after school, to supervise the homework of my two grandsons, starting when the eldest was in 1st grade. I did this for about 6 years. Both boys were in their neighborhood public school. At no time, was the homework excessive IF they settled down and did it!
The key was to allow them to have their afternoon snack and then begin. If either child had a case of the squirms or just couldn't settle, he was sent outside to jump on the trampoline for 15 minutes. That ALWAYS worked! The homework was the CHILD'S responsibility not mine. I was there to answer questions (I always brought my iPhone and later my iPad and encouraged them to look up questions themselves), and to quiz them if asked, and to check their work, also if asked. Sometimes, they preferred no help at all and that was fine.
Their school sent home a folder with the homework assignment in it and the parent or adult supervising homework had to sign that they had seen this. No "I don't have any homework" stuff! It also gave the homework for the entire week. What I liked best was that it taught time management.
Was homework a big battle? If it wasn't done, they were the ones who faced the consequences. I provided a quiet environment that was conducive to doing the work without distractions. It was their job to do the work.
Time management and study skills are learned during these years. It IS valuable.
The key was to allow them to have their afternoon snack and then begin. If either child had a case of the squirms or just couldn't settle, he was sent outside to jump on the trampoline for 15 minutes. That ALWAYS worked! The homework was the CHILD'S responsibility not mine. I was there to answer questions (I always brought my iPhone and later my iPad and encouraged them to look up questions themselves), and to quiz them if asked, and to check their work, also if asked. Sometimes, they preferred no help at all and that was fine.
Their school sent home a folder with the homework assignment in it and the parent or adult supervising homework had to sign that they had seen this. No "I don't have any homework" stuff! It also gave the homework for the entire week. What I liked best was that it taught time management.
Was homework a big battle? If it wasn't done, they were the ones who faced the consequences. I provided a quiet environment that was conducive to doing the work without distractions. It was their job to do the work.
Time management and study skills are learned during these years. It IS valuable.
53
Oh, hip hooray for the wisdom of grandmothers!!
Oh goodness gracious Babs, do calm down. I don't think India in the Midwest meant her post to be taken in a self-promoting, "aren't-I-wise-and-all-knowing" manner. I think she was just speaking from her experience. The homework was her grandsons' responsibility and she was there to assist, not to take over, and the homework itself wasn't a massive problem if they settled down and did it. That method worked for her family. It doesn't work for everybody, of course, and various circumstances play into the factors about why it might not. The one thing I took away from her post was the last line about time management and study skills: they are valuable, and they are learned during the formative years. If you don't have them by the time you hit high school, it's going to be a rough road for you. Homework can help some students lay this valuable foundation, and I think that's all she was trying to point out.
Ok folks, let's cut to the chase. The important question is where does the teachers' union stand on all this? That's the point of view that will ultimately prevail.
4
If you were right, and the teachers' unions' opinions were the primary driver of education policy, our schools would be in MUCH better shape.
I have been through 10 years of school that believed in NO home work. I failed to learn a key skill (i.e., paying attention to course material after the teacher walked out of the class). But other students in my class did very well; so I guess it produced results that generally argue in favor of 'abolish homework.'
I see the home work teachers assign today - based on a narrow sample. It is unreasonable. Looks to me like teachers expect others to pitch in to produce learning. And to some or a greater extent, this is unreasonable.
I.e., just because home work is a good thing for learning, just because teachers want homework, and just because parents want less of it does not mean that a conversation, exploration, investigation, reasoned inference drawing - are not warranted.
Let the finger pointing begin!
Kalidan
I see the home work teachers assign today - based on a narrow sample. It is unreasonable. Looks to me like teachers expect others to pitch in to produce learning. And to some or a greater extent, this is unreasonable.
I.e., just because home work is a good thing for learning, just because teachers want homework, and just because parents want less of it does not mean that a conversation, exploration, investigation, reasoned inference drawing - are not warranted.
Let the finger pointing begin!
Kalidan
3
After working for 35 years as a special educator, my perception of homework is that it's mostly unnecessary and frequently judges not only students but their families as well. Particularly in high school and middle school, homework is problematic because it has been used as an evaluative tool, providing a certain percentage of a student's grade. Unfortunately it is predictable in first grade who will not do homework in eleventh grade which begs the question: If we already know that a percentage of kids won't do homework for a variety of very legitimate reasons in many cases, why assign it? When parents see their kids in the afternoon and evening their time together is precious and should be respected as such. Students who find school challenging shouldn't have their free time compromised. They should be allowed to play; to be kids. They will grow up quickly enough.
10
thank yoou!
We can predict test scores and graduation rates with similar precision, based on parental factors. We can predict them at birth. That's pretty convincing proof that we shouldn't be evaluating schools and teachers based on test scores (as is currently common practice), but I don't know that it follows that we shouldn't give homework.
Yeah, we know some kids won't do it, just like some kids won't pass the tests or graduate. But some will. And while we can predict those rates with a great deal of precision for populations, given parental data, we don't know WHICH of those kids are going to do the work, get high test scores, and graduate. We have to give them the opportunity in order to find that out.
