I don't really dance in public (unless it's Copperhead Road or the Cupid Shuffle) without my husband. That said, I found myself on my phone to pass the time for a while. It is there I found my inspiration for this little entry.
According to a post being shared far and wide through the intricate webs of the internet, parents are fed up with homework. I found this declaration among various photos of students getting ready for prom and posing for the obligatory prom day photos at the local gazebo posted by their loving family members.
Your child is done with homework? Really? I don't really understand the rationale; however, I am a reasonable individual and I'll hear you out. It always interests me to hear the logical arguments one poses against education.
"Why should my kid do more work after sitting in class for 7-8 hours?"
"Homework is stressing my ten-year-old out."
"...this is a homework-free household and I don't care who knows it. My kid needs to be a kid."
Are you serious? Are you sure you'd like to set a precedent where your child is encouraged to not complete assignments? Do you really want to go down that route with your pre-teen?
I honestly could not believe what I was reading. Educators, I'm sure you can relate. Again, I have the ability to empathize with someone and I hear the parents' frustrations, albeit I don't agree with the method. I knew it would be pointless to add my two contradictory cents to the conversation so I left it alone.
Yet, I couldn't really leave it alone because it continued to nag me. The notion that people out there actually think that negating their student's educator is a good idea weighed on my conscience. This is getting away from homework, which I will address in a moment, and getting to the real reason why I'm so frustrated with this: the complete dismissal of the educator's professional autonomy.
"But it's just homework and it's taking up all of our family time"
Stay with me here, I promise I make my point after the following scenario...
Imagine for a moment your parents are divorced. Then imagine that one parent asks you to sweep up the kitchen and wipe down the counters when you get home from school. That's a normal chore, I think. It was something I was required to do in my youth since both of my parents worked and I needed to help them take care of the house--we all lived there after all.
So Parent A asks you to do a chore to help teach you shared responsibility for the home (henceforth referred to as PA). It takes you maybe 30 minutes to complete this chore. You hate it. What lesson does cleaning the kitchen really teach anyways? You complain to parent B (PB) about the fact that PA makes you complete a seemingly meaningless task. PB tells you that you need time to relax after school and unwind from your day. PB sends PA a kind but firm email explaining why you will no longer be required to complete any household chores for them.
Fast forward a few weeks. PB asks you to pick up your room when you return home from school, it's dirty and is starting to smell bad. You tell PB, "Nah! I just got home from school, I think I'm going to play X-Box and unwind from my stressful day."
So what have these fictitious parents created for you? Is it an environment where responsibility and helpfulness have been instilled or one where it's okay not to do what is asked of you?
Sidebar: is family time truly taking place? Are you eating dinner together without electronic devices or discussing current events? Are you participating in cultural activities and being active outside together? Or (and I'm afraid this is the case) are you simply co-existing in the same space?
Let's apply this scenario to parent, teachers, and schools. When a parent tells a child he or she does not have to do the work the teacher has assigned, the student is first excited that he or she doesn't have to follow the rules and then becomes defiant of the teacher. This completely undermines the rapport the teacher may have developed with the student and creates an environment that is not conducive to the education and success of the student.
It was no accident I used a set of divorced parents to illustrate this scenario. More often than you would think the parent-teacher relationship comes to resemble that of a relationship between ex-partners. For various reasons, a parent will come to resent or dislike the child's educator and even though both parties have the child's best interests at heart it becomes almost a tug-of-war between them. This is not to say that parents and teachers cannot have a respectful and collaborative relationship. Teamwork is always the best policy when parties share a common goal. In this case, the goal is to see the child succeed. My purpose is in drawing attention to the relationships that do not collaborate and work together for the common good of the student.
If a parent decides in elementary school that his or her student does not need to complete homework, what happens when that student reaches high school? Does homework suddenly become a requirement at home? How do you address that with your child? "Well, little Johnny, high school is different and you actually have to do the work assigned or not earn credit for the course?" A contradicting precedent has already been set and encouraged. "There will be no homework in this house!" What happens then? How will the child find success?
