<p>Why we're getting the homework question wrong:</p>
<p>Why</a> we’re getting the homework question wrong - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post</p>
<p>I usually don’t agree with Valerie Strauss.</p>
<p>And I’m not changing that trend now.</p>
<p>It would have been helpful if she had given more information about the British study which found a positive result from homework. That would have contradicted her argument, though. The Australian study doesn’t prove anything. I haven’t read the study–but in this case, I don’t have to.</p>
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<p>Two hours of homework a week works out to seventeen minutes a day. Four hours a week is about half an hour. Only five percent of middle schoolers in Australia have an hour a day of homework. I’d guess that they attend private schools, and thus any gains from the school could be ascribed to socioeconomic status.</p>
<p>At any rate, perhaps the Australian study showed “no benefit” because the students weren’t doing enough homework to make a difference. The rule of thumb of 10 minutes per grade level would have 10-11 year olds doing 50 minutes of homework per school night, which would place them near the top of the Australian distribution.</p>
<p>My family’s experience would certainly back up Periwinkle’s point. Son at bs has many hours of homework. Son at home rarely has more than 20 minutes worth because he gets most of it done at school or during his advisory period.</p>
<p>It seems to me that the overloaded kids in her anecdotes were simply taking too many demanding classes. The solution is not the further dumbing down of our schools by mandatory homework limits; its children and parents learning to prioritize what’s most important. I just don’t believe that the child taking 5 AP’s is going to be more attractive to a top-level college than one who takes one or two in the academic areas in which she is most interested, freeing up time to pursue other interests.</p>
<p>And how does the researched jive this study with the many others out there reporting on the average time teens spend on social media/texting/video games, etc.?</p>
<p>Oh, classicalmama, didn’t you know that social media/texting/video games = happiness and less stress? Whereas Latin homework = stomachaches. :)</p>
<p>I don’t think the problem is homework. I think the problem is the competition between students and parents to reach the top of the heap. Course load is only one aspect of that competition–and it is under the student’s control. I’m certain the student whose anecdote introduces the essay could have elected to drop down a level in one or two courses. Or, she could have elected to take on fewer extracurricular activities, at any time.</p>
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<p>What an amazing coincidence! My happiness level also goes up over the weekend, and also falls again just before I have to go back to work on Monday! ;-)</p>
<p>Great insight, GMTplus7!</p>
<p>At what point did we (as a society) lose sight of the fact that a good part of life isn’t “fun,” or that every thing we do can’t be predicated on whether or not it makes us “happy”?</p>
<p>I don’t recall being rapturous about changing diapers, or reading “Goodnight Moon” until my brain turned to mush, but I am happy that I’m the mom of two fabulous kids that I love very much. </p>
<p>I don’t think my son really enjoys practicing scales and etudes every day, but he does enjoy the technical mastery his practice has allowed him to gain on his instrument, and it definitely makes him happy to create music with his friends.</p>
<p>In our “instant gratification” world, are our kids losing sight of the basic truth that it generally requires hard work (which means time spent NOT doing something “fun” like gaming/social media/texting, etc.) to accomplish things of weight or merit or value?</p>
<p>I think the operative word is that homework should be meaningful. In many cases it’s mind numbing busy work and the kids are turning off completely. Loads of homework does not for more “learning” make and it’s proven that the brain does need periods of rest to restore itself - just as when a person is exhausted but trying to keep going, the brain begins to shut off parts of itself to force the issue of rest.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I was getting a check-up and the doctor asked if I suffered any bouts of depression. Like @GMT I replied. *"Yes - starts Monday at 7am and ends about 5pm on Friday. * We found the cure. I changed careers and the illness went away :)</p>
<p>Not all work is fun - but it should be meaningful so you can see the point of doing it.</p>
<p>Agreed, Exie…but certainly meaningful homework can extend beyond free reading at home and the occasional big project, which is what the article seems to lean toward. And I suspect the kids who are really exhausted are the ones who have too much “meaningful” work–essays, complex reading, difficult problem sets. Kids might be turned off by busy work, but I wouldn’t say it exhausts them or stresses them out.</p>
