Guest Blogger: Muddled Thinking in Middletown, Ohio

Today’s guest blogger, Amanda Cockshutt, writes her thoughts on a Middletown, Ohio, editorial, which opposed a school board’s proposal to eliminate the grading of homework. Amanda, who lives in New Brunswick, Canada, was instrumental in getting her local elementary school to reexamine its homework policy. Her school now has no homework on nights of major school events and there are two weeks per year where there is be no homework other than reading.

Muddled Thinking in Middletown, Ohio
by Amanda M Cockshutt, PhD

I read with interest the editorial by the concerned folk of Middletown concerning the school board’s proposal to stop the grading of homework. I think that the proposal is progressive and clearly attempts to preserve standards rather than lower them.

The authors of the editorial seem absolutely convinced that stopping the grading of homework will lower standards and ruin their children’s chances of success. Having not seen the proposal I can’t be sure, but I would be surprised if the lowering of expectations was a stated policy of the school board’s initiative.

Rather, it seems, that the board wants to level the playing field. I would interpret this to mean that all the same benchmarks of student performance will be used, except the grading of homework. In other words, tests and exams will be as difficult.

Continue reading “Guest Blogger: Muddled Thinking in Middletown, Ohio”

Liberty, Missouri, Math Teacher Gives Less Homework and Finds Students Learn More

A math teacher from Liberty, Missouri, revamped his own personal homework practice after noticing that his students’ grades were unnecessarily low because they didn’t complete the numerous math problems he assigned. According to KCCommunityNews, the teacher began assigning math homework twice a week, never on weekends, and only a few problems. Then, after discussing and dissecting the assigned problems in class, students sometimes have a “homework quiz,” which counts as their homework grade. “Their grades are now reflecting more of what they know, not what they did at home,” the teacher reported. “They understand their work better, and they communicate about it. Also, in a group setting, they have accountability. It’s working; the number of Ds and Fs is down 10 percent over last semester.”

First Monday

This coming Monday is the first Monday in June. As suggested in The Case Against Homework, and in this blog every month, I recommend that every parent send a note expressing her/his views on homework to teachers, administrators, or School Board members on the first Monday of every month.

This Monday is the perfect time to let your child’s teacher know how you feel about summer homework. You can use some of the information from this week’s guest blog entry as fodder for why a vacation is so important. And now is a good time to find out what your school’s policy is on summer homework. (Last year, I co-authored an op-ed for The New York Times on summer homework. After the op-ed was published, I found out that the student who’d been assigned the most homework of all actually came from a school that had a policy against summer homework. Here’s the text of the op-ed.)

No More Teachers, Lots of Books
June 19, 2006

SCHOOL is letting out for the summer, the final bell signaling the precious, unadulterated joy that comes with months of freedom stretching out ahead. But for many students that feeling will never come. Instead, summer these days often means more textbook reading, papers, exams and projects. It’s called ”vacation homework,” an oxymoron that overburdens our children and sends many back to school burnt out and sick of learning. Last summer, for example, students at one charter school in the Bronx were assigned 10 book reports, a thick math packet, a report on China including a written essay and a handmade doll in authentic costume and a daily log of their activities and the weather. Their parents say they are hoping this summer will be different, but who knows what drudgery will be assigned now that they’ve finished second grade?

An anomaly? Hardly.

Continue reading “First Monday”

From my Mailbox: Letter from a Twenty-Something

I usually receive mail from parents, students, teachers, or mental health professionals. So, I enjoyed hearing this perspective from Tammy, who gave me permission to reprint her email:

Thank you for fighting a good fight. I’m 27, I have no kids. And I feel that when I was a kid I was robbed of a decent childhood for many reasons, some personal and some scholastic. I remember stressing about Science Projects, reading boring books and solving math problems every night for homework. Do I remember any of it now? Nope. And still, even up to college, the same thing. Sure some homework does help, but the work load that is given to children is too much. Children can not be children and play and have fun and get into trouble.They’re too busy making sure their grammar is ok. I remember “Summer Reading” and things like that. Why am I reading assignments in the summer? Aren’t I suppose to be running around? I think our society is preparing children to be work slaves of the future. We forget that we are still children, just taller and older. I haven’t read your book. I saw an article about it on boingboing.net and it made me think of elementary school, Jr High and High school and how So much was expected of all of us growing up. Anyway, I hope people will realize this and that draining the children of their real positive energy is useless.

Guest Blogger: The Importance of Getting a Break

Today’s guest blogger is Kate McReynolds, a child clinical psychologist who is currently the Assistant Editor of Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice. I met Kate while working on The Case Against Homework and, whenever I get the opportunity to talk to her, or read her writing, I feel lucky to spend time with her. Here, she explains why vacations are so critical.

