September

On Homework: How Much is too Much

As an educational consultant, I appreciated “Homework:  Enough Already!”  While the crux of my work assists students to formulate positive strategies to tackle their homework, it has come to my attention that sometimes the sheer amount of work is overwhelming, filled with busywork, and overkill.  While I believe that some homework is necessary to reinforce concepts, solidly cement theories, and develop one’s own personal writing style, the quintessential adage of “quality v. quantity” comes to mind. I applaud the teachers, parents, and other interested individuals who are striving to develop tangible solutions for their students in lieu of mindlessly following the status quo.  As students are busier than ever in after school activities and trying to carve out some time for themselves, an overworked, overstressed, and anxiety-ridden population of students will spill over into the need for mental health professionals to help combat depression, an increase in anxiety disorders, and a rise in self-medicating behaviors.

Thank you Andrea Lampros for writing the article on homework in the September issue of Diablo. Martha Ross, also from Diablo Magazine, found out about my interest in rethinking homework from the www.StopHomework.com website run by Sara Bennett, coauthor of The Case Against Homework. Another person who I admire in the battle to keep our kids well-balanced is Denise Pope, founder of the Stressed-Out-Student project at Stanford. The Alliance for Childhood is yet another organization that emphasizes the importance of kids’ play that I whole-heartedly support. And Alfie Kohn (www.AlfieKohn.org), an educator and author who lectures at schools, parent groups and corporations is a resource for anyone interested in education or homework.

I cite these resources when I hear that some schools in our SRV district have initiated a program called “ZAP” (Zeros Aren’t Permitted) where elementary and middle school students who don’t finish homework the night before are sent to finish it during lunch or recess.   In my opinion, this is a violation of children’s rights and is an unhealthy practice. The zero or low grade for an incomplete assignment is punishment enough! ZAP, in Alfie Kohn’s words, is “an approach that's more about punishing children for failing to follow orders than helping children to learn.  If I was trying to come up with a policy to make children hate learning, I'm not sure I could top this one.”

The Schools Report was a great article on one of those subjects that has puzzled parents and bedeviled students. Perhaps the San Ramon Valley schools task force could provide a copy of their report to the Mt. Diablo Unified School District.

A story to justify the previous comment: Our younger son in middle school was coloring, coloring, coloring in geography. One mother of a contemporary came up with her own solution. Her middle schooler (who hated to color) entered the place names thus satisfying the parent that the student could locate the assigned features and her 2nd grader (who loved to color) did the coloring. While there could be debate on whether the older child should have done all the homework, what on earth does endless coloring teach about geography? And yes, the kids were graded on how well they colored.

So my sympathies to Sarah Augustinsky, the eighth-grader at Pine Valley Middle School and her own experience at lots of coloring; Miss Augustinksy, you are not alone.

As a parent of teenagers in middle and high school, I have heard for years that the public schools want to work with parents to create a better learning environment for our kids. But I’m disappointed that the San Ramon Valley district didn’t live up to this ideal in formulating its new homework policy. 

The district seemed on the right track by forming a task force to rewrite the old homework policy. The task force was made up of administrators, teachers, as well as parents, who were supposed to represent a diverse range of viewpoints. But district was wrong to close these meetings to the public. The logic was that task force members needed to focus on their own study and debate, not be distracted by outside comment. But closing these meetings meant that anyone in the community who would be affected by their policy, including students and their parents, couldn’t witness what research or issues were debated.

The task force delivered a draft of the policy in the final weeks of school, when everyone was busy with finals and graduation. Some teachers complained they had little time to review it, and little or no effort was made to share it with parents to get their input. No district-wide survey of parents and students was conducted. The district actually has a policy that says it should always get as much buy-in as possible from everyone who will be affected by any new policy it adopts, but did it in this case?

The school board held two meetings to seek community input. One was held during the final week of school and the other during summer break when many teachers, parents and students were dealing with end of school year obligations and/or were on previously scheduled vacations. Those on vacation and who couldn't make the second meeting, when the policy was adopted, included two of the parents who brought this issue to the district in the first place. Only one of the five school board members--Joan Buchanan--raised concern about getting community buy-in, but she gave in by the second meeting and voted to adopt it for the elementary and middle schools. The only concession board members gave to the "buy-in" notion was to wait to implement the policy for high schools so teachers have the chance to review it first.

Why was the school board in such a rush? Were they and other district officials too overwhelmed by the state budget crisis last year to take more time on this policy and open it up to the public to get more feedback? Or is the district merely giving this important issue "lip service" instead of really listening to what parents and teachers have to say? 

It doesn’t matter if you’re in favor of homework or against it. This policy is an issue of great public interest, and the district and school board should have done a better job listening to what the public had to say--and to living up to its stated policy of working in partnership with parents whose children will be impacted by their decision.