Letter to the Editor of a Local Newspaper
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.
Reading a handful of books (“The End of Homework”, “The Case Against Homework” and “The Homework Myth”) and a number of research articles (including the review article “The Effectiveness of Homework”), I learned that there is no evidence that homework improves academic achievement for elementary school students. No published research has shown that time spent on homework causes an improvement in academic performance or achievement. Should schools have the right to infringe on home life in the absence of solid research to justify the practice?
All three of Sackville’s public schools assign nightly homework that students are required to do. Failure to complete homework is reflected on student report cards and often results in detentions at the discretion of the teacher. Most schools follow the “ten minute rule”, meaning that an average child would spend 10 minutes per grade level per night on homework. This ten minute rule was invented by educational researcher, Harris Cooper, who demonstrated that homework has no effect on academic achievement for young students, which is curious indeed. The ten minute rule is based on no research whatsoever.
Furthermore, administering and assessing homework consumes valuable teacher time. It also introduces the complexity of teaching a class where some of the students have completed the homework and some have not. This often translates into class time being wasted for the diligent students whose homework is completed.
Another serious consequence of homework is the physical strain of lugging it home every night. Physicians recommend that children carry no more than 10% of their body weight on their backs. A running tally of my oldest child’s backpack (including a modest lunch, and not including extra gym clothes and shoes) has her backpack weighing between 15 and 22 pounds, far in excess of 10% of her weight!
Given the lack of research demonstrating the effectiveness of homework, particularly at the elementary school level, combined with the urgent demands for increased physical fitness to battle childhood obesity, it is time that we demand accountability from our schools. Years of research show that time spent on homework is not leading to greater academic gains. Children should spend their precious spare time pursuing their own interests like practicing the piano, playing outside, reading for pleasure, or simply relaxing. Schools should refrain from meddling with family life for no valid reason and leave the choice of how to spend time at home up to the family.
Please tell educators and school administrators that it’s time to stop this foolishness.
Amanda M Cockshutt, PhD
Environmental Proteomics N.B. Inc.



[…] read Amanda Cockshutt’s letter to our local newspaper last week, and now Sara Bennett at Stop Homework has posted it in its entirety. The pressure that Amanda, and others, have put on school autorities […]
May 16th, 2007 at 6:31 am
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One of the things that has stressed me has been the amount of homework given to children during vacation time.
My family couldn’t go on the trip we planned because my daughter had to do a serious book report and as well watch something that was going to be on TV durring the vacation.
There was no possible way my daughter could read this book which was about 300 pages as well as go to florida, and then do a report on the TV show that was on tuesday.
Homework has harmed our family life. The stress just gets worse and worse. I’m thinking about hiring an older student to do the homework from now on. I recomend this to everyone.
May 17th, 2007 at 10:51 am
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I think vacation homework is a very good place to start a conversation with the school/teachers about homework. Did you talk to the teacher who assigned that homework? Did you let her/him know that you had to cancel your plans because of homework? I think every adult can understand the need for a break and, once you remind the teachers/school that your kids need a break, too, they’ll rethink their assignments.
In The Case Against Homework, you’ll find a lot of arguments for why vacation homework is particularly detrimental and samples of letters and conversations you can have with your child’s teacher.
I hope your daughter doesn’t get summer homework.
May 17th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
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im not from america im from london. i think homework is hard in year 6 because the teacher doesn’t tell us what to do.
November 25th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
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can u help us stop homework PLEAZE HELP US!!!!!!!
February 21st, 2008 at 5:12 pm
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there should be a big stop to homwork
June 7th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
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i hate school because of homework. i think that if i had no homework then i would quite enjoy school.i can never relax or have anytime to revise on what i have done that day at school or read a book.ican’t really go out much to get exercise or help with things like cooking and it also gets in the way of my guitar practice. please stop hmwk :’(
October 8th, 2008 at 11:58 am
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I am doing a persuasive Essay on banning homework and how homework is bad for children. I have learned many things and ALL of my research leads back to Sara Bennet, Nancy Kalish, or Alfie Kohn. I had no idea that there had been this much research. I am deffinately a victim of late night homework and tears over loads of homework. I can relate so well to all the research i have done. I have a.d.d. and when i take medicine to pay more attention in class i tend to be even more stressed in the afternoon when the medicine has worn off and its time for homework.
November 6th, 2008 at 11:39 am
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Homework takes away from what being a child is all about, enough said. I went outside today, but all I could think about is that I needed to go inside because I had to do homework. PLEASE SARA BENNET HELP US STOP HOMEWORK.
April 29th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
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you are coool
May 11th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
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With all the capitalization and punctuation errors, looks like we may need more homework!
September 8th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
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Denise, rather I might venture to add that all those errors prove more education is needed in the classroom. Get as much done there as possible. While you have the kids. While they are fresh. That’s what they are there for. Busy homework has no place in the home.
My daughter doesn’t make those errors. May we be excused, please? I’ve said this a thousand times but it bears repeating. At the risk of running in circles. What she wanted to do every afternoon in elementary was read a novel, write a novel. She wanted to read and write! Is there a better way to reinforce good writing, nurture reading? Why is this such an issue? To me, it’s a no brainer.
