The case against homework

Another thread reminded me of some articles and blogs that I've been reading lately regarding homework.
I have never been a big fan of homework - it interfered in my independent learning when I was a child so I always resented it :p
Whilst she never let on while I was at school once I had finished my mother revealed that she too wasn't keen on the amount of homework I was set.
I'm glad to see that there is a growing anti-homework movement and I have every intention of being that annoying parent that whinges at the P&C meetings if any school my boys go to sets too much.

Anyways.... what are your thoughts on homework?
I've posted a few articles and a link to the blog of one of the authors of The Case Against Homework.
I'd love to know what you think of the points raised - if you have any pro-homework articles please post them ;)

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Does homework work?

Sep 14 2009, 7:24PM

School's back, and so is Big Homework. Here's what my 7th grade daughter has to do tonight:

1 Math review sheet
1 Science essay
French vocab for possible quiz
History reading and questionairre
English reading and note-taking

About two hours, give or take. This is considered a pretty light load, so as to ramp up gently. Over the next few weeks, it will get up to three hours or more.

Most of us give very little thought to this long-lived combination. School and homework seem as interconnected as cars and gasoline. Kids need homework to get smarter -- right? It's supposed to be how they pick up a good work ethic.

Only maybe it isn't. Maybe most homework is a giant waste of my daughter's time and a needless cause of family stress.

Two 2006 books make that argument: Alfie Kohn's The Homework Myth, and Sara Bennett & Nancy Kalish's The Case Against Homework.

Homework does not improve children's work habits, argues Kohn. It does not reinforce skills, and "isn't even correlated with, much less responsible for, higher achievement before high school."

Bennett and Kalish write:

There's absolutely no proof that homework helps elementary school pupils learn more or have greater academic success. In fact...when children are asked to do too much nightly work, just the opposite has been found. And study after study shows that homework is not much more beneficial in middle school either. Even in high school, where there can be benefits, they start to decline as soon as kids are overloaded.


The new thinking is that, instead of piling on onerous, rote assignments, homework, kids ought to be encouraged to use their after school time to explore their own curiosities, read books of their own choice, to play, and to get adequate sleep.

Kohn again:

Most kids hate homework. They dread it, groan about it, put off doing it as long as possible. It may be the single most reliable extinguisher of the flame of curiosity.


Any parent reading this has high expectations for his or her child. We all want not what's easiest, but what's best. If that means a lot of homework, so be it. But it seems the time has come for all parents to revisit this subject with considerable skepticism.
Does homework work? - David Shenk

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Finding a homework balance
By Angie Wagner, The Associated Press

A grassroots parents movement has taken hold in recent years calling for less (or at least better) homework. (Shutterstock.com)

Christina Harris doesn't believe kindergarteners should have homework. So at the beginning of her son's kindergarten year, she flat out told the teacher he wouldn?t be doing any.

"I don't believe that there's any use for it," said Harris of Federal Way, Wash. "I think that?s a complete waste of childhood."

A grassroots parents movement has taken hold in recent years calling for less ? or at least better ? homework. Books like ?The Case Against Homework? (Crown, 2006) and "The Homework Myth" (Da Capo, 2007) have argued that too much of today's homework is mindless busywork that takes away from family time and does not improve academic performance. Homework's critics argue that kids should instead be reading for enjoyment, exploring and being creative.

Many school officials are taking note.

But how much homework is too much?

One standard that many school districts are turning to is the "10-minute rule" created by Duke University psychology professor Harris Cooper. The rule, endorsed by the National PTA and the National Education Association in the United States, says kids should get 10 minutes of homework a night per grade. A first grader would have 10 minutes of homework each night; a fifth grader 50 minutes.

Cooper said the amount of homework in America actually hasn't changed that much over the past 50 years except that there has been an increase in the amount given in the early grades.

Attitudes toward homework go in cycles, he said. After the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957, he says, there was a drive toward more homework because it was thought that the United States was falling behind. The same happened in the mid-'80s, and again in recent years.

If a child is doing homework effectively but it seems to be taking too long, Cooper suggests that parents approach the teacher in a non-confrontational way, as a collaborator in the education process.

Kerry ****inson, a Danville, Calif., mom of two, took that advice a step further. She asked other parents what they thought about homework, then she and a friend met with the school district's director of curriculum and instruction. She got a call days later saying the San Ramone Valley Unified School District was forming a task force to rewrite homework policy.