Yeah, we know some kids won't do it, just like some kids won't pass the tests or graduate. But some will. And while we can predict those rates with a great deal of precision for populations, given parental data, we don't know WHICH of those kids are going to do the work, get high test scores, and graduate. We have to give them the opportunity in order to find that out.
1
I had a fantastic elementary school education growing up in Brooklyn in the 60's and 70's. Every day after school I played outside - fellow Brooklynites will undoubtedly recall punchball, stickball, ringoleavio, boxball, skully and on and on. Then I would go home for dinner and have plenty of time for homework. On Mondays we took a spelling pretest. For homework through the week we looked up the definitions, wrote sentences and then a story with the words. On Thursday night we studied for the spelling retest. For math we would do the odd numbered math problems on one page at the end of the chapter and the next day the even numbered problems. Every week we picked a book to read and handed in a short book report the following week. I think homework reinforces what was learned, but it must not become burdensome for the child or require the creativity of the parent.
120
You were lucky. I was in public school in Brooklyn in the 1960s, a few years earlier than you. I remember playing after school but with a burden of homework hanging after my head. I particularly remember, at 10 years old, having to copy endless pages of dialogue from the ALM French book at night.
(Bonjour Jean...) It was tedious and made me hate school.
(Bonjour Jean...) It was tedious and made me hate school.
Just curious, but did you have a parent at home allowing you to be home at 3pm? Most households today have both parents working outside of the home and often most don't get home until 6, many after 6pm. By the time I throw together some sort of meal, sit down to eat as a family and get started on homework, it's 7pm. My child is only in K and we spend about 20 mins a night doing homework, but I imagine it will get worse as the years go on. I think homework is necessary for discipline, but too much of it causes major issues at home and for the child who's "spent" at 7pm....
1
I love this!!
"Public School 11, a prekindergarten through fifth-grade school in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, banned mandatory traditional homework assignments for children up to fourth grade."
I think this notion is like one of those ideas that sounds great in theory, but once put into practice, it could have less than optimal results. I always found homework, also known as reviewing & completing school work at home, was a refresher from what I learned in class that day as well as exercises to help cement what I learned, i.e., spelling & math. The primary grades is where kids should be learning the primary building blocks of further studies. This notion of a website that offers "tips for parents looking for engaging after-school activities" is lovely and interesting, but shouldn't that be what weekends are for? And I agree with a lot of parents who stated that they do not have the time nor money to provide such "enrichments". The after-school activities should be a wonderful addition to rather than an in place of idea.
Frankly, it sounds like some teachers do not want to grade papers any more when at home in the evenings. My biggest question is this - if little ones do not have to do homework any longer, what will they do in the older grades, high school and/or college? Nightly homework creates the necessary discipline required for later studies. Education should be a fun learning environment, but homework should be an important part of that equation.
6
What astounded me about my own kids' education is that they were often burdened with homework in elementary school, but in middle school and high school, academics too often took a back seat to sports and social events.
The best homework they had as young children was reading a library book, and we had to sign off on the time they spent. Homework should not take up most of an elementary school child's life. Kids should not have hours and hours in front of screens. Worksheets should offer practice in concepts learned during the day and students should be able to complete them within 30 minutes. After school programs should offer children creative outlets that require them to get off their Miss Rumpfius's and move, sing, play, dance, run.
The best homework they had as young children was reading a library book, and we had to sign off on the time they spent. Homework should not take up most of an elementary school child's life. Kids should not have hours and hours in front of screens. Worksheets should offer practice in concepts learned during the day and students should be able to complete them within 30 minutes. After school programs should offer children creative outlets that require them to get off their Miss Rumpfius's and move, sing, play, dance, run.
3
We know that school performance varies with childhood poverty. The poorer the child, the worse their performance.
As a country, we seem to be willing to do anything -- to focus on anything -- other than the core problem, which is childhood poverty.
As a country, we seem to be willing to do anything -- to focus on anything -- other than the core problem, which is childhood poverty.
23
This article seems to be more about individualism than homework. The people who criticise standardised homework seem largely in favour of personalised versions of homework. Parents who play FDR or who contribute their own artistic skills to their child's project are trying to give their children an advantage over children with less educated/talented/involved parents. And I can't blame them for trying to give their own children a leg up. But "society as a whole" should try to give the best education to ALL students, regardless of who their parents are.
9
One could replace homework with year-round school.
Studies show that the long summer break is correlated with an erosion of
basic skills, particularly in reading. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_learning_loss
for a discussion.
Studies show that the long summer break is correlated with an erosion of
basic skills, particularly in reading. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_learning_loss
for a discussion.
7
it is time teachers who get full years pay should work 12momths instead of 9 months. in ny experienced teachers are making 100k+' teachers with 12 years experience are making 84k+. they complain about time for marking papers. hire a college kid at $15 hour to do this work. in the mean time they are producing students who can barely read and cbarely do rudimentary arithmetic.
1
Teachers, on average, get about 60% of the pay of comparable workers without working fewer hours. With 12 years in to a job requiring a college degree plus additional training, you'd probably be making more than $84K as anything but a teacher (and you'd be making less than that as a teacher most places other than New York).
