Full Version: Eliminate homework?
Listening to the radio this morning and the question of the day was whether homework was "outdated". What? The worst part was that the majority of people calling in were agreeing that homework should be eliminated. We're one generation from being the absolute laziest country on the planet.
By the way, I have a friend who teaches high school and he stopped giving homework last year. Said it wasn't worth the fight. Kids didn't do it and talking to parents had no effect.
How do our kids learn what they need to know if they aren't doing any work outside of school time?
How do our kids learn what they need to know if they aren't doing any work outside of school time?
I don't have schoolage children, so I don't really know how it is right now. But, I've heard some parents say they are tired of their kid having hours of homework every day just because the teacher doesn't get through all the material during regular hours.
The "no homework" philosophy is actually a somewhat trendy movement. I don't really agree with it, but I think there are some New York private schools that have completely done away with homework.
Depends on the age we're talkng about.
QUOTE (fatguyinalittlecoat @ Oct 10 2006, 01:32 PM) 
The "no homework" philosophy is actually a somewhat trendy movement.
This sounds insane.
QUOTE (IvanKaramazov @ Oct 10 2006, 02:33 PM)
QUOTE (fatguyinalittlecoat @ Oct 10 2006, 01:32 PM)
The "no homework" philosophy is actually a somewhat trendy movement.
This sounds insane.
I've had conversations with people that support it. I don't think it's a good idea.
Quite radical, but I am intrigued, albeit a little skeptical.
If we eliminate homes, we will eliminate homework. Think about it.
QUOTE (Andy Dufresne @ Oct 10 2006, 01:33 PM)
Depends on the age we're talkng about.
This is a good point. I guess I was just naturally thinking about middle school ages and up. I would be more open to the argument that homework doesn't do much for elementary students, though I'm still kind of skeptical.
QUOTE (fatguyinalittlecoat @ Oct 10 2006, 02:32 PM)
The "no homework" philosophy is actually a somewhat trendy movement. I don't really agree with it, but I think there are some New York private schools that have completely done away with homework.
If the kids have to do the same amount of work - but while in school - I don't see the problem - obviously they'd have to spend more time in the schools...
One of the dumbest ideas that has ever been tossed out there regarding homework. Most classes do not give homework every night and it comes down to a time management issue with the student. Giving a student 3 days to do an assignment will result in one thing... two off days and one cramming day. The "better" students will work on a day 1 and finish it or all three days and finish it.
Eliminating homework results in teachers being babysitters more than it does in developing students' minds.
Eliminating homework results in teachers being babysitters more than it does in developing students' minds.
QUOTE (IvanKaramazov @ Oct 10 2006, 01:41 PM)
QUOTE (Andy Dufresne @ Oct 10 2006, 01:33 PM)
Depends on the age we're talkng about.
This is a good point. I guess I was just naturally thinking about middle school ages and up. I would be more open to the argument that homework doesn't do much for elementary students, though I'm still kind of skeptical.
My 1st grader brings home homework. Granted it's only a few minutes worth, but I don't remember having homework until about 6th grade or so.
QUOTE (Andy Dufresne @ Oct 10 2006, 01:44 PM)
QUOTE (IvanKaramazov @ Oct 10 2006, 01:41 PM)
QUOTE (Andy Dufresne @ Oct 10 2006, 01:33 PM)
Depends on the age we're talkng about.
This is a good point. I guess I was just naturally thinking about middle school ages and up. I would be more open to the argument that homework doesn't do much for elementary students, though I'm still kind of skeptical.
My 1st grader brings home homework. Granted it's only a few minutes worth, but I don't remember having homework until about 6th grade or so.
Same here. I'm not sure how necessary this sort of stuff is, but it seems pretty harmless too.
As a parent, I like seeing the homework. I can see areas where my child is struggling and help him myself before the struggles show as a bad grade on a test. Yes this is probably more of the teacher's job, but when it comes to my child's education "Not my job," isnt something I ever plan on saying.
Yes I know that many parents won't spend time making sure their child's homework is completed, much less that it is completed correctly. Depending on the teacher that can go either way for my child's education. I have seen teachers who spend time bring the children that dont get help at home up to speed and I have also seen teachers who move at a set pace spending their "quality" extra time with those trying their best to keep up. This is a problem for the schoolboard to figure out, not me. Worst case, my child's education is equal to everyone in his class but that education might not be at the pace the teacher wants/needs. Best case, my child's education is at the top end of his class and he is possibly getting more of the teacher's time.
