Stop Homework

Moms (and Dads) on a Mission: Gray Summit, Missouri

Today’s “Mom on a Mission” is Krisi Repp, a mother of three from Gray Summit, Missouri, with students in public elementary, middle, and high schools. A stay-at-home mother for the past 12-1/2 years, Krisi recently returned to work part-time. Here is a letter she wrote to all of her children’s teachers, right before the beginning of the school year. In an upcoming post, she will tell you about the responses she received.

Letter to Teachers in Elementary, Middle, and High School
by Krisi Repp

Hello there. I hope things are going well for you. Please understand, this letter is not being written with the intent of causing problems or to insult you as a teacher or as a school district. Instead, I hope to simply communicate my feelings regarding the subject of homework. I know that if I feel this way, there are numerous other families that feel the same way, who are not speaking out. This letter is being sent out to all of my three kid’s teachers and I understand that it may not be relevant to each of you.

As a very busy mother, it frustrates me to schedule time for homework. I have been told homework is designed to promote “quality time” at home and/or to prepare our children for their “future”. When I consider both reasons, I totally disagree! My thoughts… I feel the best quality time my kids can spend after already putting in a full “work” day, is to have time for whatever our family interests may be. I have a great interest in the health of my children and find it absurd to tell them to sit down and do their homework when they could be going outside to play (healthy exercise). They’ve already been sitting most of the day. And we wonder why many kids are overweight! As far as preparing for their “future”… after combining their full day at school and homework, both a full time college student and a full-time employee get more free time “after hours”, than school age children!

Another problem is that many kids are missing out on well-needed sleep for their health. Getting home after 3 or 4 p.m. makes it challenging to squeeze in everything and still get to bed at a decent hour. Family schedules include most, or all of the following after a full day of school…. have a snack, complete household chores (a real way of raising responsible kids and preparing them for their future), practice of a hobby or of a sport (fun/healthy exercise), dinner and clean up, attend a school or church event, time for family and/or friends, shower, etc. After, or somewhere in between, we are to find time for homework and still get our kids to bed at a reasonable hour! (Some kids need help with homework and have parents who don’t get home from work until 5-7 p.m. These parents may only get 2 hours a night with their kids, and why should any of that precious time be spent on more schoolwork)? Kids need between 8–10 hours of sleep each night, and mine start getting up as early as 5:30 a.m. Sure makes it hard to accomplish everything on our family plate, even without homework needing to be squeezed in!

My heart also goes out to you as a teacher! You too have already put in an even longer workday. Why should you be expected to spend less family time, etc. due to homework?

In ending, my opinion is that school time should be school time and home time should be home time. I do not agree with home time becoming more school time! My kids have already been away from home, at school, for 8 hours! That’s enough school time. They should be all mine after school.

Thank you for understanding my feelings. I appreciate any attempt you can make to filter out “busy” work that may be normally given as homework to my children.

New Study: Piling on Homework Doesn’t Work

According to a study released in mid-August by researchers at Binghamton University and the University of Nevada, math homework may not be useful for average achieving students. While it may help high and low achievers, homework for the bulk of students is a waste of time. Here’s what the press release states:

Published in the July issue of the Econometrics Journal, researchers found that although assigning more homework tends to have a larger and more significant impact on mathematics test scores for high and low achievers, it is less effective for average achievers.

“We found that if a teacher has a high achieving group of students, pushing them harder by giving them more homework could be beneficial,” said Daniel Henderson, associate professor of economics at Binghamton University. “Similarly, if a teacher has a low ability class, assigning more homework may help since they may not have been pushed hard enough. But for the average achieving classes, who may have been given too much homework in an attempt to equate them with the high achieving classes, educators could be better served by using other methods to improve student achievement. Given these students’ abilities and time constraints, learning by doing may be a more effective tool for improvement.”

According to co-author Ozkan Eren, assistant professor of economics at the University of Nevada, the study examined an area previously unexplored, namely the connection between test scores and extra homework.
Continue reading “New Study: Piling on Homework Doesn’t Work”

Guest Blogger: A High School Student Speaks Out

The school year has just started and I’ve been inundated with letters from students, mostly high schoolers, who are crying out for help. I’ve run pieces by students in the past, but I intend to run even more this school year. I hope their words will move you to action.

