Stop Homework

One of my favorite education bloggers, Donalyn Miller, has a recent post on the problems with the Reading First Program. In case you don’t make it all the way through this post, this is her conclusion: “We don’t need another reading program; we need to go back to the first reading program—connecting children with books. This should always be our bottom line.”

Reading First Puts Reading Last
by Donalyn Miller

On May 1st, the Department of Education released the preliminary results of Reading First, the federal program which provides grants for initiatives which improve the reading achievement of at-risk elementary school children. The initial findings of the DOE study indicate that students participating in Reading First perform no better on reading achievement tests than their peers in other instructional programs. Instead of re-addressing the flawed premise on which Reading First was built, the 2000 Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read, policymakers ask for more money to fund this failing federal program and beg us all to give Reading First more time.

Continue reading ““Reading First” Puts Reading Last”

Both the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times ran articles this weekend on the amount of stress faced by high schoolers. The Wall Street Journal reported that 11th grade has become a nightmare year for students hoping to go to elite colleges. As to the homework of one 11th grader, it wrote: “As [Ms. Glickman] moves from class to class, the demands of being a junior pile up. Honors Spanish — 30 minutes of homework a night. Advanced-placement English — 30 to 90 minutes a night, depending on which books or documents the class is studying. Honors pre-calculus — another hour of homework. Honors biology — 30 minutes more. At the end of the day comes Ms. Glickman’s favorite class and her toughest — advanced-placement history, with two hours of homework a night, including reading and regular essays.” The New York Times wrote that a lunch period is now becoming mandatory in some high-performing high schools, where students routinely skip eating so they can fit in one more class.

Of course, to readers of this blog, these stories are nothing new. The question still remains, though: when are we going to put an end to this?

Here’s an email I received from an adult who dropped out of school because of too much homework. The writer, now 35, told me he went on to get an associates degree, joined the military, worked as a flight attendant, and is now a contract worker, using skills he picked up in the military:

I dropped out of high school during my junior year. Why? I got tired (of homework). I was mostly an A and the occasional B student while growing up. Honor roll student every quarter/semester. But I failed my first course ever in the first quarter of my junior year. In fact, I failed four of six classes that quarter! Why? Homework. Believe it or not, I quit doing my homework. I had enough.

I was a bright student. I was quick to learn. And, I still passed all my tests. A’s. Maybe the occasional B. I paid attention in class. I took in the knowledge. And, I gave that knowledge right back to them when tested. Typically you would think that my test scores would show competency and success. I understood what I was taught without a doubt. Yet I failed four courses! Because I wouldn’t (no, because I couldn’t!!!) do my homework. It was too much. Way too much. Years and years of excessive homework took its toll on me. I was tired. I was fatigued. I was beat. And I dropped out.

The system turned a successful, smart kid into a worn out dropout.