Hiring college kids to grade the papers would be illegal, as it'd violate student privacy laws. And if you're looking for the people "producing students who can barely read and cbarely do rudimentary arithmetic" [sic-ironic], look to the parents, who are the ones actually producing the children. Those students whose parents send them to school regularly, with the expectation that they'll do the work and behave, have no trouble learning those skills from their teachers.
Hiring college kids to grade the papers would be illegal, as it'd violate student privacy laws. And if you're looking for the people "producing students who can barely read and cbarely do rudimentary arithmetic" [sic-ironic], look to the parents, who are the ones actually producing the children. Those students whose parents send them to school regularly, with the expectation that they'll do the work and behave, have no trouble learning those skills from their teachers.
3
In some cases, a criticism about something being "economically and racially insensitive" is just code for "I'm trying to show what an awesome sensitive ally to the oppressed I am." I thought one of the main arguments against homework was that parents who were working two shifts or whose first language wasn't English might not have the time/tools to help with homework so it puts those kids at a disadvantage. My kid's school adopted a similar no-homework policy this year, but I miss the discipline that comes with doing a (10 minute, thoughtfully designed) worksheet or brief writing assignment. Many worksheets are stupid and useless, but a good writing assignment or a few practice math problems don't hurt anyone. Schools need minimal, thoughtfully designed homework for kids of this age so that they can practice their skills and their ability to be responsible.
16
" People that don't have time would have kids that had a tiny bit more of a level playing field when it comes to grading because they wouldn't be getting crappy grades on homework that doesn't get finished or turned in."
what happens when it is time to get a job? the employer will figure out very quickly you didn't obtain enough of a skill level to perform. the Left believes in equality of mediocrity.
look at Venezuela. the nation voted for equality. now the misery of starvation is being equally shared.
what happens when it is time to get a job? the employer will figure out very quickly you didn't obtain enough of a skill level to perform. the Left believes in equality of mediocrity.
look at Venezuela. the nation voted for equality. now the misery of starvation is being equally shared.
4
I'm a lifelong musician who started piano lessons at age 9. Those hours at the piano have payed far more dividends than much of the make-work that I was assigned in school. Give kids and families time to pursue their interests and passions.
6
Yes you practiced and practiced. But that's what homework is about: practice. Maybe you didn't need practice in math or vocabulary.
Shocked! The article is inaccurate about Japanese schools. Japanese children get enormous amounts of homework! I was just there over the summer where my cousins kids had a much shorter summer break (4 to 5 weeks?) and had literally a whole stack of homework during vacation. I personally like less homework for the children BUT some amount of homework teaches them to be responsible for daily work and manage their time.
14
I scratched my head over that one, too. The Japanese are also well known for cram academies in which students grind after school and on weekends in order to score better on tests. The South Koreans also have them.
7
Okay cut out home work so when and if you get the college that will be the first time you realize you have to research and write a paper. when I was in my teens my father made us pick a word out of the dictionary at the dinner table each night. I thought he was nuts! In 1971 when I graduate from high school I found out why he had done that. Because he had quit school in the 8th grade and did not finish. I was also the first male to graduate from high school in my family. I am so grateful that I had homework. But then I also have a Master Degree and I am sure anyone who has one knows how much writing and research you do at that level.
12
Our daughter was so overloaded with homework during her teen years that we barely had any family time together. This is sick and vey bad for adolescent development. Some parents who are homework fans just really don't want to be with their kids in the evenings as it interrupts other activities. We refused to have her do homework in elementary school as it spoiled family time and turned us into school monitors. In Finland they discovered that it is better for kids to have free time with friends and other things than to do more lessons.
7
"Innovative software programs that enthrall him." -- Euphemistic description of, guess what? Video games. Not a good trend. The world of "home" work is not going away -- in fact, it is increasing with online classes ever more available for the disciplined student.
8
When I was in middle school they switched to project-based homework for a year. All the middle class kids/parents loved it.
And then you had the 4% of the kids on free/reduced lunch whose parents couldn't afford to spend money on craft supplies and whatever else have you. I mean, I have fond memories of that 100$ five foot tall paper mache sculpture of Anubis I made, but I'm sure it made all the kids who ended up doing the "write a report" activity keenly aware of the class gap.
Is no homework "better"? Maybe.
Is it "fair"? Absolutely not.
And then you had the 4% of the kids on free/reduced lunch whose parents couldn't afford to spend money on craft supplies and whatever else have you. I mean, I have fond memories of that 100$ five foot tall paper mache sculpture of Anubis I made, but I'm sure it made all the kids who ended up doing the "write a report" activity keenly aware of the class gap.
Is no homework "better"? Maybe.
Is it "fair"? Absolutely not.
21
I have worked in education for a long time. Unfortunately, what this school is experiencing is nothing new. Educational institutions are notorious for huge pendulum swings, in effect, "Throwing out the baby with the bathwater." Sadly, this type of whole hearted attachment to the latest and greatest is very much at the expense of the students. I highly recommend that educators attempt to maintain balance, and introduce new concepts a bit at a time, figuring out how to keep the good of the old, and still reap the benefits of the new. I'm not holding my breath though. Not every child is the same, and a variety of approaches is always the best choice for public education.