She also wanted to build, take appliances apart to see how they work, draw, and play outside, creating an imaginary school and building fortes. Why is easy but tedious and onerous homework more valuable than self-described pursuits?
September 8th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
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Meant to say self-PRESCRIBED. But described works too!
September 9th, 2009 at 12:41 am
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At the risk of your wrath, I must say I disagree. Homework is a good way for teachers to evaluate how each student is understanding the material being taught. In class a student may believe they understand the work, or may be afraid to ask for more help in front of their peers. Once the student goes home and must work through some math problems or figure out a recurring theme in a book on their own it may become obvious where they need more help, what they have grasped and what they have not. With out this check in place a student may come to test time and end up failing it because they never got the concept.
October 5th, 2009 at 11:40 am
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I just have to ask.…what does it mean, to you, if the child doesn’t do the homework? What do you do in this case?
Do you give grades related to homwork?
October 5th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
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Anonymous said: “Homework is a good way for teachers to evaluate how each student is understanding the material being taught.”
Is it? A few days ago, I spent about 30 minutes teaching my 4th grader exponents because he either didn’t get it in class or the teacher didn’t cover them thoroughly before assigning the homework. My wife spent 1 to 2 hours leading him through a book report this weekend, typing at the keyboard while prompting through almost every sentence of the report (this is the first time for a full book report). The end result in no way shows what the student learned or was capable of from what he was taught in school.
Why were we so involved? Because in both cases our son was in tears when he didn’t know how to proceed. Other than being left wondering whether my son is in too high of a math class or homework is being assigned that hasn’t been covered in class (against county policy), I at least felt good that my son did learn from the math. But the book report left me very uncomfortable with the level of our involvement. Writing and analysis skills a definitely good, but I just don’t think 9 year olds are capable of the organization skills needed to independently write a full book report. And the teacher will never learn that if every other parent did what we did (and I’d guess most do; the students whose parents don’t will end up getting downtracked).
My favorite teacher this year? One of my 8th grader’s teachers who said that any assignment (including tests) is eligible for extra credit if the student goes back and corrects mistakes after they are graded and that he’s available any time to help with questions, including email on the weekends.
To him, the most important thing is that his students come out of class having learned the material (or at least had the opportunity to do so).
October 5th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
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Matthew: And isn’t so hard to resist teaching it to them? I was confronted with that this weekend with math as well. Find the perimeter and the area…I know how, but the child apparently does not. Am I supposed to teach it? Apparently not because the child is supposed to have covered this, but she doesn’t have a clue.
We left it undone. My daughter was mad at me for not helping.….….great.
And my question is…what if the parent doesn’t know how to do the task? What then?
October 5th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
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You know, one reason for a homework moratorium is that it would force schools to confront how much teaching they actually do. Schools in “good” districts routinely outsource the actual teaching to parents, as PsychMom and Matthew describe, and as I experienced myself.
It’s not reasonable to expect an elementary school student to teach herself math out of a textbook at home. This is where Mom and Dad step in and do the teaching that should have been done at school, during the day, when the child was still reasonably fresh.
October 5th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
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“Should homework be banned at all local schools?“I think that teachers and students have both had enough with all of the homework being given to students.Teachers have lives out of school to and barely have enough time to grade schoolwork let alone homework,students have lives also and balancing school and sports to the best of their ability is hard even if they try their hardest sometimes they just can’t cope with all of the work being given.Most people don’t have to do sports to not be able to keep up with homework but people also play instruments and need to practice for shows and recidals.“I play piano,play basketball,softball,and soccer to get in shape and sometimes i show up to school with no homework because i had a game or practice or even lessons that night.“As you can tell people just like me all over the world are suffering for this but in a sports is a plus because you can actually go to college for any sport.“I wish every night to be able to go to college for basketball because i love the sport so much.“I hope though that us students and teachers can change the schools into making us have so much homework or better yet any homework at all.I hope you can post this for and informational term towards schools and children all over the country.
–Ali Nickley
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:12 am
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A percent of people said that “homework should be banned”.Another said that “Home is for family not homework”
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:28 am
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i think that homework makes it hard for kids to do outside of school activitys!
for example my girl takes ballet and is really intoo it. but she had so much homework one day that she couldnt go and she was up late. the next day at school she could hardly stay awake!
this is ridiculous!
January 6th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
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homework is stressful and doesnt even have a point!
February 23rd, 2010 at 6:14 pm
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school is bad enough but not that bad. but.…. school + homework equalsAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SCHOOL AND HOMEWORK STINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 23rd, 2010 at 6:17 pm
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Where can i find the review article “The Effectiveness of Homework”?
February 25th, 2010 at 11:54 am
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I HATE HOMEWORK IT HARD & WE & WE GET LOT OF IT. One of the things that has stressed me has been the amount of homework given to children during vacation time.
February 28th, 2010 at 9:04 am
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homework is hard & no one likes hw, all the people are right about wath they said about hw & if we forget to do our hw we would get in to a huge trouble. our parent would ground if they heard that we didn’t do our hw & got into a huge trouble.PLEASE STOP HW.
IAM FROM IRELAND.
February 28th, 2010 at 9:15 am
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