<p>Call me old fashioned, but as a person who has worked with teenagers most of my life, I think the busier they are, the better–too tired to get into trouble. That said, there have been periods in my own teens’ lives when we’ve had to intervene when it looked like they were heading toward overload.</p>
<p>I think there’s another issue lurking. Classicalmama, you say,
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<p>The trouble is, the pool of applicants for the very top colleges contains many kids who take 5 APs without breaking a sweat, and manage to do other activities as well. If your high school offers APs, you should take them, if you want to a contender. (Sidenote: the admissions officers do take your school’s offerings into account, so if there’s only one or two of offer, you’re fine with one or two.) </p>
<p>It is stressful to try to compete with superstar kids.</p>
<p>Periwinkle–Could be…such a school does not exist in my world. In these parts, AP classes have been replaced by concurrent enrollment, which everyone likes much better because the kids get college credit without the accountability that AP tests provide. The classes rarely provide the same rigor as AP classes (or actual college classes), but everyone’s SO much less stressed…</p>
<p>But I still think the kid who’s not great at managing all those AP’s could find another way to shine–it seems to me that those all AP club leader types must be a dime a dozen these days. Have you read the book How To Be a High School Superstar? It makes the argument for taking that other path.</p>
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<p>By my reckoning a 10 year old in 4th grade should have about 30 minutes of meaningful homework on M-Th evenings and that is 2 hours per week. My then 10 year old usually had 2 hours per night and most of it was meaningless, busy work. He was even assigned a lengthy assignment over Easter vacation and often had weekend homework, both of which were ridiculous infringements on our family life. Most of the homework at that age was just a waste of time that could have been better spend playing outside.</p>
<p>You have control over kids’ homework. Each year, I notified our son’s teachers in writing that homework in our house is optional for elementary and middle schoolers as we don’t see any value in it. If he wanted to do the outside assignments that was fine, but not required by us. He chose to do projects that interested in him, but did not do drill sheets or busy work. We were unconcerned about the homework portion of his grades, and teachers found it hard to grade down a child who excelled on exams and class participation. If he had struggled with a topic, we would have addressed it with him one-on-one time. We never saw any homework that was more valuable than his free time or our family time. I realize this goes against the grain, but it IS an option. And it doesn’t appear to have affected his ability to handle the workload or do well at BS.</p>
<p>I think we ARE getting the homework question wrong for younger children at least. I don’t know what issue or problem homework is trying to solve at that age.</p>
<p>I would do the same thing in that situation as ChoatieMom, except that I’d do the notification in a conference. Some students do need drill; others have homework because they don’t get their classwork done–one of my kids had this problem for a while. I’d want to get the teacher’s perspective first, but I’d be inclined to nix the extra homework if it’s clearly busy work.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I actually don’t think my first grader gets enough homework in math and reading, so she has to read and do some extra math every day at home when she doesn’t have homework. Call me a tiger mom if you will, but that 15 minutes of math homework every night still gives her plenty of time to play. If my kids, like Choatie mom’s, excel in drill and on tests, I adjust that–for example, we don’t bother studying spelling. Still, I’m pretty old fashioned in my views of education, and see value in a short, focused amount of daily drill and repetition at home as well as at school in early elementary (the sponge stage).</p>
<p>Anyway, I don’t think there’s any one right answer here to the question of how much homework is too much–but as parents, I do think we can keep our kids’ workloads balanced, at least in the early years.</p>
<p>I don’t agree with the dichotomy set up, that lots of homework = busywork. It is possible to have good homework. For example, if the homework includes reading for class the next day, it creates more interesting classes. </p>
<p>“Going outside to play” sounds great, but realistically, for many American kids, the extra time would be devoted to video games and tv. See the Kaiser Family Foundation study of children’s media habits:
<a href=“http://www.kff.org/entmedia/mh012010pkg.cfm[/url]”>http://www.kff.org/entmedia/mh012010pkg.cfm</a></p>
<p>Really, if they can spend 7 hours a day on entertainment media, they could devote some of that time to homework.</p>