Take away homework, and I think it will be worst case all of the time. It might be; and probably is; harsh, but its life. Again, thats something for the respective teachers/schoolboards to address. Just not at the expense of my child's education. As selfish as that may be, my child's education is one area where I freely admit being selfish.
Yes I know that many parents won't spend time making sure their child's homework is completed, much less that it is completed correctly. Depending on the teacher that can go either way for my child's education. I have seen teachers who spend time bring the children that dont get help at home up to speed and I have also seen teachers who move at a set pace spending their "quality" extra time with those trying their best to keep up. This is a problem for the schoolboard to figure out, not me. Worst case, my child's education is equal to everyone in his class but that education might not be at the pace the teacher wants/needs. Best case, my child's education is at the top end of his class and he is possibly getting more of the teacher's time.
Take away homework, and I think it will be worst case all of the time. It might be; and probably is; harsh, but its life. Again, thats something for the respective teachers/schoolboards to address. Just not at the expense of my child's education. As selfish as that may be, my child's education is one area where I freely admit being selfish.
QUOTE (TannerBoyle @ Oct 10 2006, 01:45 PM)
IMO There are only 3 real reasons for homework.
1. Finishing classwork or make-up work if you missed class.
2. Reading large chunks of the text or novels etc.
3. Repetitive drilling/memorization such as times-tables, spelling words etc.
1. Finishing classwork or make-up work if you missed class.
2. Reading large chunks of the text or novels etc.
3. Repetitive drilling/memorization such as times-tables, spelling words etc.
You don't see any value in having students think about course material outside the classroom? Or in having them practice techniques that they learned in class (most math homework, for example)?
What subject and age bracket do you teach?
My stepson is in seventh grade now used to get like 1-2 hours of homework regularly in 4th and 5th grade. And he gets straight A's.
I feel for the kids that have trouble in school. The only good thing was homework was never assigned over weekends and vacations.
But I found it to be excessive at that age.
I feel for the kids that have trouble in school. The only good thing was homework was never assigned over weekends and vacations.
But I found it to be excessive at that age.
If it were not for homework, we would have ten threads on the first page asking, "Pluto not a Planet? WTF!"
There was study released recently that said most homework was just busy work to placate parents and was essentially useless in the educational process.
QUOTE (Psychology Kev @ Oct 10 2006, 02:43 PM)
Most classes do not give homework every night...
This is not what I hear from most parents of older children. I know one guy who claims his daughter has like 3 hours of homework every night.
I'm all for homework but my kids got a ridiculous amount during middle school, 2-3 hours each night was common. Then more the first 2 years of HS. It seemed to slack off by the time they were juniors and seniors though I suspect they weren't doing it all (mostly reading). And also, by that time I stopped checking their work unless they had a question. I felt they should be responsible and that I didn't have to babysit them.
QUOTE (NCCommish @ Oct 10 2006, 03:19 PM)
There was study released recently that said most homework was just busy work to placate parents and was essentially useless in the educational process.
I can see this and would not be shocked if every teacher (in high school) felt obligated to send home at least 30 minutes of homework a night.
QUOTE
Posted on Thu, Sep. 14, 2006
Homework: Helps mind or wastes time?
Duke researcher says students get little benefit from the extra study
VALERIE STRAUSS
Washington Post
The nation's best-known researcher on homework has taken a new look at the subject and says students get little benefit from it.
Duke University professor Harris Cooper said elementary students get no academic benefit from homework -- except reading and some basic skills practice -- and yet schools require more than ever.
High school students studying late into the night probably are wasting their time because there is no academic advantage after two hours a night; for middle-schoolers, 1 1/2 hours. And perhaps more important, he said, is that most teachers get little or no training on how to create homework assignments that advance learning.
The controversy over homework that has raged for more than a century in U.S. education is reheating with new research by educators and authors about homework's purpose and design.
No one has gone as far as the American Child Health Association did in the 1930s, when it pinned homework and child labor as leading killers of children who contracted tuberculosis and heart disease.
But the arguments seem to get louder with each new school year: There is too much homework or too little; assignments are too boring or overreaching; parents are too involved or negligent.
"What should homework be?" asked veteran educator Dorothy Rich, founder of the nonprofit Home and School Institute. "In the biggest parameter, it ought to help kids make better sense of the world. Too often, it just doesn't."
Teachers say they work hard to conform to school board policies and parent demands that do not always match what they think is best for children.
Yet teachers do not uniformly agree on something as basic as the purpose of homework (reviewing vs. learning new concepts), much less design or amount or even whether it should be graded. The result can be inconsistency in assignments and confusion for students.
