Are kids being given too much homework? There is an on-going debate where some parents are protesting against the amount of homework that kids are receiving. They say that homework is stressing the kids out, it is interfering with their playtime and family time, and that homework is really not doing much to increase their academic achievements.
From the NY Times:
Research has long suggested that homework in small doses can reinforce basic skills and help young children develop study habits, but that there are diminishing returns, said Harris Cooper, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University. The 10-minute guideline has generally been shown to be effective, Dr. Cooper said, adding that over all, “there is a minimal relationship between how much homework young kids do and how well they test.”
Many schools are implementing homework policies where the kids can only have 10 minutes of homework per grade level. So if the child is in the 3rd grade, then that child should have no more than 30 minutes of homework per night.
Our school district has a similar policy. So our third grade daughter basically finished her homework in 3 minutes or less each night. And she rarely brought home a text book. It was worse for our son who just graduated from high school last week. Although he had a heavy schedule full of honors and AP classes, he rarely had homework to do.
He had a very smart AP calculus teacher that found a way to get around the homework policy by assigning math projects each month. The projects were essentially homework packets that had to be completed each month. I was so happy that he did this”...because I can’t imagine a person succeeding in mathematics without doing extra practice problems.
Where do I stand on this debate? Based on my experience with our two oldest kids, I think the 10 minute homework policy is not a good one. I definitely think that there are certain subjects where the teachers should be assigning more homework (such as Math and English.)
My kids are rushing through their homework (because they know the teacher’s are not grading.) The handwriting is sloppy, there are misspelled words, the grammar is incorrect, the date is not at the top, and they don’t have to write in cursive anymore. It’s crazy.
I am always making my kids re-do their work. I say: “I don’t care if the teacher does not care”....because I care. And if you show me that sloppy work again, you will re-write it all.”
I also supplement their homework with additional math problems and reading assignments.
BMWK Family ““ Do you think kids are given too much homework? Does your school district have a 10 minute homework policy or something similar? Do you agree with such policies?
My daughters school has the same 10 min policy. My second grader was coming home everyday with no school work to review. In first grade she had homework everyday and we had to sign off on her work. She now comes home and was told to read a book of her choice for 10 mins everyday. I thought this was crazy. I spoke to her teacher and that’s when she informed me of this 10 min homework policy and they feel that kids should go home unwind and play. My child was struggling with math but she had no math homework. Me and my husband now give her homework, we use Kumon workbooks for math, writing review and a daily learning drill workbook. I don’t know why things are changing in our school system but this route is not the way to go. Do private schools have this same policy? We are our children’s first teachers and it’s my responsibility to teach and encourage learning in our home.
I totally agree with your comment about it being our responsibility to teach and encourage our kids..which is why I also provide extra work for my kids.
But this policy is not a good one to me…I think the kids should be given work that pertains to what they are reviewing in class too.
Also, what if a child has a parent that struggled in school or that does not see the value in helping their kids in school. The required homework from the teacher would give that child extra practice and opportunities to develop study habits.
There is another side to this though. In my opinion, at certain grade levels, a teacher should be able to get everything done during the school day. Yes kids need practice and training, absolutely, but sending children home with a bunch of work can teach them a very bad lesson. We are training our kids that extra work at home is a good thing, how do we then tell them it’s not a good thing when they enter the workforce?
With schools closing and teacher layoffs, how can a teacher teach everything to a classroom that is overcrowded? They came out with this no child left behind, but there are kids who are struggling with reading and just plain thinking. How do we address that issue? Homework for about an hour is not going to kill a kid. This gives those kids more time to go home concentrate, seek help so they can catch up. For those who are quick learners then it should be an issue for them to breeze through the HW. Train up a child for success, know your child(ren), be in tuned to their learning styles and needs and stop leaving all the work to the teachers that are sometimes overwhelmed, or lazy.
When you go to college do your professor tell you to do HW? The ones I had only warned us about
a up coming exams so I knew I had study.
