Stop Homework

Today’s post is a letter that appeared in the Sackville Tribune Post on May 8, 2007. I’ve been corresponding with the author, Amanda Cockshutt, since the publication of The Case Against Homework and Amanda and I were on a Canadian radio program together in the Fall. Amanda, who lives in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada, is the CEO of Environmental Proteomics, a small biotech company, and part time lecturer at Mount Allison University. She has 3 children, ages 12, 8 and 6. In the winter, Amanda persuaded the principal of her children’s elementary school to have two separate one-week trial periods without homework. When it was over, the school did not abolish homework, but it did institute some homework policy changes, including no homework the nights of major events and two weeks per year where there would be no homework other than reading.

Letter to the Editor
by Amanda Cockshutt

Children are assigned daily homework from the time they start kindergarten at the ripe old age of five. Is it really necessary? Does homework promote better learning or even higher test scores?

I have been bothered by homework for the past 7 years. At times it has been a nuisance, at other times it has elicited outright mutiny (complete with kicking and screaming) in my household. I started to seriously question the value of homework when our family spent a year in Sweden. My oldest child, then 7/8 attended a Swedish school that assigned one math sheet on Monday to be returned Friday as the only homework. School ran from 8:10 am until 1 pm. My child went from an English reading level of Curious George to beyond Harry Potter, went from only a few words of spoken Swedish to being a fluent speaker and reader of Swedish chapter books and she covered the entire Canadian math curriculum that year. The last spike in the homework coffin for me, was the discomfort I felt telling my kids to put down the book they were reading or come inside from playing and do their homework. It was time to do my own homework. Read the rest of this entry »

I received the following email from a fourth grade teacher in the Lincoln Consolidated School District near Ann Arbor, Michigan:

Last year we had the homework issue come up in an aggressive move from our principal to try and regulated homework across grade levels. It is so over the top!

The amount of homework he proposed was horrid! The teachers and many parents fought the battle to allow the teachers to assign what they believe to be appropriate homework per classroom, child, family, etc. It turned into a battle that we eventually won, with homework not being given by our administrators but by the teachers.

I do not believe in homework! It may surprise you how many teachers do not think homework is helping the achievement gap, but hurting it. I researched and discussed our homework issues with college professors who helped me gather data to support our approach to little or no homework. So I was so glad to see your book! I stayed up reading after a troublesome time with my own daughter and her homework, which lasted over 1 ½ hours, and she is in 2nd grade!

Thank you for the advice and the work you put into this book! I want you to know that educators are listening and are many times on the side of promoting family time verses busy work or homework! Family time is being pushed aside for homework and the children are the ones who are hurting because of it!

P.S. I must also add that not only was my administrator asking for this but many parents were too! I was amazed by that! So educating or helping parents be in the “know” about homework is so important! They need to know they can ask for less and discuss other types they think is right for their own children.

I want you to know also that I am just one of the MANY teachers who care and want less homework here at Lincoln Consolidated and at surrounding Michigan school districts. When I did my research last year I found that the teachers I spoke to followed the 10 minute rule. But I am still concerned, because many times what takes my child ten minutes, may take another child 30!

Many college professors at Eastern Michigan University, the University that puts out the most teachers in the U.S., are also advocates for less homework and more family time! When I told the professors at Eastern Michigan about this proposal, they were appalled! I had great support from them, other staff members here at Lincoln and from many parents!

These are the guidelines the principal was trying to institute:

1st and 2nd grade Monday-Friday
10 minutes Phonics, Sight words or reading worksheet
20 minutes Reading practice
10 minutes Practice worksheet or flash cards for math
40 minutes total
Plus 60 minute of homework on Saturday and Sunday
20 min. reading practice
20 min. social studies
20 min. science

3rd grade Monday-Friday
15 minutes phonics, sight words or reading worksheet
30 minutes reading practice
15 minutes practice worksheet or flash cards for math
60 min. total
Plus 60 min. homework on Saturday and Sunday
20 min. reading practice
20 min. social studies
20 min. science

4th and 5th grade Monday-Friday
20 min. reading assignments (Described as phonics, vocab. based
Worksheets)
40 min. reading practice
20 min. math worksheet practice
80 min. total
Plus 80 min. on the weekends
40 min. reading practice
20 min. social studies
20 min. science

In the past week, I’ve received a lot of email from parents across the country who’ve started discussing the homework problem with their children’s teachers and among other parents in their children’s classes. Their letters are inspiring. For example, this morning “HM” wrote me:

After gaining insight from your book about how to approach homework overload, I drafted a letter to my daughter’s teacher and received a very positive response from her. She was unaware of the tremendous load she was placing on her students. She was very willing to help balance the work load for my daughter.

At my urging, HM posted his letter in Success Stories.

I’m happy to receive so much mail, and I do my best to respond, but if you have a story you’d like to share and you want to have an ongoing discussion or get feedback from other parents, join the discussion under the heading “Success Stories” in the forum.

Are you frustrated with the nightly homework routine? Are you wondering whether a particular assignment is worth your child’s time? Are you thinking about saying something to your child’s teacher, but don’t know what? Do you want to get together with other parents and make some changes at your child’s school? These questions, and many others, are answered in The Case Against Homework.

Still, the book might not answer your particular question. That’s what I’ll do here. So send me your questions and concerns and I’ll do my best to address them.

Have you had success in communicating with a teacher, organizing other parents, changing school policy? Send me your success stories and I’ll post them here.

But, best of all, if you have a story you’d like to share and you want to have an ongoing discussion or get feedback from other parents, join the discussion under the heading “Success Stories” in the forum.

If you end up posting a comment here and I think other parents would like to respond, I’ll post your comment in the forum as well.