The Importance of Getting a Break
by Kate McReynolds

With the end of the school year, over 50 million American children are looking forward to summer vacation. But for most children, the school year never really ends. Summer homework assignments, internships, and summer school (including voluntary programs) mean that most children will be taking a working vacation. Many educators and politicians, especially those who support the current “standards movement,� maintain that homework, including summer homework, is vital to the academic success of our children. But is it? More importantly, is it good for children’s overall development?

The Development of the Whole Child

Academic mastery is one of the many developmental needs of children. They also need to develop social and emotional skills, self-control, problem solving abilities, self-confidence, creative and imaginative capacities, values and morals, a hopeful vision of the future, and a strong sense of self. Too exclusive a focus on school work deprives children of the activities they need to develop these other important capacities. In other words, excessive homework might help youngsters do better in school (although there is reason to believe that it works against learning), but it makes it hard for them to develop what they need to do better in life. To develop fully, children need time to play, time for self-directed activities, time to socialize with friends and neighbors, and time in nature. Children need time with their families too, relaxed time that is not fraught with homework battles. And they need time to dream and to wonder, time to imagine who they are and what they can become. Teenagers especially benefit from free time with their friends and unscheduled time to think, to dream, and to ponder their futures.

How Summer Homework Hurts Academic Growth

Not only can summer homework hinder children’s full development, it can hurt their academic development. Everyone needs a break from their work, especially children. A real vacation, without even the thought of work hanging over one’s head, provides time to rest and recuperate. Vacations restore children’s spirits, renew their energy, and revitalize their enthusiasm for school. But real vacations do even more. They give children’s brains and minds vital time to consolidate and integrate new knowledge. When children have the opportunity to turn their attention away from their studies, for an afternoon or for the summer, new knowledge can “sink in� and become a permanent part of the child’s mind. Youngsters are then ready to take in more. Imagine a sponge that’s completely full of water. If we want it to absorb anymore, we have to make room for it.
Summer without homework will help our children, emotionally, socially, and academically. And it will add to their happiness.

Ohio School District, Continued

I had a conversation today with Steve Price, the School Superintendent of Middletown, Ohio, where school board members are considering a policy which would eliminate the grading of homework. Price, who supports the policy, is hearing from parents who think it’s a bad idea. From the editorial in the local newspaper, you’d think the school board were considering something radical.

Here’s the editorial.

To grade or not to grade homework?

“We are challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations.”
— President George W. Bush, Jan. 8, 2004

We are disappointed that Middletown schools are planning to no longer grade homework assignments.

The plan is not an indictment of the schools or the teachers — it’s a practical recognition of the sad fact that we have a growing number of students who live in situations that make completing homework an extremely low priority. Or no priority at all.

But the plan is an indictment of those parents who just don’t care about their child’s education or future, those who are too busy with their own lives, their own problems, to devote a few hours a week to helping their child succeed.

Continue reading “Ohio School District, Continued”

Norwalk, Connecticut, Board of Education Considers Homework Policy Change

The policy committee of the Norwalk, Connecticut, Board of Education, is considering updating its policy on homework. According to The Stamford Advocate, the proposed policy states: “‘Homework should never be assigned as a punishment, nor should it be removed as a reward in order to avoid the negative perception of homework.” The report recommends:

* Daily homework for students in kindergarten to grade 2 would not exceed 10 minutes, 15 minutes for students grades 3 to 5, 60 to 90 minutes for grades 6 to 8 and up to two hours for high schoolers.

* In elementary school, no homework would be assigned over weekends or holidays, but independent reading would be a daily expectation; 15 minutes for kindergarten to second grade and 30 minutes for grades 3 to 5 to be monitored by teachers.
Continue reading “Norwalk, Connecticut, Board of Education Considers Homework Policy Change”

Ohio School District Considers Eliminating Homework Grade

I’m interested to see what happens in the Middletown, Ohio, School District, where school board members are deciding on a policy amendment that would eliminate grading on homework assignments. Although the Board thinks homework is “very important,” the removal of the grade is to ensure that teachers grade students for their work, not the work of the parents or failures of the parents.

Child Counselor Protests Homework in Arizona

A child counselor from Arizona who believes that children shouldn’t be given homework before sixth grade has taken to the streets to protest homework. According to azfamily.com, the counselor, who is leading the weeklong protest at a street corner, doesn’t think children should be given homework before sixth grade. “They’re already getting in trouble in school for not being able to sit for six hours,” she said. “Now they’ve gotta come home and do homework. So, now mom is screaming at them to do their homework. It’s slavery is what it is. It’s a horrible job. It’s a six-, seven-, eight-hour job that they’re not getting paid for.”