My children don’t get homework. They no longer teach spelling or teach them to write in cursive!!! My children range in age from 3 to 21! I have taken the initiative a purchased home schooling packets and books to teach my children when they come home from school and during the summer months. Why are they dumbing down our education and then scrutinize how the youths are now testing lower and not achieving as high school diplomas!!!??? America school system sucks but how can we change it? I attend meetings at the school, volunteer in classrooms, and even have written letters to the Board of Ed in our city. Still to no avail!!! We as parents need to stand up and let these people know THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!!!!
My daughters school has the same 10 min policy. My second grader was coming home everyday with no school work to review. In first grade she had homework everyday and we had to sign off on her work. She now comes home and was told to read a book of her choice for 10 mins everyday. I thought this was crazy. I spoke to her teacher and that’s when she informed me of this 10 min homework policy and they feel that kids should go home unwind and play. My child was struggling with math but she had no math homework. Me and my husband now give her homework, we use Kumon workbooks for math, writing review and a daily learning drill workbook. I don’t know why things are changing in our school system but this route is not the way to go. Do private schools have this same policy? We are our children’s first teachers and it’s my responsibility to teach and encourage learning in our home.
Last night me and my husband watched Waiting on Superman. This documentary moved me and just got me thinking about our school system. Don’t want to give away anything, hope everyone watches.
My kids are in private school, so they don’t even entertain this kind of nonsense thinking. It is only the public schools that are bowing to the pressure of parents who don’t want to listen to whining kids about so much homework. Parents don’t want to spend the time it takes to go over long division or read book reports. For the parents who don’t want to have more homework leave them alone and let them raise their kids their way. But we already know that successful, high achieving kids do homework, lots of homework. I am not going to argue this point, I pay the tuition to put my kids in an environment that supports my thinking around education. We do our kids a serious disservice when we don’t co-teach with the educators at their school. Seriously you can’t believe 10 minute rule of homework is going to make anyone successful. This doesn’t work in any arena, what would we want for education?
I think to much homework is a blockage in learning,that’s my though,but each it own…Cause they have jam so much in they brain,that when to perform they go blank …I’m not saying, you can get to must learning now…But what i’m saying,you can take the horse to the water,but you can’t make him drink..The ones want to learn”will”and the ones that don’t”want”…
I believe children need homework although I do not believe in ‘busy work’. Repetition is neccesary, however I also agree that large amounts of ‘homework’ has not proven to increase a child’s academic performance. However, family involvement has. Educating children is the parent’s responsibility and school system should be viewed as a secondary avenue to the parents. School is supposed to aid in the trail to assisting children to become well adjusted adult. It is not the primary route. Classroom education because of its limitiations is a pseudo type of education given way to a case study type of model at best. The best type of education is one that can be readily applied to its element in reality. This is why good old fashioned undirected play (outdoors, water, cleaning, repairing reading, drawing,,cooking, music ) is so powerful. I believe strongly in homeschooling but don’t to lonely myself so I have found very large groups to get the socialization that I need rather than my children 🙂 and a fact is when I enrolled my boys in to public school they wer so far ahead that they were bored , finally began to slack off because ther was no challenge. ( they teach to the middle of the pack). Was I to spend the hours of 3:30p-5:00p repeating another”classroom”? then rush through dinner, clean up, baths, filling backpack etc. Where then was my influence and were are their life skills. And if all the extra time was spent on ‘homework’ sent from school were would I fit in ‘what the school simply could not get to due to large no. of student, discipline problems and ‘blocks” set up by the school systems themselves. We could get through everything the school offered between the hours of 0800-1100 daily with no problem. When they mastered a technique, subject , concept, we moved on and were able to tech to their individual bends. They were on fire and it had nothing to do with spending large quantites of time on table work (classroomn work) I invite all of you to visit the homeschool convention in your city this year and see what I am talking about When you see how well prepared, self controlled, well mannerted, confident those students are you will be amazed and tickled. They have workshops as well as vendors for all types of subjects that children will never see in the public education arena. And for any skeptic is its not just for “white” people as I have been assaulted with . There are a growing number of college educated parents homeschooling their children from black families. I doubted whether the education I was providing my boys while at home was adequate so I allowed the nay sayers and my fears have me enroll them. Ultimately, ita ws not the best choice I have ever made. I have a greater appreciation to why the public education system has failed and it has by definition. There is enough blame to go around but a finger can be pointed at parents, teachers, and school officials honestly. School systems and states are slowly but surely taking away the rights and power of the parents a little at a time and we are allowing it. Surely be careful fellow parents, or our children and their children will inherite a problem that we may unknowingly create for them. I got incredibly long winded on this topic and I apologize to anyone who may have been offended by anything I have posted here. I didn’t mean to do that and I dare not point out anyone before I point out myself first. This is my subject though. Remember, nations and communities are not made great by one classroom at a time…..they become great one family at a time. Thus this awesome website!
