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Why I Think All Schools Should Abolish Homework

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Why I Think All Schools Should Abolish Homework

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https://time.com/4740297/homework-should-be-banned-from-schools/

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Why I Think All Schools Should Abolish Homework

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It should be the exception, not the rule

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Being a student myself for most of the 70s and 80s and a mother of a recent high-school graduate, I empathize with the argument that homework assignments are often random and can take unrealistic amounts of time to complete. With that in mind, I frequently consider the homework I assign to my own first graders. As each new school year approaches I weigh the purpose of the assignments and consider if they are making a positive impact not only in my students learning, but also in my students home school connection with their parents.

To be a successful teacher, I endeavor to empower my students with the confidence and knowledge to succeed in their academic and personal lives. I teach at a Title I school, where 93 percent of our students are profiled as economically disadvantaged and 66 percent of our students labeled at-risk. Many of the students I have worked with throughout my 10 years at Metz live in single parent homes with multiple siblings. Some students had one or both parents incarcerated, live in shelters because of homelessness or were removed from their home situation.

Even with these deficits, our school still manages to attain recognized and commended performance levels on Texas state tests. Our staff and students work very hard for their successes. To further contribute to these successes, I continually seek innovative ways to bring quality learning to my students in and outside of the classroom. Luckily, I have always had the autonomy to choose what homework I assign to my students and I strive to create interesting and meaningful projects throughout the year that will help extend the home school connection.

The Home School Connection

One of the main goals of my homework assignments is to create opportunities for my students to interact with their parents and take time to learn about what makes themselves and their families special. At the beginning of the year, in lieu of traditional homework assignments, I focus on the student and their family. Two of the first special at home activities I assign include the Family Page Project to display during Back-to-School Night and the Baby Name Project.

The Family Page Project is a wonderful way to learn about your student's families. Parents are sent the Family Page Project letter, with instructions about how to work with their child to decorate a large piece of paper with interesting facts about their family. I find that sending an oversized piece of white construction paper works better than a large poster board, which can be overwhelming to fill. The instruction letter is filled with ideas that families can use to decorate their page, but they are encouraged to complete it any way they like. It is amazing how creative my families have been with these projects. In my third year of teaching, one of my students, Julissa, glued magazine pictures of people, but added her own families heads. It was hilarious looking, and showed that her family had a great sense of humor. This year, my student Alex and his family worked together to create an amazing family book. Another one of my students, Nathan, drew houses for all of his extended family members and glued in the faces of their dozen of cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents.

I always give the students time to present their family page in class. The things they share can be quite insightful, touching and funny. One student talked about his uncle who had died in a gang dispute. He had a lot to share about the things he used to do with his uncle and it was obvious that he missed him very much. A former student, Lily, attached pictures from a trip to Bolivia to visit her father's family and this led to an impromptu lesson on South America. This year when Kerina showed the picture of her mother that she drew she shared that her mother was going to have a baby "but she isn't ready to take it out yet!"

I always display these projects in the school hallway so everyone who attends Back-to-School Night can enjoy them. Over the years it has grown in success and families who are not even in my class come by to see the display. Two of my colleagues have begun to do this project as well, with the same enjoyment and success.

One of my other favorite family assignments is the Baby Name Project. I send home the Baby Name Project letter describing how family members can help. This project gives parents the opportunity to share with their child the origin of their name and information about the day they were born. I have to credit my own mom with inspiring this project. On every birthday when I was younger, she would tell me the story of my birth and I loved hearing every little detail. I kept the tradition up with my own son, Ian and I love setting up the opportunity for my student's parents to do the same.

You would be surprised at how many children have no idea how their name was chosen or what happened on the day they were born. I love hearing students tell their stories and I use their parents written account to help them share more details with the class. The accompanying baby photos are always a huge hit! Of course, I always bring a photo of myself as a baby and as a first grader so my students can hear my story and see what I looked like when I was their age.

What About Traditional Daily Assignments?

Research has consistently shown that parental involvement in a child's learning is a key factor in that child's achievement in school. With the reality of the test driven world of education, many parents expect what they were given in school for homework, familiar daily or weekly assignments. I do agree with the rationale behind these daily assignments:

Homework reinforces skills, concepts and information learned in class.

Homework prepares students for upcoming class topics.

Homework teaches students to work independently and develop self-discipline.

Homework encourages students to take initiative and responsibility for completing a task.

Homework allows parents to have an active role in their child's education and helps them to evaluate their child's progress.

Homework activities relate what is learned in school to children's lives outside of school and helps to connect school learning to the real world.

But I believe these daily homework assignments should be varied and meaningful, not always rote practice work.

To encourage authentic writing for homework assignments; I use a class mascot, his sleepover bag and a journal for students to write about the mascot's visit to their home. I send home the classroom digital camera so students can photograph their home, family, special events and vacations. We print their photos on the class computer and use them to support their writing. Students interview family members for information to share with the class. We also write poetry, lists, headlines, photo captions, book reviews and more.

To reinforce practice with their word wall words, students learn how to rainbow write, triangle write, happy face write, staircase write, box it write and sort their word wall words by number of letters, syllables, and vowels. I have included a Spelling Ideas printable with examples of all of these ideas and more so you can use it with your students.

To practice math skills and problem solving I send home math games with my students to play with parents or siblings. I assign homework that can easily be modified depending on the students' level of understanding. I also have Family Game Night. Students are allowed to borrow a board game from my classroom collection to take home for the weekend. These games include a memory game from the National Museum of Art, Boggle, Clue for Kids, Scrabble for Kids and more. Students never realize that they are learning about art, counting, problem solving, reading and following directions while they're having fun.

Most importantly I want my first grade students to be reading every single night to improve their word recognition, comprehension, fluency and word attack skills. I am thankful that our school has a fantastic guided reading book library that almost all teachers at Metz use on a daily basis. This allows my students to take home the same books we read in class during guided reading, and reread them dozens of times over several weeks, improving their language arts skills. Students read the same books during independent reading time in class, so they receive further literacy support with these same books just in case an adult is unable to support their reading at home.

Even if your school doesn't have a literacy library of leveled books, you can use reading textbooks the same way, search the Internet for web sites that carry professionally developed leveled readers that you can download and print for student use such as Learning A-Z, or purchase one of the exceptional guided reading programs from Scholastic. If you are short on funding to purchase a program check out local teacher grants in your area or sign up on Donors Choose or Adopt a Classroom.

Homework is an important time to make connections and reflect; on self, family, friends, new or familiar information, and the world beyond. What you present to your students will determine the heights they will climb to continue to maintain their academic success. "What is more important, quantity or quality?" is a question you could ask yourself when revaluating the homework you assign to your students. Homework should be fun and full of discovery, not only your students, but for you as well!

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Being a student myself for most of the 70s and 80s and a mother of a recent high-school graduate, I empathize with the argument that homework assignments are often random and can take unrealistic amounts of time to complete. With that in mind, I frequently consider the homework I assign to my own first graders.

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Homework Has Value When It Reinforces Learning

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Homework Has Value When It Reinforces Learning

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Newsela | Homework: Too little or too much? It depends

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"The homework horror stories have to be read in a proper perspective," says an education expert. He pointed out that the homework load has been pretty stable for 20 to 30 years.

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Homework dosent let you have fun with family

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Homework dosent let you have fun with family

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The value of homework needs further research

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15 Should Homework Be Banned Pros and Cons

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15 Should Homework Be Banned Pros and Cons

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Homework was a staple of the public and private schooling experience for many of us growing up. There were long nights spent on book reports, science projects, and all of those repetitive math sheets. In many ways, it felt like an inevitable part of the educational experience. Unless you could power through all of your assignments during your free time in class, then there was going to be time spent at home working on specific subjects.

More schools are looking at the idea of banning homework from the modern educational experience. Instead of sending work home with students each night, they are finding alternative ways to ensure that each student can understand the curriculum without involving the uncertainty of parental involvement.

Although banning homework might seem like an unorthodox process, there are legitimate advantages to consider with this effort. There are some disadvantages which some families may encounter as well.

These are the updated lists of the pros and cons of banning homework to review.

List of the Pros of Banning Homework

1. Giving homework to students does not always improve their academic outcomes.
The reality of homework for the modern student is that we do not know if it is helpful to have extra work assigned to them outside of the classroom. Every study that has looked at the subject has had design flaws which causes the data collected to be questionable at best. Although there is some information to suggest that students in seventh grade and higher can benefit from limited homework, banning it for students younger than that seems to be beneficial for their learning experience.

2. Banning homework can reduce burnout issues with students.
Teachers are seeing homework stress occur in the classroom more frequently today than ever before. Almost half of all high school teachers in North America have seen this issue with their students at some point during the year. About 25% of grade school teachers say that they have seen the same thing.

When students are dealing with the impact of homework on their lives, it can have a tremendously adverse impact. One of the most cited reasons for students dropping out of school is that they cannot complete their homework on time.

3. Banning homework would increase the amount of family time available to students.
Homework creates a significant disruption to family relationships. Over half of all parents in North America say that they have had a significant argument with their children over homework in the past month. 1/3 of families say that homework is their primary source of struggle in the home. Not only does it reduce the amount of time that everyone has to spend together, it reduces the chances that parents have to teach their own skills and belief systems to their kids.

4. It reduces the negative impact of homework on the health of a student.
Many students suffer academically when they cannot finish a homework assignment on time. Although assumptions are often made about the time management skills of the individual when this outcome occurs, the reasons why it happens is usually more complex. It may be too difficult, too boring, or there may not be enough time in the day to complete the work.

When students experience failure in this area, it can lead to severe mental health issues. Some perceive themselves as a scholarly failure, which translates to an inability to live life successfully. It can disrupt a desire to learn. There is even an increased risk of suicide for some youth because of this issue. Banning it would reduce these risks immediately.

5. Eliminating homework would allow for an established sleep cycle.
The average high school student requires between 8-10 hours of sleep to function at their best the next day. Grade-school students may require an extra hour or two beyond that figure. When teachers assign homework, then it increases the risk for each individual that they will not receive the amount that they require each night.

When children do not get enough sleep, a significant rest deficit occurs which can impact their ability to pay attention in school. It can cause unintended weight gain. There may even be issues with emotional control. Banning homework would help to reduce these risks as well.