2
Constant homework nearly ruined our family. Fortunately we are hard headed and don't give up easily.
We managed to stay together and the kids came out okay in the end, but few talk about the pressures at home from constant constant homework.
From KINDERGARTEN through high school. That's 12 years for one child, form after form after form to fill out. Form is the other word for worksheet. Have 2 and you're in for more constant constant homework.
- No family dinners that last more than 10 minutes as: homework
- Crying jags and upsets almost nightly.
- Drudgery and boredom from the type of homework it is
- constant constant standardized testing testing testing.
Your kid would need to be the kind who enjoys sitting down to to tax forms all day at school and then come home to do more tax forms at night for fun! Not many kids are like that.
If you don't like the repetitive words in this post, then you also would not like the repetitive homework. Over and over and over and over for well more than a decade of your lfe. For the kids, it's their entire life as they know it.
Summers too! Bonus!
On average, girls seem to do well with this. On average boys are not doing well. They are less and less likely to go to college, more and more likely to drop out of high school and life. Currently about 60% of college kids are girls across socioeconomic brackets, 40% boys.
We need to do better.
We managed to stay together and the kids came out okay in the end, but few talk about the pressures at home from constant constant homework.
From KINDERGARTEN through high school. That's 12 years for one child, form after form after form to fill out. Form is the other word for worksheet. Have 2 and you're in for more constant constant homework.
- No family dinners that last more than 10 minutes as: homework
- Crying jags and upsets almost nightly.
- Drudgery and boredom from the type of homework it is
- constant constant standardized testing testing testing.
Your kid would need to be the kind who enjoys sitting down to to tax forms all day at school and then come home to do more tax forms at night for fun! Not many kids are like that.
If you don't like the repetitive words in this post, then you also would not like the repetitive homework. Over and over and over and over for well more than a decade of your lfe. For the kids, it's their entire life as they know it.
Summers too! Bonus!
On average, girls seem to do well with this. On average boys are not doing well. They are less and less likely to go to college, more and more likely to drop out of high school and life. Currently about 60% of college kids are girls across socioeconomic brackets, 40% boys.
We need to do better.
68
So you feel the schools should adjust themselves for kids with no attention spans? I take it you don't think your kids should go through higher education then, and just take one of those coal mine jobs Trump is promising.
3
So glad to know we are not the only ones whose night is ruined by homework. The best words in the English language these days are, "I don't have any homework tonight!"
I am sorry for a family so traumatized by the - hopefully age appropriate- homework assigned to their children.
Kindergarten through twelfth grade is actually thirteen years.
I had to do flash cards as homework in second grade, and I've found those math facts to be pretty handy!
Kindergarten through twelfth grade is actually thirteen years.
I had to do flash cards as homework in second grade, and I've found those math facts to be pretty handy!
If adults don't have the money or time to devote to raising children, why are they having them?
93
And here I thought conservatives were "pro-life"... LOL
8
This statement strikes me as so mean spirited and, too, willfully obtuse.
When I was a child, I didn't have homework until the 7th grade and even then it was minimal. My parents didn't look over my shoulder, didn't help me at all. They also didn't have to sign anything that said my homework was done.
As a parent, my children have had homework since K. Both my children struggled to learn to read so K-3, I needed to find time in my day to help them do their homework. And then I'm required to sign papers saying it was done. I have a Masters level education, respectable income, and I can tell you it is a complete struggle to find those 30mins in the day plus working a full-time job, commuting, much longer school day for kids, letting my kids have outdoor play time, making dinner, eating dinner, kid taking baths etc.
Add to that parents whose commutes are multi hours, little job flexibility in hourly wage jobs - well, it is really really hard.
So the solution provided in your comment is that we all just shouldn't have children? How convenient to make the solution so simple when real answer can be found in a hike in minimum wage, better public transportation options, no homework for early elementary school ages, no parent sign offs, homework designed to be completed just by the kid, etc.
When I was a child, I didn't have homework until the 7th grade and even then it was minimal. My parents didn't look over my shoulder, didn't help me at all. They also didn't have to sign anything that said my homework was done.
As a parent, my children have had homework since K. Both my children struggled to learn to read so K-3, I needed to find time in my day to help them do their homework. And then I'm required to sign papers saying it was done. I have a Masters level education, respectable income, and I can tell you it is a complete struggle to find those 30mins in the day plus working a full-time job, commuting, much longer school day for kids, letting my kids have outdoor play time, making dinner, eating dinner, kid taking baths etc.
Add to that parents whose commutes are multi hours, little job flexibility in hourly wage jobs - well, it is really really hard.
So the solution provided in your comment is that we all just shouldn't have children? How convenient to make the solution so simple when real answer can be found in a hike in minimum wage, better public transportation options, no homework for early elementary school ages, no parent sign offs, homework designed to be completed just by the kid, etc.
13
To answer your apparently rhetorical question with a rhetorical thesis: If adults waited till they could afford the time and money to devote to raising children, then the only people having children would be the ultra-rich; and they'd not actually be devoting anything more than money, outsourcing the 'devotion' to paid care-givers, tutors and teachers. Have a heart.