<p>I also think that really bright kids need the opportunity to work hard. It is all too easy to skate through some schools, without learning to manage your time. Native brilliance is great, until you encounter a workload which requires a disciplined approach. Far better to realize that you can’t delay a large project to the night before it’s due.</p>
<p>On the other hand, there is a level of self-assigned work which is ridiculous. In the Wall Street Journal’s article today about the canceling of SAT scores from a NY high school:</p>
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[SAT</a> Scores Tossed Out in Testing Site Glitch - WSJ.com](<a href=“http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303448404577408630792009046.html?mod=googlenews_wsj]SAT”>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303448404577408630792009046.html?mod=googlenews_wsj)</p>
<p>A practice test lasts an hour. For the past month, he’s been spending two hours a day preparing for an SAT subject test? And his chemistry class has been test prep? This has nothing to do with homework load, and everything to do with cutthroat college competition.</p>
<p>10 year olds need to be kids. Inside or outside. </p>
<p>10 minutes of homework per grade is so simple and simply ridiculous.</p>
<p>Plodding through the politically correct homework allocation is shear mindless torture to the young mind numbling them to the inherent joys of learning.</p>
<p>My perspective is tainted by the past 4+ months. My son has not been in school due to a concussion. I now realize how little they learn in his school as he can basically keep pace with 2-3 hours of work in the home. The school day should be more efficient and when the school day is done, the child should be free to play or read or play an instrument or whatever they fancy.</p>
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<p>If it’s any consolation - those kids are starting to be easier to spot in an interview. And they tend to be the most disappointed when decisions are mailed. It’s the genuine kids who have a passion for something other than how high they can get a test score or grade that stand out at admissions time.</p>
<p>I really hate the homework assignments for the kids that are parentwork assignments. </p>
<p>I remember this “construct a castle” home assignment for my kid in the 3th grade, where he was supposed to assemble from raw materials an accurate 3D model of a castle stronghold with all its constituent parts (i.e keep, wall, gate, moat, tower, arrow slits etc.). </p>
<p>You should have seen the finished products that the kids brought in, including one dad’s-- whoops, I meant–one kid’s meticulously sawn, mitered, assembled, plywood, master-crafted Magnum Opus. </p>
<p>My young castle builder (his masterpiece was executed in papier-mache) is now in high school, but to this day I sometimes think of that ridiculous assignment and wonder: what was the point?</p>
<p>That actually sounds like the kind of assignment we homeschoolers loved best to give our kids, GMT! Well, that and mummifying chickens…</p>
<p>@Weatherby,</p>
<p>I am so sorry to hear of the challenges your son has had to face recently. I agree that the school day should be more efficient. There are homework assignments I would find objectionable. On the other hand, I know that teachers, especially in public schools, are often under pressure to make instruction “rigorous.” It isn’t always what they would assign, had they the freedom to choose.</p>
<p>The 10 minutes per grade formula can be used as a limit–if your child’s in fifth grade, and spends more than 50 minutes on homework, cut it off and tell the teacher(s) why you sent your child to bed. It helps teachers to get feedback.</p>
<p>@ExieMITAlum, well, I feel sad for the kids who do so much test prep, too. I think the media does us all a huge disservice in feeding the hysteria about the college application process. If kids really are devoting so much time to test prep, they don’t have time to follow their interests. I understand why the “holistic” approach is so effective–it allows colleges to admit kids who have the courage to follow their own interests. Denise Pope’s books are illuminating and horrifying…</p>
<p>@GMTplus7, you know, when our kids have had such homework, we’ve provided supplies, but they’ve done the work. Teachers can tell who’s done the work. We’ve never had a child given a bad grade due to un-mitered corners. Recently, schools have started setting aside class time for projects to be done in school, rather than at home. I think that’s fair. When our children were in public schools, there was the issue of public display of student work in heterogeneous classes. I did have friends who were quite open about doing their children’s work, (children who were on IEPs), because they didn’t want their kids humiliated by the public comparison with classmates.</p>
<p>@classicalmama, mummifying chickens? ??? Did you remove the entrails for soup beforehand? I hope you visited a museum to see real mummies later?</p>
<p>Ahh…museums…the homeschooler’s classroom. Definitely followed up with the real mummy–but the mummification process itself is pretty fascinating stuff. Sadly, I think the whole chicken is lost in the experiment.</p>