Had It With Homework

Max told me tonight before he went to bed that he hates school. It’s the homework. I’ll admit it—I am a conscientious objector when it comes to homework. I have had more than a few conversations in which I have questioned the educational value of the assigned work, if not questioned the practice as a whole. My second grader after being gone a full day, comes home with a packet every week. My sixth-grader’s folder usually runs in excess of five to six pages, sometimes up to ten. Which might include, say, mapping all of contemporary Central America, as well as all the major cities and landforms of the ancient Mayan, Incan, and Aztec Empires—and that’s only a portion of a single night’s work. It takes at least an hour for him to do homework, and that doesn’t include his mandatory fifteen minutes of math facts or silent reading time. I know this is the worst of it.

I am troubled by this trend. With the classes I took in child development, I am disturbed by this disconnect between theory and practice. In fact, I regularly have to talk myself out of marching into the principal's office for a polite, factually supported, educational smack down. Children, especially young children, need to be exploring; they need outside time, they need play time, and they need to develop social skills, not spend one more hour with a pencil in their hand or flashcards. When questioned about the homework, principals and teachers say, “Well they need to develop the habit early,” or “The parents expect it.” Really? At seven? The research does not support this and is considered, at best, to be mixed on homework as a whole. Policy seems to be more driven by popular opinion and myths rather than fact.

Morgen doesn't even have this much homework in high school, and even then it is minimal: he does some studying for AP classes, some math problems, a few book reports or projects, but he doesn't have a steady flow of daily hours of busy work. And he is managing just fine in school.

What troubles me is that I don’t see any benefit in it for our children. I do not think they are smarter, or happier, or more creative for it. Homework just seems to be a hassle for everyone—the kids, the parents, and the teachers. It just adds stress and headaches all around. It often feels like schools are trying to copy other cultural models of education, instead of admitting that busy work and skill and drill are not the answers.

What trends have you seen in homework?