Last year, the district implemented a new policy, adapting Cooper?s formula, for kindergarten through eighth grade. A new high-school policy will take effect in the fall.

"I think what I'm most happy about is this dialogue has started in this community about rethinking accepted homework practices," she said. "That's the most important thing, that we don't always accept the status quo in education."

Some Danville parents, however, thought the old homework policy was fine.

Mary Grace Houlihan, who has two teenagers, says attempts to limit homework can amount to lazy parenting: "At what point do you start saying, whoa, I decided to be a parent and learning doesn't stop at 3 o'clock?"

In her home, she said, homework often turns into a family discussion. Learning outside the classroom is necessary for students to be accepted into major universities, says Houlihan, whose daughter was just accepted to Princeton.

Cooper's research found that practice-style assignments in elementary school, such as learning number places and vocabulary, do help improve unit test scores, but found little or no connection between the amount of time spent on homework and academic achievement. Homework does help secondary students overall and on tests, he said.

Other places that have wrestled with the homework question recently include Broward County, Fla., where the school board recently approved the 10-minute rule, and urged teachers to assign academically challenging work, but not too much. An elementary school in Glenrock, Wyo., implemented a no-homework practice in fall 2007.

In Vermont, the Colchester School District now makes homework count for only 10 per cent of a grade, instead of the previous 40 per cent. And no longer are kids kept in from recess if they don't do their homework.

"It helped us really define what our purpose is," said Gwen Carmolli, Colchester's director of curriculum and instruction. "Our purpose is to help students understand the concepts they're learning at school. But we shouldn't give homework just to give it."

16:18ET 30-07-09
CANOE - Lifewise Back To School: Finding a homework balance

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Too much homework

As kids go back to school, we need to pay attention to a growing movement among parents and educators calling on homework to be severely reduced. We think they are right.

Childhood is a time for growth and education is an important part of that. But so is being a child. Enjoying your youth and family. School hours have expanded over the years to the point that many school days end at five instead of three. Almost weekly tests in one subject or another are being the norm in many schools. Homework assigned, or studies expected, reach two to three hours a night. It is far too much.

Kids and families need to decompress at the end of a day. Kids need time to be kids and families need time to be families. It can't just be school, rush home and grab a quick dinner, and back to the books. Monastic existences do no one any good.

We need to ask why this is happening. We all know about the explosion of information. But we have to ask about what happened to the three Rs, reading, writing and arithmetic. We know more is now required. But two hours of homework a night for primary school kids who need their parents to help them is over the top.

We need to examine just how good the 'pedagogie' is coming out of Quebec. We also have to look at whether things like not having enough English textbooks is one of the reasons for so much homework on the English side, although in all fairness the problem is just as acute on the French side. We need to look at the qualifications of teachers as well.

Just yesterday, a Montreal newspaper reported that there is such a drastic shortage of teachers that some schools are hiring teachers (and there are almost a hundred) who only have a high school or Cegep diploma. If lack of teachers and large class sizes are problems, then we have to ask the provincial government to make teaching a more attractive profession. Stressing kids and parents is not the answer.

Teachers are professionals. As professionals they are tasked with imparting knowledge to children during a given part of the day. They are also public servants. As such we have a legitimate right to ask why are they not completing their tasks in the appointed time and 'offloading' their work onto families?

If Quebec is throwing too much information into the pedagogy, let's cut it. If the use of homework and weekly exams is some kind of shock treatment by teachers to concentrate the minds and sphincters of students, let's stop it.

Several years ago two Penn State researchers conducted an international study and found that instead of improving educational achievement, increases in homework may actually undercut teaching effectiveness and worsen disparities in student learning. The study found that most teachers are not making efficient use of homework, according to David P. Baker, professor of education and sociology. They assign homework mostly as drill, to improve memorization of material either in math, science or the humanities. While drills and repetitive exercises have their place in schooling, homework may not be that place.

Just last year, after a parental outcry, the Toronto District School Board decided to study the issue of homework. Reduced it. And the results are having a significantly positive impact on students' performances.