6. It increases the amount of socialization time that students receive.
People who are only spending time in school and then going home to do more work are at a higher risk of experiencing loneliness and isolation. When these emotions are present, then a student is more likely to feel "down and out" mentally and physically. They lack meaningful connections with other people. These feelings are the health equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes per day. If students are spending time on homework, then they are not spending time connecting with their family and friends.

7. It reduces the repetition that students face in the modern learning process.
Most of the tasks that homework requires of students is repetitive and uninteresting. Kids love to resolve challenges on tasks that they are passionate about at that moment in their lives. Forcing them to complete the same problems repetitively as a way to "learn" core concepts can create issues with knowledge retention later in life. When you add in the fact that most lessons sent for homework must be done by themselves, banning homework will reduce the repetition that students face, allowing for a better overall outcome.

8. Home environments can be chaotic.
Although some students can do homework in a quiet room without distractions, that is not the case for most kids. There are numerous events that happen at home which can pull a child's attention away from the work that their teacher wants them to do. It isn't just the Internet, video games, and television which are problematic either. Household chores, family issues, employment, and athletic requirements can make it a challenge to get the assigned work finished on time.

List of the Cons of Banning Homework

1. Homework allows parents to be involved with the educational process.
Parents need to know what their children are learning in school. Even if they ask their children about what they are learning, the answers tend to be in generalities instead of specifics. By sending home work from the classroom, it allows parents to see and experience the work that their kids are doing when they are in school during the day. Then moms and dads can get involved with the learning process to reinforce the core concepts that were discovered by their children each day.

2. It can help parents and teachers identify learning disabilities.
Many children develop a self-defense mechanism which allows them to appear like any other kid that is in their classroom. This process allows them to hide learning disabilities which may be hindering their educational progress. The presence of homework makes it possible for parents and teachers to identify this issue because kids can't hide their struggles when they must work 1-on-1 with their parents on specific subjects. Banning homework would eliminate 50% of the opportunities to identify potential issues immediately.

3. Homework allows teachers to observe how their students understand the material.
Teachers often use homework as a way to gauge how well a student is understanding the materials they are learning. Although some might point out that assignments and exams in the classroom can do the same thing, testing often requires preparation at home. It creates more anxiety and stress sometimes then even homework does. That is why banning it can be problematic for some students. Some students experience more pressure than they would during this assessment process when quizzes and tests are the only measurement of their success.

4. It teaches students how to manage their time wisely.
As people grow older, they realize that time is a finite commodity. We must manage it wisely to maximize our productivity. Homework assignments are a way to encourage the development of this skill at an early age. The trick is to keep the amount of time required for the work down to a manageable level. As a general rule, students should spend about 10 minutes each school day doing homework, organizing their schedule around this need. If there are scheduling conflicts, then this process offers families a chance to create priorities.

5. Homework encourages students to be accountable for their role.
Teachers are present in the classroom to offer access to information and skill-building opportunities that can improve the quality of life for each student. Administrators work to find a curriculum that will benefit the most people in an efficient way. Parents work hard to ensure their kids make it to school on time, follow healthy routines, and communicate with their school district to ensure the most effective learning opportunities possible. None of that matters if the student is not invested in the work in the first place. Homework assignments not only teach children how to work independently, but they also show them how to take responsibility for their part of the overall educational process.

6. It helps to teach important life lessons.
Homework is an essential tool in the development of life lessons, such as communicating with others or comprehending something they have just read. It teaches kids how to think, solve problems, and even build an understanding for the issues that occur in our society right now. Many of the issues that lead to the idea to ban homework occur because someone in the life of a student communicated to them that this work was a waste of time. There are times in life when people need to do things that they don't like or want to do. Homework helps a student begin to find the coping skills needed to be successful in that situation.

7. Homework allows for further research into class materials.
Most classrooms offer less than 1 hour of instruction per subject during the day. For many students, that is not enough time to obtain a firm grasp on the materials being taught. Having homework assignments allows a student to perform more research, using their at-home tools to take a deeper look into the materials that would otherwise be impossible if homework was banned. That process can lead to a more significant understanding of the concepts involved, reducing anxiety levels because they have a complete grasp on the materials.

The pros and cons of banning homework is a decision that ultimately lies with each school district. Parents always have the option to pursue homeschooling or online learning if they disagree with the decisions that are made in this area. Whether you're for more homework or want to see less of it, we can all agree on the fact that the absence of any reliable data about its usefulness makes it a challenge to know for certain which option is the best one to choose in this debate.

Author Bio
Natalie Regoli is a child of God, devoted wife, and mother of two boys. She has a Master's Degree in Law from The University of Texas. Natalie has been published in several national journals and has been practicing law for 18 years.

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15 Should Homework Be Banned Pros and Cons

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Homework was a staple of the public and private schooling experience for many of us growing up. There were long nights spent on book reports, science projects, and all of those repetitive math sheets. In many ways, it felt like an inevitable part of the educational experience.

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Homework and its Negative Impact on Students

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Homework and its Negative Impact on Students

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Schools are getting rid of homework from Essex, Mass., to Los Angeles, Calif. Although the no-homework trend may sound alarming, especially to parents dreaming of their child's acceptance to Harvard, Stanford or Yale, there is mounting evidence that eliminating homework in grade school may actually have great benefits, especially with regard to educational equity.

In fact, while the push to eliminate homework may come as a surprise to many adults, the debate is not new. Parents and educators have been talking about this subject for the last century, so that the educational pendulum continues to swing back and forth between the need for homework and the need to eliminate homework.

The Problem with Homework: It Highlights Inequalities

One of the most pressing talking points around homework is how it disproportionately affects students from less affluent families. The American Psychological Association (APA) explained:

"Kids from wealthier homes are more likely to have resources such as computers, internet connections, dedicated areas to do schoolwork and parents who tend to be more educated and more available to help them with tricky assignments. Kids from disadvantaged homes are more likely to work at afterschool jobs, or to be home without supervision in the evenings while their parents work multiple jobs."
[RELATED] How to Advance Your Career: A Guide for Educators >>
While students growing up in more affluent areas are likely playing sports, participating in other recreational activities after school, or receiving additional tutoring, children in disadvantaged areas are more likely headed to work after school, taking care of siblings while their parents work or dealing with an unstable home life. Adding homework into the mix is one more thing to deal with - and if the student is struggling, the task of completing homework can be too much to consider at the end of an already long school day.

While all students may groan at the mention of homework, it may be more than just a nuisance for poor and disadvantaged children, instead becoming another burden to carry and contend with.

Beyond the logistical issues, homework can negatively impact physical health and stress - and once again this may be a more significant problem among economically disadvantaged youth who typically already have a higher stress level than peers from more financially stable families.

Yet, today, it is not just the disadvantaged who suffer from the stressors that homework inflicts. A 2014 CNN article, "Is Homework Making Your Child Sick?", covered the issue of extreme pressure placed on children of the affluent. The article looked at the results of a study surveying more than 4,300 students from 10 high-performing public and private high schools in upper-middle-class California communities.

"Their findings were troubling: Research showed that excessive homework is associated with high stress levels, physical health problems and lack of balance in children's lives; 56% of the students in the study cited homework as a primary stressor in their lives," according to the CNN story. "That children growing up in poverty are at-risk for a number of ailments is both intuitive and well-supported by research. More difficult to believe is the growing consensus that children on the other end of the spectrum, children raised in affluence, may also be at risk."

When it comes to health and stress it is clear that excessive homework, for children at both ends of the spectrum, can be damaging. Which begs the question, how much homework is too much?

How Much Homework Is Too Much Homework?

The National Education Association and the National Parent Teacher Association recommend that students spend 10 minutes per grade level per night on homework. That means that first graders should spend 10 minutes on homework, second graders 20 minutes and so on. But a study published by The American Journal of Family Therapy found that students are getting much more than that.

While 10 minutes per day doesn't sound like much, that quickly adds up to an hour per night by sixth grade. The National Center for Education Statistics found that high school students get an average of 6.8 hours of homework per week, a figure that is much too high according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). It is also to be noted that this figure does not take into consideration the needs of underprivileged student populations.

In a study conducted by the OECD it was found that "after around four hours of homework per week, the additional time invested in homework has a negligible impact on performance." That means that by asking our children to put in an hour or more per day of dedicated homework time, we are not only not helping them, but - according to the aforementioned studies - we are hurting them, both physically and emotionally.

What's more is that homework is, as the name implies, to be completed at home, after a full day of learning that is typically six to seven hours long with breaks and lunch included. However, a study by the APA on how people develop expertise found that elite musicians, scientists and athletes do their most productive work for about only four hours per day. Similarly, companies like Tower Paddle Boards are experimenting with a five-hour workday, under the assumption that people are not able to be truly productive for much longer than that. CEO Stephan Aarstol told CNBC that he believes most Americans only get about two to three hours of work done in an eight-hour day.

When Does Homework Actually Help?

In the scope of world history, homework is a fairly new construct in the U.S. Students of all ages have been receiving work to complete at home for centuries, but it was educational reformer Horace Mann who first brought the concept to America from Prussia.

Since then, homework's popularity has ebbed and flowed in the court of public opinion. In the 1930s, it was considered child labor (as, ironically, it compromised children's ability to do chores at home). Then, in the 1950s, implementing mandatory homework was hailed as a way to ensure America's youth were always one step ahead of Soviet children during the Cold War. Homework was formally mandated as a tool for boosting educational quality in 1986 by the U.S. Department of Education, and has remained in common practice ever since.
Homework improves student achievement. Homework helps reinforce classroom learning. Homework helps students develop good study habits and life skills.
School work assigned and completed outside of school hours is not without its benefits. Numerous studies have shown that regular homework has a hand in improving student performance and connecting students to their learning. When reviewing these studies, take them with a grain of salt; there are strong arguments for both sides, and only you will know which solution is best for your students or school.
Homework allows parents to be involved with their children's learning.
Being responsible for completing at-home assignments helps students practice organization, time management, following directions, critical thinking and independent problem-solving.

Parents can see what their children are learning and working on in school every day.

Parents can participate in their children's learning by guiding them through homework assignments and reinforcing positive study and research habits.

Homework observation and participation can help parents understand their children's academic strengths and weaknesses, and even identify possible learning difficulties.