Please don't think I don't understand the position the parent is in. I'm sure some teachers out there assign a cruel amount of homework each night. If this is the case I encourage you to speak to the teacher about it before blowing homework off altogether. I recently spoke to two parents on opposite sides of this issue. One parent was concerned her child was given too much homework each night while the other thought her child was not receiving enough. Granted, these were two different schools in the county with two different teachers; it just goes to show that we as educators receive complaints on both sides of the spectrum.
But what does the research say about Homework?
I am a professional educator and as such I must stay abreast of all the current educational trends and research-based studies. I have done my due diligence by reading up on the subject of homework in the interests of creating an informed environment for my own classroom and the success of my students.
According to the Center for Public Education, there are too many variables to pinpoint whether or not homework helps or hurts an individual. Variables include, but are not limited to: available parental help, home resources, and social economic status. It's pretty obvious to me that if a child does not have a stable home life or if a child has too many responsibilities at home that homework isn't going to be made a priority, thus hurting the child. Some researchers assert that homework increases childhood stress and can lead to other physical symptoms. We should totally just 86 the assigned homework, right?
No, don't write it off just yet. The Center for Public Education actually provides research-based guidelines for age assigned homework. It suggests a 10-minute rule--that is 10 minutes per grade. A student in the 4th grade should have no more than 40 minutes of homework each night. That sounds reasonable to me. I teach high-schoolers though. Following these guidelines, my students should be studying between 90-100 minutes per night. That's for all of their subjects and includes any assigned reading.
I recently came across this article about a teacher who completely stopped assigning homework to her class. You can probably guess that this idea was praised and appreciated by the parents. There are two things worth noting here:
- She is a 2nd-grade teacher. Remember our guidelines? 10 minutes per grade level. 2nd grade = 20 minutes of homework. If a parent is taking the time to read with and to the child, learning is taking place. This is in fact "homework."
- The teacher was not disparaged by a parent's proclamation that her child forbidden to complete homework. Because the teacher was allowed to make an informed, autonomous, and professional decision for her class without the parental pressure, the parent-teacher relationship remained intact. Teamwork will continue to happen as it was always meant. The teacher provides educational lessons and the parent reinforces them with reading and developmental appropriate family activities.
Yet that sweet little elementary student will one day become a high schooler, what then? According to Duke University professor of psychology and neurosciences, Harris Cooper, "High schoolers need some homework because they need to learn how to study independently." I tell my students almost daily that the activities and lessons we do in class are done for the sole purpose of preparing them for life after school. Regardless of whether or not a student enters the work force or attends a 4-year university after graduation, being able to work independently and proficiently on an assigned task will be an essential life skill.
Homework is a part of the educational experience. When assigned with a purpose it will always help the student! Keep in mind that too much homework will have a negative effect. Assign too little, and it's pointless.
"Homework can be like medicine," [Harris] says. "If you don't take enough, it has no effect. If you take too much, it can kill you. So get the dose right."
My policy on homework:
Homework is an extension of classwork. Projects, Articles of the Week, essays, novel readings, are all assigned in class. Students are given ample time to complete most of the assigned work in class and what is not finished becomes their responsibility on their time. For the most part, if a student is using his or her time wisely during class, the assignments will be finished during assigned time and not on theirs. I like to think I have a life outside of school but I know students have one. I don't want to make it a miserable for them.
Want to do further reading on the subject? Check out the articles and resources linked below for more information. Leave me a comment with your thoughts on homework, too! Is it useful or just plain pointless?
Study: Homework doesn't mean better grades, but maybe better standardized test scores
The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing
Should Schools Be Done With Homework?
3 Questions for High School Teachers Before Dumping Homework
What Research Says About the Value of Homework
TL;DR: Some parents are no longer encouraging their children to do homework. This could be a dangerous precedent if this is set in place. Current research shows there are too many variable, but it's safe to say earlier grades should probably not be assigning too much. 10-minute rule for grade level. Homework is a vital part of independent study skill practice. Teamwork between teacher and parent is extremely important!
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