Today’s entry is by Abigail Chao, a senior at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. In her own words, “She is the owner of a 4.0/4.0 GPA, founder of one of the largest clubs on campus, and a varsity tennis player. She is a near-perfect product of the education system. She is drowning.”

Too Busy to Dream
by Abigail Chao

Tell me if this is healthy.

Over Labor Day weekend, my hometown throws a carnival. Instead of going, I spent Saturday sleeping till noon, and then started homework. Instead of watching a movie with a friend, I went to bed at 8:30pm because I was still so tired. On Sunday, I spent over five hours trying to make a dent in one homework assignment – reading Aristotle’s Ethics. Admittedly, I spend a couple hours at a sweet sixteen party, but I left early to work. I didn’t finish Ethics until well into Monday, and then I started my other homework – physics, computer science, English, etc.

It’s okay though, right? I’m a senior at one of the best high schools in the nation. I’m supposed to be working hard.

Now tell me if this is healthy.

Over Labor Day weekend, a family with young children is going to their town’s carnival. But the father has work to do. He stays up late Friday night after work to get a little ahead, but then sleeps in until noon; he’s exhausted from sleep debt over the week. He starts working again so he can join his wife and kids later, but by eight o’clock he’s too tired…

I won’t continue the analogy because I think my point is pretty obvious. The kind of rigor that is routinely demanded from students is outrageous in the context of working adults. And it’s not just the stereotypical overworked father – it’s the college grad who works 80 hours a week too. If anyone is wondering why Americans are such workaholics, I’d say that homework has something to do with it.

As students, we are told to put school first. We must do our homework before we hang out with friends, play sports, or just relax. That time at the mall could have been better spent hitting the books. If your grades are dropping, the first thing you do (or your parents make you do) is quit your extracurriculars. Never mind that it’s pointless to spend an hour entering data into Excel, that social skills are more important than academic abilities will ever be, that America is struggling against obesity.

I know that the stress of projects and homework has gotten ridiculous when going to class is relaxing in comparison. I know something is wrong when I explain why I don’t have “me time” except maybe my shower. I know our priorities are out of whack when we hardly hear the answer to “How are you?” but we show that our genuine interest by asking, “Were you productive?”

Does anyone notice that there is a generation of brilliant minds drowning in homework?

Sometimes, I dream about what I’d do with the extra time. I can’t promise it’d be all “productive,” but I’d play more tennis. I’d get published. I’d learn another language. I’d start a business. I’d just… breathe.

In Memoriam: Kate McReynolds

My very good friend, Kate McReynolds, died last Friday after a year-long struggle with lung cancer. I became friends with Kate after I interviewed her for The Case Against Homework. During my interview, I was struck by how incredibly articulate she was. In fact, although all of the professionals I interviewed for the book–and there were dozens–were articulate, Kate was in a class by herself. I had never met anyone who talked in perfect paragraphs. But it wasn’t just that that attracted me to her. She was my age, like me had two children, lived in New York, and everything she talked about in the interview was something I had thought about before, but had never quite put together in the same way.

When the book was completed, I called Kate and invited her to lunch. I wasn’t expecting a friendship; she was just someone I knew I wanted to talk to more and someone I thought I might be interested in working with in the future. Over the next year and a half, we met often, talked incessantly, and became friends. And then, she was diagnosed with lung cancer.

I spent a lot of wonderful time with Kate this past year, and I’m going to miss her tremendously. I will miss her open-heartedness, infectious laugh, incredible intellect, her insights, and so much more. In a New York Times piece titled Perhaps Death Is Proud; More Reason to Savor Life, a new nurse reflects:

Go home, love your children, try not to bicker, eat well, walk in the rain, feel the sun on your face and laugh loud and often, as much as possible, and especially at yourself. Because the only antidote to death is not poetry, or drama, or miracle drugs, or a roomful of technical expertise and good intentions. The antidote to death is life.

That reflection sums up perfectly what I would say I learned from Kate this past year. And that’s an incredible gift.

