England Should Raise the Starting Age of School to 6, says Cambridge Primary Review

The Cambridge Primary Review, just released its first comprehensive inquiry into English primary education in 40 years. A team of 14 authors relied on, among other things, more than 4000 published sources, both national and international, as well as 28 specially-commissioned research surveys, to write the report.

The conclusion I’m most interested in is the one suggesting raising the starting age of school to age 6. The authors found that introducing children at the age of five into the constraint and discipline of a classroom – a throwback to Victorian days – provided little benefit and could even be harmful. “They are not going to learn to read, write and add up if you have alienated children by the age of four and five,” said Gillian Pugh, chairwoman of the Cambridge Primary Review’s advisory committee.

“That’s the stage at which we are tuning children into learning … If they are already failing by the time they are 4 1/2 or five, then it’s going to be quite difficult to get them back into the system again,” she added.

Sadly, the English government disagreed with the Review and called its conclusions “disappointing” and out of date.

Read the report and the surrounding commentary here.

Moms (and Dads) on a Mission – More from Senior Dad

For three years now, I’ve corresponded every so often with Stan Goldberg, also known as Senior Dad. Stan, who lives in the Bay Area, has his own podcast and has many interviews with educators and other experts that are well worth listening to, including his four-part series on homework, where he interviewed Alfie Kohn, John Buell, Harris Cooper, and me.

A few weeks ago, Stan interviewed me via skype for his new video series. Since he hasn’t written a guest blog entry on this blog for a few years, I asked him to let us know what’s on his mind. Read his previous guest blog entry here.

Senior Dad Speaks Out
by Stan Goldberg

I first started looking at homework when I read your book, The Case Against Homework. It started me down a path that I didn’t expect. Last week we did a video about homework, (posted on YouTube in two parts and in the Homework Briefing Room ), where we discussed our homework breakthrough and your views on homework reform today. That’s not the only good news that I can share with you. Several families at the school my daughter is attending have now embraced homework as the parent’s tool. Armed with homework they are trying different strategies to see what works best for their family and their child. A friend who has a child at another school reports that this year’s second grade teacher told the parents of the class that she is ambivalent about homework. She will continue to issue it but is up to the parents whether the child does it or not. The teacher will not grade homework. No issues either way whether the homework is returned or not.

So I view this as another breakthrough. I find that growing awareness among educators in giving homework as a parent’s tool will ultimately benefit the child. You and I share similar parenting styles. We want our children to be in charge of themselves early on as possible, so that they have comfort in making decisions. Placing a child in charge of his or her own homework is a reasonable step towards those goals.

I believe that the homework reform movement is growing as more people become aware that each child must be treated individually. As more educators embrace this point of view the attitudes towards homework will gain greater momentum.

Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, and his Race to the Top

I was interviewed recently for a New York Magazine article, Homework Tea Party. I really liked the piece and my quotes:

“Duncan’s [Race to the Top] plan is cut from the same cloth as the education policies of the Bush administration,” said Sara Bennett after watching the show from her Park Slope home. “It is misguided, disastrous for schoolchildren, and has no basis in sound research.”

When I googled the reporter, Thaddeus Russell, I came across a piece he wrote a few years ago, contrasting workaholic Bob the Builder with his long ago slacker cohorts, Fred Flinstone and George Jetson.

Read the New York Magazine piece here. Read the Bob the Builder piece here.

And, while I’m on the topic of Arne Duncan, here’s another unflattering piece about him in Edweek.

What to do about Race to the Top? Take a look at Stop National Standards, a group of concerned educators and parents (of which I am one), which came together to figure out ways to be vocal about the harms of standardized testing. We have a campaign, the Say Yes card, which we urge people to print out and leave around their community and schools.

From the Mouth of a Ninth Grader

Dear Sara,

I’ve seen your website, and I just want to say how grateful I am that someone out there besides my friends and I understand how awful homework is and how it really doesn’t help us learn at all.

I’m a freshman at a competitive public high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I’ve always spent large amounts of time on homework; last year, I spent maybe 2 1/2 hours on homework on average. This year, it’s much worse. On good nights, I spend maybe 3 1/2 hours on homework. On especially bad nights, I spend up to 4 1/2 hours doing homework.

All my teachers give horrible amounts of work; my math teacher gives us up to 30 long, complicated math problems, which takes me a while because I’m not particularly good at math, and I check my work because I’m afraid he’ll give us a pop quiz on it the next day. My history teacher gives long, grueling assignments, mostly involving reading long textbook chapters and then doing worksheets on them. My English teacher gives huge amounts of work; we have to memorize 200 vocabulary words a month, complete terribly long essays he grades meticulously, do worksheets on a novel we’re reading exclusively in class, AND read a novel that’s supposed to be read exclusively at home. It’s horrible, because English has always been my favorite subject, and now I dread

Continue reading “From the Mouth of a Ninth Grader”

Billboard Campaign to Opt Out of Testing

I’ve noticed people talking in the Comments about opting out of testing. Take a look at this campaign by the Coalition for Better Education, which urges parents to opt their children out of state testing. (You can contribute a few dollars to the campaign at: Coalition for Better Education, 2424 22nd Avenue, Greeley, CO 80631.) Although this campaign is in Colorado, there’s nothing to stop you from starting a similar campaign in your own state. And, at the very least, you can always keep your own child home on the days that statewide tests are given.

If you’re a teacher, you can follow the lead of Seattle middle school teacher, Carl Chew, who refused last year to administer the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL).