Negative Effects of Homework for Students
Students with too much homework have elevated stress levels. Students with too much homework may be tempted to cheat. Homework highlights digital inequity.
While some amount of homework may help students connect to their learning and enhance their in-class performance, too much homework can have damaging effects.

Today, homework often requires a computer and/or internet connection, which many students do not have access to outside of school.
Homework does not help younger students.
Students in low-income families are disproportionately affected by a lack of internet access, which further exacerbates the social and economic divide between them and their more affluent peers.

How Teachers Can Help

To help students find the right balance and succeed, teachers and educators must start the homework conversation, both internally at their school and with parents. But in order to successfully advocate on behalf of students, teachers must be well educated on the subject, fully understanding the research and the outcomes that can be achieved by eliminating or reducing the homework burden. There is a plethora of research and writing on the subject for those interested in self-study.
YOU'RE INVITED! Watch Free Webinar on USD's Online M.Ed. Program >>
For teachers looking for a more in-depth approach or for educators with a keen interest in educational equity, formal education may be the best route. If this latter option sounds appealing, there are now many reputable schools offering online master of education degree programs to help educators balance the demands of work and family life while furthering their education in the quest to help others.

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Is Homework Necessary? Education Inequity and Its Impact on Students

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Does homework help students? Discussing the pros and cons of homework, plus discerning how much homework is too much.

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US schools can achieve more by doing less

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US schools can achieve more by doing less

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Purposeful Homework Should be Standard School Practice

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Purposeful Homework Should be Standard School Practice

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We have all had time-consuming, monotonous, meaningless homework assigned to us at some point in our life. These assignments often lead to frustration and boredom and students learn virtually nothing from them. Teachers and schools must reevaluate how and why they assign homework to their students. Any assigned homework should have a purpose.

Assigning homework with a purpose means that through completing the assignment, the student will be able to obtain new knowledge, a new skill, or have a new experience that they may not otherwise have. Homework should not consist of a rudimentary task that is being assigned simply for the sake of assigning something. Homework should be meaningful. It should be viewed as an opportunity to allow students to make real-life connections to the content that they are learning in the classroom. It should be given only as an opportunity to help increase their content knowledge in an area.

Differentiate Learning for All Students

Furthermore, teachers can utilize homework as an opportunity to differentiate learning for all students. Homework should rarely be given with a blanket "one size fits all" approach. Homework provides teachers with a significant opportunity to meet each student where they are and truly extend learning. A teacher can give their higher-level students more challenging assignments while also filling gaps for those students who may have fallen behind. Teachers who use homework as an opportunity to differentiate we not only see increased growth in their students, but they will also find they have more time in class to dedicate to whole group instruction.

See Student Participation Increase

Creating authentic and differentiated homework assignments can take more time for teachers to put together. As often is the case, extra effort is rewarded. Teachers who assign meaningful, differentiated, connected homework assignments not only see student participation increase, they also see an increase in student engagement. These rewards are worth the extra investment in time needed to construct these types of assignments.

Schools must recognize the value in this approach. They should provide their teachers with professional development that gives them the tools to be successful in transitioning to assign homework that is differentiated with meaning and purpose. A school's homework policy should reflect this philosophy; ultimately guiding teachers to give their students reasonable, meaningful, purposeful homework assignments.

Sample School Homework Policy

Homework is defined as the time students spend outside the classroom in assigned learning activities. Anywhere Schools believes the purpose of homework should be to practice, reinforce, or apply acquired skills and knowledge. We also believe as research supports that moderate assignments completed and done well are more effective than lengthy or difficult ones done poorly.

Homework serves to develop regular study skills and the ability to complete assignments independently. Anywhere Schools further believes completing homework is the responsibility of the student, and as students mature they are more able to work independently. Therefore, parents play a supportive role in monitoring completion of assignments, encouraging students' efforts and providing a conducive environment for learning.

Individualized Instruction

Homework is an opportunity for teachers to provide individualized instruction geared specifically to an individual student. Anywhere Schools embraces the idea that each student is different and as such, each student has their own individual needs. We see homework as an opportunity to tailor lessons specifically for an individual student meeting them where they are and bringing them to where we want them to be.

Homework contributes toward building responsibility, self-discipline, and lifelong learning habits. It is the intention of the Anywhere School staff to assign relevant, challenging, meaningful, and purposeful homework assignments that reinforce classroom learning objectives. Homework should provide students with the opportunity to apply and extend the information they have learned complete unfinished class assignments, and develop independence.

The actual time required to complete assignments will vary with each student's study habits, academic skills, and selected course load. If your child is spending an inordinate amount of time doing homework, you should contact your child's teachers.

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Purposeful Homework Should Be Standard School Practice

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We have all had time-consuming, monotonous, meaningless homework assigned to us at some point in our life. These assignments often lead to frustration and boredom and students learn virtually nothing from them. Teachers and schools must reevaluate how and why they assign homework to their students. Any assigned homework should have a purpose.

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Research shows that some students regularly receive higher amounts of homework than experts recommend, which may cause stress and negative health effects.

Research suggests that when students are pushed to handle a workload that's out of sync with their development level, it can lead to significant stress - for children and their parents.

Both the National Education Association (NEA) and the National PTA (NPTA) support a standard of "10 minutes of homework per grade level" and setting a general limit on after-school studying.

For kids in first grade, that means 10 minutes a night, while high school seniors could get two hours of work per night.

Experts say there may be real downsides for young kids who are pushed to do more homework than the "10 minutes per grade" standard.

"The data shows that homework over this level is not only not beneficial to children's grades or GPA, but there's really a plethora of evidence that it's detrimental to their attitude about school, their grades, their self-confidence, their social skills, and their quality of life," Donaldson-Pressman told CNN.

But the most recent study to examine the issue found that kids in their study who were in early elementary school received about three times the amount of recommended homework.

Published in The American Journal of Family Therapy, the 2015 study surveyed more than 1,100 parents in Rhode Island with school-age children.

The researchers found that first and second graders received 28 and 29 minutes of homework per night.

Kindergarteners received 25 minutes of homework per night, on average. But according to the standards set by the NEA and NPTA, they shouldn't receive any at all.

A contributing editor of the study, Stephanie Donaldson-Pressman, told CNN that she found it "absolutely shocking" to learn that kindergarteners had that much homework.

And all those extra assignments may lead to family stress, especially when parents with limited education aren't confident in their ability to talk with the school about their child's work.

The researchers reported that family fights about homework were 200 percent more likely when parents didn't have a college degree.

Some parents, in fact, have decided to opt out of the whole thing. The Washington Post reported in 2016 that some parents have just instructed their younger children not to do their homework assignments.

They report the no-homework policy has taken the stress out of their afternoons and evenings. In addition, it's been easier for their children to participate in after-school activities.

Other studies have found that high school students may also be overburdened with homework - so much that it's taking a toll on their health.

In 2013, research conducted at Stanford University found that students in high-achieving communities who spend too much time on homework experience more stress, physical health problems, a lack of balance in their lives, and alienation from society.

That study, published in The Journal of Experimental Education, suggested that any more than two hours of homework per night is counterproductive.

However, students who participated in the study reported doing slightly more than three hours of homework each night, on average.

To conduct the study, researchers surveyed more than 4,300 students at 10 high-performing high schools in upper middle-class California communities. They also interviewed students about their views on homework.

When it came to stress, more than 70 percent of students said they were "often or always stressed over schoolwork," with 56 percent listing homework as a primary stressor. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.

The researchers asked students whether they experienced physical symptoms of stress, such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss, and stomach problems.

More than 80 percent of students reported having at least one stress-related symptom in the past month, and 44 percent said they had experienced three or more symptoms.

The researchers also found that spending too much time on homework meant that students were not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills. Students were more likely to forgo activities, stop seeing friends or family, and not participate in hobbies.

Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.

"Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good," said Denise Pope, PhD, a senior lecturer at the Stanford University School of Education, and a co-author of a study.

A smaller New York University study published in 2015 noted similar findings.

It focused more broadly on how students at elite private high schools cope with the combined pressures of school work, college applications, extracurricular activities, and parents' expectations.

That study, which appeared in Frontiers in Psychology, noted serious health effects for high schoolers, such as chronic stress, emotional exhaustion, and alcohol and drug use.

The research involved a series of interviews with students, teachers, and administrators, as well as a survey of a total of 128 juniors from two private high schools.

About half of the students said they received at least three hours of homework per night. They also faced pressure to take college-level classes and excel in activities outside of school.

Many students felt they were being asked to work as hard as adults, and noted that their workload seemed inappropriate for their development level. They reported having little time for relaxing or creative activities.

More than two-thirds of students said they used alcohol and drugs, primarily marijuana, to cope with stress.

The researchers expressed concern that students at high-pressure high schools can get burned out before they even get to college.

"School, homework, extracurricular activities, sleep, repeat - that's what it can be for some of these students," said Noelle Leonard, PhD, a senior research scientist at the New York University College of Nursing, and lead study author, in a press release.

Experts continue to debate the benefits and drawbacks of homework.

But according to an article published this year in Monitor on Psychology, there's one thing they agree on: the quality of homework assignments matters.

In the Stanford study, many students said that they often did homework they saw as "pointless" or "mindless."

Pope, who co-authored that study, argued that homework assignments should have a purpose and benefit, and should be designed to cultivate learning and development.

It's also important for schools and teachers to stick to the 10-minutes per grade standard.

In an interview with Monitor on Psychology, Pope pointed out that students can learn challenging skills even when less homework is assigned.

Pope described one teacher she worked with who taught Advanced Placement biology, and experimented by dramatically cutting down homework assignments. First the teacher cut homework by a third, and then cut the assignments in half.

The students' test scores didn't change.

"You can have a rigorous course and not have a crazy homework load," Pope said.

Editor's Note: The story was originally reported by Sandra Levy on April 11, 2017. Its current publication date reflects an update, which includes a medical review by Karen Gill, MD.

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Why Homework is Bad: Stress and Consequences

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Research shows that some students regularly receive higher amounts of homework than experts recommend, which may cause stress and negative health effects.

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Page 28

Life is full of arguments-they're a reality of being human. Every day of your life, as long as you interact with others, you will face conflicts. And when we're not in disagreement with others, we often fight with ourselves.