12
Homework should be abolished. People that do have time to help their kids would be better spending that time building family experiences with their kids or teaching them life skills at home. People that don't have time would have kids that had a tiny bit more of a level playing field when it comes to grading because they wouldn't be getting crappy grades on homework that doesn't get finished or turned in.
11
But the crux of the issue as detailed in the article is that abolishing homework enables parents who _do_ have the time for their kids to spend all the time on even more devoted learning activities, while those who _don't_ have the time are left without the resources to do the same. So it doesn't create a 'level playing field.' It exacerbates the discrepancies.
14
The term "voluntary at-home projects" is simply a code word for mother work, and moms have enough work to do. A kid who brings in a project like the "fireside chat" described in the article has had a parent (most likely a mom) who has spent the time creating and implementing this project - after all, that school is Pre-K through grad 3! Why do schools do this to parents? Why can't evenings be for family time, or, God forbid, exercise or outdoors play time? Read to your kids every night from day 1 - yes, that is a parent's responsibility, but "voluntary at-home projects?" No! Because they aren't really voluntary, are they?
179
I think the problem in the anecdote you mentioned isn't the 'burden' on the parent; it's that that parent (a dad, btw) had far more time and resources to spend indulging his child's intellectual fantasy than someone of more limited means.
5
High pressure, over-achieving parents are the ones who think of things like "a fireside chat" or an "Egyptian scroll" -- rarely does this come directly FROM a child.
A good teacher would spot too much parental involvement in a project....but few do. In fact, they tend to be more impressed with the elaborate projects, and sneer at the kid whose modest project was entirely by THEMSELVES.
A good teacher would spot too much parental involvement in a project....but few do. In fact, they tend to be more impressed with the elaborate projects, and sneer at the kid whose modest project was entirely by THEMSELVES.
12
The article says her dad was involved in the project. The mother isn't mentioned.
5
As a high school teacher, I find homework in small amounts is best.
52
"He noted that nations like Denmark and Japan, which routinely outperform the United States on international math and science assessments, often give their students far less homework."
That's interesting, but to weigh this statement, I'd need to know something about the educational systems in those countries, which are much smaller than the U.S. In addition, perhaps the school day is better spent, perhaps overall, the children have fewer non-academic needs because of better economies or a stronger social safety net. The more homogeneous populations of those nations may play a role as well.
As a New York City public school fourth grader, I received several hours of homework and we were hardly slacking off in class. At the time, I resented the burden, which often prevented me from playing outside after school -- I had to do my homework first and often couldn't complete it before dark. The teacher really cared about our top-ranked class (there were four fourth grade classes ranked 1-4) and wanted to push us. Many kids in my class did score high on tests and developed discipline that was useful for children in a low-income neighborhood. I'm not knocking other forms of achievement and educational experience, but scoring well on tests is one of the few ways out for poor kids and a way for them to be treated as equals.
Some of the parents complained about the workload. But in retrospect, my fourth grade teacher was one of the best I've ever had.
That's interesting, but to weigh this statement, I'd need to know something about the educational systems in those countries, which are much smaller than the U.S. In addition, perhaps the school day is better spent, perhaps overall, the children have fewer non-academic needs because of better economies or a stronger social safety net. The more homogeneous populations of those nations may play a role as well.
As a New York City public school fourth grader, I received several hours of homework and we were hardly slacking off in class. At the time, I resented the burden, which often prevented me from playing outside after school -- I had to do my homework first and often couldn't complete it before dark. The teacher really cared about our top-ranked class (there were four fourth grade classes ranked 1-4) and wanted to push us. Many kids in my class did score high on tests and developed discipline that was useful for children in a low-income neighborhood. I'm not knocking other forms of achievement and educational experience, but scoring well on tests is one of the few ways out for poor kids and a way for them to be treated as equals.
Some of the parents complained about the workload. But in retrospect, my fourth grade teacher was one of the best I've ever had.
117
I think you might find that at the very least, students in Japan spend quite a bit more time IN school than American students do. Our 180-day school year is an anachronism lacking any objectivity. A three month-long vacation is more important than an education.
With all that humankind has learned (and therefore, more to teach children), you'd think they'd go to school more than they did 100 years ago. But no. The same goes with homework. With all there is to learn it will take more time, and more efficiency in teaching.
With all that humankind has learned (and therefore, more to teach children), you'd think they'd go to school more than they did 100 years ago. But no. The same goes with homework. With all there is to learn it will take more time, and more efficiency in teaching.
1
Quality is more important than quantity, but if you can get both, take it.
Homework should aid in the child's intellectual development, ideally by building on what has been presented in school. Worksheets don't usually accomoplish that.
14
Worksheets certainly get a bad rap. But nobody complaining about worksheets have ever been able to explain to me what's wrong with math students completing a worksheet of problems or English students circling all the verbs in a group of sentences, and then correcting and discussing their work the next day in school. Practicing skills is the only way to master them, and I suspect most of the worksheet-haters are simply jumping on the bandwagon.
