Stop Homework

I would put this article on reading from Fresno Pacific University on all teachers “must-read” list:

Does Speeding Make Good Reading?
By Rene’ Mendel Lebsock

Imagine parents watching their child take his or her first steps. It’s an exciting time! No one is concerned about the beginner’s slow, cautious pace, or the numerous tumbles as the child increases walking distance. In fact, it is common knowledge that children cannot learn to walk without falling down repeatedly. This, of course, makes for less than perfect walking, but soon gives way to success.

Now, imagine this same scenario, but instead of celebrating, the parent takes out a stop watch and announces, “According to the National Board of Gross Motor Development, now that you have reached the age of 13 months, you should be able to walk eight steps in 30 seconds. Next week we will have to increase that to 15 steps in 45 seconds. If not, you will be classified as a below basic toddler who is likely to be an ineffective walker by the time you grow up.”

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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.

Dear Sara,

I teach first grade and give homework only for math and reading and occasionally science and social studies. I give it because the district says we have to. The kids have been there for 6 hours. Why do they need more work when they get home? When I get home I want to relax, make dinner, enjoy my family and exercise but instead I have to help, organize and reteach things….that is ridiculous….i am very stressed and I think it is unfair…..

How can we change things here in Miami?

Signed,

A frustrated teacher

You’d think that the thoughtful and lengthy letter Diane Hewlett-Lowrie sent to her son’s second-grade teacher would have warranted an equally thoughtful reply, or, at the very least, opened up an interesting conversation.

Instead, Diane received nothing but a curt email reply. The teacher thanked her for expressing her concerns and told Diane that, according to the principal, homework couldn’t be modified without an Individual Education Plan [usually developed for Special Education students]. The teacher further stated that she had already made concessions for “[Diane's son's] time management difficulties” (allowing him to combine his 8 spelling words into less than 8 sentences), and that she would make no further changes.

Diane emailed back requesting a face-to-face meeting with the teacher and the principal. The teacher has agreed to set this up.

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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In The Case Against Homework, and every month in the first year of this blog, I suggested that parents send a note on the first Monday of every month to either a teacher or school administrator and express their frustrations. If parents took this simple action, the homework problem would become too big to ignore and we’d stop hearing that homework is a problem that affects only a few vocal families.

I have decided to revive that suggestion again this year.

This Monday, October 6, is the first Monday of the month. I hope you’ll send a note to your children’s teachers or, perhaps, to a school administrator or School Board member. Even better, join with a few friends and send a collective note. Ask for a public discussion of the problem. Ask the school to be responsive. If you need help in formulating a note, look in The Case Against Homework for some examples, or see the kinds of notes parents have been writing by browsing Moms (and Dads) on a Mission on this blog. If you do send a note, please post a comment and send me a copy of your letter. And if you get a response from the teacher or school, please let us know that as well.

If the increased traffic to this website and volume of email I receive is any indication, we are about to reach a tipping point.

I read a profile of David Boies, the lawyer who represented Al Gore in Bush v. Gore, and I couldn’t help but long for the days when children were allowed to be children and to develop at their own rates. Boies, who grew up in the 1940s, is one of the most famous trial attorneys in the United States, was dyslexic, didn’t learn to read until third grade, worked in construction after high school, and later decided to go to college for a 2-year certification program. He then decided to go to law school.

What would happen to a kid like Boies today? Peg Tyre examines that very question in her new book The Trouble With Boys. You can also read her article, Struggling School-Age Boys, in Newsweek.

Here’s an excerpt from Boies’s profile, which is in Super Lawyers.

Boies spent his first 13 years in tiny Marengo, Ill. “On the way to Iowa on U.S. Highway 20,” he says. He was the oldest of five children whose parents were school teachers. Boies describes himself as “kind of normal,” but dyslexic. The condition was largely unknown in the 1940s, but nobody cared much that he didn’t learn to read until he was in third grade. “There was no academic pressure, and reading was not a particularly highly prized talent for little boys,” Boies says. “Boys who did well in school weren’t all that popular.” His parents were patient and supportive, he says, and “I was pretty good at thinking and talking, so I could get by.”

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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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