Needham, Massachusetts High School in the Forefront of Reducing Student Stress

I’ve written about Needham, Massachusetts high school in this blog before (here and here) and I was happy to see an article in today’s New York Times, titled “A Principal Who Cracks Down on Stress.” The principal, Paul Richards, whom I interviewed for The Case Against Homework, has, among other things, asked teachers to have homework-free weekends and holidays, has stopped publishing the honor roll in the local newspaper, has greatly reduced summer homework, and has pulled together a stress committee which is starting to come up with additional recommendations. Richards has worked extensively with Denise Clark Pope of Stanford’s Stressed Out Students. Pope, whom I also interviewed for The Case Against Homework and whom I was on a panel with several months ago, is the author of Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students, a book that should be read by every teacher, administrator, and parent.

And, be sure to read the Missive on Academic Stress, written by the principal of Needham High to the Parents. This is no quick fix, but an excellent model for tackling stress. You should copy it and send it to the principal of your child’s school.

Teachers Jump on the Assign-Homework-to-Parents Bandwagon

A math teacher at Hilliard Memorial Middle School in Ohio has started assigning homework to parents. Her rationale: “It’s stressing the importance of schoolwork, and it’s good for the kids to say they know something that their parents don’t.” According to an article in The Columbus Dispatch, the “assignments ask students to show their parents how to solve the problems. Then, both parent and child work the problems. Parents are not required to complete the assignments and students can use their siblings, neighbors or teachers, but [the teacher] prefers Mom and Dad do the work.” Read the article here.

(Here are my earlier posts about teachers assigning homework to parents: original, followup.)

Guest Blogger: Down with Homework

A few weeks ago, I had a great conversation with Christopher Garlington of the Dave & Chris show out of Chicago. Check out his very funny blog, deathbykids, about his life as a mostly stay-at-home dad. Here’s what he posted about homework before I went on his radio show.

Down with Homework
by Christopher “G” Garlington

So it’s 10:30 at night and I’m driving to Kinkos to print out my daughter’s social studies paper because our printer is, mysteriously, out of ink again. Like it’s got a leak. I get to Kinkos and they’re closed. So I have to call and find the 24 hour Kinkos where all the employees are failed dot com millionaires and screenwriters and perform their duties with the grim disaffection and terminal hatred you’d expect from vassal slaves and I’m thinking–this isn’t life: it’s survival.

When the hell is my daughter going to lie on her bed and daydream? When’s she going to read something that’s not assigned to her? When’s she going to hang out on the stoop with her friends and shoot the $%!^? When am I?

Anyone with a new teen knows that this is the point in a child’s development psychologists call the FU phase
Continue reading “Guest Blogger: Down with Homework”

From My Mailbox: Letter from a frustrated parent

I live in Rhode Island and have a 13 year old 8th grade girl. I wanted to share with you the attached newsletter that the Superintendent of our schools just sent this evening. All about how to be an active parent in your child’s school life, i.e., homework, etc. I personally resent being told how to stay involved in my child’s school life. I can’t be much more involved when I sit night after night with 3 hours of homework and what takes the cake and I’m getting quite fed up with is the homework on the weekends. I can’t tell how little “family” time we have left. I’m sitting here quite angry.

The reason I’m quoting this letter, one of just dozens I receive like it every day, is because the newsletter from the Superintendent is really worth reading–not because any of the information is substantiated or based in research, but because it isn’t. I’m guessing that most parents, after reading the newsletter, would think that homework is essential and has a lot of value and would feel intimidated in challenging any policy.

Continue reading “From My Mailbox: Letter from a frustrated parent”

Parents Speak out Against Homework at a New Canaan, CT, Board of Education Meeting

At a meeting of the Board of Education in New Canaan, Connecticut, convened to talk about pushing forward by 15 minutes the start of the school day, parent after parent stood up and said that a reduced homework load would solve the lack-of-sleep problem, not a new starting time to the school day. According to New Canaan Advertiser, a father of three said this his children get “slammed” with homework. “All of the options here don’t do anything to change the fact that our children have 24 hours in the day,” he said. “I find the best alternative of any alternative that could be discussed is not on that page,” he said, referring to the committee’s report, “and that’s better coordination among teachers within grade levels on how much homework they’re giving their students.”

Teachers: Don’t Assign Parents Homework

The New York Times asked me to write an op-ed about a high school teacher who was assigning homework to his students’ parents. But the op-ed was killed after the School Board publicly disavowed the teacher’s actions. Here’s what I submitted:

Unpublished Op-ed
Teachers: Don’t Assign Parents Homework
by Sara Bennett

Damion Frye, a ninth-grade English teacher in Montclair, NJ, suddenly found himself famous a couple weeks ago for assigning mandatory homework — not to his students, but to their parents. His school board has since expressed disapproval of the mandatory aspect, but Mr. Frye may want to do a little homework of his own before finding new ways to keep parents involved in their children’s education. While all parents want their children to develop — socially, emotionally, and intellectually — school-imposed assignments on parents are not going to help. Instead, such assignments cut into, or even eliminate, the few cherished evening hours or minutes that parents have with their children — time better spent lingering at the dinner table, for example, engaged in a good conversation.

