From My Mailbox: Fourth-Grade Parents in One School in Southern California Begin to Organize

I recently heard from Lisa Grady, a parent of a fourth-grader from a community of 35,000 in southern California, who helped to form a group of fourth-grade parents in her pre-K – 5 elementary school. The group calls itself “For the Love of Learning” and has a mission statement: “To partner with our teachers to inspire lifelong learners while offering our children the time and freedom to experience a balanced childhood not only through academics but also family time, socialization, physical activity and play.” Lisa told me that they wanted “to stop the complaining about homework and create positive change at our elementary school.” After obtaining the support of over 1/3 of the fourth-grade parents, they wrote a collaborative letter to the fourth-grade team. In addition, 12 individual families wrote their own personal letters to provide a bird’s eye view of their homes lives, and they put together a packet with a synopsis of the current research, including references to The Case Against Homework, The Homework Myth, a podcast from srdad.com and articles from a number of newspapers including The Wall Street Journal and The San Francisco Chronicle.

In the upcoming months, Lisa will keep the readers of this blog posted on the group’s progress. And, in the meantime, if you have any suggestions for her group, or are doing something similar in your community, please post a comment.

Here’s the letter her group wrote:

Dear Fourth Grade Team:

We know you care about our children, both personally and academically. We also understand that you are hardworking, dedicated professionals who must often seek to balance state mandates with the individual needs of thirty plus students and their parents — not an easy task. We come to you now, not as adversaries but as collaborators in solving a situation that has become challenging for many families. It is our children’s diminishing passion for learning that is most troublesome to us.

A group of parents recently gathered around the topic of homework. While the meeting began with voices of mounting frustration, pleas for support and sighs of relief at not being alone, what emerged was a cohesive, well-thought out plan to work with you on solving this problem.

What we discovered was that homework is putting a tremendous strain on children and their families. Accompanying letters will give you a bird’s eye view into what is going on in our homes. You will also see the struggles are not related to any particular type of student but affect our children at all levels. Finally, the problem is not restricted to just a few vocal students and their parents but rather over one third of the fourth grade.

Continue reading “From My Mailbox: Fourth-Grade Parents in One School in Southern California Begin to Organize”

More Homework Won’t Equal More Proficiency in Math and Science

According to an article in Education Week, Pennsylvania State University researcher, Gerald K. LeTendre, has published a new paper in which he again finds that more homework is not associated with higher levels of average national achievement. “’The paper is a preliminary investigation with some fairly common-sense warnings not to start promoting or demoting homework’ because of worries that American students are running behind in an academic-skills race with other nations, Mr. LeTendre said in an interview.”

Math Homework Gives Parents Anxiety

According to a survey conducted by Russell Research, nearly 3/4 (72%) of parents surveyed reported that their child has math homework on most school nights. Seven out of ten parents (71%) say that because the approach to teaching math has changed since their school days, it’s taking them more time to help their child complete his or her math homework. And, over half of the parents contacted, (54%) report that they, too, experience some stress over their child’s math homework.

Guest Blogger: An Eighth Grader’s Lament

Middle and high school students have been sending me essays they’ve written about homework. On occasion, I will be posting them here. (If you are a student and want me to consider your paper, email me.)

Today’s guest blog entry is by Courtney, an eighth grader who goes to a middle school in the Central Valley of California. Courtney told me that she and her friends “all complain to each other but are too afraid to say anything to the teacher.” When she had to write a persuasive essay for an English class, she decided that was the place to express her feelings about too much homework. Courtney told me that when she isn’t doing homework, I “love to play soccer, softball, volleyball, basketball, and tennis. With all of these sports I get hurt almost constantly (hahaha).” (I have posted Courtney’s essay exactly as she sent it to me.)

Homework Overload
by Courtney, 8th grade student, Central Valley, California

Have you ever seen the amount of homework that students get each night? I think that there is too much homework each night, and it should be decreased. Having the amount of homework that is assigned each night creates too much stress. Also the amount of homework does not allow them time to be involved in extra curricular activities or spend time with friends. Family time is decreased because of the volume of assignments each night. Even with the amount of homework that students get, America has an interesting percentage of college students who cannot do the work or are not taking the classes that an average eighth grader is taking.