Moms (and Dads) on a Mission – Race to Nowhere

Race to Nowhere, a documentary which looks at the fast-paced, high-stress lives of many of today’s students, is premiering on Saturday, October 10, at the Mill Valley Film Festival. I’ve written about the film before because I’m an Advisor to the film, I appear in the film, I fully support the film, and I think it’s the perfect tool for either starting, or supplementing, a conversation in your community about the numerous problems facing today’s youth.

If you live near Mill Valley, California, you should try to see the film either at Saturday’s premier or on October 18. If you don’t live near Mill Valley, you can view the trailer here. And you can listen to the filmmaker, Vicki Abeles, talk about the movie on BAM! Radio.

I also highly recommend you contact Vicki and set up a screening. Tell her I told you about the film.

The Global Achievement Gap

While I’m recommending books…. I recently read The Global Achievement Gap, by Tony Wagner, an excellent book about the failures of today’s secondary schools and how schools prepare students to memorize facts rather than problem solve. He identifies seven skills necessary to survive in the 21st century: critical thinking and problem solving; collaboration across networks; agility and adaptability; initiative and entrepreneurialism; effective oral and written communication; accessing and analyzing information; and developing curiosity and imagination. He takes “learning walks” through schools, and provides snapshots of school days, both good and bad. I wish every principal would read this book, take a learning walk of her/his own, and then implement many of the wonderful suggestions for ways to engage students in a meaningful way.

New Book: Rethinking Homework

There’s a new homework book, Rethinking Homework: Best Practices that Support Diverse Needs, by Cathy Vatterott, an associate professor of education at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, who calls herself Homework Lady. The first half of the book, which I loved, takes a fresh look at the research on homework and is written in a very accessible way. The second half of the book challenges teachers to rethink their homework policies and suggests ways to make homework more meaningful. Obviously, I would have preferred a book that followed through to the end with its indictment of homework, rather than suggesting ways to improve it, but I understand the author’s desire to appeal to teachers and this book certainly will. And, if teachers follow her advice to differentiate homework, then maybe those parents who don’t wish for homework at all will get that kind of accommodation.

My favorite part of the book is her Bill of Rights for Homework. She suggests that all teachers implement the following 6 “rights”:

1. Children shall not be required to work more than 40 hours a week, when class time is added to homework time.

2. Children shall have the right to homework they can complete without help. If they cannot complete homework without help, children shall be entitled to reteaching or modified assignments.

3. A child’s academic grade shall not be put in jeopardy because of incomplete homework. Children shall be entitled to an in-school or after-school homework support program if they are unwilling or unable to complete work at home.

4. A child’s right to playtime, downtime, and adequate sleep shall not be infringed upon by homework.

5. Parents shall be entitled to excuse their child from homework that the child does not understand or is too tired to finish.

6. Families should be entitled to weekends and holidays free from homework.

Next time you want to give your child’s teacher a gift, how about a collection of books including The Case Against Homework, The Homework Myth, and Rethinking Homework.

A Math Teacher Speaks Out–Why I Stopped Assigning Homework and Am Petitioning for a Homework-Free Week

Today’s guest blogger, Jeff Valure, a math teacher with 12 years’ experience, the last 10 at a public middle school north of New York City, is the father of two boys, one of whom just started nursery school. He’s upset to find out that his local kindergarten assigns homework four nights a week and is “dreading” next year. Jeff has started a petition for a homework-free week to coincide with TV Turn-Off Week at homeworkfree.org.

A Math Teacher Speaks Out – Why I Stopped Assigning Homework and Am Petitioning for a Homework-Free Week
by Jeff Valure

The past few years I’ve been experimenting with my little guinea pigs – er – students. Three years ago I decided that so much time was spent on homework, checking it, reading answers, going over problems, that I would be able to get much more done in class if I did away with it. After all, I get a precious 46 minutes a day with these kids. Do I want to spend that time on bookkeeping or do I want to interact with them in a more educationally profound way? How often do you get to work with the guidance, aid, and encouragement of an “expert” in the field? Why waste that time?

Of course my students are used to homework, they barely grumble when they get an assignment over the weekend. The idea of not having homework is as scary as it is exciting. There are lots of uncertainties. Will they be able to keep up with the coursework? Will their grades be impacted? How will it affect their performance on standardized tests?

Continue reading “A Math Teacher Speaks Out–Why I Stopped Assigning Homework and Am Petitioning for a Homework-Free Week”

Guest Blogger – Homework Is an Elaborate Charade–Lots of Quantity and No Quality

Today’s guest blogger, is FedUp Mom, the mother of a sixth grader who used to attend a public school in suburban Philadelphia and now attends a private Quaker school. FedUp Mom’s sixth post, I Hate Reading Logs has received more comments than any other on this blog. You can read her other five posts here, here, here, here and here.

Homework Is an Elaborate Charade–Lots of Quantity and No Quality
by FedUp Mom

People generally talk about homework in terms of quantity, and it is shocking to see how much time kids are spending on it. But I would like to step back and consider the question of quality.

First of all, if we plan to assign a certain amount of homework every night, we’re already in trouble. This is practically the definition of busywork. “We don’t know what schoolwork would be useful for kids to do every night, but we’ll make sure and assign 10 minutes per grade level of this stuff, whatever it might be.” The theory is that 10 minutes per grade level per night will create “good study habits”, but it’s crazy to expect kids to learn good study habits in the absence of anything worth studying.

Continue reading “Guest Blogger – Homework Is an Elaborate Charade–Lots of Quantity and No Quality”