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FeedHomework: How Much is too Much?
Here's our annual report cards on public and private high schools. To offer your views on homework, find out what top educators say, get tips on handling the homework load, and find homework polices locally and elsewhere, visit Diablo’s Homework Resource Guide. We want to know: How much time do your kids spend on homework? Does your child have a good balance between school, extracurricular, and quality time with family and friends? How is homework affecting your home life? Go to the comments section at the bottomof the page to offer your remarks.
Getty Images/ Rubberball
(page 4 of 10)
Best Practices?
As school let out in June, the San Ramon Valley homework task force presented a draft homework policy for the district’s board to consider. The document updates the school’s existing 13-year-old policy by more clearly defining the responsibility that everyone has in the homework equation. Parents should support the idea that some learning takes place at home, while teachers should encourage a partnership between the schools and the family, and everyone should keep homework in balance with students’ “personal and family well-being.”
The biggest updates are that the new policy creates guidelines for time spent on homework. It’s not the 10-minute rule supported by the national PTA, but rather 15 to 30 minutes for kindergarten and first grade. High schoolers face up to 30 minutes of homework and reading for each hour of instruction, or as many as three hours per night. The policy also urges middle and high school teachers to let one another know about homework, special projects, and test schedules across the curriculum, and discourages weekend assignments for elementary and middle school grades, and homework over holiday breaks for all grades.
“The purpose is not to tell teachers to give more or give less, but if you are going to give homework, these are the best practices,” says task force member Jennison. The policy doesn’t tell teachers to avoid busywork, but it does impose the somewhat subjective “meaningful, purposeful, and appropriate” criteria for homework. It also stops short of recommending that homework be assigned based on a student’s ability—a recommendation that people on all sides of this debate tend to favor. The board did agree to add language saying that the policy is geared toward the “average” student.
At a June board meeting, one task force member quietly said she hoped the board would adopt the policy right away. Waiting for a board vote after school starts in August could “open up a can of worms” in the community, she said.
However, some high school teachers complained that they had little notice that the policy was coming and barely any time to review it and voice concerns. They said that creating effective homework is far more complicated in high school than in earlier grades because each subject has unique learning challenges. The board agreed to adopt the policy for the elementary and middle schools, but to give high school teachers time to review it in the fall before implementing it for their grades.
As a member of the homework task force, Kerry Dickinson represented a polar position, questioning the basic premise of why homework is given. The policy isn’t something she particular likes. She wrote a letter to the board criticizing the document because its time guidelines are too high, it doesn’t fully accommodate students’ differences, and it doesn’t protect students from being punished—missing recess, for example —for failing to complete homework. “In the end, am I going to be proud of this policy? Maybe half of it.”
Nonetheless, she’s gratified that the issue of how much time kids devote to academic pursuits on a daily basis has been seriously considered.
“I would take this district over thousands of others,” she says. “I just want it to be better, to be more functional so that our kids get the best learning experience. That’s what it’s all about.”
Andrea Lampros is a freelance writer and the editor of The East Bay Monthly.
Reader Comments:
I once had a friend from Europe , a doctor's wife, say that we coddled our children here in America and that European youngsters are ready to go to college at the same age that we are still treating ours as children. I do believe she is right . I strongly believe in homework as I believe it prepares you for college and a successful life,by teaching you organization .You cannot time homework as one child may doddle while another speeds through it.It is not lack of money that is making our children fall behind the National average ---but parents that do not want to discipline their children to do the work.
I once had a friend from Europe , a doctor's wife, say that we coddled our children here in America and that European youngsters are ready to go to college at the same age that we are still treating ours as children. I do believe she is right . I strongly believe in homework as I believe it prepares you for college and a successful life,by teaching you organization .You cannot time homework as one child may doddle while another speeds through it.It is not lack of money that is making our children fall behind the National average ---but parents that do not want to discipline their children to do the work.
Too much homework leads to stress in children, and long-term stress is related to chronic illness; from headaches to cancer. After a long day of class room learning, it is debatable how much more information can even be absorbed during homework. Children have little time to recharge their mental and physical batteries and at the jr. high and high-school level, many turn to drugs and alcohol to relieve the pressure( whether we want to admit this or not). Where does the pressure come from? From the school districts, from parents and from children themselves. Is it worth sacrificing one's childhood to get into the perfect university? Afterall, there are hundreds of schools out there to meet the many needs of our diverse students. For all you parents who punish your children for not getting a 4.0 or better, are you pressuring him/her for them, or is it to give yourself bragging rights?
I disagree with anonymous who posted about his or her European friend. As a college student entering her senior year, I have to say, most of my classes in high school did not prepare me for college. The type of work required in high school has very little baring on the type of work required in college. I struggled to remember to complete and turn in every weekly ditto and nightly assignment in high school; however, when I arrived at college I found only large papers due every few weeks were required of me. My friends and I rejoiced. College is a relief in comparison to the high schools in Acalanes Unified School District.
As for the other anonymous poster, he or she is correct. By my senior year, my rich peers had moved beyond smoking pot during class in the bathroom, instead many were snorting coke lines during and after school, and binge drinking on the weekends. Affluent parents must be especially aware of the pressure they apply in all areas, especially academic.
I'm on the fence about whether homework is good or bad for kids. Yes, too much homework is not good. But maybe some is useful. My kids do it just fine, but they are in elementary school. Fortunately, we didn't deal with the ridiculous load expected by that kindergarten teacher described in the story. My kids also haven't hit middle school yet, with the dreaded middle school coloring assignments. Yes, I hear that these assignments go on at schools throughout the area, not just in the San Ramon district.