7
Where to begin? No one learns anything from worksheets. Either you already know how to do it, whatever it is, and spend some more time doing it over and over. Or, you don't know how to do it, so you spend time doing it wrong. Worksheets are valuable only to practice what has just been learned. But that is almost never the way they are used. A child will get a hodge-podge of sheets with all different "skills" being practiced.
And it is astonishing that busy, stressed working parents want these assigned, obviously considering them "busy work." In my observation, these worksheets require a parent's constant support and attention if they are challenging to complete or if the directions confuse.
Let them read. If you want them writing, ask them to keep a reading log.
And it is astonishing that busy, stressed working parents want these assigned, obviously considering them "busy work." In my observation, these worksheets require a parent's constant support and attention if they are challenging to complete or if the directions confuse.
Let them read. If you want them writing, ask them to keep a reading log.
29
Also, because Common Core has "standardized" (robot-ized) the curriculum, many of the worksheets are available with the answers online and kids have been known to just copy the answers. What's the benefit of that, except a big waste of time. If parents want homework, have the school make it optional. Give them worksheets, if they complete them great. If not, great. The teachers don't grade homework anyway...just a check box that it's "done." As my child put it, "I could write this in French and no one would care."
1
mary,
Homework helps to reinforce and consolidate information. Most current theories of learning hold that individuals learn and retain material by over-learning, that is, working with the material in different ways in a dynamic manner. Repetition, while not glamorous, is important.
In the fourth grade, each week we were given a list of 25 new words. For homework, we had to put them in alphabetical order, define them, and use each in a sentence. We learned how to spell the words from the first exercise, their meanings from the second, and correct grammar from the third. All of them helped us work on our penmanship. Fifteen or 20 words might have been a more reasonable number than 25, but it still was a valuable exercise.
Reading is wonderful. In an era without the distractions of 24/7 TV and the Web, I inhaled books as a child. But reading for pleasure is often a passive activity for children. A reading log, while not a bad use of time, does not take the place of structured writing practice.
Vocabulary and grammar don't just fly into a student's head. And let's not get started about math, although I wish it had been better taught when I was a kid.
Homework helps to reinforce and consolidate information. Most current theories of learning hold that individuals learn and retain material by over-learning, that is, working with the material in different ways in a dynamic manner. Repetition, while not glamorous, is important.
In the fourth grade, each week we were given a list of 25 new words. For homework, we had to put them in alphabetical order, define them, and use each in a sentence. We learned how to spell the words from the first exercise, their meanings from the second, and correct grammar from the third. All of them helped us work on our penmanship. Fifteen or 20 words might have been a more reasonable number than 25, but it still was a valuable exercise.
Reading is wonderful. In an era without the distractions of 24/7 TV and the Web, I inhaled books as a child. But reading for pleasure is often a passive activity for children. A reading log, while not a bad use of time, does not take the place of structured writing practice.
Vocabulary and grammar don't just fly into a student's head. And let's not get started about math, although I wish it had been better taught when I was a kid.
8
I disagree. I believe both students and parents/teachers can learn a lot from children completing worksheets.
1. If the child completes everything correctly in a timely manner, the teachers/parents can feel confident that the material has been mastered.
2. If the child makes some mistakes, he/she understands the concept but needs more practice, which, oh, the worksheet provides.
3. If the child gets most of it wrong, the parents/teachers are alerted that the child does not understand the concept and that he/she needs additional help.
I believe that one learns more from making mistakes than getting things right (after all, if you got it right, you already knew it!). I do not believe in rote work for the sake of giving children something to do, but I do not find a one-page worksheet inappropriate homework for a 4th grader.
1. If the child completes everything correctly in a timely manner, the teachers/parents can feel confident that the material has been mastered.
2. If the child makes some mistakes, he/she understands the concept but needs more practice, which, oh, the worksheet provides.
3. If the child gets most of it wrong, the parents/teachers are alerted that the child does not understand the concept and that he/she needs additional help.
I believe that one learns more from making mistakes than getting things right (after all, if you got it right, you already knew it!). I do not believe in rote work for the sake of giving children something to do, but I do not find a one-page worksheet inappropriate homework for a 4th grader.
"she had worked on it with her mother, an artist." This reminds me of too many projects "my son did" in school. I loved it when he got to the age where they had to sign a statement for each homework project that they had gotten no help from mom or dad. He loved it and I loved it.
98
I loved it when I finally sent my boys to an all-boys Jesuit school where the (mostly male) teachers didn't expect them to go home and have their mom do a craft project with (for) them! lol
60
I loved that once my son hit 4th grade, all of his school projects were done in the classroom.
Social engineering (forcing parents to spend more time with their children) or the dumbing down of our society. I don't know which. I support homework because it forces children to work through the work themselves. Though, I also wonder if there is disproportionate levels at the younger ages.
19
Extra practice with math and other particular skills being studied in the classroom is only going to help students, whether by worksheet or project. Students should be reading for hours each week. This article seems to be centered around who governs this after-school work, which is entirely irrelevant.
12
So, to summarize, the range of opinions on best practice for HW in younger grades is no HW (Kohn) to a little HW (Cooper et al.). If so, then why do some schools persist in dumping tons of HW on elementary school students? Is there any empirical support for that at all, or is it educational malpractice? I ask this earnestly because I want to understand this phenomenon.
