Stop Homework

I was really happy to see this piece by David Shenk, “Does Homework Work?” in the Atlantic Monthly:

School’s back, and so is Big Homework. Here’s what my 7th grade daughter has to do tonight:

1 Math review sheet,
1 Science essay,
French vocab for possible quiz,
History reading and questionaire, and
English reading and note-taking

About two hours, give or take. This is considered a pretty light load, so as to ramp up gently. Over the next few weeks, it will get up to three hours or more.

Most of us give very little thought to this long-lived combination. School and homework seem as interconnected as cars and gasoline. Kids need homework to get smarter — right? It’s supposed to be how they pick up a good work ethic.

Read the rest here.

Palm Beach County, Florida, instituted a new homework policy over the summer, allowing for 60 minutes of homework in third grade and 90 minutes in 4th and 5th. According to an article in the Florida Sun Sentinel, parents are up in arms. (If you’re one of those parents, please let me know.)

At the same time, also in Florida, the Collier County School District in Naples instituted a new policy of abolishing the grading of homework. Its new policy came about after the District, in response to parental concerns, looked at research into best practices. According to Naples News, the Chief Instructional Officer wrote in a memo to middle school principals, “Research advocates that homework receive teacher feedback versus a grade; the concept here is that we should have the opportunity to practice before we receive a grade. Think of it as learning to drive — you must have the opportunity to practice on many occasions — with feedback — before you go to the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) to be tested.”

Quebec’s largest English language weekly newspaper, The Suburban published an anti-homework editorial at the end of August:

Too much homework

As kids go back to school, we need to pay attention to a growing movement among parents and educators calling on homework to be severely reduced. We think they are right.

Childhood is a time for growth and education is an important part of that. But so is being a child. Enjoying your youth and family. School hours have expanded over the years to the point that many school days end at five instead of three. Almost weekly tests in one subject or another are being the norm in many schools. Homework assigned, or studies expected, reach two to three hours a night. It is far too much.

Kids and families need to decompress at the end of a day. Kids need time to be kids and families need time to be families. It can’t just be school, rush home and grab a quick dinner, and back to the books. Monastic existences do no one any good.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Helendale School District in California is instituting a no-homework policy for students in K-8th grade beginning this fall. According to vvdailypress, “First- through sixth-graders will complete any independent work during daily lessons, while seventh- and eighth-graders will get an added ‘homework time’ class period.”

Which school district will be next?

Yesterday’s New York Times Magazine had a great article, Kindergarten Cram, about the problems with today’s kindergartens. One of my favorite lines: “How was it that the same couples who piously proclaimed that 3½-year-old Junior was not “developmentally ready” to use the potty were drilling him on flashcards?”

Here’s the beginning of the article:

About a year ago, I made the circuit of kindergartens in my town. At each stop, after the pitch by the principal and the obligatory exhibit of art projects only a mother (the student’s own) could love, I asked the same question: “What is your policy on homework?”

And always, whether from the apple-cheeked teacher in the public school or the earnest administrator of the “child centered” private one, I was met with an eager nod. Oh, yes, each would explain: kindergartners are assigned homework every day.

Bzzzzzzt. Wrong answer.

Read the rest of the article here.

I’ve written many times about places in Canada where homework has been eliminated. This month’s Today’s Parent, published in Toronto, Canada, has an article titled, “The End of Homework?”, which looks at a school in Barrie, Ontario, which eliminated homework this year. The article concludes:

But a year after [Barrie's] Prince of Wales eliminated most forms of homework, students’ marks have improved by an average of three percent, [principal] Olson says. Is this due to less homework? Hard to say. But he points out that the new policy has forced teachers to cover more of the curriculum more effectively during class time. Students are more focused on classwork now, and reports of students not sleeping because of homework have disappeared, said Olson. “One family told me it’s the first time their daughter is involved in competitive sports because, previously, she never had time.”.

Read the article here. (And a big thanks to Amanda Cockshutt for sending me the article.)

The L.A. Times recently reported on several California schools that have cut back on homework:

Trustees in Danville, Calif., eliminated homework on weekends and vacations last year. Palo Alto officials banned it over winter break. Officials in Orange…are reminding teachers about limits on homework and urging them not to assign it on weekends. A private school in Hollywood has done away with book reports.

Read the story here.

According to an article in The Province, the president of the British Columbia Teachers Federation says that school kids should not be given any homework until Grade 4 at the earliest. “I’m not in favour of abolishing homework, but I do think we need to consider very carefully the age of children,” she said. “Certainly in the primary years [kindergarten to Grade 3] we shouldn’t be having kids have homework.”