Homework For Kids - Good or Bad?
AdventureDad | September 5
How much homework is suitable for a young child? Does more homework lead to better academic achievements? What does it do to family life? Are we actually improving out children’s education by giving them more homework? A recent article in Time Magazine, “The Myth About Homework” talks about the increasing amounts of homework kids (and parents) have to endure and what the results are. I still have quite a few years until my children reach school age but I find the subject of homework to be interesting and important. I know of families who are suffering because their young children have to spend an incredible of amount of time doing homework and there seem to be no way out of it. It’s interesting to compare education theories from around the world and see what makes some nations more successful than others.
The article in Time is actually personal experiences mixed with some findings in two recent books which believe the results from increased homework are poor. Findings that rely on surveys and statistics can often be tilted a certain way but the findings seem to be make sense. Too much homework early on tend to decrease the interest for school and lead to diminishing returns. From the article, “It’s one thing to say we are wasting kids’ time and straining parent-kid relationships, but what’s unforgivable is if homework is damaging our kids’ interest in learning, undermining their curiosity.” Homework is apparently up 51 % in the past 25 years and that increase is mostly for young children. Perhaps the most interesting fact is that countries who assign much less homework tend to do a lot better on standardized tests. It’s no secret that the current education system in U.S. is kind of a disaster. It’s true that the best of the best is available but the education for the average person is far worse than other modern countries. Can this have something to do with too much homework early on or is that an irrelevant factor? Do you feel like your teenage children are spending too much time doing homework? Are there better alternatives?
My personal view is that I want my children to be well educated but I’m willing to give them lots of time and not stress them early on. They should have a firm base to stand on but I will put more emphasis on their education later in life, University and perhaps even more, than on grades and homework in elementary school. The school system here in Sweden is very different from U.S., and in a good way:-) The illiteracy rate is virtually nonexistent, everyone can read and write, and a very high percentage speak at least one foreign language. I’m not sure that little homework is the key to our success but maybe it’s part of the equation since kids don’t get bored by homework at an early age. They still have a hunger for learning as they grow up. Homework for kids aged 10 is almost unheard of except for some occasional little project. When kids enter 7th grade in elementary school there is a need to do some studying but the amount of time is still low. My view is that we could probably assign the children a little more homework here and still keep them interested. We emphasize learning by playing and this is especially obvious in day care and kindergarten. The children are not forced to read or do certain things, instead the teachers try to encourage them to learn through having fun.
The system over here may not sound serious but I think the evidence points to good results. A good education is very high up on our list in society. It’s part of our intense focus on families. An important fact is also that we want a good education for everyone, not just the chosen ones. Our system is far from perfect but after comparing it to many other countries I find myself supportive of many ideas. Lots of homework is also a burden on the family and I understand families who find it difficult to combine a heavy workload from school with a nice family life. It’s tough to come home from work and sit down for two hours of algebra every night……. Thankfully I have four years until my son starts “real” school but a basic education is important and it’s never too early to look at solutions that can make the experience more effective.
You talk about older kids but the reality is some places is even the young kids who will get more learning out of playing. The beginning of last year my kindergarten would come home with almost two hours of homework a night. Five or six sheets of it. Then we had to make him finish anything that wasn’t finished in class. Which was actually quite a bit because they broke up their activities in 5 minute intervals. The homework thing with working with his teaqcher she did cut back some and more importantly gave it all at the beginning of the week so parents could choose when to work on what to relieve some of the burden on the kids and plan around family and activity schedules. The class work though was never resolved in a satisfying way. My son learned to rush and get it done in class. They were happier with a poorly done assignment than a partially finished one. Looking back I wouldn’t have let that happen. He doesn’t color as nicely anymore, when he draws creatively it’s just the basics with no details, and he rarely has the desire to do any sort of arts and crafts even for fun because it isn’t fun to him anymore. We are slowly getting that back in his life but I really regret letting the school take from him that enjoyment. I don’t think he learned anything positive from it, it was really assignments to teach in the first place. The biggest thing I would say with parents going into school for the first time is really truely follow your gut. If something seems wrong say something. Don’t just assume it will get better or that the teacher is doing whats best.
