A Tenth Grader Speaks Out–”My Curiosity and Desire to Learn is Constantly Shrinking” Because of Excessive Homework

About a year ago, I posted a piece by a New York City private school 10th grader, I love School, but it’s Killing Me. I was reminded of her when I received a call from the mother of a New York City 10th grader, whose daughter was spending 6 hours on homework a night and was both sleep deprived and starting to dislike school. The mother let her daughter stay home from school for a few days to catch up on sleep and notified the school that accommodations would be needed so that her daughter’s homework load would be lessened. When it was clear that the school wasn’t interested in reducing its homework load, despite the concerns raised by many students, the 10th grader (with her parents’ approval) decided to withdraw. Here’s the letter she wrote to the school:

A Tenth Grader Speaks Out–”My Curiosity and Desire to Learn is Constantly Shrinking” Because of Excessive Homework

I hope you will understand that I am more comfortable expressing my feelings through this letter than a conversation in your office. Believe me this is a difficult letter to sit down and write. I am devastated by the way things have progressed and yet I know I am making the right decision. I would like to explain my reasons for wanting to leave your New York City private school.

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School for Tomorrow?

Although I am an optimist and believe wholeheartedly that schools will change, especially if parents and students speak up, I can still get discouraged at how slowly things change. So I was thrilled when a reader sent me a link to School for Tomorrow, a new private 6-12 school in Rockville, Maryland, that cites The Case Against Homework in the FAQs discussing the school’s homework policy. Discovering something like that, and a school that is really interested in tapping in to kids’ interests, makes all the work feel worthwhile.

Moms (and Dads) on a Mission – Calgary, Alberta Family Gets to Opt-Out of Homework after a Two-Year Struggle with their Children’s Schools

Almost two years ago, I wrote about Shelli and Tom Milley, the parents of three children in Calgary, Alberta, who were trying to change homework policy and, at the very least, get an opt-out policy for their own children. At that point, the two lawyers had already been discussing the issue with the school for over a year, had gotten the school to appoint a homework committee and had even gotten Shelli as one of the members of the committee. When it was clear the committee wasn’t really going to be very independent, Shelli resigned.

She and her husband, however, continued to seek support for a better homework policy, and were basically a 2-person taskforce of their own, writing letters, enlisting support from community members, teachers, and members of the School Board, and getting advice from Vera Goodman, author of Simply Too Much Homework (and a Calgary resident herself), Jan Olson, the principal of the Barrie, Ontario school I wrote about last week which had eliminated homework, and me.

And now, just yesterday, the Milleys’ tenaciousness paid off. The school finally agreed that their children could opt-out of homework altogether. The Milleys have allowed me to share their opt-out agreement. You can read it here.

Moms (and Dads) on a Mission – Midland Texas – “Finally, We Have Family Time Again.”

Last week, I got an email from Laura Reeger North, a mother of three from Midland, Texas, who was a teacher for five years in an alternative education program before the birth of her last child. Laura, who gave me permission to reprint her emails and use her name, wrote to me last week and told me that, after reading an excerpt from The Case Against Homework, she

found the courage to say ENOUGH. We will no longer be a slave to the threat of a bad grade for not doing meaningless homework over things we have already learned. We will concentrate on learning subject matter and learning the lessons of life we have abandoned along with our family life due to pointless homework.

I have repeatedly been told that my children need to do this homework to learn to follow the rules. There is a much better way to teach them the importance of respect and responsibility through the experiences of family life and having the time to talk and listen to my children. Is this an extreme reaction-maybe.

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Moms (and Dads) on a Mission – Austin, Texas

Today’s post is by Cynthia Schultz, a a former teacher with a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and concentrations in English and Special Education. She was educated and taught in Minnesota, one of the few states where she feels education still matters. A single mom by choice, with a daughter she adopted from Kazakhstan in 2003, Cynthia’s 8-year-old daughter attends one of the top public elementary schools in the city. Cynthia says, “I have great respect for the principal and the teachers but refuse to believe they’re omniscient.”

I Got the Principal To Move My Daughter to a Second-Grade Class with a More Flexible Teacher
by Cynthia Schultz

For the first time all year, my daughter got off the bus smiling on Wednesday. Not the manic “I got my way” or “I’m so special” smile but the smile of an 8 year old who had a good day.

A happy smile may seem small but it was the culmination of 9 weeks of pain, frustration, tears, accusations, meetings and more meetings, doubts, fears, promises (broken and kept), and meltdowns (not all of them my daughter’s).