That is part of the reason some educators and authors are making new cases for the elimination of homework, including in the new book "The Homework Myth," by Alfie Kohn.
Kohn points to family conflict, stress and Cooper's research as reasons for giving kids other things to do to develop their minds and bodies after school besides homework.
"It is striking that we have no evidence that there is any academic benefit in elementary school homework," he said. "Then people fall back on the self-discipline argument and how it helps students learn study skills. But that is an urban myth, except that people apply it in the suburbs, too."
In 1989, Cooper, now a psychology professor and director of Duke's Program in Education, published an analysis of studies on the link between homework and academic achievement.
His conclusions: The research showed no correlation between academic achievement and homework -- besides reading -- in elementary school, a small benefit in middle school and more for high school.
This spring, he co-authored another paper in the Review of Educational Research after reviewing newer studies done on homework from 1987 to 2003.
This time, he said, there was some evidence that, in grades 2 through 5, students do better on unit tests when they do short homework assignments on basic skills that relate to the test.
And, he said, it appears that more than two hours of high school homework, and more than 1 1/2 hours of middle school homework, have no academic benefit and may produce negative results.
Other educators, such as Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford University education professor and researcher, say that many of the studies Cooper evaluated were not tightly controlled and not authoritative but that his conclusions make sense.
Darling-Hammond agreed that many teachers lack the skills to design homework assignments that help kids and don't turn them off to learning.
Today, schools of education vary in the training of designing homework assignments that are more than busywork, usually embedded in courses about curriculum. Many, however, offer none, and teachers say they wish the schools had.
"One isn't born knowing how to make sensible lesson plans and homework assignments," said Karen Zabrowski, a seventh-grade reading teacher at Chippewa Falls Middle School in Wisconsin.
But teacher knowledge is often trumped by policies created by school boards whose members are often not educators, teachers have said.
Timothy Naughton, a kindergarten teacher in East Stroudsburg, Pa., said he learned about homework at Fordham University in the 1990s.
"We agreed it wasn't the best practice for younger students, but we knew everybody was going to make us give it anyway, so we talked about how to reconcile the two positions," he said.
Naughton gives no homework but suggests that parents read and practice basic skills with their kids.
Kohn said that if he were education czar, kids would not be assigned homework but would wind up learning anyway. That's what happened at the private Kino School in Tucson, Ariz., where traditional homework was banned but kids designed their own after-school projects because they wanted to keep learning.
Cooper said eliminating homework makes no more sense than "piling it on" and that the answer is somewhere in between.
Your Assignment: Read This Timeline
How schools have handled the ever-contoversial issue:
• 1800s: Not many children progressed beyond grammar school, but those who did go to public high school got hours of homework that centered on memorization and drilling of facts and material to recite in school.
• Late 1880s: Reformist educators became concerned that homework, sometimes done in dim light, was harming children's physical and mental health. In Boston, Gen. Francis Walker, a Civil War hero chosen as the city's school board president, questioned its effectiveness as a learning tool as well as its effect on young people, and persuaded the board to lessen math homework.
• Turn of the century and early 1900s: Dozens of school systems jumped on the anti-homework bandwagon, with restrictions placed on the amount of homework around the country. A national debate about it unfolded in journals, including the influential Ladies Home Journal, whose editor, Edward Bok, considered homework "barbarous," and wrote a 1900 article titled "A National Crime at the Feet of American Parents."
• 1940s-60s: National debate on homework moves to permitting homework that is creative and specific to each student's needs. The Soviet Union's launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1957 prompted national soul-searching about the American education system, and homework got a new boost from people who said the country had fallen behind.
• 1980-90s:The 1983 release of a report called "A Nation at Risk," which denounced the country's school system, gave new impetus to the pro-homework movement. More schools started increasing homework, especially for younger students.
• Today: It is unusual to find schools that do not give homework, and many school systems require it.
Partially adapted from "The Crusade to Abolish Homework," American Journal of Education, November 1996, by Brian Gill and Steven Schlossman.
Homework: Helps mind or wastes time?
Duke researcher says students get little benefit from the extra study
VALERIE STRAUSS
Washington Post
The nation's best-known researcher on homework has taken a new look at the subject and says students get little benefit from it.
Duke University professor Harris Cooper said elementary students get no academic benefit from homework -- except reading and some basic skills practice -- and yet schools require more than ever.
