The Case Against Homework: How Homework Is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It

258 Pages·2006·1.14 MB·English

by  Sara Bennett

Contents
TITLE PAGE
DEDICATION
EPIGRAPH
INTRODUCTION
PART ONE
Fried Brains and Frayed Tempers
1 So Much Work, So Little Time
2 The Myth of the Homework System: What Teachers Don’t Learn About

Homework
3 The Family Fallout: From Parent to Taskmaster
4 The Creation of the Homework Potato
5 “I Hate School!”: When Learning Becomes Drudgery
PART TWO
Ending Homework Hell
6 Homework Deconstructed: Brain Work or Busywork?
7 The Real Way to Help with Homework
8 What You Should Know Before You Talk to the Teacher
9 When There’s a Problem: How to Be Your Child’s Best Advocate
10 Getting the School on Your Side: Working Toward a Saner Homework

Policy
Tools for Homework Reform
The Case Against Homework: Fact Sheet
Sample Homework Policies
Sample Parent Surveys
RESOURCES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
COPYRIGHT
To Julian and Sophia
SARA BENNETT
To Allison
NANCY KALISH
It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants.
The question is: What are we busy about?
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Introduction
W
herever parents congregate—at work, at pickup time after school, at dinner
parties, or at the doctor’s office—the conversation often turns to homework.
Whether kids go to public, private, or religious schools and no matter what grade
they’re in, everyone has the same frustrations: How much homework are our
children doing? Are they spending much too much time on projects that seem
pointless and unrelated to the subject? Do parents drop their own evening
activities to supervise and monitor homework? Do kids need a tutor, or even
medication to help them deal with it? Do kids—including preteens and teens—
have meltdowns over the never-ending grind? Are kids giving up extracurricular
activities to hole up alone in their rooms, memorizing fact after fact? Do kids
have any time left to play and follow their passions? What is the purpose of it
all, anyway? How much is too much—and haven’t we reached the point of
diminishing returns?
If you’re the parent of a school-aged child and have ever wondered whether
all the homework is worth what your family is going through, this book will
finally provide the answer.
So many parents are confounded and exasperated by how homework affects
their children five, six, even seven days a week, during every school vacation
and often over the summer. Parents are sick of how every night brings another
crushing load and another power struggle. Many “homework experts” claim that
one of the benefits of homework is increased parental involvement. But is it
really beneficial when we constantly argue about homework or stay up late to do
our kids’ assignments with them—or for them? The Case Against Homework
will show how homework overload is compromising our parenting choices,
jeopardizing our children’s health, and robbing us of precious family time.
These days, as many of us know all too well, our kids are burdened with way
more homework than we had ourselves. This is especially true for elementary
and middle school kids, and this is certainly what we found when we conducted
our own national online survey and interviews of more than 1,300 parents,
educators, and kids. We were surprised to discover that homework overload is
happening everywhere—from Montana to Mississippi to Maine—and parents
from across the country shared their stories with us. (Please note that some
parents, teachers, and children we surveyed or interviewed chose to remain
anonymous and some names have been changed.)
Who’s to blame for this sorry state of affairs? The finger-pointing goes in
every direction: It’s the kids’ fault, it’s the school’s fault, it’s society’s fault.
Almost always, it comes back to the parents and the prevailing belief that there’s
so much homework because competitive moms and dads want their kids to get
ahead.
Unfortunately, that’s sometimes true. But The Case Against Homework will
tell the real story. Homework polls and surveys routinely demonstrate that
between 20 and 30 percent of parents believe their children get too much
homework. More than one-third of the parents we surveyed feel the same way.
Ironically, other parents who took our survey insist that the amount is “just
right,” only to go on to describe all sorts of negative effects their kids suffer—
from nightly crying fits to stomachaches to facial tics.
Why is there such a disconnect? One reason is that many parents have faith in
the school system and assume that educators have good reasons for subjecting
our kids to so much work. But we suspect that these parents—and lots more—
will be up in arms when they learn the truth: that the overwhelming majority of
teachers have never taken a course in homework, and that, contrary to popular
belief, there is little solid research demonstrating benefits from the current
homework system—if we can even call it a system.
For example, most parents (as well as many teachers) would be surprised to
hear that there’s very little proof that homework helps elementary school pupils
learn more or have greater academic success. In fact, as this book will explain,
when children are asked to do too much nightly work, just the opposite has been
found. And study after study shows that homework is not much more beneficial
in middle school either. Even in high school, where there can be benefits, they
start to decline as soon as kids are overloaded.
That’s why educators, child psychologists, and other experts on learning are
questioning the value of homework, especially in large amounts. As child
psychologist Dan Kindlon, a Harvard professor and author of several books,
including Tough Times, Strong Children, told us, “The issue of too much
homework comes up whenever I talk to parent groups, and the truth is, there’s no
good research justification for it. The analyses out there just don’t make a
connection between homework and success.”
Throughout homework’s up-and-down history, everyone has had an agenda.
Ours is simply the well-being of our kids. We have the same goals as most other
parents: We want our children to be happy, healthy, and competitive in a highly
competitive world, and get an excellent education. We want them to love
learning. But the current pile-it-on approach to homework is not the answer. In
fact, it’s counterproductive.
Many parents know intuitively that something is very wrong with the system,
yet might feel unqualified to challenge it. But the truth is, we’re more than
qualified to advocate for our kids, and there’s plenty we can do to bring an end
to this mess. In the first part of this book, we’ll bring you up to speed on the
latest research about homework and all the reasons it’s not working for kids,
parents, or even teachers. In the second part, we’ll deconstruct the most common
assignments and show you which ones advance learning and which don’t. We’ll
teach you how to do triage when your elementary or middle school children
come home with more work than they can handle, and give you the ammunition
to confidently write a note to the teacher about why you’ve decided your child
shouldn’t lose sleep in order to create a replica of the Pentagon out of Popsicle
sticks. We’ll show you how to change things for your family tonight—and every
night. If you’re interested, we’ll also show you how to organize other parents to
improve the homework situation at your school or even in the entire district, no
matter what grade your child is in.
We know firsthand that this kind of advocacy can change even ingrained
school policy. We met as parents in a Brooklyn, New York, school and
discovered we shared the same frustration over the homework that was taking
over our kids’ lives. With four hours of homework each weekday night and many
more each weekend, Nancy’s then-eighth-grader, Allison, had rarely made it to
the family dinner table over the previous few years. Many weekend plans with
friends, parents, and grandparents had to be canceled so she could do her
assignments. This is time their family will never get back.
Lots of other parents at our school were complaining about the homework
load, but no one was doing anything about it until Sara, who had an eighth-and a
fifth-grader, organized a parent group to discuss the situation. A former Legal
Aid attorney, Sara had been successfully negotiating with teachers for years to
reduce her own kids’ homework loads, and she decided to push the school to
finally change its overall policy. By getting other parents into the act, Sara knew
that the school could no longer dismiss each parent’s problem as “personal.” She
was right. As a result, the school appointed a task force, held its first open forum
on homework, and instituted major changes. And once the issue was raised,
Sara’s coauthor, Nancy, who had never seen herself as an activist, had one of
those “aha” moments. She finally realized that she wasn’t facing this problem
alone and could do something about it that wouldn’t take all her energy and time.
When you also learn the truth about homework, chances are that you’ll want
to do something to lighten that heavy backpack your child drags home each
night. The Case Against Homework will show you how.