“… For decades, homework’s value has been hotly debated. But now a growing legion of critics say the notion that America can close the learning gap with China or India by stuffing kids’ backpacks with math worksheets as early as kindergarten is backfiring - creating a nation of stressed-out, sleep-deprived children, despite scant scientific evidence they are actually learning more from the reams of homework.” …
I’m conflicted. Obviously homework is integral to showing mastery of a topic, however, some teachers just give busy work. In some classes I had growing up, teachers wouldn’t even read my responses and would just give a big ole check for completion. That doesn’t help the student at all. If you’re gonna do that, you might as well not even assign it. But if you’re going to give meaningful assignments and check for understanding and completion, go for it.
I’ve never been a supporter of homework, especially in elementary school. They should be coming home from school and playing outside or just chilling out.
A reasonable amount of homework is . . . reasonable. The amount and type adapted to the grade level. That said, I recall that our older one never had any homework that we could see: he figured out a way to do his assignments in school (math in his Spanish class, English in his math class, etc.). That way, he could focus on his EC’s (newspaper + debate) without being encumbered by “extra” work. But that was his approach. He was and still is an energetic and excellent multi-tasker. Our younger one, whose main interest was in art, could not avoid having to do a lot of her work outside of class – and couldn’t use her older brother’s trick, say by doing art in her French class, etc. More generally, certain kinds of homework are unavoidable. Spelling, reading, art are good examples. Time-intensive things like coding also lend themselves to out-of-class work. “Getting rid of homework completely?” unwise and impossible.
Competition is global. There will be many,many students working their butts off to be the best. They compete for college, grad school positions and employment.
Whether you like it or not this is the truth. Someone will always be working harder than you.
Work as hard as you want to. Just don’t complain when someone else takes the gold ring.
People who dislike homework are quick to call it busywork. Yes, some of it is busywork. But in elementary school, there are a few things kids need to do. They need regular, sustained practice in reading, not just “Johnny will you read the next sentence for the class?” That can happen at school but it’s not a very good use of a professional’s time to babysit a classroom of kids reading silently to themselves for all of the time that they require this practice. Another thing the kids need to do is learn their math facts. Usually this is accomplished by rote memorization and lots and lots of practice. For some reason, although there aren’t that many basic facts to learn, mastering them takes most kids several years. My kids accomplished much of that in the car. Another thing that most schools will do is assign spelling/vocabulary. Again, a pretty rote activity. All of these things can be done in school, but it would take quite a bit of time away from instructional activity to get the level of practice and repetition that most kids need. Because while kids are in elementary school 6.5 hours per day, by the time you subtract out the recess, the lunch, the PE, art, music, etc., and lining up and walking to and from all these class transitions, you’re left with perhaps 4 hours of actual core instruction, so 30-60 minutes is actually quite significant.
i also think there is value in getting kids in the habit of reading at home and value in teaching them the self-discipline required to get something done every day when they’d probably rather be playing instead. There’s also value in having the parent get a chance to observe their kids doing schoolwork. A kid doing 30-60 minutes of homework in elementary school still has lots of time to play. If the family chooses to sign up for overly demanding sports, music and other activities, which take up all of the kid’s play time, that’s not really the school’s fault.
My take is that for elementary school, reading for about 30 minutes should be mandatory and leveled math practice, but nothing else. Middle school should assign no more than 1 hour a day, and high school shouldn’t be burdened with busy work. My APHG class, which they hyped us all up for (“it’s a college level class, so it’ll be super hard!!!”), is actually ALL busy work. Maybe ~10 minutes per increase in grade (9th grade gets 10, 10th gets 20, etc) for standard, ~15 of the same for Honors, and ~40 for AP. Or maybe release homework before school starts for the week, but that’s just me. But down with busy work! It’s supposed to be more challenging, not more!
Homework should never be busywork. To my mind, it would mainly be little projects. Something to read or research, something to write, something to create – and bring into the school to show to other students and teachers. It’s common, however, for things like vocabulary lists to be taken home. Sometimes those were annoying mind-games. To my 4th grader: “Here’s a list of words. Learn their meaning, and then use as many of them as you can in a paragraph about X [a topic].” My daughter had no problem with learning the meaning and spelling of the words, but that requirement to “use as many as you can in a paragraph about X” turned the exercise into a gigantic puzzle that doubled and tripled the time required. Fortunately, my kids’ teachers were more reasonable most of the time, and often very flexible in allowing the kids to create things. A book report could include illustrations, even physical objects that our daughter designed to accompany her written essays or book reports.