Getting up early to go to school may be a conflict because going to bed at a reasonable hour at night is also a conflict.

Maybe your boss wants you to work an hour longer at your part-time job instead of quitting at your usual time. You don't want to, but you don't have a good excuse not to. You don't want to risk offending your boss and possibly losing your job.

Suppose a good friend is having a party and you really want to go. However, you and your dad have tickets to a football game that same night, so you will have to make a difficult choice. If you skip the party, you are afraid your friend will be mad at Page 29 you, but if you turn down the football game, your father will be disappointed.

Perhaps you are a member of your school's student council and a motion is made that you don't like, but your arguments go unheard and the motion passes.

A girl you consider a close friend does not answer when you speak to her in the hallway between classes.

Whether or not you realize it, you are experienced at handling conflict. If you're not always satisfied with the way you've handled conflicts, however, you can learn how to improve your conflict resolution skills. Conflicts in your life that have been the most worrisome probably share one or more of the following characteristics:

A disagreement makes you really mad at a parent, sibling, friend, teacher, or someone else.

You have difficulty going about your daily business because of a disagreement that you have been unable to settle. You cannot eat or sleep, you have become irritable, and your schoolwork is suffering. Bullying often causes these reactions in victims and is discussed later in this resource.

You have been trying to ignore someone who is harassing you, but it isn't working. Your harasser has constantly teased, berated, and challenged you, and you want it to stop.

You disagree with an adult authority figure-a teacher, your boss, your parents-over an issue that is important to you. You feel powerless to change the situation, and you fume in silence.

You realize that making a decision entirely on your own will not successfully resolve a problem. You need to involve the individuals on the other side to remedy the situation.

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Ways of Resolving Arguments

Once you determine that you have a conflict with others that requires more than a quick decision to settle, you can decide how to handle it. The method you use to resolve a conflict will probably depend on your goals and how much you value your relationship with the other party. There are several ways, some more constructive than others, to resolve a conflict without resorting to aggression or violence. The best ways to resolve conflicts are usually win-win in nature. That is, they let both sides win something. Here are five basic ways of resolving conflict.¹

1. Avoidance or denial. Walking away from a conflict may be an option if one or more of the following conditions exist:

No relationship exists between you and the person with whom you are in conflict.

There is a relationship, but it is not important to you to continue it.

The conflict is not important to you.

The conflict bothers you, but the timing is wrong for a confrontation, and you need a cooling-off period.

If you can walk away from the conflict without feeling bad, you can consider the conflict resolved-at least from your viewpoint. For example: A large group of striking employees is picketing in front of a store you want to enter. The strikers are aggressive and insist on blocking your way. A classmate of yours is one of the strikers, and he zeroes in on you. You can postpone shopping in that store, or you can go to another store that sells the same products. Since you do not know the striking classmate well, you decide to avoid confronting the strikers and you leave.

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Denial is also a form of avoiding conflict. Denying that the conflict exists is not generally an acceptable resolution because it results in a win-lose situation, and chances are the issue will not disappear but will actually build. If you simply deny to yourself that a conflict exists, you will probably continue to feel resentment and anger. For example, when Rebecca's family built a backyard pool, she invited Susan, her best friend, to swim nearly every afternoon after school while the weather was warm. Others soon heard about the pool, however, and Rebecca did not know how to limit swimming guests. Several rowdy boys and girls started showing up to swim. After a few days, Susan was no longer enjoying herself, Page 32 so she quit going to Rebecca's house to swim. Rebecca was unhappy with the situation but had no idea how to solve the problem, so she simply denied to herself that it existed. During the next few days, she seldom saw Susan after school, and she was mad at her friend for ignoring her. When Rebecca's mother asked why she seldom saw Susan anymore, Rebecca snapped, "I don't want to talk about it. Leave me alone," and stomped off to her room.

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2. Accommodation. Giving in to the demands of others is fine if this is your decision and you are happy with the outcome. Some conflict resolution experts call this suppression or smoothing over, however, which is generally not a good way to resolve conflicts because it results in a win-lose outcome and can lead to resentment. In the following example, Charlett accommodates her great-aunt without feeling resentment.

Charlett's ninety-year-old great-aunt invited the family for brunch every other Sunday. Since her great-aunt believed that girls should wear dresses for special occasions, she would be disappointed and possibly angry if Charlett were to wear slacks or jeans. However, Charlett often left her great-aunt's house to join her friends for a bike ride or some other activity, and dressing up for brunch meant that she had to take a change of clothes. It was inconvenient, but rather than oppose her great-aunt, Charlett took another set of clothes to wear when she left her great-aunt's house. This was an accommodation that Charlett agreed to make to spare her great-aunt's feelings.

Accommodation is no solution, however, if you do not want to give in to the demands of others or if giving in can have serious emotional or physical consequences for you. For example, Jeffrey developed asthma early in his life, and by the time he was fifteen, his doctor had identified several substances that caused him to have asthma attacks. One such trigger was animal dander. Jeffrey's friends knew about his asthma but had never witnessed one of his asthma attacks. When one of the boys who lived on a ranch invited the group to go horseback riding, they talked Jeffrey into going. "Don't be such a sissy," they chided. "So you'll cough a little for a while. It will be worth it." Jeffrey let himself be persuaded, and as a result, he suffered a serious asthma attack and had to be rushed to the hospital.

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3. Power or dominance. If the parties involved in a conflict agree to settle the matter by majority rule or agree to let a person in authority solve the problem, the conflict is resolved. This method of settling a conflict can work if involved parties see it as fair and have agreed in advance to use the method. It is also acceptable if the authority who will make the decision is respected and trusted. Disadvantages, however, are that a win-lose situation has been created and that losers may feel ignored or disrespected.

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A mediator may be a trusted adult when teenagers or younger children are involved in a conflict, or he or she may be a student trained in peer mediation. In schools that have a peer mediation program, trained student mediators may be asked to help resolve a conflict that seems hopelessly deadlocked. Peer mediation is discussed in detail later in this resource. In the following example, two students allow a mediator to solve a conflict that grew until it was out of control.

Natalie and Barbara had been best friends in middle school, but when the two girls entered high school, their relationship changed. Natalie was more outgoing than Barbara, and she earned a spot on the cheerleading squad. Barbara had always wanted to be a cheerleader but was too shy to try out. After Natalie became a cheerleader, Barbara was jealous, but instead of voicing her concerns to Natalie, she avoided her former friend. Barbara stewed in silence until she had convinced herself that Natalie was a snob. To retaliate, Barbara told another cheerleader that she thought Natalie was taking drugs.

The rumor soon spread. Natalie heard that Barbara had started the rumor, and she confronted her former friend. Barbara denied that she had spread the story and accused Natalie of being too stuck up for former friends after she became a cheerleader. A teacher heard the girls arguing and suggested they request peer mediation to resolve their differences. Neither girl wanted to bring in a third person, but the teacher convinced them to try mediation. A peer mediator worked with the girls, and while the friendship was not restored to its former closeness, Barbara agreed not to spread any more vicious rumors about Natalie, and Natalie agreed to include Barbara in some of the activities they had shared before Natalie became a cheerleader.

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4. Compromise or negotiation. Compromise and negotiation are useful when resources are limited, such as in the example of one horse for Brian and Emily to share. This is often the most satisfactory way to resolve a dispute but only if both sides trust and respect each other, have enough leeway to give, and realize that they probably will not get everything they want. Compromise implies that each side in a conflict will have to give up something they want so both sides can come away at least partially satisfied. Some goals on each side of the conflict and some part of a relationship may have to be sacrificed to reach a compromise, but it is still a win-win method of resolving a conflict.

In the earlier conflict over sharing a horse, Brian and Emily decided on a compromise where Emily and her friends would have sole use of the horse on Saturdays, and Brian and his friends could ride on Sundays. During the week, the co-owners could each ride for one hour but only after homework and chores were done. If either sibling violated the agreement, that person would forfeit all riding privileges for one week. Since the compromise involved limiting riding time for both Brian and Emily, neither got what he or she really wanted-complete control over the horse-but both sides could ride during their specified times without interference. The compromise the two negotiated resolved the conflict, but neither Brian nor Emily got what he or she really wanted, which was the freedom to ride whenever he or she chose.

5. Collaboration. Collaboration is a method of conflict resolution that works well when more than two individuals are involved. When members of a group are in conflict with each other but agree on a mutually satisfying resolution, this is collaboration. As in a compromise between two individuals, all parties seldom get everything they want.

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As a member of his school's student council, Steven often collaborates with other council representatives to recommend changes to the school administration that students believe will benefit the school. For instance, when a student in Tennessee started a movement to get students to sign wallet-sized pledge cards that they would stop taunting others and would encourage kindness, Steven lobbied his student council members to also adopt the pledge. Some council members thought the pledges would be simply symbolic and therefore ineffective, since there were no enforcement provisions or methods of measuring success. Steven persisted in requesting that students in his school be offered the chance to sign the pledges, and the student council finally agreed to bring the suggestion to school administrators. The administrators liked Steven's idea, and six months after a majority of students had signed the pledges, Steven noticed a difference in his school. "People are nicer to each other," he remarked, "and some kids who had been picked on aren't anymore."

Violent responses to conflicts are, of course, always undesirable. These responses include shouting, name calling, and physical fighting. Less violent but still undesirable responses include rolling the eyes, arguing, being overly critical and unfair, or harassing other individuals involved in the dispute.

How to Get What You Want

In Getting What You Want: How to Reach Agreement and Resolve Conflict Every Time, author Kare Anderson emphasizes that the answer to resolving conflict is not to change other people or to show them up as wrong. When the situation heats up, Anderson recommends, use the following four steps to keep resolution on track:

Page 38

1. Remind yourself that in most conflicts, there are no good and bad guys. Those involved in the conflict may be irritating to each other, but neither side is absolutely right or absolutely wrong.

2. Remember that you may have to take it upon yourself to lower your voice, cool down, and deal rationally with the situation. If you wait for the other side to calm things down, it may never happen.

3. If you feel yourself getting more and more angry, ask yourself why you are reacting so strongly so you can let go.

4. Ask yourself how (or if) the differences between you and the other side can be fixed.²

Sometimes controlling a conflict situation means defusing another person's anger, says Gary Harper in The Joy of Conflict Resolution. Because anger overrules reason, it is hard to solve any problem when one or both parties are mad. To get started discussing a problem with a person who is shouting, name calling, stomping around, and otherwise showing anger, try these basic tips:

Give the person a minute to storm without interrupting, then say something such as, "OK, now tell me that again without swearing."