High school students studying late into the night probably are wasting their time because there is no academic advantage after two hours a night; for middle-schoolers, 1 1/2 hours. And perhaps more important, he said, is that most teachers get little or no training on how to create homework assignments that advance learning.
The controversy over homework that has raged for more than a century in U.S. education is reheating with new research by educators and authors about homework's purpose and design.
No one has gone as far as the American Child Health Association did in the 1930s, when it pinned homework and child labor as leading killers of children who contracted tuberculosis and heart disease.
But the arguments seem to get louder with each new school year: There is too much homework or too little; assignments are too boring or overreaching; parents are too involved or negligent.
"What should homework be?" asked veteran educator Dorothy Rich, founder of the nonprofit Home and School Institute. "In the biggest parameter, it ought to help kids make better sense of the world. Too often, it just doesn't."
Teachers say they work hard to conform to school board policies and parent demands that do not always match what they think is best for children.
Yet teachers do not uniformly agree on something as basic as the purpose of homework (reviewing vs. learning new concepts), much less design or amount or even whether it should be graded. The result can be inconsistency in assignments and confusion for students.
That is part of the reason some educators and authors are making new cases for the elimination of homework, including in the new book "The Homework Myth," by Alfie Kohn.
Kohn points to family conflict, stress and Cooper's research as reasons for giving kids other things to do to develop their minds and bodies after school besides homework.
"It is striking that we have no evidence that there is any academic benefit in elementary school homework," he said. "Then people fall back on the self-discipline argument and how it helps students learn study skills. But that is an urban myth, except that people apply it in the suburbs, too."
In 1989, Cooper, now a psychology professor and director of Duke's Program in Education, published an analysis of studies on the link between homework and academic achievement.
His conclusions: The research showed no correlation between academic achievement and homework -- besides reading -- in elementary school, a small benefit in middle school and more for high school.
This spring, he co-authored another paper in the Review of Educational Research after reviewing newer studies done on homework from 1987 to 2003.
This time, he said, there was some evidence that, in grades 2 through 5, students do better on unit tests when they do short homework assignments on basic skills that relate to the test.
And, he said, it appears that more than two hours of high school homework, and more than 1 1/2 hours of middle school homework, have no academic benefit and may produce negative results.
Other educators, such as Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford University education professor and researcher, say that many of the studies Cooper evaluated were not tightly controlled and not authoritative but that his conclusions make sense.
Darling-Hammond agreed that many teachers lack the skills to design homework assignments that help kids and don't turn them off to learning.
Today, schools of education vary in the training of designing homework assignments that are more than busywork, usually embedded in courses about curriculum. Many, however, offer none, and teachers say they wish the schools had.
"One isn't born knowing how to make sensible lesson plans and homework assignments," said Karen Zabrowski, a seventh-grade reading teacher at Chippewa Falls Middle School in Wisconsin.
But teacher knowledge is often trumped by policies created by school boards whose members are often not educators, teachers have said.
Timothy Naughton, a kindergarten teacher in East Stroudsburg, Pa., said he learned about homework at Fordham University in the 1990s.
"We agreed it wasn't the best practice for younger students, but we knew everybody was going to make us give it anyway, so we talked about how to reconcile the two positions," he said.
Naughton gives no homework but suggests that parents read and practice basic skills with their kids.
Kohn said that if he were education czar, kids would not be assigned homework but would wind up learning anyway. That's what happened at the private Kino School in Tucson, Ariz., where traditional homework was banned but kids designed their own after-school projects because they wanted to keep learning.
Cooper said eliminating homework makes no more sense than "piling it on" and that the answer is somewhere in between.
Your Assignment: Read This Timeline
How schools have handled the ever-contoversial issue:
• 1800s: Not many children progressed beyond grammar school, but those who did go to public high school got hours of homework that centered on memorization and drilling of facts and material to recite in school.
• Late 1880s: Reformist educators became concerned that homework, sometimes done in dim light, was harming children's physical and mental health. In Boston, Gen. Francis Walker, a Civil War hero chosen as the city's school board president, questioned its effectiveness as a learning tool as well as its effect on young people, and persuaded the board to lessen math homework.
• Turn of the century and early 1900s: Dozens of school systems jumped on the anti-homework bandwagon, with restrictions placed on the amount of homework around the country. A national debate about it unfolded in journals, including the influential Ladies Home Journal, whose editor, Edward Bok, considered homework "barbarous," and wrote a 1900 article titled "A National Crime at the Feet of American Parents."