Excellent comment. There is a difference between filling their heads with “facts” and actually teaching critical thinking skills. The process of education is much more than having them regurgitate what they read in a book. For the parents that complain about the amount of homework I believe this gets to the root of their gripe.
Home schooling may not be for everyone, but it is a great fit some families. I think parents should at least explore it as an option.
Too much. What a joke. The kids in India and China aren’t complaining. My daughter’s teacher had to cut back because parents complained. She gave 1 weeks homework out on Monday with Friday as an off day. My daughter knocked it out by Wednesday at the latest. Then Parents complained. ONE parent claimed her 7 year old daughter does not have time to go to the hair dresser. So the homework was cut down. I had to take my time and resources to make enough homework to fill in the gaps. BTW my daughter had piano,tennis and swimming and still had plenty of time for video games(educational of course), TV (PBS) and play time.
I am constantly amazed at the issues that arise from our academic challenges in this country. Debates like this amount to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. In the abstract, too much or too little homework has little meaning. The important question is whether we are moving toward an education system that is more effective in preparing our children to compete in the Global Society for the jobs and careers of the future.
In addition to labor being cheaper, the high tech jobs of the 21st century are moving to countries where the workers have better skills. Even highly skilled job openings are going unfilled in this country because we are depositing unskilled or inadequately skilled workers into the marketplace. So we complain that foreigners are taking our jobs. We are trying to solve the wrong problem.
It seems to me that there are too many obstacles in the way of true education reform — teachers union rules, charter schools vs. public schools, standardized tests vs. critical thinking measurements, too much or too little homework. Meanwhile, the Chinese and other foreign students are eating our lunch and filling our colleges with their best and brightest. Our kids are falling behind globally, and we are debating whether the “10 minute per grade” homework rule is good or bad. Duh!!!
If the 10 minute rule per grade is actually followed through the elementary years then your child would have an hour of homework by 6th grade. I’m not a fan of this thinking but it isn’t the worst I’ve heard. I don’t think that this rule works well for the junior high or high school students though.
Our country is failing our children, our parents are failing our children… America is behind every other major nation in academics yet we keep finding ways to keep ourselves down. There are so many issues with the public school system and many parents don’t understand. I was just involved in a debate over the grading system and standardized testing. The students are taught information over a 6 week period and then given a benchmark test that evaluates how much they understand and retain, if the child scores a 30% on the test how do they pass the class with an A? And how do parents not question this?
Children need their own space so that they can explore theirntalent and creativity. We, the parents should always stand beside to help thosenlearning different things. We should teach them different subjects in differentninnovative ways so that they love to learn them. We should let them understandnthat homework is the most important part of education and without properneducation they canu2019t be succeeded in their life. Parents, especially mother isnthe best teacher in a childu2019s life. The way, she can guide a child, no otherncan! However, sometimes, it becomes hard for the parents to help children doingnhomework. In that case, they can take advantage of online tutoring servicesnlike tutorteddy.com.u00a0
Our daughter has had more homework than I’ve felt was necessary. She was in private, Christian school from K-8. Now that she’s in public high school, there’s still lots of homework. I know that this is because she attends a college-prep magnate school which requires testing to enter, and maintenance of a certain g.p.a. to remain enrolled.
I have mixed feelings about the homework load. Our family time is impacted during the school year, as is the time she has for outside interests. She’s a smart girl, and doesn’t need all of the extra practice. She loves books, and would read, write and do academic things even if she didn’t have the homework (we raised her this way). However, we knew what we were getting when we enrolled her in this school. It’s a “four year college track” school, and we knew that when we sought it out. However I feel about it, the homework is here to stay. I’m grateful that our daughter has the skills to keep up and do well.