So how much is enough? Hard to say. But how about two hours total for the week and an additional hour for the weekend. There is a phrase chiseled into the wall of one of McGill's libraries. "The quiet and still air of delightful studies" Studies should be delightful, not draconian, from grade school to high school as well.
Editorial: Too much homework

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Stop Homework ? Wyoming Elementary School Eliminates Homework

I actually haven't got time right now to read through but will when I get a moment.
But I am quite anti-homework. I think back to highschool and after 8 hours of school I was then expected to go home and study for 4 hours. I don't think so! I think there is so much more to learning then academic work and it isn't recognised by our current system.

No wonder there is so much childhood obesity, they can't go outside to play because they're stuck inside for hours doing homework!

Personally, I'm against homework as a regular thing - I don't see the point. I don't object to the idea of assignments that need to be completed either in class or at home (at the student's discretion and based on their time management skills) once they are in high school, but I don't agree with exercises that take up part of every night for early primary school kids.

My objection is because: 1) It doesn't foster a love of learning; and 2) Many dilligent parents I know actually help their child/ren complete their homework. While I don't think it's wrong for parents to know what their child is learning or be involved in their schooling, doesn't this kind of defeat the purpose?

Neither my child nor I need homework at the end of a long day, thanks. We need to chill out, talk and muck around. We spend plenty of time reading, playing music/instruments, visiting museums and art galleries and learning, without the need for structured work sent home from school. Where is the time to just play?

i'm against homework idea.
Kids spend 6 hours (give or take) at school already. Not to mention then extra ciricular activities.
If they WANT to do more than by all means go for it...but normal homework....no

Kids need time to unwind and be kids. Go out have fun with thier friends etc. No wonder we have so many kids who crumble under the stress because there is so much homework forced on them.
Some adults find it hard to cope with our jobs and the demands, how can we expect a child to cope with the massive demands of study when they haven't yet developed the skills to do so.

The only thing I will do with my primary school aged children is spelling words and reading to them. If they have problems with maths, I will help them at home.

I found that my dad had a way of explaining things to me so I understood them immediatley.

I don't particularly mind homework at the moment - but my eldest dd is in grade 2 - so not much to do. She has a week to complete a few sentences (using new spelling words) and a couple of maths facts. I like knowing what she is doing in class as well. They are meant to take home a reader each night and read to parents, but thankfully her teacher saw that she was doing well and allowed her to read whatever books she likes to herself.

One part of the homework that I really like - is that they have to help out in some way at home and get marked on it by us. We also have to grade them on how they have 'made Jesus real' at home.

I might come back and comment next year though when i have 2 children with homework to complete ;)

My DD's school is anti-homework. Its a small independant school, and there is an emphasis on life skills during the primary years. If a child is worried with something (like my DD is with reading) than the teacher will discuss with that parent what they want to do. We take readers home and read 3-5 books a weekend. We play some games with words that the teacher has given me, games like matching games etc etc.... The teacher will give me the things to work on at home on Thursday and my DD goes back to school on Tuesday (she's doing part time kindy at the moment for those in NSW, or a transition year).

I am actually dreading the impact it will have on family life when the kids start school. DH is under the delusion that we will be off camping, or back with our medieval hobby, having the kids help out with the garden etc I just don't see that happening with the amount of homework that kids are getting these days.

I would love them to have to time to do things that interest them, if they take an interest in our hobby, then they will be wanting to spend a fair amount of time on research, craft, sewing etc. It is all learning, but what they want not what the school wants.

Sooky bub, will come back to this

I think to an extent homework is good. Using lessons you have learnt to help review the knowledge can make sure a child has truly grasped the concept and helps them to remember it.

That being said I also think that it has got a bit out of hand. I was in high school 4 years ago and the amount we had to do was ridiculous. It was like each teacher didn't realise we had 5 other subjects to work on as well so we were swamped! It was between 3-4hrs every night and by the end of year 12 you could see so many people getting burnt out, there was no down time. I agree with what daniellabella has said, no wonder there is an obesity problem when children have no chance to get outside and run around for a bit.

I think more self-directed homework, like what was suggested in one of the above articles, is a great idea. Encourage children to read a book they like or find the answer to why something they use works seems a good way to instill a thirst and love for knowledge! I think we need to take the pressure off.

i find one maths sheet say 20 questions and some english literacy work is good. but the amount Ds has is crazy.
wsome fo his projects are so full on, like the one he forgot about and isnt doing now. but i think if they ahve a big project then no other homework.
he is made to spend a good hour a day after school on work, all he wants to do is play and chill out.

i can remember school was only 7 years ago and it was horrible 5 assignments all due within a week of each other plus nightly homework and work sheet for 6 subjects plus the extra work i had to put in for my dance subjects and artsubjects which couldnt be completed during class time.

i am anti- homework as it disrupts my family life, my sanity and ruins my night.

