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Homework: Damned if you do, Damned if you dont
- 27-6-09
Homework: Damned if you do, Damned if you don’t
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By Alan Haskvitz - June 27, 2009
Columnist EducationNews.org
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Homework Help Sites
http://www.reacheverychild.com/homework.html
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Outside of dealing with parents whose children can do no wrong there is probably no more contentious issue between a parent and school than homework assignments. The issue is clouded with research that indicates that proves that homework hurts students, doesn’t make any difference, helps students, or all of the above. In other words there clearly is no final word on the benefits or harm done by asking a student to work outside of school.
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The reason that homework has been an issue may not have anything to do with education, but with power. Who controls a student’s time? Is it the child, the parent, or the school? This power struggle is further hampered by No Child Left Behind in its test driven mandates. Thus some schools find there isn’t enough time in the day to cover the required materials and pile on homework in the hopes that some will stick and add another point to the final tally. As Daniel Willingham points out in Why Don't Students Like School, proficiency requires practice.
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There have been a wide variety of studies about homework, ERIC alone has 3660 listed. But many ignore a basic value of homework and that is as a meeting point between school and home. Active parents can provide help, and keep track of their child’s progress. They can quickly inform a teacher of concerns and seek remediation. Homework is where the teacher, student, and parent come together. However, this does require a respect for the system. A parent who sees education as a means to an end promotes homework completion as part of this inculcation of values and watches with interest the assignments and results. The parent who does not care or sees such out of school work as an infringement on their rights as a parent to deal with their child's time outside of school as the wish is another matter. These parents my feel that playing sports, taking music lessons, or even school time vacations are better uses of their child’s time and who can argue with that belief.
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So what is a teacher to do? First, give as many homework assignments as you wish, but make them important to the topic, not as punishment. The main reasons teachers appear to assign homework are to practice work done in the classroom, add depth and variations, instill time management and responsibility values, and finishing work not completed in class. All of these could be done if a teacher was given enough time in the school day and if the class sizes were not overwhelming. On the other hand, if this were the case there would be no important meeting of the school and home. This latter concept cannot be emphasized enough.
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Parents have a complicated task when homework is involved. They have to make sure there is a place for it to take place free from distractions and yet not so private that supervision is not convenient, especially if the Internet is involved. Next, the parent needs to insure consistency. Placing a calendar on the refrigerator and having a student write down the homework assignments when they are given makes it easy to check. As well, an appointment calendar is important for the pupil to carry. Finally, and perhaps the most difficult, the parent must not be afraid to find help if they don’t understand the homework. This usually happens with math. There are an abundance of homework help sites and all major textbooks have help sites as well.
It is no surprise that the research suggests that the more parental support the higher the standardized test scores. Of note, that support is not doing the homework for the child, but letting the youth learn self-reliance. A youth who develops the habit of doing their homework first and playing secondly is learning to make an important decision in terms of time management. The youth who does not see that connection will use a variety of tactics to avoid it. This includes being too tired, sick, or “not understanding†the homework. Using classical propaganda techniques such as “no one likes the teacher†is another tactic designed to draw the parent into the battle. It is very difficult for a parent to master the pluck to insist that the work be completed versus reverting to a mothering position in the face of this barrage of rationalizations.
 It is mindless to have a formula for the amount of homework by grade level. It simply depends on the curriculum being covered and the need for remediation. The rule of thumb should be that the homework assigned reflects the maturity of the student and their attention span. What is missing are the types of homework given. Everything from reading and taking notes to creating castles to Internet research are all lumped into the homework category. That is why homework has drawn flies from all types of researchers and others who want to put an objective stamp on this fluid subject. Even brain research that shows the maturation of a child’s thinking process has been used to take a position in the homework battle. Add to that Willingham's claim as a cognitive scientist that the mind is not designed for thinking and that the best teacher is memory through experiences and you have yet another extension of the homework argument.
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Despite all this work, the problem is that the research tends to link homework to success in school. It overlooks, for example, that homework may also help forge a connection between school and home (O'Rourke-Ferrara, 1998).
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Sadly, despite all the brouhaha about homework I failed to find any research that homework hurts a child’s success. Yes, some families rightly point out that it is hurting their family togetherness and that some youngsters don’t have parents that can help them, but where is the research that it impedes a child’s future? http://www2.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=ee4e7067-eb11-4414-8748-4d42fd6dcd0d
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Furthermore, the completion of homework creates in the child an intrinsic reward and these types of rewards have shown to be far more beneficial than extrinsic ones.
Alfie Kohn writing in his work, Punished by Rewards, lays out arguments against extrinsic rewards as they fail to produce any long term learning commitments. In other words, correctly doing a homework assignment helps build confidence and self-respect.
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Of course, none of this really helps the teacher when confronted with the decision to give homework that is based on the educator’s years of training, education, and instincts. Experienced teachers know full well that assigning homework creates more work for them and yet they clearly see the value in helping a student become better prepared for the next day and for life. And that is the ultimate goal of every educator.
