A friend forwarded an article to me recently with the comment “I don’t agree with this, but you might find it interesting.”
I love having friends who disagree with me. I think it’s important, to constantly challenge my own decisions. It helps to surround myself with thoughtful people who are willing to discuss the pros and cons of a different issue, and the discussion is most informative when you think you fall on different sides of an argument. Sometimes a friend convinces me to change my mind. Sometimes I convince them. Most of the time we agree to disagree, but I think everything lives on in our subconscious and influences us later. What’s important, is that it allows each of us to thoughtfully consider and reevaluate our position.
In this case, the question happens to be homework. To give, or not to give homework. That is the question. I think schools give too much homework. My friend thinks homework is crucial to the learning process. I will even go so far as to say she has at one point she has said that you can’t have a “rigorous class” without lots of homework. So she’s defining a “rigorous class” as one that has lots of homework. (This came up because our school awards more adjusted GPA points to AP classes than dual credit classes that are taught by professors from the local community college. In some cases, the dual credit classes appear to have less homework. Thus the school and this friend argue that they’re less “rigorous.”) She also points out that sometimes it’s necessary for a student to do lots of repetition or work outside of class to think on their own when they’re struggling with a concept.
The article that she forwarded me turned out to pertain to an elementary school that decided to quit giving homework.
School stops giving homework so kids can play
While I consider homework in elementary school to be different, and usually less in hours than secondary school homework, I still think it’s worth considering homework and what a reduction in homework at the secondary school (middle school and high school) level might mean with regard to the valid points my friend has brought up about the benefits of homework.
– Students who work more slowly, or find they think better outside the classroom, will have the opportunity to finish work at home, instead of having to finish both classwork and homework at home.
– Students who need extra help can use the time to get extra-explanations or get tutoring, and then finish their work. When students are having trouble with a particular concept, adding on homework only adds to the hours that a “normal” homework would take, growing what might be a 20-30 minute homework assignment into 1-2 hours. Imagine what that looks like for a kid when it occurs in more than one class.)
I’m limiting myself here to think about how homework contributes to learning in the classroom, and refraining from any discussion about how much specialized information kids really need to commit to memory, how much sleep they’re getting, how much time they have to relax or to spend on interests that aren’t covered in their school courses. Etc. I could go on for a while…
Here are just a couple of articles where I’ve gained some knowledge about homework and the effect it can have:
Why we find it so hard to change, Madeline Levine, PhD
Homework, Sleep, and the Student Brain
UPDATE 4/15/2016
I ran across this very well researched article from 2012 which showed how when you do a careful analysis of the research studies, even in high school no benefits are found from homework.
Homework: An unnecessary evil? … Surprising Findings From New Research By Alfie Kohn
I have many more I could link to, but tellingly I don’t have any on the benefits of homework. That could be for any number of reasons. 🙂 If you have some good articles to the contrary that you’d like to share, please pass them along!
What are your thoughts on homework? What purpose do you think homework serves? Do you think most schools over-do homework or do you think it’s necessary in today’s world?
For more on my thoughts about homework, see more of my articles on success, among them:
I’m totally biased, I will admit. I used to teach middle and high school English, and I’m the parent of a middle schooler and a high schooler. I will leave most of my lengthy arguments against homework for another place, but I have a unique viewpoint to share.
For reasons too involved to go into, my daughter started this year in 8th grade at the local middle school, but she’s finishing it at the alternative high school which is structured more like college. She has a long free period every day during which she finishes all of her homework, so none of it comes home – this is in marked contrast to when she was at the middle school. She’s happier, she’s more engaged in her school day, her work is getting done with no drama, and she has time for the extracurriculars which (I’m totally convinced) are what will have the most impact on who she is as an adult. I think she’s learning more, and she’s stopped hating math. This is in every way an improvement.
My son is at a charter middle school where his homework is some math almost every day, with occasional project work. There’s a great after school program, and when he does his math homework there, it’s usually done well and with minimal drama. When he brings it home, it’s almost always a Thing. I’m happy when some project work comes home – we like to be able to go over his writing with him in a way that his teachers don’t have time for – and because of the way the school is structured, they coordinate to send minimal homework home. If the project is nearly due, the math backs off, etc.
In short, the schools where my kids are now seem to be doing homework right. There’s a bit, but it’s carefully curated to make sure it’s useful and not overwhelming. It’s stuff that requires extra practice (like math) or benefits strongly from parental involvement. And they both have time to do that work in the school environment, with all the resources that brings with it.
I hope this is a trend that will continue through the next five years until my son is out of high school. I hear other parents in our district talk about the hours their kids spend each night, the sleep deprivation, the tears, the frustration, and I’m horrified. I hope we can avoid that.
Wow! Sounds like you have found really great schools. Thanks for taking the time to explain how much and what type of homework your kids are doing – we’re talking to one of our principals tomorrow and this will give me great things to think about.