In Kate’s last article, “Children’s Happiness,” published in the Spring 2008 issue of Encounter Magazine: Education for Meaning and Social Justice where she was Associate Editor, she wrote:

If we were to look squarely at the ordinary unhappiness of just one child–that is, if we pondered it until we had achieved the deepest understanding of his or her experience–what would happen? I believe that, like my son’s middle school teacher, we might be brought to tears. We might recognize that forces behind our own unhappiness, how we ourselves have suffered from unremitting pressure to make the grade and the subsequent narrowing of all that was meaningful to us. If we then let compassion overtake us, we might do something remarkable. We might, for example, take a leave of absence to give ourselves more time in the present. We might adopt a more modest lifestyle that balances work with devotion to our deepest values. We might, in other words, decide that the happiness children naturally seek is the most important thing in life–for them and for ourselves as well.

Moms (and Dads) on a Mission: Plumsted, New Jersey

I’ve been hearing from a lot of parents (mostly moms), who sent letters to their children’s teachers and/or principals in the hopes of starting a dialogue about homework. I hope the letters, which I will be posting off and on, will inspire you to also start a dialogue in your community.

The first letter is by Diane Hewlett-Lowrie, who has worked for 20 years in a variety of environmental education positions in Scotland and the U.S. and she currently lives in New Jersey. You can read Diane’s earlier guest blog entries here and here.

Diane’s son’s second-grade teacher explained the weekly homework in a newsletter to the parents:

“Students will act as news reporters and choose a subject to write about. They may gather information from a variety of sources such as TV, the Internet, magazines, or personal experiences. Students will compose a short report in their own words to read aloud to the class during Weekly News Presentations on Thursdays. The forms will be given out on Monday and will be due in class on Wednesday (2 days to complete) doe proofing. The reports should include a picture (drawn and colored by the student, a photo or clipping) on the back with a caption.”

In addition to the above assignment, the second graders have daily math, spelling, reading, and reading logs.

Diane wrote the following letter to the new principal of the school.

Letter to the Principal
From Diane Lowrie

Welcome to our School District!

I am the mother of one of your new 2nd-graders and look forward to a productive and fulfilling year.

First, the good stuff! I work for “Parks” as a regional educator/interpreter. This means I am a resource for the state park naturalists and historians and help them with planning, exhibits, festivals, program development and also provide training opportunities for them. I also have the flexibility to work, on a limited basis, with schools on environmental programs. Last year, I brought Woodsy Owl and 400 tree seedlings to the Primary School, taught an after-school program about worms and composting, and helped out the summer camp with programs on birds and birding. With the anticipated passing of the national “No Child Left Inside Act” (which encourages more environmental education in schools), I just wanted to let you know that I can serve as a resource, or a conduit for other resources regarding environmental education should you need it. (I was also a second grade teacher in Jersey City!)

Continue reading “Moms (and Dads) on a Mission: Plumsted, New Jersey”

Guest Bloggers get Media Attention in their Own Communities

If you’re a regular visitor to Stop Homework, you know that I often write about what parents are doing in their own communities to challenge homework policies and practices or, better yet, have parents write about their experiences themselves. Many journalists visit Stop Homework to get ideas for stories, and they ask me to put them in touch with my guest bloggers. The journalists then write articles which spur more parents to take up the issue. So please remember to let me know what you’re doing.

Here are wonderful stories about guest bloggers, Frank Bruni of Toronto, Canada, and Kerry Dickinson of Danville, California, both of whom were frequent guest bloggers last year. Kerry was also featured on a local NBC11.com show (Click on “Parents wonder how much homework is too much” in the category sidebar) and is about to be interviewed for a piece in Parenting Magazine.

In the upcoming school year, they will keep us informed of how the new policies are working. You can read Frank Bruni’s guest blog entries here and here and here. You can read Kerry Dickinson’s guest blog entries here and here and here.

New York City Begins Standardized Testing of Kindergartners

New York City has come up with a new plan–to give standardized tests, some as long as 90 minutes, to kindergartners. Earlier this week, the New York Daily News ran my op-ed opposing the idea.

Mayor’s plan fails our kids
BY SARA BENNETT

Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to give standardized tests to students in kindergarten through second grade is pure folly. It’s bad enough that students in third grade, at age 8, undergo high-stakes testing. To start down that path with 5-year-olds is insane.

Bloomberg, in blasting critics of his plan, says, “It’s not easy to test a 5-year-old. But the alternative of not testing a 5-year-old is an outrage.”

Bloomberg has it backward. It’s testing that’s the outrage.

