Stop Homework

The post that has generated the most Comments ever is I Hate Reading Logs by FedUp Mom. If you scroll through, you’ll notice that teachers have chimed in, some rethinking their own homework practice, others defending it. I was particularly struck by the openness of a teacher from Virginia, who found the post while looking for a reading log, and ended up rethinking logs altogether.

I also thought the teacher made a very good point about the importance of keeping all discussions between teacher and parent as cordial and as respectful as possible.

I’ll Make My Reading Logs Optional
by a Virginia Teacher

I accidentally came upon this website when searching for reading logs to give to my students this year for homework. This blog has really made me rethink the validity of the entire idea and really homework in general. Reading the comments from so many frustrated parents has been insightful, because I honestly never thought about how homework can invade a child’s home/after-school life. I applaud the parents who advocate for their kids and the tremendous weight homework can put on their shoulders. As a teacher, I want parents to feel like partners in the classroom and having conversations like this one can only help kids get the best educational experiences possible. The last thing I want to do is to stress my students out, so I’ll probably make the reading logs optional.

One thing I noticed by this site is a distinct divide between teachers and parents and while I do think discussion is important, it seems to get hostile. There are huge assumptions being made on both sides. I think teachers and parents BOTH need to have a generosity of the spirit. I am not, and have never been interested in doing harm to any student in my class – that’s not why I teach. In the same way, I don’t think concerned parents are trying to “terrorize” teachers. There has to be middle ground on which teachers and parents can both feel validated.

I think this is important to keep in mind: Teachers have kids for 7 hours a day for only 9 months. Parents have kids for a lifetime. Parents are a child’s first teachers and parents know their kids the best. I believe good, effective teachers honor this. It is very sad to me that so many families have experienced such negative experiences with public schools, especially because kids and their opinion of school and learning are caught in the crossfire.

I will definitely have a different mindset about homework going into this new school year.

Today’s interviewee is Paul Richards, who is in his fifth year as principal of Needham High School in Needham, Massachusetts. During his tenure, he has studied and surveyed student stress and tried a variety of measures aimed at reducing it. The father of a kindergartner and first grader, Richards is leaving Needham high at the end of the 2008-2009 school year to become the high school principal at the American School in London. (Take a look at the school’s web site where you can read the Needham Stress Reduction Committee’s materials. They have compiled a very comprehensive resource list.)

Interview with Paul Richards, Principal of Needham High
by Sara Bennett

” Schools need to look at their own practices.They need to educate teachers, parents and students on the culture of stress.”

–Paul Richards, principal, Needham High, Needham, Massachusetts

Is stress really a problem for high school students?
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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?

A few posts ago, I wrote about the blog of Angela Bunyi, a fourth grade teacher from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Ms. Bunyi then write to me:

Thanks for sharing my article under Scholastic (Homework: Applying Research to Policy) and my note from the homework page on my class site. I wanted to add to your readers ongoing discussion about reading logs. I did away with them this year. I also did away with a specific reading time at home.

Why? First, I don’t want students reading to the clock. The thought of seeing “30 minutes” read for child after child in the daily reading log is really, really sad if you think about it. My goal is for students to get “lost” in their homework.

Second, I did away with reading logs because they were a pain for all involved. When I did use them, I found my best readers didn’t fill them out. Now I just meet with my kids during reading conference time to talk about their reading habits at home. When a student was on page 35 the day before and they are on page 75 the next morning, why push a log? I can do the math! The proof is with the pace of finishing books in your room each week.

Kerry Dickinson, the Danville, California mom who helped change homework policy in her school district last year, put me in touch with Debbie Cohune, a mother of four, who recently moved to Boulder, Colorado, from Danville. To Debbie’s delight, she discovered that her children’s new schools-elementary, middle, and high–have little to no homework. Here’s what she told me:

The most amazing part of my kids middle school is the “back to school night” philosophy had an emphasis on “how we are going to teach your children” rather than “how we are going to grade your children” as was our Danville experience. One of the science teachers said “I have your children for 50 minutes a day and I think that is enough. After school should be reserved for family time and outside interests. Also, there is no late work in my class. All work must be completed and turned in, but I don’t care how fast your children learn, but rather that they learn.”

My children are all required to read 20 minutes each night. Homework is any work that they did not complete in class. They have time in class to work on daily assignments (and have the ability to ask questions to their teachers when they are confused) and projects. If they do not complete the work in class they bring it home to finish. The after school load is no more than 30 minutes plus reading. Some days there is only reading.

In Danville we spent several hours a day with weekly tutors to finish homework. The kids were stressed, I was stressed and their grades suffered. They were teaching to the test which is an environment that my children to not do well in. Boulder Valley School District has not as of yet succumbed to that philosophy and as a result my children are again excited about learning. They actually come home from school and tell me what they learned today. I must say that never happened in Danville.

Nottingham East Academy, slated to open next year, will be England’s largest school with 3570 students, from nursery school to age 19. The school will have no homework, but instead will have an extra lesson a days. According to the principal-to-be, “If you ask most heads what most detentions are for, they will tell you for non-completion of homework. Homework causes an enormous amount of home conflict and parents and the community certainly won’t mind children coming home later. It is often set simply because there is an expectation it should be set. It does not help with education at all.” Read more here.

The Tiffin School, ranked as the 2nd best boys’ state school in England, has limited homework to 40 minutes per night–a huge drop from the four hours a night the boys had been doing. After spending two years examining its teaching and learning in class, the school concluded that much of the homework was “mechanistic” and “repetitive.” Read the story here.

I came across an article about the Jemicy School in Baltimore, where homework is minimal and tailored to the needs of each student. According to PRNewswire.com,

Parents often assume hours of homework lends better test scores and greater comprehension for their students, but Jemicy School of Owings Mills and Towson takes a much different stance and data shows they may be on to something.

The educational structure and lifestyles of students in the 21st century is different than past generations. With the rise of technology, schedules packed with sports and extra-curricular activities, and significant amounts of homework each night, there is little time for free play or even comprehension of daily activities. The latest research on the brain shows that the brain requires time to relax, absorb, and process information in order for it to register within long term memory.

The Jemicy School has implemented this research into their curriculum and tailors homework to the individual needs of each child, with assignments consisting of skills which have already been mastered versus new concepts. This method prevents children from developing their own,
often detrimental methods of comprehending new concepts.
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