New Survey: 43 Percent of Parents Have Done Their Kids’ Homework
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?
What would happen if we stopped helping our kids with homework? The kids would get punished at school for their incomplete homework. Then they would become anxious and depressed. (Ask me how I know!) I’m all for homework disobedience, but let’s find a way of going about it that doesn’t hurt our kids.
I think a homework strike would be a great idea, but it has to be well-organized and the parents’ support has to be very clear. It’s not news that kids don’t want to do homework; even people who support homework assume the kids will hate it.
To my dismay, we’re already having problems with homework at the super-expensive Quaker school our daughter is now attending. I’m trying to get an appointment to talk to the teacher and in the meantime I’m trying to calm down and figure out what I need to say. Calm … calm …
September 17th, 2008 at 9:46 am
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FedUpMom writes:
What would happen if we stopped helping our kids with homework? The kids would get punished at school for their incomplete homework.
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You are right. And my daughter WAS punished. She was shy and introverted and was having trouble making friends. So the teacher put all the names of the children who hadn’t done their homework in large letters on the blackboard. This was done to shame them so they wouldn’t dare come to school with homework undone again. Because we know that belittling and humiliating children, the most vulnerable in our society is a powerful motivator. Yea, right… Reminds me of that quip - the beatings will continue until morale improves.
I hear you, FedUpMom. And enough with this punishment. What is this, prison?
So she didn’t do her homework, oh, fair teacher. Get over it!
I’m with Sarah. It’s time for a homework strike.
LBJ
September 18th, 2008 at 12:28 am
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A few years ago, I did stop helping my children with homework. It was hard and I know it frustrated them. Prior to this, I would spend hours a night “helping them” look up answers to problems. We would get into heated debates, finally I would say just write this and give them word for word what I believed was a good answer (a lot of times, the teacher would grade “my” answers wrong). It finally hit me. My kids are very shy and they were not asking their teachers for help during class time. It was easier to ask mom for help at night. If they were un-sure of an answer, they could just ask mom (and then argue with mom if her opinion disagreed with theirs). I told my kids that I had faith in their abilities and that if they had questions, they would have to ask their teacher. I found that once I stopped helping, they didn’t bring home quite so much homework! Still WAY TOO MUCH, but not as much as before.
September 19th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
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My child is in second grade and is a turtle at understanding and doing homework. The average 30 minutes takes my child with help 1 hour or more. Studying for her spelling test, reading, math and extra homework stuff. I was so overwhelmed with keeping her organized, I forgot to make sure she did her math homework. It’s becoming to much.
November 6th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
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As a local board of education member, I initiated a revision of our homework policy after reviewing a large body of research which clearly indicates that homework is NOT an important factor in student achievement. Neither does it stimulate independence, responsibility or build character. These supposed effects are virtually zero for elementary and middle school students and minimal for high schoolers. In addition it places a hugh burden on children with limited ability and/or homes with limited resources. Read the research! Ignore the myth!
November 17th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
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hi I am a kid to I know how it feels to be working on homework all night i’ve did it and I get lack of sleep because of it. I think there should be a no school policy rule because kids do worse in school because they didn’t get enough rest at home and did not get enough time to sleep. If you guys really feel that why don’t you guy just write a strng letter to the district your child goes to exposing the outrage of homework.
November 19th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
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