Testing isn’t only useless, it’s harmful. Any parent of a 5-year-old knows this. If the mayor had spoken to parents, he would know, as parents or early child educators know, that young kids simply can’t sit still for a 90-minute test. Nor would the results be very accurate.

The mother of a child starting kindergarten at a midtown public school tomorrow told me that the mayor’s plan is “ridiculous.”

“Call any random person in the city,” she says, “and they’ll tell you no 5-year-old can do that.” She’s right – young children can barely sit still for five or 10 minutes at a time. That’s why good teachers are always changing activities, kids get time to play and teachers ask the children to stand up for a few minutes and “get out the wigglies.”
Continue reading “New York City Begins Standardized Testing of Kindergartners”

Canadian Elementary School Bans Homework

Welcome back to Stop Homework.

And what better way to start off the school year than with encouraging news from an elementary school in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, north of Toronto, which just banned homework. Among the reasons:

Read about it here.

With a lot of hard work on our part, we can get other schools and districts to follow suit.

In upcoming posts, I’ll let you know what parents are doing in their communities to change the tide.

Highlights of the School Year 2007-2008

I won’t be posting again until September, but I will be answering email, so please feel free to write me with your questions, concerns, and requests for speaking engagements. If you’re looking for an end-of-the-year gift for your children’s teachers, consider giving The Case Against Homework. When teachers and administrators read it, they think about, and change, their homework practices.

This school year, Stop Homework received funding and became affiliated with The Alliance for Childhood. Through Stop Homework, I’ve been interviewed for dozens of publications and radio and TV shows in the U.S., Canada, South America, and Europe; I’ve spoken with hundreds of parents and educators and helped many of them advocate for change in their communities; I’ve organized meetings among heads of schools to start dialogues on homework reform; and I’ve helped educators figure out ways to change their policies. If you need help of any kind, be sure to let me know.

Here are just a few the highlights from 2007-2008:

The School District Board in Toronto, Canada, completely overhauled its homework policy and, although it didn’t eliminate homework altogether, it instituted the first family-friendly homework policy in North America. You can read all about it here. Another District north of Toronto, the Simcoe School District, is going to follow suit. The driving force for change in Toronto, Frank Bruni, says that The Case Against Homework inspired him to take action.

The principal of a K-5 school in Glenrock, Wyoming, instituted a successful, year-long, no-homework practice in her school.

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) in England, a union which represents 160,000 teachers debated a motion to abolish homework.

Carl Chew, a Seattle school teacher refused to administer a state standardized test. In North Carolina, Doug Ward did the same. And, in Needham, Massachusetts, a high school principal tried different tactics to alleviate stress.

Parents from Santiago, Chile, to Toronto, Canada, to San Marino, California, to Danviille, California, to the suburbs of Philadelphia wrote about their efforts to change homework policy in their communities.

Students wrote eloquently about their thoughts on homework. You can read some of them here and here and here.

Jay Mathews of The Washington Post, who calls himself “Mr. Homework,” did an about face and recommended the abolition of homework in elementary school.

Despite yet another survey by Scholastic that kids don’t read enough for pleasure (homework is one of the major reasons), and despite pleas by such educators as Nancie Atwell and Teacher Magazine blogger Donalyn Miller that teachers stop killing the love of reading by turning reading into an academic exercise, students across the country are heading into their summer vacations with assigned books, replete with attached mandatory assignments, logs, and creative projects.

Parents: we still have a lot of work to do to change the homework paradigm. I hope you read The Case Against Homework for ideas on what to do and take inspiration from the book and from the stories on this blog.

Enjoy the summer!

Another Scholastic Survey Finds Kids Don’t Do Enough Pleasure Reading

According to a survey released today by Scholastic, many children in the USA are too busy, too distracted and, in some cases, too tired to read books for fun. Schoolwork, homework and the inability to find a book they like keeps most children from doing more than their required school reading. The findings are similar to those released last year by the National Endowment for the Arts, which reported that from 1984 to 2004, the percentage of 17-year-olds who “never or hardly ever” read for fun rose from 9% to 19%. The Scholastic report found that, on average, one in four children read for fun every day and another 40% read for fun at least a few times a week — but 22% rarely, if ever, do. And as kids get older, it finds, the percentage who rarely read for fun grows from 8% to 37%. Read the entire report here.