Moms (and Dads) on a Mission–Readington, New Jersey Dad Discusses the Trouble with Internet Based Homework

Here’s an email I received from John Painter, the editor of readingtonparents.blogspot.com. You can read John’s earlier guest blog entry here.

The Trouble with Internet Based Homework
by John Painter

My latest entry on

Moms (and Dads) on a Mission–Chicago, Illinois

Here’s a letter Caroline Moellering of Chicago, Illinois sent to her first-grade son’s co-teachers at his private Catholic school when she learned that the teachers would be assigning weekend homework. When her older daughter was in the same school, there was no weekend homework.

Please Don’t Assign Weekend Homework to First Graders
by Caroline Moellering

Dear first grade co-teachers in a downtown Chicago Catholic school,

Thanks for your quick response to my email. I feel compelled to further question the decision to mandate weekend homework so please bear with me.

My concern is that you indicated in your announcement that there would be homework “most Fridays”. The qualifier ‘most’ to me indicates a pretty great percentage of the time, ~90% in my view. I am hoping you will consider reversing this new mandate to ‘rarely, if ever’ or ‘never’. Currently there is much discussion by educators about the value of homework for children, particularly in the younger grades. There is also concern that children are suffering because one of the most valuable conponents of early childhood development, play, is not occuring as children’s time is being eaten up by the over-prescription of homework. Also sacrificed are opportunities to spend quality time with parents and siblings in activities the family unit finds engaging. This could be travel or outings but can also be as simple as cooking a meal together or going for a walk. Finally, children are increasingly suffering from stress and stress-related issues as educators expect more and more of children at younger ages.

Continue reading “Moms (and Dads) on a Mission–Chicago, Illinois”

Get A DVD of the Stressed Out Students’ Conference

I just watched the DVD of the Fall, 2008, Stressed Out Students conference, with keynote speeches by David Elkind, author of The Hurried Child and The Power of Play, Dr. Ken Ginsburg, author of A Parent’s Guide to Building Resilience in Children and Teens, Dr. Madeline Levine, author of The Price of Privilege, and Denise Clark Pope, author of Doing School. There are also 3 student speakers–2 highschoolers, and one college sophomore.

A parent from Calgary, Canada, recently told me that she was able to persuade the committee studying homework at her school to listen to the podcast interviews of Harris Cooper, Alfie Kohn, John Buell, and me at Senior Dad, before the committee begins to rewrite policy–a brilliant tactic, in my opinion.

For the same purpose, I would suggest getting copies of the DVD of the Stressed Out Students conference. Or, you could host a get-together in your community, watch it, and figure out a strategy for reducing school stress. (For ideas, read The Case Against Homework.) The DVD is under 2 hours, costs $4, and is very compelling. You can order a copy of the DVD here.

An Australian Teenager Speaks Out

Dear Sara,

I am 14 and homework burdens me ridiculously.

Below is a timeline of how overburdened today’s high school students are. Showing this to people (you have permission to alter or use it) may show them how packed everything is. Some details may differ from student to student but it is still reasonably accurate:

7:00–get up
7:30–leave for bus
Approx 8:15–arrive at school
3:00–leave school
3:30–get home; start homework
6:00–finish homework; eat dinner
6:30–finish dinner and go to sport/other activity
8:00–arrive home and do chores
8:15–finish chores and have “family time” ):
Relax or leisure until bed

As you can see, it’s pretty packed. You may not notice, but I haven’t even included a possible part-time job, social activities OR anything else.

The problem is that we just can’t fit anything more into everyday

I also believe part of the problem is that we get all the assignments at the same time

I don’t know how it is for you Americans but in Australia year 7 is HELL. We have primary and high school (Primary k-6), students are pounded and I have been pushed to breaking point.

Please keep up your efforts.

Moms (and Dads) on a Mission: Danville Mom Doesn’t Stop

Readers of this blog are, at this point, pretty familiar with the work of Kerry Dickinson, a mother from Danville, California, who, last year, got her school district to reevaluate its homework policy and institute a new one. You can read Kerry’s earlier guest blog entries here and here and here.

This year, Kerry, concerned about a new school program which would have made students finish uncompleted homework during lunchtime, wrote a letter to her school at the beginning of the year. The upshot: the program was immediately turned into a voluntary, as opposed to mandatory, program.

