Last week, a student trustee to the Toronto, Canada, District School Board proposed placing a moratorium on homework for the five days before final exams, according to an article in The Toronto Star. The School Board’s program committee endorsed the idea and will gather feedback from students and staff before sending it to the fullContinue reading “High Schools in Toronto, Canada, Consider Homework Ban Before Exams”
Author Archives: Sara Bennett
Guest Blogger: Let’s Help Academia Do What Can Be Done
Today’s guest blogger is Robert McCay, a retired community mental health psychiatrist from Philadelphia who has published articles on schools, reading, child-rearing, and psychiatry. Last summer, I contacted Dr. McCay after I read a letter he had written to the editor in USA Today, and we’ve had several interesting conversations about schooling since then. IfContinue reading “Guest Blogger: Let’s Help Academia Do What Can Be Done”
High School Students Admit they Cheat to Get Their Homework Completed
According to an article in the Bethesda, Maryland, Walt Whitman High School newspaper, of the 500 Whitman students surveyed, 70 percent admitted to cheating on a test, and 95 percent admitted to copying homework. One of the students is quoted as saying, “I consider copying homework to be cheating yourself, but I do not considerContinue reading “High School Students Admit they Cheat to Get Their Homework Completed”
The Power of Play
Here’s a wonderful interview conducted by Diane Rehm with David Elkind, author of the new book, The Power of Play. It’s 50 minutes long and definitely worth listening to.
Petition Calls for Dismantling of NCLB
Click here to sign on to a petition calling for the dismantling of the No Child Left Behind Act. You can also share your own comments about NCLB and learn about anti-testing groups around the country.
Listen Up Defenders of Homework: Our Children Are Spending More Time On Homework Than You Think
The other day I stumbled across a blog where the blogger agreed with the Washington Post critique of The Case Against Homework that students these days just aren’t doing that much homework. The readers of that blog took the blogger to task, describing in depth the amount of time their children are spending on homework.Continue reading “Listen Up Defenders of Homework: Our Children Are Spending More Time On Homework Than You Think”
Washington Post Education Reporter Writes that The Case Against Homework is About the Benefits of TV Watching
In November, education reporter Jay Mathews criticized The Case Against Homework in The Washington Post, stating, “I was surprised to find these good people trying to get away with hyperbole and incomplete data unworthy of them.” He devotes a good part of that article to arguing that school children these days do no more homeworkContinue reading “Washington Post Education Reporter Writes that The Case Against Homework is About the Benefits of TV Watching”
The Grinch that Stole the Christmas Vacation
Writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper is a great way to keep the problems with homework in the public eye. Here’s an inspiring letter I saw in the Westchester, New York, Journal News from a parent fed up with holiday homework. Homework over holiday? Humbug! The Grinch that stole Christmas isContinue reading “The Grinch that Stole the Christmas Vacation”
Homework Holiday Woes: Part 2
A parent of a tenth grader who goes to a public school in Brooklyn, New York, wrote to me about her son’s homework over the break. Since Christmas fell on a Monday this year, New York City public school students only had 10 days off from school (including Christmas and New Year’s Day and 2Continue reading “Homework Holiday Woes: Part 2”
Homework Holiday Woes: Part 1
Over the Christmas break, I heard from many parents and students about their homework woes. I can’t possibly tell all the stories, but over the next few days, I’ll describe a few. (If you have a story, you’d like to share, either email it to me or post in the forums.) One ninth grader attendsContinue reading “Homework Holiday Woes: Part 1”
Stop Homework 