The whole writing a story with spelling/vocabulary words did not go over well here either.
And my opinion about things like putting illustrations in a book report: Great as an option. Requiring kids to draw a picture for homework in social studies or whatever–I don’t like that. For kids who aren’t naturally artistic it’s a nightmare.
I believe that in Europe homework, if there is any, is optional – it is something the students do if they feel like it helps them, and then they do it on their own time with no deadline for turning it in. Mastery is demonstrated in infrequent exams, sometimes at the end of a semester.
In my opinion, homework is used in the US to allow kids who make low test grades to pass classes they otherwise wouldn’t pass (either because they have help with the homework, boosting their grades, or they do better on lower-stress environments than test-taking situations). That is why homework can count about 40% of the grade, depending on a particular school and class.
Many top students don’t need homework at all to master the material, and have often “mastered” it before the class even begins. I can’t tell you how many complaints I heard from my daughter that she knew all of the Biology that was being taught at her high school before it was taught, and her test scores proved it. All the work she did for her Bio (and several other) classes was, to her, busywork and boring. (Unfortunately, she’s having the same issue now in college, and recently completed a two-hour test in 8 minutes. She’ll sign up for higher level classes next semester and see how it goes.)
If the real goal of homework is to aid in mastery, then let the kids and parents decide whether it is needed or not. Those kids who need it for practice can do the homework. Those who don’t can skip it. That would be ideal.
As for those who need it but don’t have the time for it a particular week, leave the deadline open-ended. Let them turn in the homework when it is convenient, rather than bombarding kids with constant deadlines. That would help kids fit the homework into their own schedule so they can prepare for tests, finish other projects, participate in their sports and clubs, and have a life with their families and friends.
Perhaps part of the problem is that much of the homework is made of easier questions to give B and C students needed practice. But that just becomes busy work for the A students.
Perhaps teachers should give full credit on a group of homework problems for a specific concept if the student solves the hardest one.
Not all homework is created equal. Homework in math and science are necessary evils to help understand the material. The old drill and kill is still the best way to master a new math concept.
Writing homework is also important, but more so expository than creative.
Reading assignments are important. It’s also a good way to expose kids to classic literature.
The only homework I have a problem with is excessive homework in social studies. My one kid gets so much social studies homework in middle school he now absolutely hates the subject, which is a real shame because that used to be his favorite subject. History should be taught Socratic style, more lecture/discussions to keep it interesting. Instead history is now taught almost entirely project/writing based, kids do nothing but fill out worksheets in class, then come home and fill out more worksheets. Those project based homework are the most pointless, time wasting exercises.
What I find interesting is that there are so many complaints of busywork. Are most teachers so incompetent that they cannot tell what is busywork, even though most parents and kids seem to have little trouble identifying it? Or is most busywork genuinely valuable to many students and we only hear from the group that feels their time is being wasted?
Wouldn’t it be nice if schools had an anonymous busywork reporting system, where parents could report assignments they feel are just busywork without fear of reprisal against their child? Teachers who got more than a few reports would have to explain and justify their assignments to the principal.
I am recalling one “fun” assignment my daughter got in middle school where she was assigned to write things in a decorative way, I guess to create a classroom display. But the space given was tiny and despite her excellent hand coordination, after considerable stressful effort, my daughter ruined her assignment, simply could not fit the required full sentences into the required postage-stamp sized spaces, and was left in tears.
My kids went to a Catholic grade school and of course there were a billion rules about everything. Name and student number on the paper, and if you didn’t, points off. If it was messy, points off. If you were talking, points off. If the answer was wrong, points off. A girl transferred to the school in 4th grade. Her mother was surprised that her grades on spelling tests were so low because she’d always received A’s at her former school. The girl’s response was ‘But the teacher only lets me take the test ONE time!’ In Boulder, she could keep retaking the test until she got an A, which might be the right approach if the goal is to have her learn all the spelling words, but certainly didn’t fly with the nuns. One shot at the test, no extra credit points, no retakes.