Create speed bumps. As a person's anger builds, he or she may be incapable of listening for long, but if you simply say the person's name or repeat a key word or two, you may slow the momentum and help the person's anger spiral down.

Show empathy. When you can get a word in, tell the person that you are trying to understand. "I know how you feel," is sometimes just a red flag that encourages an angry person to tell us no, we do not know how he or she feels. But if you can let the person know that you are truly listening, maybe he or Page 39 she will begin to calm down. For example, you might say, "I can see that this has really ticked you off" or "It sounds as though you think you're being blamed here."³

The above techniques for defusing anger are part of active listening, which is discussed later in this resource.

Although you are not always in complete control of a conflict situation, you are in control of your own behavior. Anderson tells the tale of a man who had bought his morning paper at the same newsstand for many years. The proprietor of the newsstand was always grumpy and unfriendly, but the man continued to say a cheery, "Good morning, Sam," every day and ignore Sam's snarling Page 40 response. A person who observed this behavior asked the man why he continued to be nice to Sam when he was so unfriendly. The man replied, "Why should I let someone else determine my behavior?"⁴

If you have ever been involved in a conflict that seemed to go on forever and left you sad, angry, and resentful, you know how important it is to learn skills that will help you satisfactorily settle a dispute. Even if you have never experienced the anxiety a hostile conflict can cause, learning conflict resolution skills can help you through life's everyday conflicts.

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Page 28 Life is full of arguments-they're a reality of being human. Every day of your life, as long as you interact with others, you will face conflicts. And when we're not in disagreement with others, we often fight with ourselves.

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Stanford research shows pitfalls of homework

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A Stanford researcher found that students in high-achieving communities who spend too much time on homework experience more stress, physical health problems, a lack of balance and even alienation from society.

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PRINCIPAL

January/February 2007

By Alfie Kohn
[For a more detailed look at the issues discussed here - including a comprehensive list of citations to relevant research and a discussion of successful efforts to effect change- please see the book The Homework Myth.]
After spending most of the day in school, children are typically given additional assignments to be completed at home. This is a rather curious fact when you stop to think about it, but not as curious as the fact that few people ever stop to think about it.

It becomes even more curious, for that matter, in light of three other facts:

1. The negative effects of homework are well known. They include children's frustration and exhaustion, lack of time for other activities, and possible loss of interest in learning. Many parents lament the impact of homework on their relationship with their children; they may also resent having to play the role of enforcer and worry that they will be criticized either for not being involved enough with the homework or for becoming too involved.

2. The positive effects of homework are largely mythical. In preparation for a book on the topic, I've spent a lot of time sifting through the research. The results are nothing short of stunning. For starters, there is absolutely no evidence of any academic benefit from assigning homework in elementary or middle school. For younger students, in fact, there isn't even a correlation between whether children do homework (or how much they do) and any meaningful measure of achievement. At the high school level, the correlation is weak and tends to disappear when more sophisticated statistical measures are applied. Meanwhile, no study has ever substantiated the belief that homework builds character or teaches good study habits.

3. More homework is being piled on children despite the absence of its value. Over the last quarter-century the burden has increased most for the youngest children, for whom the evidence of positive effects isn't just dubious; it's nonexistent.

It's not as though most teachers decide now and then that a certain lesson really ought to continue after school is over because meaningful learning is so likely to result from such an assignment that it warrants the intrusion on family time. Homework in most schools isn't limited to those occasions when it seems appropriate and important. Rather, the point of departure seems to be: "We've decided ahead of time that children will have to do something every night (or several times a week). Later on we'll figure out what to make them do."

I've heard from countless people across the country about the frustration they feel over homework. Parents who watch a torrent of busywork spill out of their children's backpacks wish they could help teachers understand how the cons overwhelmingly outweigh the pros. And teachers who have long harbored doubts about the value of homework feel pressured by those parents who mistakenly believe that a lack of afterschool assignments reflects an insufficient commitment to academic achievement. Such parents seem to reason that as long as their kids have lots of stuff to do every night, never mind what it is, then learning must be taking place.

What parents and teachers need is support from administrators who are willing to challenge the conventional wisdom. They need principals who question the slogans that pass for arguments: that homework creates a link between school and family (as if there weren't more constructive ways to make that connection!), or that it "reinforces" what students were taught in class (a word that denotes the repetition of rote behaviors, not the development of understanding), or that it teaches children self-discipline and responsibility (a claim for which absolutely no evidence exists).

Above all, principals need to help their faculties see that the most important criterion for judging decisions about homework (or other policies, for that matter) is the impact they're likely to have on students' attitudes about what they're doing. "Most of what homework is doing is driving kids away from learning," says education professor Harvey Daniels. Let's face it: Most children dread homework, or at best see it as something to be gotten through. Thus, even if it did provide other benefits, they would have to be weighed against its likely effect on kids' love of learning.
*
So what's a thoughtful principal to do?

1. Educate yourself and share what you've learned with teachers, parents, and central office administrators. Make sure you know what the research really says - that there is no reason to believe that children would be at any disadvantage in terms of their academic learning or life skills if they had much less homework, or even none at all. Whatever decisions are made should be based on fact rather than folk wisdom.

2. Rethink standardized "homework policies." Requiring teachers to give a certain number of minutes of homework every day, or to make assignments on the same schedule everyweek (for example, x minutes of math on Tuesdays and Thursdays) is a frank admission that homework isn't justified by a given lesson, much less is it a response to what specific kids need at a specific time. Such policies sacrifice thoughtful instruction in order to achieve predictability, and they manage to do a disservice not only to students but, when imposed from above, to teachers as well.

3. Reduce the amount - but don't stop there. Many parents are understandably upset with how much time their children have to spend on homework. At a minimum, make sure that teachers aren't exceeding district guidelines and that they aren't chronically underestimating how long it takes students to complete the assignments. (As one mother told me, "It's cheating to say this is 20 minutes of homework if only your fastest kid can complete it in that time.") Then work on reducing the amount of homework irrespective of such guidelines and expectations so that families, not schools, decide how they will spend most of their evenings.

Quantity, however, is not the only issue that needs to be addressed. Some assignments, frankly, aren't worth even five minutes of a student's time. Too many first graders are forced to clip words from magazines that begin with a given letter of the alphabet. Too many fifth graders have to color in an endless list of factor pairs on graph paper. Too many eighth graders spend their evenings inching their way through dull, overstuffed, committee-written textbooks, one chapter at a time. Teachers should be invited to reflect on whether any given example of homework will help students think deeply about questions that matter. What philosophy of teaching, what theory of learning, lies behind each assignment? Does it seem to assume that children are meaning makers - or empty vessels? Is learning regarded as a process that's mostly active or passive? Is it about wrestling with ideas or mindlessly following directions?

4. Change the default. Ultimately, it's not enough just to have less homework or even better homework. We should change the fundamental expectation in our schools so that students are asked to take schoolwork home only when a there's a reasonable likelihood that a particular assignment will be beneficial to most of them. When that's not true, they should be free to spend their after-school hours as they choose. The bottom line: No homework except on those occasions when it's truly necessary. This, of course, is a reversal of the current default state, which amounts to an endorsement of homework for its own sake, regardless of the content, a view that simply can't be justified.

5. Ask the kids. Find out what students think of homework and solicit their suggestions - perhaps by distributing anonymous questionnaires. Many adults simply assume that homework is useful for promoting learning without even inquiring into the experience of the learners themselves! Do students find that homework really is useful? Why or why not? Are certain kinds better than others? How does homework affect their desire to learn? What are its other effects on their lives, and on their families?

6. Suggest that teachers assign only what they design. In most cases, students should be asked to doonly what teachers are willing to create themselves, as opposed to prefabricated worksheets or generic exercises photocopied from textbooks. Also, it rarely makes sense to give the same assignment to all students in a class because it's unlikely to be beneficial for most of them. Those who already understand the concept will be wasting their time, and those who don't understand will become increasingly frustrated. There is no perfect assignment that will stimulate every student because one size simply doesn't fit all. On those days when homework really seems necessary, teachers should create several assignments fitted to different interests and capabilities. But it's better to give no homework to anyone than the same homework to everyone.

7. Use homework as an opportunity to involve students in decision-making. One way to judge the quality of a classroom is by the extent to which students participate in making choices about their learning. The best teachers know that children learn how to make good decisions by making decisions, not by following directions. Students should have something to say about what they're going to learn and the circumstances under which they'll learn it, as well as how (and when) their learning will be evaluated, how the room will be set up, how conflicts will be resolved, and a lot more.

What is true of education in general is true of homework in particular. At least two investigators have found that the most impressive teachers (as defined by various criteria) tend to involve students in decisions about assignments rather than simply telling them what they'll have to do at home. A reasonable first question for a parent to ask upon seeing a homework assignment is "How much say did the kids have in determining how this had to be done, and on what schedule, and whether it really needed to be completed at home in the first place?"

A discussion about whether homework might be useful (and why) can be valuable in its own right. If opinions are varied, the question of what to do when everyone doesn't agree - take a vote? keep talking until we reach consensus? look for a compromise? - develops social skills as well as intellectual growth. And that growth occurs precisely because the teacher asked rather than told. Teachers who consult with their students on a regular basis would shake their heads vigorously were you to suggest that kids will always say no to homework - or to anything else that requires effort. It's just not true, they'll tell you. When students are treated with respect, when the assignments are worth doing, most kids relish a challenge.

If, on the other hand, students groan about, or try to avoid, homework, it's generally because they get too much of it, or because it's assigned thoughtlessly and continuously, or simply because they had nothing to say about it. The benefits of even high-quality assignments are limited if students feel "done to" instead of "worked with."

8. Help teachers move away from grading. Your faculty may need your support, encouragement, and practical suggestions to help them abandon a model in which assignments are checked off or graded, where the point is to enforce compliance, and toward a model in which students explain and explore with one another what they've done - what they liked and disliked about the book they read, what they're struggling with, what new questions they came up with. As the eminent educator Martin Haberman observed, homework in the best classrooms "is not checked - it is shared." If students conclude that there's no point in spending time on assignments that aren't going to be collected or somehow recorded, that's not an argument for setting up bribes and threats and a climate of distrust; it's an indictment of the homework itself.