My young kids haven’t had that much homework. Neither of them had any in kindergarten. Our district doesn’t give letter grades until fourth grade. My son’s first grade teacher wasn’t very good. He’d come home with worksheets of stuff he did in preschool (color the square yellow, the circle blue, etc.). It was just stuff to assess their direction-following skills. I made an executive decision then: if he wasn’t going to be graded on it and I knew he had mastered a particular skill, I wasn’t going to make him do the homework. The teacher and I went round and round, but I didn’t really care. He had much better teachers in second and third grades (the occasional project, spelling tests, nothing major) and he’s excelled since then. He’s in the gifted program at school so I don’t think that not doing homework in first grade affected him adversely. I’ll make that same judgement with my daughter when the time comes. She’s in first grade now, with a fantastic teacher, and has yet to have any homework.
I think it depends on the kid. Some homework takes twice as long for some than others. Besides, if it came down to very little homework or allot, I would vote for more.
[…] Updateb: The BlogFathers talk about the issue. Tags: No Tags […]
My son had 30-60 minutes of homework in 1st and 2nd, virtually none in kindergarten. Most of it was spelling and simple math.
I don’t believe kids should be assigned much homework until at least middle school. Before that, the kids should be playing and using their imagination. By the time they’re 12 or so, then they’re ready to move on to the next level of learning.
I’m homeschooling my 3rd grade son this year, so I guess it’s all homework. But the best thing about homeschooling is that he’s actually learning DURING his school day. There’s no need to do more work after hours. Maybe if the public schools stopped wasting so much classroom time, the homework question would be moot.
giving kids tonnes of homework in my opinion, just doesn’t make sense. if the kid goes to a school with a reasonable teacher to pupil ratio, the teacher should delegate homework in the areas that the kids need to practice and maybe areas that they didn’t pick up straight away - speaking from an irish schools point of view, there aren’t generally any state or national exams or report cards or such until high school - the level of homework given would be commensurat with the child’s age and how easily (or not) he understood the lesson during the day
Even though 3B isn’t close to school age yet, I agree with the article’s author that “a rising tide of dull, useless assignments is oppressing families and making kids hate learning.”
This is telling language: dull, useless, oppressing. If we want our kids to learn more, it’s in our best interest to show them what’s fun about learning so they will want to continue learning, not show them what’s tedious about it. Rather than assigning more work, I wish schools would assign better work, targeted to each kid’s strengths and weaknesses, which is a much more effective way to teach than massive rote memorization drills. However, this is the U.S., where more is better and we suffer under the burden of many misconceptions such as sayings like “no pain, no gain” and the Puritan work ethic.
Bull. No pain, no pain, Goody Proctor.
I’m also quite disturbed that our schools are teaching habits that kids will keep as adults, becoming parents who can’t play with their own kids because they have to stay at work late or finish up some work that they brought home. But perhaps that’s one of the long-term goals of NCLB and all this extra work: good little worker bees.
[…] Today my colleague and blog friend Adventure Dad mentions at The BlogFathers an article by Newsweek’s Peg Tyre on the issue of school work called The New First Grade : Too Much Too Soon? It discusses the issue of the demands we place on our children today versus the demands of our generation. This followed an earlier post by Adventure Dad about kids having too much homework citing an article in Time Magazine called The Myth About Homework, written by Claudia Wallis. […]
Here is the guideline that exists for those of us in the field of education… 15 mins x years that the student has been in school. This means a student in Grade 4 ’should’ be doing approximately 1 hour of homework…Grade 8=two hours….Grade 1=15 mins. The reason behind assigning homework is a more complicated subject than it appears. Numerous credible studies re-inforce that material is committed to memory if it is revisited with 12 hours of being first introduced to this new material. This does not excuse teachers assigning homework that does not serve this purpose. Homework for the sake of homework is a dangerous game to play. I know that when homework is arduous, repetitive, and without purpose it does run the risk of damaging any passion for learning. Use the guideline as a tool to measure what is appropriate for your student, but keep in mind that guidelines are in place for the average student (if there is such a thing, I have yet to see one). Many countries that tend to outperform North American students in standardized tests have guidelines that make ours look pretty remedial…but standardized tests are another issue for discussion.