46
Usually, the school is trying to look "rigorous" to someone--either the parents or a state oversight body.
It's assumed that lots of work equates to rigor.
It's assumed that lots of work equates to rigor.
4
The case for the Tons of Homework camp is as thin as dental floss.
It also has as much hard evidence of its efficacy as, well, dental floss.
It also has as much hard evidence of its efficacy as, well, dental floss.
Arguing over homework is a luxury! Consider Baltimore City Public Schools, no one assigns homework because of course everyone knows that the completion and return rate would be nearly zero. The same reasoning applies to school materials - they don't go home with students because they don't come back to the school. BCPSS gave up on withholding diplomas for the return of school materials (textbooks) so time ago. This is also the reason that my husband (the teacher) and I spend $1000 - $1200 every school year on pencils, pens, paper, and other school supplies. Students don't bring these themselves from home and don't keep track of the ones provided. Why keep supplying more? Basically to make my husband's day go better so that he isn't miserable. Students without writing materials can not participate in learning and have nothing better to do so they disrupt class. Here if the learning doesn't happen in the classroom it doesn't happen at all.
99
I suspect this experience is far more common than the "too much homework" problem.
4
Baltimore: where 15,000 per student still doesn't buy you the results of Utah, only spending 6,555 per pupil.
Stop the homework train already! It's creating more conflict than good.
Imagine if your job gave you hours of work to do at home each and every night after your 8 hour day?
We are overwhelming our kids at a way too early age with homework that teaches them to hate it (and school in general) sooner than ever.
Nobody has said ever, "I LOVE homework!".
End it for ALL kids under 13, period.
Imagine if your job gave you hours of work to do at home each and every night after your 8 hour day?
We are overwhelming our kids at a way too early age with homework that teaches them to hate it (and school in general) sooner than ever.
Nobody has said ever, "I LOVE homework!".
End it for ALL kids under 13, period.
19
Uh, actually, my daughter was super excited to start having homework in 2nd grade. "I can't wait!" were her words all summer, verbatim. I think it's because she felt more like a big kid, and that the school trusted her to be responsible enough to start having homework.
Could it be that your negative attitude towards homework showed and rubbed off on your children?
Could it be that your negative attitude towards homework showed and rubbed off on your children?
1
Our kindergartener, in NYC schools, comes home with two worksheets every night - one math, one reading - both with work on front and back. She also has to take home a bag of 8-20 page early reader books every night, and is supposed to read a minimum of ten of them out loud with a parent. The teacher tells us that this all should take no more than ten minutes a night.
That is, of course, absurd - I myself could not finish these tasks that fast - but ten minutes a night is the guideline for kindergarten homework, so ten minutes is what it is supposed to take.
There is no recess during the day and only two free-play sessions in a week.
Explain to me where kids are supposed to develop any kind of self regulation or self discipline? They are going to come out of school the way people come out of long stretches in prison - not even knowing when to eat or pee unless one of the guards tells them it's time.
That is, of course, absurd - I myself could not finish these tasks that fast - but ten minutes a night is the guideline for kindergarten homework, so ten minutes is what it is supposed to take.
There is no recess during the day and only two free-play sessions in a week.
Explain to me where kids are supposed to develop any kind of self regulation or self discipline? They are going to come out of school the way people come out of long stretches in prison - not even knowing when to eat or pee unless one of the guards tells them it's time.
95
And with New York's mayor DeBlasio now pushing for school for THREE-year-olds, let's the early institutionalization begin! How sad. What happened to childhood?
2
Julie, I completely understand that worry. However, to be fair, our daughter was in Pre-K last year, at age four, in the same school, and it was superb. It was just a wonderful experience all around for our family, and I can't say enough good about it. The kids got a lot of free play with blocks, pretend kitchens, dolls... and a gentle introduction into their letters and numbers. Pre-K was what kindergarten was when I was a kid.
Our kindergarten teacher this year is also extraordinary. The insanity does not seem to be coming from the classroom teachers. They are not given any choice about recess or curriculum. Our teacher is limited in what she can say, but she has remarked on how much has changed in her decades as a kindergarten teacher. She even games the system as much as possible - she uses a "STEM curriculum" that gets kids outdoors without being called "recess."
I get the sense that teachers AND students are subject to the same punitive attitude: they are wayward, lazy, potentially criminal, and must be monitored and regimented at all times, because they can't be trusted with free will or free time. I don't know if this attitude comes from a larger societal contempt for working-class kids and teachers, or if it's just the fact that a lot of administrators and consultants need to justify their existence somehow.
Our kindergarten teacher this year is also extraordinary. The insanity does not seem to be coming from the classroom teachers. They are not given any choice about recess or curriculum. Our teacher is limited in what she can say, but she has remarked on how much has changed in her decades as a kindergarten teacher. She even games the system as much as possible - she uses a "STEM curriculum" that gets kids outdoors without being called "recess."