From the first, I felt that my daughter’s classroom assignment was wrong for her. The teacher was very controlling, causing my daughter to rebel. She came home with 40 – 50 math problems per night, 20 spelling words

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Needham High School Parents’ Thoughts on Homework

I’ve written about Needham, Massachusetts, high school in this blog before (here and here) and last spring I posted an interview with the outgoing principal, Paul Richards, who had taken numerous steps to reduce stress at the school.

In June, the school released the results of its homework survey of parents. A question on the survey asked if the time students spent on homework was “not enough,” “too much,” “about right” or “don’t know.” Out of the total number of parents who responded to the survey, the largest percentage, 42 percent, felt “too much” time was spent on homework. 38 percent of parents felt the amount of homework was “just right.” Sixteen percent felt there was “not enough” time spent on homework, while 4 percent selected “don’t know.”

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Another School With an Opt-Out Policy

I am always looking for schools that have homework opt-out policies, but they seem to be few and far between. Last November, I posted a link to a school in Australia with an opt-out policy.

A reader who has been trying to get opt-out policies at her children’s Alberta schools recently sent me a link to an Alberta school with an opt-out policy.

It reads:

St. Andrew’s School staff and school council spent considerable time reviewing homework. The dialogue was in depth and revealed many ideas and points of view both with staff and with parents.

As a school community, we came to the following understanding. Parents are the prime educators for their children, and as such have important responsibilities as to the personal and educational growth of their children. Thus parents must decide what is in the best interest of their children in regards to home work.

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Why “Race to the Top” will Fail

My favorite education blogger, Susan Ohanian, posted a link to this wonderful piece by Marion Brady in the Washington Post.

The One Reason Duncan’s “Race to the Top Will Fail
By Marion Brady
November 4, 2009

When “Race to the Top” fails, as it will, the main reason won’t be any of those currently being advanced by the corporate interests and politicians now running the education show.

It won’t fail because of lack of academic rigor, poor teaching, weak administrators, too-short school year, union resistance, differing state standards, insufficient performance incentives, sorry teacher training, or lingering traces of the early-20th Century Progressive movement.

It will fail primarily for a reason not even being mentioned by leaders of today’s reform effort: A curriculum adopted in 1893 that grows more dysfunctional with each passing year. Imagine a car being driven down a winding rural road with all the passengers, including the driver, peering intently out the back window.

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Hooray (again) for Canada – Simcoe County District in Ontario Implements Decent New Homework Policy

In April, I wrote about a school in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, which, after eliminating most homework, found that students were more engaged and less tired and teachers were more focused. Now, the County District in which that school is located, Simcoe, just instituted a new district-wide homework policy.

Some of the things that I particularly like about the policy:

  • the homework must be differentiated
  • teachers must keep to a minimum the number of assignments that are due the following day so as not to interfere with extra curricular activities and “activities that support personal and family wellness”
  • homework shouldn’t be due immediately after holidays, significant faith days, or lengthier school breaks (December or March Break)
  • group projects must be worked on at school during the school day

Read the policy here.

And a big congratulations to the principal, Jan Olson of Barrie, Ontario’s Prince of Wales elementary school, who started homework reform in his District.

Moms (and Dads) on a Mission – More from Halifax, Nova Scotia

Today’s guest blogger, the mother of a second grader, lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She holds a masters degree in psychology and works full time doing psychometric testing of adults. She has written two previous entries here and here.

Why Homework Doesn’t Work
by Psych Mom

I’ve become a believer in the last year that homework is not the way to go. Despite this, my 8 year old started Grade 3 this year and serious homework is a part of that at our school. We parents got the schedule from the teacher of when various tasks were being assigned and when that’s all due, the implication being that we would be monitoring and reminding, I guess. It was expressly written that the work is the child’s responsibility. It was not expressly implied what my duties were but informing me, I assume, is tantamount to making me a part of it all. This weekend I knew there were things my child had to do for math homework. She never talked about them….the sheets sat on top of her binder all weekend. Sunday afternoon, against my better judgment, I suggested that she get those sheets and we’d take a look. She did. This is how it unfolded. It wasn’t pretty and I freely admit that it was all, my fault. I am not a good teacher.

She couldn’t read all of the instructions….she needed me to read some of the words. She only read the top part….nothing of the bottom of the page instructions. The instructions were confusing because she was to make a
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