• 1940s-60s: National debate on homework moves to permitting homework that is creative and specific to each student's needs. The Soviet Union's launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1957 prompted national soul-searching about the American education system, and homework got a new boost from people who said the country had fallen behind.
• 1980-90s:The 1983 release of a report called "A Nation at Risk," which denounced the country's school system, gave new impetus to the pro-homework movement. More schools started increasing homework, especially for younger students.
• Today: It is unusual to find schools that do not give homework, and many school systems require it.
Partially adapted from "The Crusade to Abolish Homework," American Journal of Education, November 1996, by Brian Gill and Steven Schlossman.
I know in high school and currently college, I'm getting 2-3 hours of homework a night (in college it's mostly reading but it still takes time when needing to read 3-4 different books at once).
Pretty much every class I'm in assigns homework after class, unless there's a test in which case the homework is just to study.
Pretty much every class I'm in assigns homework after class, unless there's a test in which case the homework is just to study.
QUOTE (dgreen @ Oct 10 2006, 02:19 PM)
QUOTE (Psychology Kev @ Oct 10 2006, 02:43 PM)
Most classes do not give homework every night...
This is not what I hear from most parents of older children. I know one guy who claims his daughter has like 3 hours of homework every night.Reading is the most often assigned homework, most likely, in the social sciences and rarely do students do that if they know there wont be some kind of check on it.
I agree with the no homework style of teaching. I think that once your home from an 8 hour school day that the remaining time you have left in the day should be spent with your family and friends. I think this prevents burnout from the students and helps strengthen the bond of the family. I thought this as a student and now as a father. This doesn't mean that in your time with the family you can't be learning. Sit down with your kids and watch an hour special on Discovery or National Geographic. This is such a constructive way of learning as opposed to the pressure of reading 3 chapters of literature, doing 50 math problems, and putting all the state capitals in alphabetical order by bedtime.
I might be in the minority here, but I think that small amounts of homework for the youngest kids is actually more important than most homework for older kids. At the youngest ages repetition is so important for them. Only a half hour a night of having their parents help them is more than enough for kids with problems to get caught up.
My wife teaches kindergarden. After Christmas break she'll start assigning small amounts of homework about twice a week. But from the very beginning she asks parents to spend some time with their children every night going over the letters and words that they're learning. After most of them had trouble with their colors last week she told the kids that they needed to tell their parents to spend more time with them at night (suspecting that the parents weren't spending any time). Sure enough, a couple of days later they all knew their colors perfectly.
My wife teaches kindergarden. After Christmas break she'll start assigning small amounts of homework about twice a week. But from the very beginning she asks parents to spend some time with their children every night going over the letters and words that they're learning. After most of them had trouble with their colors last week she told the kids that they needed to tell their parents to spend more time with them at night (suspecting that the parents weren't spending any time). Sure enough, a couple of days later they all knew their colors perfectly.
How does this prepare children for college?
QUOTE (cocoagirl @ Oct 10 2006, 03:35 PM)
How does this prepare children for college?
They'll have more time for recreational drugs
QUOTE (cocoagirl @ Oct 10 2006, 03:35 PM)
How does this prepare children for college?
There's a lot more class time in high school than college.
I ignored homework far too much while in school. I didn't see any benefit to it in terms of actually learning material. I still don't.
But I've learned that jobs require several hours of soul killing, mind bendingly boring busy work for every hour of fulfilling, meaningful work.
I should have learned to deal with that better by doing the busy work when it was assigned in school.
But I've learned that jobs require several hours of soul killing, mind bendingly boring busy work for every hour of fulfilling, meaningful work.
I should have learned to deal with that better by doing the busy work when it was assigned in school.
I'm ok with getting rid of homework....but I would like to see kids go to school year round. maybe a week or two break in summer sometime.
If you don't have homework are you just gonna sit around and read books during English class rather than discussing them? An awful waste of time if you ask me. Maybe Math and Science and crap can do away with it, but I can 't see the value in holding them in a class to just kick back and read.
I don't understand no homework at almost any age. I agree that some teachers just pile on too much, but I see a certain amount of homework as necessary. I always did very well in school, but I know I needed the homework to really understand a lot of the concepts I was learning, and this includes basic math. I don't think many students can really learn stuff like addition and subtraction without having to put some time in at home trying it by themselves. That time out of school is when I think a lot of learning and understanding comes in for subjects like those, everything looks easy when the teacher is up at the board doing it.
A balance is necessary, but for a 7-12th grade student I don't see 2 hours of homework, sometimes more as being a very big deal. A school day ends by 4 last time I checked and that gives plenty of time to actually do homework, activities, family or friends time.