The program was called Zeros Aren’t Permitted (ZAP), and was explained to the parents: “When a student arrives at school without their homework done they will be ZAPPED or assigned to get the assignment finished during lunchtime by their classroom teachers. Like it or not, in real life we are not able to just chose not to complete assignments or fulfill our responsibilities. Our goal is to not allow students to fall behind by not completing crucial assignments which may lead to failure.”

Here’s Kerry’s response.

Lunchtime Should be Lunchtime
by Kerry Dickinson

After having served on the SRVUSD homework task force last year I am concerned that Charlotte Wood is beginning a program this school year called “ZAP” that will ask children to complete unfinished homework assignments during lunchtime. The “Zeros Aren’t Permitted” or “ZAP” program implies that students will learn responsibility by giving up their lunchtime to complete homework because “like it or not, in real life we are not able to just choose not to complete assignments or fulfill our responsibilities.”

Continue reading “Moms (and Dads) on a Mission: Danville Mom Doesn’t Stop”

Candidate for School Board runs on Reduced-Homework Platform

Nick Caumanns, an independent running for the Surrey School Board near Vancouver, Canada, is running on a platform that excessive homework is detrimental. According to News1130.com, Caumanns, who has seen his own three children struggle with too much homework, argues that too much homework can have negative effects on student health, family life and fitness. “It’s an extension of the school day and particularly when the homework is graded it sort of moves the classroom into your home and they don’t get a break from what they do all day. If we sent our kids to hockey school and for five or six hours they did pushups and skated, when they came home we wouldn’t send them out to the driveway to take shots or go for a run.”

I wish Caumanns a lot of luck, I hope he wins, and I hope he inspires other parents to run for their School Boards.

Moms (and Dads) on a Mission–Suburban Philadelphia: A Private School Listens

Today’s guest blogger, “FedUpMom,” had been advocating for homework reform in her daughter’s public school in suburban Philadelphia. This school year, she decided to try private school for her fifth-grade daughter; she is having more success in getting the school to respond to her concerns. This is FedUpMom’s fourth post; you can read her other entries here, here and here.

A Private School Listens
by FedUp Mom

We fled the public schools last year and enrolled our kids in a private Quaker school with a reputation for being nurturing and child-centered. When my daughter visited the school last year, the teachers were concerned that she seemed withdrawn and depressed. I was hopeful that they understood the issues in her case.

Everything got off to a good start until the beginning of the second full week of school. When I picked my daughter up, she told me that she had been held out of recess because she forgot to do part of her homework! I was furious.

Continue reading “Moms (and Dads) on a Mission–Suburban Philadelphia: A Private School Listens”

From One High School Student to High School Students Everywhere: Let’s Stop the Stress

A few weeks ago, I posted a guest entry by high school student, Alexandra Keehan, who formed a Stunt the Stress club and website at her school. Alexandra is now trying to galvanize students everywhere. I sent out the following email to students who have contacted me or posted comments here. Please pass along Alexandra’s email to any students you think will be interested:

Let’s Stop the Stress
by Alexandra Keehan

My name is Alexandra Keehan, a senior in high school.

Sophmore year of high school was the hardest school year I had gone through yet and prompted me to start a Stunt the Stress club and web site.

The goal is to motivate students to make a change. One way to do that is through working with our educators. School stress can be relieved if we can enlighten and negotiate with teachers. As they say, “the wheel that squeaks gets the grease.”

Another important part in overcoming stress is to have the tools and resources to combat it. Believe it or not there are teachers, parents, and other adults helping our cause. By creating a network and sharing information be can better the situation and find support.

I believe if we work together we can make a difference. If you want to spread stress awareness and be part of the stress-free movement then email me, visit stuntthestress.com, and stay in contact with Sara.

Thanks,

Alexandra Keehan

In Reading, One Size Does Not Fit All

This is not the first time I’m linking to one of my favorite education bloggers, Donalyn Miller. Her most recent column One Size Does Not Fit All: Ways to Make Reading Assignments More Engaging for All Levels of Students addresses the problems of English classes assigning the same novel to the whole class.

One Size Does Not Fit All
by Donalyn Miller

My seventeen-year-old daughter is what we here in Texas call “a long, tall drink of water.” I, on the other hand, have a full-figured glass that has overflowed. When shopping, we laugh when we see clothes sporting tags that claim “one size fits all,” remarking, “Not us!”

Stretch this t-shirt over the ubiquitous practice in reading classrooms of teaching whole-class novels, and you can see that it doesn’t fit most readers.
Continue reading “In Reading, One Size Does Not Fit All”