As a teacher of middle school with 12 yrs experience, (and a broken right hand, so will be brief), I’m telling you that parents must come together speak up; that’s the only way this will ever change. As a teacher, I carry absolutely no weight on this issue. My students are tapped out what with sprots and other extracurricular activies! Familes should ask that schools not dictate what goes on in their homes; evening is a time for family and reflection. Here’s the one from administrators and other teachers that I have to hear: “We have to prepare them for high school or we have to prepare them for the “real world.” Well, gusess what? They are not in the same place developmentally as high schoolers or adults.
P.S. Broken hand…forgive spelling errors.
Part of the problem here in the U.S. is that we are the only “modern” country (according to the study I read) that still has school hours based on “farmers hours” that was designed to get the kids home in time to help tend to the fields.
If a switch was made to increase the school day to 5 PM (from the “average” 3PM) the additional time would allow for more thorough classroom lessons and less need to “supplement” at home.
But I also wonder how this affects “attitude” towards learning compared to the now standard practice in the U.S. (thanks to the il-defined and underfunded “No Child Left Behind” program) of “Teaching to the Tests.” No longer are children taught a “well rounded” education, instead everything is focused purely on the standardized test scores, which take the “fun” out of learning, and in doing so, I (personally) believe makes it that much harder to retain the knowlege because there is nothing associated with it. For example, the child that in geometry class is shown a bridge and how the theories implemented make the building of that span possible is far more likely to retain that knowledge than the kid that is given the theorums and nothing more.
But what the heck do I know.
I am in 8th grade and get too much homework… I never have any time to be with my family or play! homework should be abolished or at least reduced; I need time to enjoy myself when I get home, not more school!
MY KIDS WERE NOT TURNING IN HOMEWORK! THEN CAME THE NOTE FROM SCHOOL…
I am a 37 year old single father of two kids, one elementary school and the other junior high. I am going crazy over the load of homework my kids are bringing home! It started with a call from the school that my oldest was not turning in homework, so I tried helping her every night when I got home. Even when I help with the math and the ANSWER is correct, the teacher marks it WRONG because the “technique” or “mechanics” I use is not the so-called NEW MATH! Arghhh! And math was not the only problem! Anyway, after searching long and hard for HUMAN assistance on the net, I finally located a great site that has insured that the kid’s homework now gets turned in. It cost me a little, but it is worth it to see passing grades! If you have the same problem I did, you might want to check out, I have placed it in the Website link herein.:
Best part is, the site is owned by a STUDENT! To me, this site is not only cute, but also better than a tutor. Plus, my kids think it was ME who did the work overnight!
Oh well, I hope this shortens the help of other parents, babysitters, etc., who have students who have daily homework problems, just as I did. If you know of any similar sites, please send me an email with a link to it.
im in 8th grade and i think homework is fun even though it can be hard. i think teachers should give more homework
im in 8th grade and i think homework is fun even though it can be hard. i think teachers should give more homework. homework rocks lol
my name is alex drath-dickson
I think homework is very helpful and should be given. I don’t agree with giving homework every weekend or so much that a child will not have time for anything else, but I do agree that homework should be given. I feel that parents don’t like for their children to have homework because that takes away from them giving the child something to do. For instance, clean their rooms or the house. The only job that a child should have is school and their homework. When it’s time for them to get a job, then we will cross that bridge when we get there.