Maybe it's just me, but I would also see no homework as the death of our education system, but as I admitted above, too much homework I agree would be a mess also.
A balance is necessary, but for a 7-12th grade student I don't see 2 hours of homework, sometimes more as being a very big deal. A school day ends by 4 last time I checked and that gives plenty of time to actually do homework, activities, family or friends time.
Maybe it's just me, but I would also see no homework as the death of our education system, but as I admitted above, too much homework I agree would be a mess also.
QUOTE (CrossEyed @ Oct 10 2006, 09:29 PM)
By the way, I have a friend who teaches high school and he stopped giving homework last year. Said it wasn't worth the fight. Kids didn't do it and talking to parents had no effect.
How do our kids learn what they need to know if they aren't doing any work outside of school time?
Failing the kids might have an effect.How do our kids learn what they need to know if they aren't doing any work outside of school time?
Yeesh! Lazy parents.
You need a license to go fishing but anyone can have children, there is something wrong with that.
QUOTE (msommer @ Oct 10 2006, 02:42 PM)
QUOTE (fatguyinalittlecoat @ Oct 10 2006, 02:32 PM)
The "no homework" philosophy is actually a somewhat trendy movement. I don't really agree with it, but I think there are some New York private schools that have completely done away with homework.
If the kids have to do the same amount of work - but while in school - I don't see the problem - obviously they'd have to spend more time in the schools...
extend the school day until 5:30 and I can see it...
QUOTE (cocoagirl @ Oct 10 2006, 03:35 PM)
How does this prepare children for collegelife?
fixed
QUOTE (cocoagirl @ Oct 10 2006, 02:35 PM)
How does this prepare children for college?
College is completely different. Noone I know spends 8 hours/day in class. It's usually three or four hours with a lot of studying time in between (I guess that would be "homework", but it's really not the same). In college you need time management skills. I'm not so sure just getting a lot of homework in High School really helps with that.
I was at a serious disadvantage my first at college even though I went to what was considered a top 100 public school. I thought it was because of a more relaxed workload in HS than the private students (most of my classmates came from private schools), but I found out later that they didn't do any more homework than I did. They simply had better teachers and a more progressive school environment. Their first year was basically a review of their senior year in High School and the college teachers ran with that as the norm. I would estimate they were a good 25% ahead of me with the same workload (as far as time goes).
I agree with the study linked earlier. Homework is fine in limited quantities, but more homework is not the answer to this nation's scholastic problems.
QUOTE
Failing the kids might have an effect.
Yeesh! Lazy parents. You need a license to go fishing but anyone can have children, there is something wrong with that.
Yeesh! Lazy parents. You need a license to go fishing but anyone can have children, there is something wrong with that.
What if the child brings home geometry, algebra, chemistry? I took high level calculus and had to take the GMAT and couldn't remember how to do the basic mathematics in it (i think geometry and algebra). What about parents that don't have higher level educations. To effectively help a child do the homework you would have to re-learn (or in some instances learn) the material first. That in itself could take a couple of hours a night before you could even help your child.
As a parent, I'd have to say I'm pretty mixed on the homework issue. From the parent standpoint, most of the work I see assigned is crap busy work. If that's what my kids will be assigned, I'd just as soon have them out playing. If there's a purpose to the work, such as what Tanner outlined, then I can see the value of it. If it's a project for students to complete over time, etc, that's fine. Spare me the fill in the blanks worksheets, please.
The rule of thumb in our district is 10 minutes per grade level of the student. I'm fine with that. I have two children, one of whom is very, very bright but struggles mightily with fine motor skills and moving information from brain to pencil. Homework can be excruciating for him even though the work isn't that hard. What takes many kids 20 minutes might take him more than an hour. I fought the suggestion to stop him at the allotted time because I didn't want to teach him to stop without finishing. This year, however, I'm going to have to do that as he's being assigned over 2 hours of homework a night in 6th grade. It's ridiculous.
The rule of thumb in our district is 10 minutes per grade level of the student. I'm fine with that. I have two children, one of whom is very, very bright but struggles mightily with fine motor skills and moving information from brain to pencil. Homework can be excruciating for him even though the work isn't that hard. What takes many kids 20 minutes might take him more than an hour. I fought the suggestion to stop him at the allotted time because I didn't want to teach him to stop without finishing. This year, however, I'm going to have to do that as he's being assigned over 2 hours of homework a night in 6th grade. It's ridiculous.
