A North Las Vegas Elementary School Eliminates Traditional Homework
The Eva Simmons Elementary School in North Las Vegas instituted a new policy in January, encouraging parents to make sure their children read every night and practice their math skills using a website resource. “One size fits all homework is just not a best practice for our students,” said the principal, in defending the decision to eliminate the traditional nightly homework assignments. Any homework that is sent home will be geared toward the individual child. Read more here.
So depressing that parents are complaining (per the article). Or didn’t the reporter bother to track down any parents who are happy w/the new policy?
I’d be thrilled with reading daily and some math practice online (there are some excellent resources for that now, and somehow so much less odious than worksheets & workbooks–plus the kid gets immediate feedback from the good practice sites/games). And they’ve left individualized assignments, per student needs, as an option, so what’s the problem? (As long as any HW-happy teachers don’t stick to their usual heavy assignments PLUS add e-math, I guess.)
March 3rd, 2010 at 4:08 pm
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I think this homework policy is actually better for success because it leaves more time to study in a way that suits you. Also when doing homework many students simply try and get it done as fast as possible so that they won’t lose lunchtime or whatever the next day. To me, doing a bunch of mundane exercies because you’re told to isn’t the point of learning. I believe that if schools set less homework but strive to achieve a love of learning in their students they would learn much more.
March 5th, 2010 at 5:18 am
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Mary, I’m with you. I started reading the comments and I just couldn’t get through them. Been There Done That. Free Range Press had some excellent posts on homework and while the majority of parents supported much less or none, there were some who made the same arguments you read following that article. That we are last in the world, that we are dumbing down our kids, yada yada yada.
Which puzzles me. An absence of homework does not mean an absence of learning. I don’t like mandatory homework that the family has to manage but that doesn’t mean we don’t learn in the evenings and weekends.Homework got in the way of learning, rather than promote it.Can’t these parents figure out ways to educate their own kids? I don’t need the state raising my child. I can do that very well on my own, thank you.
An absence of weekend homework means I can take my child to the Smithsonian on Sunday. Reading and math after school means my daughter will be doing reading and math after school! It means she can have a normal bedtime. It means she can play in the woods. It means she has time to practice piano. It means she has time for a sport. It means she’ll read for five hours after school, lost in a book. Or two. I’m baffled. Where’s the downside?
March 7th, 2010 at 7:34 am
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Correction: Free Range Kids. Lenore Skenazy’s blog. I heard it here first.
March 7th, 2010 at 7:34 am
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Yes, yes….I think the guarantee of only reading and a little math would be just beautiful. Crazy as it sounds, it almost brings tears to my eyes. There are things we like (and need) to do as a family, but they’re constantly being curtailed by HW. We’re always “on the clock.” And that is WITH reduced-workload accommodations in place for the 2 out of 3 kids who have ADD.
Exercise and fresh air are mandatory for us, and yesterday we took the neighbor’s dog out for a walk in the sun & snow…but had to keep checking the time because of the *%$&# HW. (The boys had a friend due over at 2, and older guy a friend’s Bar Mitzvah at 4:30. These things are important and **appropriate** uses of weekend time.)
What SHOULD have happened is hey, it’s Sat.; we’ll walk as long as this dog and we all are enjoying it. Could have been outside 1-2 hrs and still back in time for the friend, all healthy & in a good mood. But not in time for HW :(
March 7th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
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