I’m in 11th grade at sumner memorial high school. My bus picks me up at 6:25 am. I am at school by 7am. After a long day of classes apon classes the school day has ended at 2:30pm. Then comes soccer. After a hard played game I get home around 7:30 pm. I take a shower and get ready for dinner. At 8:30 I’m done with my shower and dinner and instead of spending time with my family I have to go to my room and do my homework. At about 12:30 am I’m done with my homework and am more then ready to go to bed realizing that I have 5 hours untill I have to get up again. I repeat this process all year, weather its soccer, cheerleading, or softball. On weekends not only do I still have games but I have to go to work. How else will I have money to go to college?! Then I still have homework. My point is, homework is taking over my life. I haven’t sceen my family in about two months and I live with them! I think that we spend more then enough time at school. Homework should be redused.
Our day starts at 6:00 A.M. Monday thru Friday. My husband and I each take a child to school, my oldest is in High School and and youngest in Middle School. They both start school at the same time. We all have extra curriculum activities, which are needed in order to release stress out of our busy life, we end up getting home at around 7:30 P.M. I make dinner and we sit down to eat. Because of homework we hardly talk!!! Because we must eat in a hurry in order to finish HOMEWORK AND PROJECTS that our wonderful caring teachers request our kids to do!!! I tried talking to them and they do not listen. Why can’t teachers communicate with each other and if the Math teacher is sending x amount of homework then the Science teacher should not send on that date and vice-versa. But unfortunately they do not communicate with one another, and they’re expecting our kids to do so. How ironic.
I am 13 years old and in the 8th grade and personally I think homework is necessary but way too piled on. I take these classes: Literacy [the highest for my grade], Spanish 1, Algebra 1B [the highest for my grade], Language Arts, History, Science. I think the teachers think “oh this isn’t too much homework” but when you get lets say.. 30 minutes of homework from each of these classes, that’s 3 hours of homework I have to spend after being at school for 7 hours! It’s just not fair. I think the teachers really need to limit homework.
Algebra is very hard too. It takes me over an hour each night.
Also, in PE we learn that you need 45+ minutes of physical education each day. So by playing sports we are doing our “homework” and don’t have time for other work. Kid’s days are so jam-packed that we have no time for fun.
Homework is preventing school from being fun!
dick
I am 16 years old and I am in Grade 11. I agree with the viewpoint that students, in general, receive too much homework. It not only detracts from time spent with family, but can also negatively physical, mental, and emotional well-being. I have been forced to survive on less than 4 hours of sleep daily for one month and my physical health deteriorated. I got sick much more often, and I also had frequent severe migraines. My acne also got worse. My grades underwent an average of 5 % down, and I could hardly stay awake in class. My situation is proof that the amount of homework students not just in elementary school, but also in high school, is just too much.
I am in 4grade and in malaysia i have a subject call punjabi. For four years I have been learning that but it is to hard understand and when I have this I leave it because I dont understand so Ileave it.But everytime I leave it a note will come to my parents and I get scolded or grounded for the wrong reason.You might be saying this in your heart this kid dont listen in class you are totally wrong i had 4a and 1b.One last thing to say homework is very bad
If you have read my first part then you know why I said that homework is bad.Everyday I come back there will be few pages of homework and once I had a homework after the mid-term holidays it was 46 pages due in one week.we all had to do it or face the principle.I only left a few pages and the principle scolded me.I am in malaysia that why we dont have season’s.
from your friend russell
My oldest is in 3rd grade and loves to do her homework, but she also needs help with it.
i rekon homework should be banned because i dont want to be stuck at home allday and not get active because i dont want to be fat i rekon we should not have homework.
i rekon homework should be banned because i dont want to be stuck at home allday and not get active because i dont want to be fat i rekon we should not have homework.
oh yer and i am in year 9 at mazza