I really think too much homework is simply not good for kids. Many times growing up, I skipped mindless "busy work" homework so I could play sports or hang out with my brother. With each teacher assigning even 30 minutes of HW and you have 6 classes, we'll that's way too much.
I think our school system should be that teacher's teach and IF a student needs extra help THEN the teacher can assign them extra work but not mandatory. If the student does the extra work then the teacher can grade it but it won't count. I think too many teacher's have become lazy and simply want to teach a little bit then load up the rest for THEM to do while away from school. Excuse me but if that's the case then we don't even need teacher's anymore, simply assign work and let the student's do it on their own.
I think our school system should be that teacher's teach and IF a student needs extra help THEN the teacher can assign them extra work but not mandatory. If the student does the extra work then the teacher can grade it but it won't count. I think too many teacher's have become lazy and simply want to teach a little bit then load up the rest for THEM to do while away from school. Excuse me but if that's the case then we don't even need teacher's anymore, simply assign work and let the student's do it on their own.
QUOTE (Serenity Now @ Oct 10 2006, 02:12 PM)
As a parent, I'd have to say I'm pretty mixed on the homework issue. From the parent standpoint, most of the work I see assigned is crap busy work. If that's what my kids will be assigned, I'd just as soon have them out playing. If there's a purpose to the work, such as what Tanner outlined, then I can see the value of it. If it's a project for students to complete over time, etc, that's fine. Spare me the fill in the blanks worksheets, please.
The rule of thumb in our district is 10 minutes per grade level of the student. I'm fine with that. I have two children, one of whom is very, very bright but struggles mightily with fine motor skills and moving information from brain to pencil. Homework can be excruciating for him even though the work isn't that hard. What takes many kids 20 minutes might take him more than an hour. I fought the suggestion to stop him at the allotted time because I didn't want to teach him to stop without finishing. This year, however, I'm going to have to do that as he's being assigned over 2 hours of homework a night in 6th grade. It's ridiculous.
The rule of thumb in our district is 10 minutes per grade level of the student. I'm fine with that. I have two children, one of whom is very, very bright but struggles mightily with fine motor skills and moving information from brain to pencil. Homework can be excruciating for him even though the work isn't that hard. What takes many kids 20 minutes might take him more than an hour. I fought the suggestion to stop him at the allotted time because I didn't want to teach him to stop without finishing. This year, however, I'm going to have to do that as he's being assigned over 2 hours of homework a night in 6th grade. It's ridiculous.
Most HW is crap and mindless and a complete waste of time. Going out to play > mindless dribble teacher's assign to their students to waste their time. I think getting outside and playing is something that is greatly lost in this country and can't believe how many kids now stay indoors practically all day.
If there is a specific purpose though then I have no problem with it but for the most part, most HW is pretty useless.
QUOTE (The Gatekeeper @ Oct 10 2006, 02:29 PM)
I agree with the no homework style of teaching. I think that once your home from an 8 hour school day that the remaining time you have left in the day should be spent with your family and friends. I think this prevents burnout from the students and helps strengthen the bond of the family. I thought this as a student and now as a father. This doesn't mean that in your time with the family you can't be learning. Sit down with your kids and watch an hour special on Discovery or National Geographic. This is such a constructive way of learning as opposed to the pressure of reading 3 chapters of literature, doing 50 math problems, and putting all the state capitals in alphabetical order by bedtime.
What about study halls? Most kids I know have one study hall which gives them time to do alot of their homework. I agree it may be unnecessary in some classes but it's absolutely necessary in others. Math is one class were homework is a must. Most people can't learn geometry, algebra and calculus proficiently without doing it over and over and over. That's something that just can't be done without at least some homework.
QUOTE (jonessed @ Oct 10 2006, 03:09 PM)
QUOTE (cocoagirl @ Oct 10 2006, 02:35 PM)
How does this prepare children for college?
College is completely different. Noone I know spends 8 hours/day in class. It's usually three or four hours with a lot of studying time in between (I guess that would be "homework", but it's really not the same). In college you need time management skills. I'm not so sure just getting a lot of homework in High School really helps with that.
I was at a serious disadvantage my first at college even though I went to what was considered a top 100 public school. I thought it was because of a more relaxed workload in HS than the private students (most of my classmates came from private schools), but I found out later that they didn't do any more homework than I did. They simply had better teachers and a more progressive school environment. Their first year was basically a review of their senior year in High School and the college teachers ran with that as the norm. I would estimate they were a good 25% ahead of me with the same workload (as far as time goes).