In fact, unlike homework, there is a strong association between teens who regularly sit down to dinner with their families and academic success. Family dinner also leads to better psychological adjustment and lower rates of alcohol use, drug use, sexual behavior, and suicidal risk. Needless to say, teens’ diets are healthier as well.

When my co-author and I researched our book on homework, we discovered that most teachers, and I bet Mr. Frye is one of them, don’t know that. I’d be willing to bet Mr. Frye isn’t aware of studies finding little or no correlation between homework and achievement in elementary or middle school. Even in high school, “overloading [students] with homework is not associated with higher grades.”
Continue reading “Teachers: Don’t Assign Parents Homework”

High School Teacher Assigns Homework to Parents

According to an article in The New York Times, an English teacher at a Montclair, New Jersey, high school assigns regular homework to the parents. Since September, the teacher

has asked the parents to read and comment on a Franz Kafka story, Section 1 of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” and a speech given by Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. Their newest assignment is a poem by Saul Williams, a poet, musician and rapper who lives in Los Angeles. The ninth graders complete their assignments during class; the parents are supposed to write their responses on a blog Mr. Frye started online. If the parents do not comply, Mr. Frye tells them, their child’s grade may suffer — a threat on which he has made good only once in the three years he has been making such assignments.

Are you ready for homework from your child’s teacher?

Guest Blogger: It’s Hard to Read When You’re Tired

Today’s guest blogger is Vera Goodman, author of Simply Too Much Homework; What Can We Do, which came out in early September. Her book is concise, straightforward, and short (88 pages), and I highly recommend it. Vera a long-time educator, teaches parents of struggling readers how to “conduct reading practice with material that is interesting for both parent and student and that models for the student how to read fluently and with comprehension.”

It’s Hard to Read When You’re Tired
by Vera Goodman

Reading well is the most important outcome of schooling. We learn to read most effectively by doing guided practice with someone who can read.

But the parents I teach often complain that excessive homework makes reading together almost impossible most nights. An example is Zack who is eight years old and is struggling with reading. He works hard to keep up all day despite his handicap. When he gets home he is often so fatigued that he puts his head in his arms and cries. However, he still faces an evening of homework, which is especially draining on him because he doesn’t read well. Zack is an incredibly gifted inventor and would just like to spend his personal time working on his latest invention. But instead, homework fills his time. When it is done, he is exhausted and reading together is out of the question. His mother, Joy, says, “Sometimes I wish I could home school Zack because at least I could practice with him when he is fresh in the morning.”

My question is,”How can an 8 year old who has failed to learn to read be expected to do homework that inevitably requires the ability to read?” As a teacher I know how easy it is to assign the same work to everyone and fail to realize that for some it is the straw that can break the camel’s back.

We learn to read well by reading. Time for reading is compromised for all students by excessive homework.

Guest Blogger: An Eleventh Grader Speaks Out

You might have noticed that I am featuring more guest writers than I did last year. So whether you’re a student, teacher, mental health professional, or parent, please send me your thoughts. Because I think it’s important to see students’ work in its original form, I don’t edit it or correct grammar and spelling errors. I don’t think teachers see enough of students’ original work. (Too much of it has been gone over by parents, peers, or tutors before students pass their work in.)

Today’s guest blogger is Jordan Swogger, a junior at Calvary Christian Academy in Cresaptown, Maryland. Jordan wrote and presented this speech for his Speech/Writing class. Needless to say, his classmates loved it.


by Jordan Swogger, 11th grader

Did you know that in 1948, a national survey of high school students showed that the average amount of time spent on homework was three to four hours per week? In 1957, the American government became concerned that U.S. students were not keeping up with their fellow Russian students, and so made a movement to increase homework and studies in order to catch up with the Russians, who had launched the first artificially made satellite, Sputnik, into space. After the end of the communist crisis in the 1990’s, the U.S. was still a strong advocate for keeping up the large amounts of homework, and so continued to give students much more homework. In my opinion, the level of homework given today is far more than is necessary, and is bordering on the unhealthy.

My problem with homework is not in the idea of homework itself, but in the amount of it, and what we are required to do. Also, homework takes up time. Think about it for a second. We get up in the morning. On average, we spend seven hours in school, not counting extra-curricular activities and events, or after-school Continue reading “Guest Blogger: An Eleventh Grader Speaks Out”