Homework overload just causes too much stress because the students worry more about quantity rather than quality. When a student sees that they have 2 pages in their math book, 1 essay to write, 2 workbook pages for science, 4 activities for Spanish, a project due in history, an assignment and study guide for P.E., they are not thinking about how to do it well, but how to get it done as fast as possible. The students do not care how well they do as long as they get it done. When the students realize that their math was harder than they expected, they end up staying up way later than planned. That leaves them restless and stressed out from not finishing everything. When they are tired and restless and still did not finish their homework, they may feel as if they have no choice but to cheat on it. According to a study in 2005, consisting of 18,000 students, more than 65% of the students said that they cheated in some way. Some students get so stressed and overwhelmed by the amount of homework they receive that they feel as if there is no way out other than to cheat.

Continue reading “Guest Blogger: An Eighth Grader’s Lament”

From the Mouth of a College Student

A student at Buena Vista University in Iowa argues eloquently that homework should not be assigned over spring break.

Beaches, warm sun, a clear blue ocean. What a way to spend spring break. Mine went a bit differently. My plans consisted of a trans-Iowa trip with plenty of time with friends and family. Unfortunately, I had a companion traveling with me; a stack of textbooks.

Here I am, wanting nothing more than to be able to just sit around and talk with friends and family, do some shopping, and not worry a bit about school. However, my professors had made other plans.

The blizzard that shut the school down for a couple of days made some serious dents in some of my class syllabi. The solution for that was to move the majority of my midterms to the week after spring break. This meant that I had to spend my spring break with notes and textbooks, studying.

I understand that we were behind, but is a break too much to ask for? It really made me glad that I passed on plans to go to California or Florida. If I hadn’t I would have had to drag a backpack of books with me. However, I gritted my teeth and dealt with it. What really irks me are the professors who assign homework, “So you aren’t bored over spring break.”

I didn’t know that it was called “spring-take-home-more-homework-and-not-have-any-time-to-actually-relax-before-summer-break.” It’s called spring break. It’s a break from school during the spring, that much should be obvious.

You can read the rest of the piece here.

High School Student Takes on “Vacation” Homework

A high school student at one of the most elite public high schools in the country, “Stuyvesant High School in New York City, “persuaded the principal to put limits on homework over school breaks. According to an article in The New York Times, “Like the earnest boy in ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes,’ Sean pointed out what seemed obvious — that long vacation projects ruin the chance to recharge, catch up on sleep and spend time with family and friends.” While the school did not eliminate vacation homework altogether, “The principal, agreeing that vacations are ‘down time’ and should not be used to ‘heap on homework,’ responded by suggesting to teachers that brushing up on Shakespeare would be a fine spring-break assignment; writing an entire play would not.”

How Would Einstein Have Fared in Today’s Schools?

An article in the March, 2007, issue of Wired magazine titled, “The World Needs More Rebels Like Einstein,” states, “At a time when the U.S., worried about competition from China, is again emphasizing math and science education, Einstein’s genius reminds us that a society’s competitive advantage comes not from teaching the multiplication or periodic tables but from nurturing rebels. Grinds have their place, but unruly geeks change the world.”

The article dovetails nicely with an article in this week’s New York Times magazine about how, at a time when

American educators seek to emulate Asian pedagogy–a test-centered ethos and a rigorous focus on math, science and engineering — Chinese educators are trying to blend a Western emphasis on critical thinking, versatility and leadership into their own traditions. To put it another way, in the peremptorily utopian style typical of official Chinese directives (as well as of educationese the world over), the nation’s schools must strive “to build citizens’ character in an all-round way, gear their efforts to each and every student, give full scope to students’ ideological, moral, cultural and scientific potentials and raise their labor skills and physical and psychological aptitudes, achieve vibrant student development and run themselves with distinction.�

First Monday

This coming Monday is the first Monday in April. 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 her/his children’s teachers, administrators, or School Board members on the first Monday of every month.

As always, please let me (and the readers of this blog) know what you’ve done by clicking on “Leave a Comment.”

Advice Needed: Part 2

In my last blog entry, I asked you to post comments to help out the woman from Pennsylvania who is struggling with her child’s teachers and school. Although I’ve received dozens of emails in the interim, only two people posted their suggestions on the blog. So again, here’s my plea: please post your suggestions in the comments or in the forum. It’s so important that we talk to each other and learn from each other’s experiences.