I agree with the study linked earlier. Homework is fine in limited quantities, but more homework is not the answer to this nation's scholastic problems.
LOL...high school kids don't spend 8 hours in class. Most have 1 study hall then throw in gym class and some electives like music, shop, home economics and you're down to 4-5 hours of "tough" class time per day tops.
I disagree with getting rid of homework. Among the homework I had in elementary school:
+ math: memorizing times tables, etc, using flash cards.
+ math: worksheets of problems to solve like long division.
+ book reports: We had a book report due every two weeks - we had to pick a book from the school library to read and report on.
+ spelling: memorizing words
+ history: reading texts, taking notes
+ english: learning the formalities of the language like subjects and predicates, verbs, objects, pronouns, tenses, etc. Having homework assigned to identify these things in a given text.
I don't see the harm in any of this. A little less TV and more studies is a good thing.
+ math: memorizing times tables, etc, using flash cards.
+ math: worksheets of problems to solve like long division.
+ book reports: We had a book report due every two weeks - we had to pick a book from the school library to read and report on.
+ spelling: memorizing words
+ history: reading texts, taking notes
+ english: learning the formalities of the language like subjects and predicates, verbs, objects, pronouns, tenses, etc. Having homework assigned to identify these things in a given text.
I don't see the harm in any of this. A little less TV and more studies is a good thing.
QUOTE (Pipes @ Oct 10 2006, 04:21 PM)
LOL...high school kids don't spend 8 hours in class. Most have 1 study hall then throw in gym class and some electives like music, shop, home economics and you're down to 4-5 hours of "tough" class time per day tops.
This is a pretty broad generalization. Lots of high school kids don't have gym or study hall or easy electives.
QUOTE (Pipes @ Oct 10 2006, 03:21 PM)
QUOTE (jonessed @ Oct 10 2006, 03:09 PM)
QUOTE (cocoagirl @ Oct 10 2006, 02:35 PM)
How does this prepare children for college?
College is completely different. Noone I know spends 8 hours/day in class. It's usually three or four hours with a lot of studying time in between (I guess that would be "homework", but it's really not the same). In college you need time management skills. I'm not so sure just getting a lot of homework in High School really helps with that.
I was at a serious disadvantage my first at college even though I went to what was considered a top 100 public school. I thought it was because of a more relaxed workload in HS than the private students (most of my classmates came from private schools), but I found out later that they didn't do any more homework than I did. They simply had better teachers and a more progressive school environment. Their first year was basically a review of their senior year in High School and the college teachers ran with that as the norm. I would estimate they were a good 25% ahead of me with the same workload (as far as time goes).
I agree with the study linked earlier. Homework is fine in limited quantities, but more homework is not the answer to this nation's scholastic problems.
LOL...high school kids don't spend 8 hours in class. Most have 1 study hall then throw in gym class and some electives like music, shop, home economics and you're down to 4-5 hours of "tough" class time per day tops.
I had gym my first two years and then one elective to fill that slot the next two years. I guess maybe 6-7 hours would be closer, but that's not really the point. It's still managed time. College is much more freeform.
Gym class at least 3 times per week should be required. Healthy bodies help build healthy minds
QUOTE (BGP @ Oct 10 2006, 02:24 PM)
I disagree with getting rid of homework. Among the homework I had in elementary school:
+ math: memorizing times tables, etc, using flash cards.
+ math: worksheets of problems to solve like long division.
+ book reports: We had a book report due every two weeks - we had to pick a book from the school library to read and report on.
+ spelling: memorizing words
+ history: reading texts, taking notes
+ english: learning the formalities of the language like subjects and predicates, verbs, objects, pronouns, tenses, etc. Having homework assigned to identify these things in a given text.
I don't see the harm in any of this. A little less TV and more studies is a good thing.
+ math: memorizing times tables, etc, using flash cards.
+ math: worksheets of problems to solve like long division.
+ book reports: We had a book report due every two weeks - we had to pick a book from the school library to read and report on.
+ spelling: memorizing words
+ history: reading texts, taking notes
+ english: learning the formalities of the language like subjects and predicates, verbs, objects, pronouns, tenses, etc. Having homework assigned to identify these things in a given text.
I don't see the harm in any of this. A little less TV and more studies is a good thing.
Shouldn't that all be done IN CLASS, not OUT OF CLASS though?
Edit: if the answer is "NO" then why have teachers?
QUOTE (TinHat @ Oct 10 2006, 02:28 PM)
Gym class at least 3 times per week should be required. Healthy bodies help build healthy minds
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