9. Experiment. Ask teachers who are reluctant to rethink their long-standing reliance on traditional homework to see what happens if, during a given week or curriculum unit, they tried assigning none. Surely anyone who believes that homework is beneficial should be willing to test that assumption by investigating the consequences of its absence. What are the effects of a moratorium on students' achievement, on their interest in learning, on their moods and the resulting climate of the classroom? Likewise, the school as a whole can try out a new policy, such as the change in default that I've proposed, on a tentative basis before committing to it permanently.

*

Principals deal with an endless series of crises; they're called upon to resolve complaints, soothe wounded egos, negotiate solutions, try to keep everyone happy, and generally make the trains (or, rather, buses) run on time. In such a position there is a strong temptation to avoid new initiatives that call the status quo into question. Considerable gumption is required to take on an issue like homework, particularly during an era when phrases like "raising the bar" and "higher standards" are used to rationalize practices that range from foolish to inappropriate to hair-raising. But of course a principal's ultimate obligation is to do what's right by the children, to protect them from harmful mandates and practices that persist not because they're valuable but merely because they're traditional.

For anyone willing to shake things up in order to do what makes sense, beginning a conversation about homework is a very good place to start.
RESOURCES
We are awash in articles and books that claim homework is beneficial - or simply take the existence or value of homework for granted and merely offer suggestions for how it ought to be assigned, or what techniques parents should use to make children complete it. Here are some resources that question the conventional assumptions about the subject in an effort to stimulate meaningful thinking and conversation.

Barber, Bill. "Homework Does Not Belong on the Agenda for Educational Reform." Educational Leadership, May 1986: 55-57.

Bennett, Sara, and Nancy Kalish. The Case Against Homework: How Homework Is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It (New York: Crown, 2006).

Buell, John. Closing the Book on Homework: Enhancing Public Education and Freeing Family Time. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004).

Dudley-Marling, Curt. "How School Troubles Come Home: The Impact of Homework on Families of Struggling Learners." Current Issues in Education [On-line] 6, 4 (2003).

Hinchey, Patricia. "Rethinking Homework." MASCD [Missouri Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development] Fall Journal, December 1995: 13-17.

Kohn, Alfie. The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2006).

Kralovec, Etta, and John Buell. The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning (Boston: Beacon Press, 2000).

Samway, Katharine. "'And You Run and You Run to Catch Up with the Sun, But It's Sinking.'" Language Arts 63 (1986): 352-57.

Vatterott, Cathy. "There's Something Wrong With Homework." Principal, January-February 2003: 64.

Waldman, Ayelet. "Homework Hell." Salon.com. October 22, 2005.

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PRINCIPAL January/February 2007 By Alfie Kohn [For a more detailed look at the issues discussed here - including a comprehensive list of citations to relevant research and a discussion of successful efforts to effect change- please see the book The Homework Myth.]

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Stanford research shows pitfalls of homework

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Stanford research shows pitfalls of homework

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A Stanford researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter.

"Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good," wrote Denise Pope, a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education.

The researchers used survey data to examine perceptions about homework, student well-being and behavioral engagement in a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California communities. Along with the survey data, Pope and her colleagues used open-ended answers to explore the students' views on homework.

Median household income exceeded $90,000 in these communities, and 93 percent of the students went on to college, either two-year or four-year.

Students in these schools average about 3.1 hours of homework each night.

"The findings address how current homework practices in privileged, high-performing schools sustain students' advantage in competitive climates yet hinder learning, full engagement and well-being," Pope wrote.

Pope and her colleagues found that too much homework can diminish its effectiveness and even be counterproductive. They cite prior research indicating that homework benefits plateau at about two hours per night, and that 90 minutes to two and a half hours is optimal for high school.

Their study found that too much homework is associated with:

* Greater stress: 56 percent of the students considered homework a primary source of stress, according to the survey data. Forty-three percent viewed tests as a primary stressor, while 33 percent put the pressure to get good grades in that category. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.

* Reductions in health: In their open-ended answers, many students said their homework load led to sleep deprivation and other health problems. The researchers asked students whether they experienced health issues such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss and stomach problems.

* Less time for friends, family and extracurricular pursuits: Both the survey data and student responses indicate that spending too much time on homework meant that students were "not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills," according to the researchers. Students were more likely to drop activities, not see friends or family, and not pursue hobbies they enjoy.

A balancing act

The results offer empirical evidence that many students struggle to find balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time, the researchers said. Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.

Also, there was no relationship between the time spent on homework and how much the student enjoyed it. The research quoted students as saying they often do homework they see as "pointless" or "mindless" in order to keep their grades up.

"This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points," Pope said.

She said the research calls into question the value of assigning large amounts of homework in high-performing schools. Homework should not be simply assigned as a routine practice, she said.

"Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development," wrote Pope.

High-performing paradox

In places where students attend high-performing schools, too much homework can reduce their time to foster skills in the area of personal responsibility, the researchers concluded. "Young people are spending more time alone," they wrote, "which means less time for family and fewer opportunities to engage in their communities."

Student perspectives

The researchers say that while their open-ended or "self-reporting" methodology to gauge student concerns about homework may have limitations - some might regard it as an opportunity for "typical adolescent complaining" - it was important to learn firsthand what the students believe.

The paper was co-authored by Mollie Galloway from Lewis and Clark College and Jerusha Conner from Villanova University.

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Stanford research shows pitfalls of homework

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A Stanford researcher found that too much homework can negatively affect kids, especially their lives away from school, where family, friends and activities matter. "Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good," wrote Denise Pope, a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and a co-author of a study published in the Journal of Experimental Education.

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Parents Should Take Action Against Excessive Homework

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Parents Should Take Action Against Excessive Homework

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Complaints about homework go from too little to too much

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Complaints about homework go from too little to too much

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Is Too Much Homework Bad for Kids’ Health

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Is Too Much Homework Bad for Kids’ Health

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Research shows that some students regularly receive higher amounts of homework than experts recommend, which may cause stress and negative health effects.

Research suggests that when students are pushed to handle a workload that's out of sync with their development level, it can lead to significant stress - for children and their parents.

Both the National Education Association (NEA) and the National PTA (NPTA) support a standard of "10 minutes of homework per grade level" and setting a general limit on after-school studying.

For kids in first grade, that means 10 minutes a night, while high school seniors could get two hours of work per night.

Experts say there may be real downsides for young kids who are pushed to do more homework than the "10 minutes per grade" standard.

"The data shows that homework over this level is not only not beneficial to children's grades or GPA, but there's really a plethora of evidence that it's detrimental to their attitude about school, their grades, their self-confidence, their social skills, and their quality of life," Donaldson-Pressman told CNN.

But the most recent study to examine the issue found that kids in their study who were in early elementary school received about three times the amount of recommended homework.

Published in The American Journal of Family Therapy, the 2015 study surveyed more than 1,100 parents in Rhode Island with school-age children.

The researchers found that first and second graders received 28 and 29 minutes of homework per night.

Kindergarteners received 25 minutes of homework per night, on average. But according to the standards set by the NEA and NPTA, they shouldn't receive any at all.

A contributing editor of the study, Stephanie Donaldson-Pressman, told CNN that she found it "absolutely shocking" to learn that kindergarteners had that much homework.

And all those extra assignments may lead to family stress, especially when parents with limited education aren't confident in their ability to talk with the school about their child's work.

The researchers reported that family fights about homework were 200 percent more likely when parents didn't have a college degree.

Some parents, in fact, have decided to opt out of the whole thing. The Washington Post reported in 2016 that some parents have just instructed their younger children not to do their homework assignments.

They report the no-homework policy has taken the stress out of their afternoons and evenings. In addition, it's been easier for their children to participate in after-school activities.

Other studies have found that high school students may also be overburdened with homework - so much that it's taking a toll on their health.

In 2013, research conducted at Stanford University found that students in high-achieving communities who spend too much time on homework experience more stress, physical health problems, a lack of balance in their lives, and alienation from society.

That study, published in The Journal of Experimental Education, suggested that any more than two hours of homework per night is counterproductive.

However, students who participated in the study reported doing slightly more than three hours of homework each night, on average.

To conduct the study, researchers surveyed more than 4,300 students at 10 high-performing high schools in upper middle-class California communities. They also interviewed students about their views on homework.

When it came to stress, more than 70 percent of students said they were "often or always stressed over schoolwork," with 56 percent listing homework as a primary stressor. Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.

The researchers asked students whether they experienced physical symptoms of stress, such as headaches, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, weight loss, and stomach problems.

More than 80 percent of students reported having at least one stress-related symptom in the past month, and 44 percent said they had experienced three or more symptoms.

The researchers also found that spending too much time on homework meant that students were not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills. Students were more likely to forgo activities, stop seeing friends or family, and not participate in hobbies.

Many students felt forced or obligated to choose homework over developing other talents or skills.

"Our findings on the effects of homework challenge the traditional assumption that homework is inherently good," said Denise Pope, PhD, a senior lecturer at the Stanford University School of Education, and a co-author of a study.

A smaller New York University study published in 2015 noted similar findings.

It focused more broadly on how students at elite private high schools cope with the combined pressures of school work, college applications, extracurricular activities, and parents' expectations.

That study, which appeared in Frontiers in Psychology, noted serious health effects for high schoolers, such as chronic stress, emotional exhaustion, and alcohol and drug use.

The research involved a series of interviews with students, teachers, and administrators, as well as a survey of a total of 128 juniors from two private high schools.

About half of the students said they received at least three hours of homework per night. They also faced pressure to take college-level classes and excel in activities outside of school.

Many students felt they were being asked to work as hard as adults, and noted that their workload seemed inappropriate for their development level. They reported having little time for relaxing or creative activities.

More than two-thirds of students said they used alcohol and drugs, primarily marijuana, to cope with stress.

The researchers expressed concern that students at high-pressure high schools can get burned out before they even get to college.

"School, homework, extracurricular activities, sleep, repeat - that's what it can be for some of these students," said Noelle Leonard, PhD, a senior research scientist at the New York University College of Nursing, and lead study author, in a press release.

