The National Education Association, in conjunction with Leap Frog, released a report last week detailing the results of a poll of parents of children ages 8-13 and a poll of students ages 11-13. Parents say that in an average week, they help their children with homework 2 hours and 45 minutes or more. Fifty-seven percent of the students say that their parents help them at least 1 hour a night. Here are some of the other results from the survey, which I obtained by calling the National Education Association:
- 79 percent of the 8-13 year olds are doing homework 4 nights a week
- on average, the 8-13 year olds are working between 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 hours a night
- 56 percent of the parents report that their children get more homework today than they did when they were that age
- 39 percent of the parents report that they sometimes or often feel that their children have so much homework that it’s impossible to finish in one night, even with parental help. Sixty-six percent of the parents overall say that they have felt this way at least on occasion
- 26 percent of the parents say that can’t help with homework because it’s too difficult
- 48 percent of the 11-13 year olds say they’ve gone to school with their homework unfinished because it was too difficult
Stop Homework 
Just heard you on the Rutherford show here in Calgary. You’ve NO IDEA how this hits home with many of us in Canada. Thank you SO MUCH for putting a light to this very important subject!!!! My mother taught for the Separate School Board here in Canada for FIFTY YEARS (one of the last to do so) and she DID NOT BELIEVE in homework….she used to say “if I send kids home with homework then I’m not doing MY JOB.”
I swear she is looking down from heaven and smiling because of your book. Thanks for writing it!
Kelly Turner Calgary, Alberta Canada
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