Stop Homework

A Jewish day school in Los Angeles, Temple Israel of Hollywood, has basically abolished homework for its K-6 students. According to an article in The LA Times, Eileen Horowitz, the head of the school, stated,

“It became apparent that some of what we were doing was silly. Why should our children spend time doing fill-in-the-blank assignments or writing spelling words five times?” She is confident that her students will acquire all the good study habits they’ll need from working on long-term projects inside and outside the classroom, from their daily reading and from other assignments they’ll still be required to do occasionally.

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“Maybe they can build a treehouse or go for a bike ride around the neighborhood,” Horowitz said. “Let’s give them a chance to play. Let’s give them a chance to dream.”

Welcome back to Stop Homework. I’ve enjoyed the respite from blogging, just as many of you have enjoyed a homework-free summer.

Over the summer, I received a grant from a non-profit foundation to help fund my stop homework project. This is fantastic news, because it allows me to devote more time to helping all of you change homework policy and practice.

Also, the paperback version of The Case Against Homework arrived in bookstores last week. This is also great news, because the book is now more affordable.

And one more piece of good news: Washington Post reporter, Jay Mathews, who calls himself “Mr. Homework,” wrote an article in early August calling for an end to homework for elementary school students. Considering that earlier last year Mathews denounced the message of The Case Against Homework, it was exciting to see him change his mind. Let’s hope other pro-homework people change their minds as well.

On the highly popular website, boingboing.net, Cory Doctorow gives a rave review to The Case Against Homework. He also discusses his own schooling:

I was lucky enough to attend excellent, publicly funded alternative schools through my educational career. We had homework, but we were also given a lot of time for free play, and a lot of free rein to choose our subjects and design our curriculum — I remember spending half of the fourth grade working my way through two or three math textbooks and the other half designing and writing a parody of MAD Magazine, to the exclusion of all other work. The next grade I followed the class for most of the semester, except when I didn’t. In high-school, I took a year off, moved to a little house in Mexico, and wrote stories. All of this stuff contributed more to my learning than any amount of worksheets and homework ever could have.

Coincidentally, I attended the same publicly funded alternative school–SEED in Toronto, Canada–albeit many years before Cory. And, like Cory, I attribute my nontraditional schooling (including the end of high school, college at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and law school at Rutgers, Newark), to my love of learning. All of those schools allowed students to figure out what they wanted to study, find mentors for themselves, and engage in independent study. I only wish today’s students were allowed that same time to engage in pursuits of their own choosing.

Here’s an interesting article from Education Week which discusses how educators in China are trying to move away from the rote memorization that has characterized much of the education system. “China’s government is…seeking to inject more American-style flexibility into its math and science curriculum, by placing less emphasis on exams and more focus on cultivating students’ creative and analytical skills, which school officials believe are lacking. Chinese teachers are being encouraged to move away from lectures, drills, and memorization in class, and to invite more discussion and student-led activity. Schools are adding more elective courses and independent research projects. Textbooks are being rewritten.”

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According to Statistics Canada, more than 60 percent of Canadian teenagers spend, on average, 2-1/3 hours a day on homework, helping to contribute to their 50-hour week spent in school, at jobs, and on homework and housework. The globeandmail.com reports that “the relatively high workloads cause some stress: 16 percent of the teens surveyed considered themselves workaholics; 39 percent felt under constant pressure to accomplish more than they could handle, and nearly two-thirds (64 percent) cut back on sleep to get things done.”

I’m interested to see what happens in the Middletown, Ohio, School District, where school board members are deciding on a policy amendment that would eliminate grading on homework assignments. Although the Board thinks homework is “very important,” the removal of the grade is to ensure that teachers grade students for their work, not the work of the parents or failures of the parents.

According to an article in Education Week, Pennsylvania State University researcher, Gerald K. LeTendre, has published a new paper in which he again finds that more homework is not associated with higher levels of average national achievement. “’The paper is a preliminary investigation with some fairly common-sense warnings not to start promoting or demoting homework’ because of worries that American students are running behind in an academic-skills race with other nations, Mr. LeTendre said in an interview.”

The president of the Tasmanian State School Parents and Friends in Australia (an independent community based organization formed in 1947 to represent the parents of children participating in state school education within Tasmania) has started a campaign to stop teachers from assigning homework in elementary and high schools. According to an article in news.com.au, she said, “I really want someone to show me homework is beneficial. If it is not, I don’t think we should be having it. I don’t want to see kids coming home and doing useless homework. I want them outside playing. There are quite a few reports out there saying it might not be beneficial - so why are we doing it?”