I'm just glad that someone is finally raising the question around here about homework, its value and whether we as a community, as a society, are overdoing it. It seems like some weird culture has grown up around it, with most everyone, parents, teachers, administrators, students, behaving like compliant drone-like characters in some dystpotian Orwellian novel, going along with The Program. Schools come up with ways to inculcate kids and parents into this Homework Program, accepting these mantras that Homework Leads to Success, Homework Leads to Good Time Management Skills, Homework Leads to Good Citizenship, Homework Leads to a Good Corporate Work Ethic. Where is the questioning among us? The critical thinking about whether homework is good or bad, or whether, if it is valuable, we in the community of schools and families could be doing it better.
But I read some of the language that teachers and administrators, and hear some of the language used by parents, to justify The Homework Program, and I can't help but feel like I'm reading and hearing mindless spouting-off of some kind of propoganda. Perhaps it's just easier to go along with the Program, believe in it, than to stop and ask questions. And this Program is supported by state and national policies and by an Educational Industrial Complex that includes SAT test companies and local "consultants" who will help your fourth-graders learn to be better time managers.
Maybe we're producing kids that ace their SATs and get into good schools, but we're also sowing fertile ground for growing an almost mindless, facist-like culture. The kind that doesn't question our leaders, locally or nationally, when they propose measures that can lead us down paths that prove destructive.
Wow. That's a really well-written article. I enjoyed it. Great job Diablo!
Just talked to a mother whose son is in my son's fifth grade-class. Our sons attend a high-performing school in central Contra Costa. School started this past week. This mom and I ran into each other at a neighborhood restaurant.
"So, how do you think it's going so far," she asked.
I shrugged. "So far, okay," I said. "He seems to like the teacher."
"Yeah, well wait until we get to the homework," she said.
Homework.
Yes, homework. The defining issue, it seems, of the contemporary school experience.
"What do you mean," I asked. "Has that been an issue for you?"
She nodded, and went on to describe the nightly power struggles between her and her son--the yelling, the frustration. "He gets home and starts it, but then he can't finish it." She described how her son would get frustrated by some concept he didn't get-- either because he needs more time than other kids to grasp the concept; or because the teacher simply didn't do a good job in explaining it. And this mom says she would try and and explain the concept to him, but perhaps she didn't explain things very well and not in a way he could understand.
More yelling, more frustration.
Then again, she's not a teacher, trained to explain these concepts in the way a fifth grader could understand.
This struggle to get the homework done was a source of nightly arguments, and was creating tension in the relationship between her and her son.
I suggested: "Don't you think that it's the teacher's job to explain it to the kids. Not yours?"
She nodded. Then shrugged, almost with a sense of hopelessness.
And so we have it: one of the realities of our lives as parents and students in the East Bay suburbs. Because of the homework assigned by teachers and the homework load expected by our schools, and by ourselves as a society, we parents end up serving as teachers. One parent at my son's school suggested that we should be willing to serve as this role. That's part of the job of being a parent, she says, to help nurture our children's academic endeavors and at all costs.
To some extent, I can see her point. On the other hand, many of us aren't trained to teach. And because of the way homework is assigned, we end up in the role of teachers each night. I can say for myself that I'm not very good at teaching elementary school students, especially math concepts. It's just not in me. Plus, I've worked all day and come home and had to fix dinner and deal with other domestic crises... Now, I have to start a second work shift playing teacher, a job for which I'm not trained? What's up with that? Shouldn't I get the chance to sit back and relax, especially with my kids?
I think of the inept way I try to explain some concept to my son. For example, long division, back in third grade. I was taught to do it a certain way, but my way doesn't seem to coincide with how the current curriculum wants him taught. Of course, I don't know. No one has told me. All I know is he's faced with a homework sheet he needs to fill out that consists of him completing 20 long division problems, and he's not really sure how to begin, and it's MY job to show him.
Is this what I, as a taxpayer, am paying for? Geez: maybe I should quit my job and start home schooling him.
Overall, I'd say the homework situation is a big mess, for parents, for kids, for teachers, for schools, for everybody. Right now, in thinking of my past experiences, and those of my friend, I just have to throw my hands up and say, what a mess. What a stupid sad mess. For everyone involved.
Can't we do better?
Homework is as much a lesson in learning to prioritize and manage time. It's important to work our teenagers especially so that they are prepared for active careers as adults.
I appreciated the opinions of the high school seniors in this article. And while at first I glanced over the grades,test scores and universities these kids were boasting and assumed they were all over achieving nerds, it doesn't appear to be that way for all them.
Brittney caught my eye when I saw she was attending West Point. That is an amazing school. Forbes even ranked it number one in public universities this year I believe. Interestingly enough she had the lowest GPA and not the highest test scores. That got me cuious as to what exactly got her into a school like West Point. Her opinions were refreshing. It was nice to hear from a student who was successful but realistic about expectations and having fun. It would be interesting to hear more from her as she seems to have an interesting philosophy that worked well for her. Maybe we should all take a lesson from this in regards to our own children... experience in life is just as important as actually doing the homework.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM...If the classroom teaching was done more "efectively" then perhaps homework would be less of an issue.
Writing is not an arduous task once you learn how ro write well.
Mathematics must be taught at school, not at home. If your kids know how to do the homework, it shouldn't take long.