Stop Homework

In The Case Against Homework, there are dozens of sample letters to teachers and administrators which you can use as a jumping off point (or copy verbatim) for your own letter to your child’s teacher. Today, I am posting a very lengthy letter by Diane Hewlett-Lowrie, whose comments and letters I have posted before, here and here and here.

The reason Diane’s letter is so lengthy is because she’s written several letters before and hasn’t yet received the kind of response she’d like. In this one, she touches on everything, from the importance of play, to “nature deficit disorder,” to obesity, to the lack of research showing a correlation between homework and academic achievement. If I had had this letter when I was writing The Case Against Homework, I would have included it.

And, don’t forget that today is First Monday.

Dear Teacher
by Diane Hewlett-Lowrie

Please let me say, first and foremost, I admire your dedication to teaching. As you know, I was a classroom teacher for a couple of years (one in second grade) and it was the hardest job I have ever had. [My son] enjoys being in your class and, so far, seems to like the Weekly News Report assignment. I would like to revisit the issue of homework with you and try to explain, as best I can, my reasons and rationales for desiring no homework for [my son] at this age. I know you are bound by certain rules, but maybe we could reach a compromise together.

I understand that, in the USA, homework has been viewed as a necessary part of the education process for many, many years and that it is expected that school kids will do homework – because everyone has always done homework. I was brought up in Scotland and I don’t remember getting homework (except reading and spelling words) until I went to High School (age 12) and even then I don’t remember it being a burden on my life. I went on from High School to complete one undergraduate (B.Sc.) and 2 graduate degrees (one, a Master of Arts in Environmental Studies, with a concentration in Education). I say this not to boast, but merely to illustrate that the lack of homework does not necessarily result in a poor student.

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I know lots of schools use packaged, mandatory reading programs. Here’s a great opinion piece from the Los Angeles Times by a children’s librarian explaining the problems with those types of programs. (Thanks to this parent who alerted me to the piece.)

Reading shouldn’t be a numbers game
Applying numerical ratings to books does nothing to help kids read better.
By Regina Powers
Los Angeles Times

School has started. I can tell because frazzled parents drag their embarrassed children up to the reference desk at my library to ask, “Where are the fifth-grade books? We need a 5.6 level that’s worth at least 7 points.”

I avoid frustrating both parties with an explanation of how the Dewey decimal system works, and ask the child, “What do you like to read?” The response from both adult and child is all too often a blank expression.

Although I am elated that many families are visiting my public library more frequently because schools send them, I am disturbed at how infrequently parents and teachers are allowing young readers to choose what to read.

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In a piece called, Recalculating the 8th-Grade Algebra Rush, Washington Post education reporter Jay Mathews admits that he has second thoughts about pushing all math students into algebra by 8th grade. The reason: a new study by the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, which found that almost 1/3 of the students who scored in the bottom 10th on the National Assessment of Educational Progress eighth-grade test were enrolled in first-year algebra, geometry or second-year algebra. Almost all were grossly misplaced, probably because of the push to get kids into algebra sooner.

This is not the first time that Mathews has changed his mind. Last year, Mathews, who had called himself “Mr. Homework,” wrote a column advocating the abolition of homework in elementary school.

In a survey conducted by AskKids and released in late August, 43 percent of parents admitted to having done their kids’ homework. According to the Los Angeles Times, here’s what the survey found:

Forty-three percent of parents queried in a survey this month admit to doing their children’s homework at least once to ease the strain. Almost half the dads, 47%, owned up to doing the homework, while 39% of mothers did so.

Kids who hope to persuade (con?) parents into doing homework have a better shot if mom and dad are older. Of parents 18-24, 33% say they’ve done their children’s homework for them, compared with 45% of 25- to 44-year-old parents.

The survey of 778 parents, conducted for the homework resource website Ask Kids, showed that 84% of parents help with homework — more with math and English than with other subjects.

The survey was conducted by Kelton Research using an e-mail invitation and an online survey. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

If parents stopped helping their kids with homework (or doing it for them), teachers would have to stop giving it, or, at the very least, cut back on the amount. It’s a rare elementary school child who can manage homework without a lot of parental involvement and help. Just imagine what would happen if parents got together and stopped asking their children whether they had homework, stopped helping them do it, and stopped making sure that the homework made its way back to school. A little homework disobedience anyone?

According to a study released in mid-August by researchers at Binghamton University and the University of Nevada, math homework may not be useful for average achieving students. While it may help high and low achievers, homework for the bulk of students is a waste of time. Here’s what the press release states:

Published in the July issue of the Econometrics Journal, researchers found that although assigning more homework tends to have a larger and more significant impact on mathematics test scores for high and low achievers, it is less effective for average achievers.

“We found that if a teacher has a high achieving group of students, pushing them harder by giving them more homework could be beneficial,” said Daniel Henderson, associate professor of economics at Binghamton University. “Similarly, if a teacher has a low ability class, assigning more homework may help since they may not have been pushed hard enough. But for the average achieving classes, who may have been given too much homework in an attempt to equate them with the high achieving classes, educators could be better served by using other methods to improve student achievement. Given these students’ abilities and time constraints, learning by doing may be a more effective tool for improvement.”

According to co-author Ozkan Eren, assistant professor of economics at the University of Nevada, the study examined an area previously unexplored, namely the connection between test scores and extra homework.
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New York City has come up with a new plan–to give standardized tests, some as long as 90 minutes, to kindergartners. Earlier this week, the New York Daily News ran my op-ed opposing the idea.

Mayor’s plan fails our kids
BY SARA BENNETT

Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to give standardized tests to students in kindergarten through second grade is pure folly. It’s bad enough that students in third grade, at age 8, undergo high-stakes testing. To start down that path with 5-year-olds is insane.

Bloomberg, in blasting critics of his plan, says, “It’s not easy to test a 5-year-old. But the alternative of not testing a 5-year-old is an outrage.”

Bloomberg has it backward. It’s testing that’s the outrage.

Testing isn’t only useless, it’s harmful. Any parent of a 5-year-old knows this. If the mayor had spoken to parents, he would know, as parents or early child educators know, that young kids simply can’t sit still for a 90-minute test. Nor would the results be very accurate.

The mother of a child starting kindergarten at a midtown public school tomorrow told me that the mayor’s plan is “ridiculous.”

“Call any random person in the city,” she says, “and they’ll tell you no 5-year-old can do that.” She’s right - young children can barely sit still for five or 10 minutes at a time. That’s why good teachers are always changing activities, kids get time to play and teachers ask the children to stand up for a few minutes and “get out the wigglies.”
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According to a survey released today by Scholastic, many children in the USA are too busy, too distracted and, in some cases, too tired to read books for fun. Schoolwork, homework and the inability to find a book they like keeps most children from doing more than their required school reading. The findings are similar to those released last year by the National Endowment for the Arts, which reported that from 1984 to 2004, the percentage of 17-year-olds who “never or hardly ever” read for fun rose from 9% to 19%. The Scholastic report found that, on average, one in four children read for fun every day and another 40% read for fun at least a few times a week — but 22% rarely, if ever, do. And as kids get older, it finds, the percentage who rarely read for fun grows from 8% to 37%. Read the entire report here.

Recently, I’ve been watching the lectures posted on ted.com. TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, is an annual conference that brings “together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).” The one by Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain researcher who watched her own stroke unfold, is unforgettable. For their thoughts on education, though, I highly recommend those by Sir Ken Robinson, who talks about how schools kill creativity, and by Dave Eggers, who talks about how a little one-on-one tutoring can go a long way.