DS has an incredible amount of homework, which i used to like (for him to do) now it is a battle. We are at each other's throats. I hate homework too.

I do believe though, if a student needs extra work in an area of study, then fine give them a sheet or two per week to complete, so they can better grasp the concepts, but other than that definitely no homework.

He asks why is there homework? I tell him to ask his teacher.

Don't get Kawazuki and i started ;)

lol no.
i think we need to meete for coffe and get homework sorted lol
you bring the fuel ill bring the matches lol

I also hate homework with the exception of readers and projects here and there.

I'm of the opinion that homework is more to keep parents happy than the kids education. My mum is a teacher and doesn't send any home with the exception of unfinished work. She has so many parents come to her complaining about the lack of homework! After years of trying to explain her reason for not sending any home she now just gives out a homework book to the parents who a desperate for their kids to have some.

hi

I am so sick of homework, my kids twins are in year 1, they have about 1 hour of homework every night. I don't have the time to do it with them, then I get into trouble.
They also have a project at the moment, to either write a book, do an environment or enclosure for an animal. Obviously this is homework for the parents, I have spent about 10 bl**dy hours doing the projects over the last few days, now I have to make them confident enough to present them next week.
I feel like I'm back at school again, although it wasn't that hard when I went.

Yep, I agree. I think a little bit of revision, say 15 mins to half an hour a night can be beneficial later in primary, but I'm floored to read that a 6 or 7 year old has an hour of homework a night, that is crazy :wtf: AS someone else said, they are alredy at school 6 hours a day, the afternoon and evening should be spent playing, reading and spending time with family.

I'm trying not to bag teachers but my thoughts are that any teacher that gives that amount of homework to a child so young is maybe not teaching them what they need to in school hours.

Yeah, not a fan of homework. Unfinished work, readers and I guess learning something like spelling by the end of the week or something like that would be ok, as well as the odd research assignment. But I'm certainly not looking forward to hours of homework being brought home!

My brother was pulled up on the quality of his DS's homework (this in in like 1st grade or something!) because my bro had actually encouraged his DS to do most of it himself.. so of course it looked like something a 1st grader would produce. But of course all the other parents had helped their kids and they were handing in all these beautifully presented assignments... obviously done by the parents! and so theirs wasn't up to scratch! Think he had a firm word with the teacher about it. Don't know what the outcome was tho..

There is probably a lot of underlying fear of children falling behind or being disadvantaged if not achieving high grades on these assignments. I dunno.. But I agree it seems the parents have a lot to do with homework expectations!

I was hopeless at doing my homework and hardly studied at highschool, and I managed to get through quite well! I often wonder how well I could actually have done had I applied myself a bit more LOL.

A bit off topic, but I don't like the idea of exams either.. perhaps that could be another thread.. except I don't have oodles of articles to quote on that.. just my opinion LOL.

I haven't read all the articles (will do so later) but here is what I think:
A little homework is ok. BUT, find that in this country, kids seem to have relatively long school days. Adding homework to that is not fair. Where is the time to be a kid? Yes, learning is important. But kids also learn in other ways, not just by going to school and doing homework. There also needs to be time for play and family.

When I was growing up (in Germany) school was generally only til 1:15pm. On some days, we had 2-4 lessons (a lesson was 45 minutes) in the afternoon. On those days, teachers weren't allowed to give us homework. I though that was a good compromise. School in the afternoons was only for the older kids, too. I can't quite remember how many afternoons at what age, but I think there was no afternoons before year 5, then 1 afternoon for year 5 and 6, 2 afternoons after that. And from year 9 onwards there might have been a third. But if it was 3 afternoons, it wouldn't have been 4 lessons each afternoon. Might have been one long afternoon and 2 short ones.
Not sure why I'm telling you all that as it is so not relevant. But I thought it was an alright compromise.
In general I find a lot of kids have too much on these days. Long school days, lots of homework, lots of extra-curricular activities and no time for just playing with friends.

Sasa