I get the sense that teachers AND students are subject to the same punitive attitude: they are wayward, lazy, potentially criminal, and must be monitored and regimented at all times, because they can't be trusted with free will or free time. I don't know if this attitude comes from a larger societal contempt for working-class kids and teachers, or if it's just the fact that a lot of administrators and consultants need to justify their existence somehow.
My granddaughter LOVES her pre-school. My daughter could pick her up one hour early, but doesn't because the child has so much fun. She is playing outside, in the dirt, climbing up in a treehouse. She also knows all her letters, can spell her name and quite a few other words. She loves "reading." And baking bread. All kinds of things she's learning at 3 years old.
Do any of these parents sincerely believe that Denmark and Japan's schools outperform ours because of their homework policies?
150
Japanese school give lots of homework to children! The comment in the article is inaccurate.
9
Japan and Denmark have an abundance of magic dirt. Maybe if we could just import some Danish terra, we'd have Danish results?
Worksheet type homework was always more about trying to show parents their children were doing something rather than providing an education. With standardized testing, more emphasis was placed on this type of homework as it tried to prepare students for testing. It has its place, but was over baked at many schools in an effort to meet 2 hours or more of after-school work. I had one child that would get worksheets for gym homework. It is good that it is being relegated back to where it belongs.
11
I am willing to bet the parents that are complaining all have access to the internet and web sites and programs like Khan Academe are free.
6
There's a wonderful, but tragic, documentary on Finnish education whose title escapes me. It's wonderful because of the way it profiles the Finnish system from top to bottom, not least how all Finnish teachers are well-paid and come from the top 10% of Finnish college students themselves, not to mention their superb teacher training system. But it's also tragic to watch as an American, because over and over again, the Harvard education professor who leads us through the Finnish system asks the administrator, teacher, student, and so forth, how he or she knows that those asked to do a job will simply DO it, and DO it very well indeed. The answer is always "we TRUST them." One's heart sinks as one realizes how much better people the Finns are than we Americans. Can you imagine simply "trusting" Americans at any level of our public school system, outside the New Triers of the country at least, to do their jobs very, very well?
51
@Fred White: i don't know what documentary you mean, but it is a FACT -- go google it -- that Finnish teachers are paid far, far less than American teachers (and their lavish, powerful public unions!). A Finnish teacher with a master's degree (*which is required) earns about 35% LESS than an American teacher with only a bachelor's degree. Furthermore, the US education degree is well known to be a "puff major" that admits and graduates any warm body.
The myth that Finnish teachers earn huge salaries is pernicious and very persistent even in the face of bold facts. The truth is that Finnish schools are well run -- the students polite & well-nurtured (they start in SECOND grade at age 7) and the parents involved & caring. You cannot duplicate that in the much vaster US system -- Finland has a population of under 5 million! the US is 330 million! Finland is entirely white, ethnically the same. The US is very diverse and has great disparity of wealth.
Still, there is much we can LEARN from the Finns, who indeed have an excellent system. Pay teachers much, much less -- but give them more autonomy to teach. Don't pay teachers vastly more in pay or benefits than the community around them! and start school much later -- not "preschool" or all day kindergarten -- but start in 2nd grade, when the child's mind is perfectly ready to start learning. And continue school to age 19 and 14th grade -- because in today's modern world, 17 and 18 is just too darned young to be graduating.
The myth that Finnish teachers earn huge salaries is pernicious and very persistent even in the face of bold facts. The truth is that Finnish schools are well run -- the students polite & well-nurtured (they start in SECOND grade at age 7) and the parents involved & caring. You cannot duplicate that in the much vaster US system -- Finland has a population of under 5 million! the US is 330 million! Finland is entirely white, ethnically the same. The US is very diverse and has great disparity of wealth.
Still, there is much we can LEARN from the Finns, who indeed have an excellent system. Pay teachers much, much less -- but give them more autonomy to teach. Don't pay teachers vastly more in pay or benefits than the community around them! and start school much later -- not "preschool" or all day kindergarten -- but start in 2nd grade, when the child's mind is perfectly ready to start learning. And continue school to age 19 and 14th grade -- because in today's modern world, 17 and 18 is just too darned young to be graduating.
2
@Concerned Citizen
Who would go into teaching, even under ideal conditions, if the salary were 35% less than it is. Maybe you haven't been paying attention, but there is already a shortage of people who want to go into teaching in the U.S. One more thing: there are no teacher unions in the South because of "right to work" laws, but the schools are generally not very good. So you can retire the "teachers union" myth from your own thinking.
Who would go into teaching, even under ideal conditions, if the salary were 35% less than it is. Maybe you haven't been paying attention, but there is already a shortage of people who want to go into teaching in the U.S. One more thing: there are no teacher unions in the South because of "right to work" laws, but the schools are generally not very good. So you can retire the "teachers union" myth from your own thinking.
13
"... all Finnish teachers are well-paid ..."
fro the Brookings Institution:
"While paying better than the U.S., Finland is pretty much an average player when it comes to teacher pay. Most of the developed countries with which we compete pay much better."
fro the Brookings Institution:
"While paying better than the U.S., Finland is pretty much an average player when it comes to teacher pay. Most of the developed countries with which we compete pay much better."