Experts continue to debate the benefits and drawbacks of homework.

But according to an article published this year in Monitor on Psychology, there's one thing they agree on: the quality of homework assignments matters.

In the Stanford study, many students said that they often did homework they saw as "pointless" or "mindless."

Pope, who co-authored that study, argued that homework assignments should have a purpose and benefit, and should be designed to cultivate learning and development.

It's also important for schools and teachers to stick to the 10-minutes per grade standard.

In an interview with Monitor on Psychology, Pope pointed out that students can learn challenging skills even when less homework is assigned.

Pope described one teacher she worked with who taught Advanced Placement biology, and experimented by dramatically cutting down homework assignments. First the teacher cut homework by a third, and then cut the assignments in half.

The students' test scores didn't change.

"You can have a rigorous course and not have a crazy homework load," Pope said.

Editor's Note: The story was originally reported by Sandra Levy on April 11, 2017. Its current publication date reflects an update, which includes a medical review by Karen Gill, MD.

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Why Homework is Bad: Stress and Consequences

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Research shows that some students regularly receive higher amounts of homework than experts recommend, which may cause stress and negative health effects.

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Why I Think All Schools Should Abolish Homework

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Why I Think All Schools Should Abolish Homework

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Why I Think All Schools Should Abolish Homework

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It should be the exception, not the rule

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More Parents, Schools Trying to dig out From Piles of Homework

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More Parents, Schools Trying to dig out From Piles of Homework

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"Anna woke up this morning so happy because this is a rare weekend where she has very little homework," says her mother, Isabel Hill, of Brooklyn, New York. "Usually, the weekends just go by in a blur of homework. The last two, we've been working from dawn until dusk." School nights are worse. "Anna takes a 30-minute break when she gets home, then she starts her homework and doesn't finish until 10 or 10:30." Anna is in the sixth grade and, according to her mother, she has never not had homework-even in kindergarten.

Elizabeth Jones's 17-year-old daughter, Julia, is, as she says, "a very together kid," one of those children who has always gotten straight A's and completed her assignments without a fuss. But this year, in 11th grade, Julia is frequently up until 1 a.m. "It has been an unhappy year because she doesn't have a moment to breathe," says her mother.

A 2002 survey reported that 64 percent of children between the ages of six and eight have homework on any given day-twice what the workload was in 1981. In 2008, even preschoolers are bringing schoolwork home.

Anna's mother feels that homework has reduced her child's desire to learn. Ella's mother reports that her daughter "hopes she can get into a college where learning is fun again."

When is there time to hang out with friends, play a spontaneous game of soccer, write in a diary?

Many parents wonder-how do we reconcile the messages we receive from politicians about the importance of family togetherness with mandates for more and more homework?

When Isabel Hill speaks of her daughter's struggles with homework, it is notable that she often speaks about the work as if it is her own: "the last two [weekends], we've been working from dawn until dusk." Homework impacts everyone in the family, and few elementary and middle-school children are able to manage the planning required to complete the work without considerable help from a parent. Worse, many experts wonder if kids are missing out on a real childhood. When is there time to hang out with friends, play a spontaneous game of soccer, write in a diary?

Proponents of homework list compelling-sounding reasons for its importance-and some can tell you why they think there should be even more of it. Here are some of them:

This is refuted by two recent books: The Case Against Homework: How Homework Is Hurting Children and What Parents Can Do About It, by Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish; and The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing, by Alfie Kohn. The authors state that, to date, no research has supported a correlation between amounts of homework and increased achievement in elementary school. This was also largely true of middle school. Even in high school, where some benefits were evident, these disappeared when too much work was assigned. In fact, too much homework in high school can actually reduce academic achievement.

This type of homework is often seen in the math worksheets that children bring home: two pages of division problems to solve. For spelling, a child may be asked to write vocabulary words over ten times each.

But, again, no studies back up the claim. There is some indication that repetition can help a child to master skills if the concept behind the skill is already clearly in place, particularly in math. But according to the US Department of Education (DOE), five algebraic problems are all it takes to demonstrate whether or not a child understands a particular mathematical function. When kids come home with 100 multiplication problems to solve, it becomes simple drudgery. As Bennett and Kalish say in their book, the children who already know how to solve the math problem don't need that much practice, and those who don't won't know how to solve it anyway-so why try 100 times?

In fact, the greatest arguments against repetitive homework, and homework that requires mere rote memorization, are that it does not require children to think creatively, does not instill a love of learning, and strongly contributes to their disliking school altogether.

Nor do many schools spend any significant classroom time teaching kids how to organize work and manage their time-training that could also prepare children for the greater homework loads in higher grades.

Tensions over homework, however, are the evening scenario in all too many homes. After a long day at work, many parents understandably resent having to play Homework Cop, nor do they need any more issues over which to butt heads with their kids. Can parents just as easily find out what their children are doing by talking with their kids about school and by looking at some of their work?

As well, assigning a lot of homework may not be equitable. Not all parents are able to provide enough time and attention to help their children with homework, and/or an environment conducive to completing it. Less wealthy parents may work more than one job. Single mothers may have divided attentions. And some parents may not even speak English.

"I don't think it is fair to assess homework when I can't be sure that the child's home environment is supportive," says fourth-grade teacher Allegra Love, who works in a bilingual school in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Love gives her kids a nightly journal prompt that takes about 20 minutes to complete. Many of the other fourth-grade teachers in her school give several hours of homework.

Free time is just as likely to create opportunities for unexpected learning.

Alfie Kohn thinks that much of modern-day education is infused with this mindset, which, he writes, reveals a deep societal distrust of children, particularly teenagers. Traditional classroom education seeks to control how children behave, what they think, and exactly what they learn. In fact, Kohn says, there is an almost puritanical belief that because kids don't like doing homework, it must be good for them. But, as Kohn also points out, "[I]f we don't trust our children to stay out of trouble, then trying to keep them busy is unlikely to accomplish this goal. Whatever our kids are doing says more about our relationship with them than it does about how much free time they have." Free time is just as likely to create opportunities for unexpected learning, Kohn thinks, and is also the best way to spark new ideas.

"I Don't Remember Having Any Homework at All!"

I've heard this from most parents I've spoken to about homework. What has changed? Why is so much more homework now given at such early ages?

The belief in homework's benefits has ebbed and flowed over the years. Most experts agree that the launch of the Soviet [Union (USSR)] satellite Sputnik in 1957 caused changes in education that still reverberate today. Shocked and dismayed by the USSR's ability to produce scientists who could design and launch a satellite before the US could, experts called for more rigorous educational practices and, especially, more homework. In 1983, A Nation at Risk [by the National Commission on Excellence in Education] cried out against mediocrity in American education. The DOE responded by stating that homework is an essential part of a good education.

Alfie Kohn thinks there is even more to it than that. "Homework, I'll argue, is a field on which much larger disputes are played out, including those involving standardized testing, the characteristics of good pedagogy, the nature and purposes of education, our attitudes toward research, and the ways we raise and regard children."

Some other factors include:

While good "family values" is one of the qualities that can help a student get into college, few ambitious teenagers these days can spend significant amounts of quality time with their families-because of how much homework they must complete.

The main reason for the intense pressure exerted on children in most high schools is the looming presence of college.

"It's not just about learning anymore-it's about doing well," says mother Elizabeth Jones. "Kids are stuck in this race. Teachers give them grief for grade grubbing and lobbying-but without the grade, they can't get into a good school."

"What they find is simple but not easy: well-trained teachers and responsible children. Early on, kids do a lot without adults hovering. And teachers create lessons to fit their students," reports the Wall Street Journal. Rather than pushing gifted students ahead, the focus is placed on teaching weaker students.

In the US, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 has helped create a very different approach. In this controversial program, designed to provide incentives for improving education, each state is mandated to prove that children are achieving academically before it can receive federal funding for schools. The atmosphere created by this need to prove academic accomplishment, usually via standardized tests, is fraught. Critics of NCLB say that it has contributed to "teaching to the test" rather than focusing on truly valuable learning tools.

The Belief That More Is Better. In the Joneses' children's advanced-placement (AP) classes, reports their mother, there is an almost "macho" sense that, when it comes to the homework load, more is better. The "more" tends to be a greater volume of work rather than more challenging work. "On Tuesday, [Julia] was assigned [to read] two essays by [Ralph] Ellison, each around 20 pages long. She was then told to write two three-page papers on these essays-due Thursday." And this is just the homework for one class.

Alfie Kohn has studied the ways in which competition affects learning. "Study after study has found that when we're involved in some sort of contest we end up not doing as well on most tasks as we would in the absence of competition," he says. In an attempt to create more learning by spending more time doing homework, students may actually be learning less than they are capable of.

Some experts think that the homework problem is deeply woven into the very fabric of our system of educating children.

Sexism Against Boys? Caroline Thaler is a mother and educator who was a teacher and an assistant principal in the New York City Public School System. She now works for Australian and United States Services In Education (AUSSIE), a company dedicated to creating better school curricula. Thaler thinks that gender is a big factor in how well today's kids do in school. Many boys succeed academically, but she feels that, in general, girls are stronger in some skills that make it easier to be a "good" student, such as paying attention to details, sitting still, or homing in on what the teacher is looking for.

Curricula. Some experts think that the homework problem is deeply woven into the very fabric of our system of educating children. Are the curricula that most schools use fostering learning or "behaviors"?

"What happens in most middle and high schools is that homework is the overflow," says Thaler. "There is no way that teachers can begin to get enough real work done in a 45-minute class." Deduct the time it takes kids to sit down, get organized, and then pack up again at the end, and that leaves only about 35 minutes of actual teaching time. What can't get done in that time is sent home.

Thaler believes in the workshop model. "You can't learn by just being told something and then going off and doing it," she says. "You learn by repeated modeling and guided support." Longer class times can facilitate this type of learning.

Because of Homework, What Is Not Getting Done?

Many parents are equally upset by the experiences their children are not getting because of mounting pressure to perform in school:

Chores. Many proponents of homework suggest that doing schoolwork at home teaches kids a sense of responsibility. "I'd rather have them learning responsibility from chores," counters Thaler. But if her children are already staying up late doing homework, how can she then ask them to stay up even later to wash the dishes? Some parents have the sense that they are servants or valets to their children, who should be learning to do their own laundry but don't have time to fit it in.

Sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, children from 5 to 12 years old need between 10 and 11 hours of sleep each night. Teenagers need from 8.5 to 9.25 hours. But when teens get overwhelmed with schoolwork, sleep is one of the first things to go. Studies show that only 20 percent of adolescents between the ages of 11 and 17 get the recommended amount of sleep. On school nights, nearly half of them sleep fewer than eight hours.

Research shows that sleep deprivation affects a whole range of mental activities, including the ability to pay attention, verbal creativity, abstract thinking, decision making, retrieval of long-term memories, and overall mood and motivation. Researchers have also found that when a person learns something new, there is activity during sleep in the same area of the brain where that learning occurred, and improvement in memory performance when the person is tested the next day. Sufficient sleep, it turns out, is crucial to assimilating new information.

Downtime and Play. Recently, there has been increasing interest in studying the purpose of play. Some studies on rats reveal that major surges in cerebellum growth correspond with peak levels of playtime. Researchers are wondering if this correlates with how children's brains respond to play.

One thing is for sure-overworked kids don't get to play much. Whereas teenagers tend to sacrifice sleep when they have a lot of homework, for younger school-age children, it is fun time and social activities that end up being sacrificed. The long-term effects of lack of play are as yet unknown.

Exercise. Play also means movement. Kids who don't have time for play and recreational activities, such as softball teams or dance, just don't get to move around a lot-and there is evidence that exercise actually helps with academics. "While study after study shows that homework has no or little effect on kids' overall achievement until high school, a review of 850 studies by the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] showed that physical activity has a positive impact on everything from grade point average, scores on standardized tests, and grades in specific courses to concentration, memory, and classroom behavior," write Bennett and Kalish.

Socializing. Time to socialize is something Isabel Hill wants badly for her daughter, Anna. During my interview with her, when I mentioned that my own daughter was going to the corner to have pizza with a friend, she said, wistfully, "My God, wouldn't it be nice if Anna could go out for pizza with a friend on a weekday."

For children, socializing with their peers is truly a laboratory for learning. It is in these situations, unsupervised by adults and not organized by teachers or coaches, where they learn what works and does not work in human relations.

Extracurricular Activities. "Anna has always loved music," says Hill. "We've had to really compromise with that because she just doesn't have the time. It's a travesty, because music is a lifelong pleasure."

It is said that when Thomas Jefferson had writer's block, he would stop and, to revitalize his creativity, play his violin. This is just one example of how a broad range of activities and interests can improve a student's performance in school.

Family Time and Privacy. Imagine taking a job where you are told: "Work is over at 6:00 p.m. However, we also supervise your time at home and on vacations. We will make sure that you leave the office every night with a minimum of three hours of paperwork to do, and if we can't find something that really needs to get done, we'll make something up. And, sure, you can go on vacation if you like. We'll even cut back on the busywork-a bit. And, by the way, you will be paid nothing for this, and you can't quit this job."

It sounds ridiculous, but it is real life for many children. "Over Christmas, there was a project and a paper due at the end of the break," reports Elizabeth Jones. "This had to be done with two class partners. Two of Julia's partners had gone away-one of them to Mexico-so there was a huge scramble to do this over the phone long-distance, and then finish it up the last day before school started up."

But do schools have the right to dictate what our children can and cannot do once they've left school? Do they have the right to decide how much time we will spend with our children on evenings and weekends-even on vacation?

Here in the US, we get a lot of mixed messages about family life. We are encouraged by politicians to get back to basics and make sure to have more family meals. Jones and her husband have worked hard to keep this up in their family. But the moment dinner is over, her kids jump up to get back to their homework. "That 20-minute meal is all we get with them," she says. "It's very sad."

"Questioning the amount of homework should just be the beginning," Alfie Kohn told me. "But much of it isn't worth two minutes of time, never mind an hour."

Mandating "no homework" days or weekends, or setting guidelines for how much time children should spend on homework according to their ages, may seem a good beginning, but such policies are too easy to bypass. At the Jones kids' high school, the AP teachers simply ignore "no homework" nights. After all, if you're in an AP class, then you're expected to behave like a college student and tough it out.

In his book, Kohn questions the current position of homework as the "default." Why, he wonders, are we in the position of having to prove that all this homework is not beneficial? Why aren't teachers and school administrators expected to prove that it is? Couldn't teachers assign homework only on those rare occasions when the work really can't be accomplished at school-as in, say, a project for which a child is interviewing various people on a certain topic?

Most homework experts suggest that it is better to approach a school in a group than individually.

It's hard for parents to be voices for change in their children's schools. Many fear that their activism against school practices will negatively affect their children's experience at school. Maybe the teachers will be tougher on their kids-maybe the parents' "tirades" will even affect their kids' grades.

Most homework experts suggest that it is better to approach a school in a group than individually. Caroline Thaler, who has had some success in effecting change at her own children's school, says, "It's easy to swat at one fly, but less easy to remove an entire swarm of them."

In 2005, after a revamping of its curriculum, the Banks County Middle School, in Homer, Georgia, stopped assigning regular homework. It was felt that homework was setting kids up for failure and causing them to feel badly about school. The results have been stunning: Grades are up dramatically, and results on statewide tests are rising rapidly.

The Kino School, in Tucson, Arizona, has a different approach to homework: "We give the students ample time to do their work during the school day," says Mary Jane Cera, the school's director. "Oftentimes children, especially the high schoolers, prefer to socialize during that time and bring work home instead." This, she feels, teaches time management in a much more positive way because it is about choice, and at Kino, choice is a keystone of education. "We've never wavered in our belief about respecting children," declares Cera.

As far as homework is concerned, that might just say it all.

Books

Richard Arum and Josipa RoksaAcademically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.

Sara Bennett and Nancy KalishThe Case Against Homework: How Homework Is Hurting Children and What Parents Can Do About It. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2006.

Amy ChuaBattle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. New York: Penguin Press, 2011.

David T. ConleyCollege Knowledge: What It Really Takes for Students to Succeed and What We Can Do to Get Them Ready. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2005.

Harris CooperThe Battle Over Homework: Common Ground for Administrators, Teachers, and Parents. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2007.

William CrainReclaiming Childhood: Letting Children Be Children in Our Achievement-Oriented Society. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2003.

Howard GardnerFive Minds for the Future. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2009.

John Taylor GattoWeapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling. British Columbia, Canada: New Society Publishers, 2010.

Frederick M. HessThe Same Thing Over and Over: How School Reformers Get Stuck in Yesterday's Ideas. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.

Alfie KohnFeel Bad Education: And Other Contrarian Essays on Children and Schooling. Boston: Beacon Press, 2011.

Alfie KohnThe Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Lifelong Books, 2007.

Etta Kralovec and John BuellThe End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning. Boston: Beacon Press, 2000.

Charles M. PayneSo Much Reform, So Little Change: The Persistence of Failure in Urban Schools. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008.

Daniel H. PinkDrive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. New York: Riverhead Books, 2009.

James TaylorPositive Pushing: How to Raise a Successful and Happy Child. New York: Hyperion, 2002.

Cathy VatterottRethinking Homework: Best Practices That Support Diverse Needs. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2009.

Tony WagnerThe Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need-And What We Can Do About It. New York: Basic Books, 2008.

Periodicals and Internet Sources

Patrice Apodaca "Are We Sending Kids on a 'Race to Nowhere'?," Daily Pilot, April 26, 2011.

Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa "College, Too Easy for Its Own Good," Los Angeles Times, June 3, 2011.

Lawrence Baines "Learning from the World: Achieving More by Doing Less," Phi Delta Kappan, October 2007.

Samantha Brix "Do We Put Too Much Pressure on High School Students?," North Shore Sun, April 12, 2011.

Amy Chua "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior," The Wall Street Journal, January 8, 2011.

Sam Dillon "High School Classes May Be Advanced in Name Only," New York Times, April 25, 2009.

Ellen Gamerman "What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?," The Wall Street Journal, February 29, 2008.

Michael E. Gordon and Oded Palmon "Spare the Rigor, Spoil the Learning," Academe Online, July/August 2010. www.aaup.org.

Chris Irvine "UK's Biggest School to Scrap Homework," The Telegraph, September 28, 2008.

John Keilman "Online Learning for Illinois High Schoolers Inspires Praise, Suspicion," Chicago Tribune, April 24, 2011.

Stacy Teicher Khadaroo "NAEP Report: 'Rigor Works,' So Schools Need Tougher Classes," Christian Science Monitor, April 13, 2011.

Alfie Kohn "Changing the Homework Default," Independent School Magazine, Winter 2007.

Josh Linkner "How Teachers Can Save Our Kids," JoshLinkner.com, May 2, 2011. www.joshlinker.com.

Jonathan Martin "Blame Schools, Not Students, for 'Failure of School Reform,'" Connected Principals, September 19, 2010.

Jay Mathews "Inside the AP Testing Debate," Newsweek, June 13, 2010.

Shannon Moriarty "Homeless with Homework," Change.org, March 3, 2009. www.change.org.

Sharon Otterman "At One School, a Push for More Playtime," New York Times, January 12, 2011.

Denise Pope "Beyond 'Doing School': From 'Stressed-Out' to 'Engaged in Learning,'" Education Canada, Summer 2011.

Robert J. Samuelson "School Reform's Meager Results," The Washington Post, September 6, 2010.

Jonathan Schorr and Deborah McGriff "Future Schools," EducationNext, Summer 2011. www.educationnext.org.

Melanie Smolin "The Homework Dilemma: How Much Is Too Much?," Takepart.com, January 14, 2011. www.takepart.com.

James Taylor "Teach Your Children to Suck It Up," San Francisco Examiner, March 16, 2011.

Beth Teitell "Homework Hell," Boston Globe, May 2, 2010.

Cathy Vatterott "Five Hallmarks of Good Homework," Educational Leadership, September 2010.

Kelly Vaughan "NPR: How Much Homework Is Too Much?," Gotham Schools, September 12, 2008. www.gothamschools.org.

Source Citation

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"Anna woke up this morning so happy because this is a rare weekend where she has very little homework," says her mother, Isabel Hill, of Brooklyn, New York. "Usually, the weekends just go by in a blur of homework. The last two, we've been working from dawn until dusk."