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Helping Your Students With Homework: A Guide for Teachers
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/HelpingStudents/index.html
Increasing Student Engagement and Motivation: From Time-on-Task to Homework
http://www.nwrel.org/request/oct00/textonly.html
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Hints for new teachers about homework
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/HelpingStudents/index.html
Research on Homework
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NEA Summary
http://www.nea.org/tools/16938.htm
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Willingham, Daniel, Why Don't Students Like School, Jossey-Bass, 2009, San Francisco,.
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I conclude that all academically successful children are either "afterschooled" or homeschooled.
Little learning happens in the institutional school. The only thing the institutional school is doing is send home a curriculum for the parents and the child, himself, to follow.
Why have I come to this conclusion?
When I compare the lives of academically successful institutionalized children with our homeschool life I see little difference.
With the institutionalized child about the **same** amount of time is spent in formal at-home study. This is called "homework" with the institutionalized child. I call it "afterschooling".
The parents of institutionalized children have read to their children since infancy. They have books and magazines in the home. They have set study hours. The TV and other electronics is strictly controlled. They take their children to museums and historical sites. These parents have knowingly or unknowingly taught their children phonics. They get outside help with tutoring when needed.Â
In essence, the parents of academically successful children who are institutionalized for their schooling are doing **everything** I am doing as a homeschooling parent!
So...If you can read this. Thank your **PARENTS** for doing such a great job of "afterschooling" or homeschooling. A teacher in an institutional school likely has had little to do with it.
Finally, where exactly is 99% of a child's academically learning happening? It is important to know this answer.
If most learning happens at home, the the children of parents who value education may actually be artificially retarded in their progress by attending an institutional-type schoool. They may be better served by spending more time at home with support from tutors.
The child in a family with little appreciation for learning would be better served in a school that attempts to duplicate in the institution what happens in a home that values education. KIPP schools are an example. George Will calls them "paternalistic" schools.
Continuing the typical government insititutional school is insanity.
Are you able to stay at home and homeschool? Â What choice would you make if you were a working parent and there were no "government institutional" schools?
Wintertime... it truly frightens me to think you have "educated" your own children. I would bet that you believe in all manner of conspiracy theories, and UFOs as well. Child abuse to go to public school? A school bus is like a prison work bus? Are you kidding? I think it's child abuse to deliberately teach hate and fear. If you have convinced yourself to hate and distrust the "government" to this massive extent, then why not relocate to some back woods area in the wilderness of another country? Please.
Yes, I am a teacher and a parent. Additionally, alas, every single student who has entered my public school secondary classroom after being homeschooled in their elementary years, has been sadly behind in basic skills.
I wish you well, but have to say that people like you deeply trouble me.
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The basis of my posts are really a few questions.
1) Where exactly are children learning? (Home or in the institution?)
2) Who is really doing the teaching? Is it nearly entirely the parents and the child himself?
3) How much **effective** teaching does an institutional teacher do? While the teacher's day may be busy, is all that expended energy actually worthwhile?
It is important to truly know the answers to these questions.
If parents and children, in the home, are doing the vast majority of the teaching and learning then institutional schools may actually be retarding the academic, social, and emotional development of children in functional homes.
As for children in homes that do not value education, the typical institutional school may be beyond useless because neither the institutional school or the parents are doing any effective teaching.
Re: Basic skills of homeschoolers entering the institutional system
As a certified professional I am certain that you know that it is impossible to do double blind studies on children.
1) You can not know if these children would have done better if they had been institutionalized for their schooling. They may have done worse.
2) They may be further advanced in an areas, but the institutional teachers did not look.
Our children re-entered the institutional government school for a few months. One government teacher insisted that there was no evidence that my son was advanced in math. The look of utter confusion that I saw when I asked her, "What have you done to look for it?", was just too precious.Clearly she had never looked for it.
I am also certain that in the government school teachers' lounge that the teachers were clicking their tongues about some imagined lack in my homeschoolers.
How am I wrong about the government demanding that children essentially work FULL-TIME hours in an institutional school setting? Am I wrong that after 30 to 35 hours of instiutional regimentation many children face tedious rides home on government buses? Isn't homework another demand by the government on their lives? Instead of addressing these points you accuse me of teaching hate.
Finally....Do school buses look like prison work buses or don't they? Aren't **all** laws ( including government school laws) backed by the threat of police action? Don't police have real bullets in their guns on the hip?
When did truth become "hateful"? I hope that isn't taught in your institutional school.
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Unfortunately, Wintertime, your very strong bias against the public school system makes it difficult to take your argument seriously. Your hatred of "institutionalized schooling" and comparisons of "busses to prison work transportation" is so extreme that it does a disservice to the very cause you so ardently argue for.
The simple truth is there is a very desperate need within our society for both the homeschooling and public school system. For every parent like yourself, I have twenty who don't care where their children are and what they are learning. They dread the days of andy kind of school vacation and count the days till they are over. When the children aren't in school they are locked up in a day care center somewhere or left at home unattended. I'm not sure that is a viable solution either.
If all parents had your dedication, then I, a teacher, would agree with you that public schools have served their purpose. But, you, Wintertime, are a minority, a very tiny minority. You may argue this point with me all you want, but I have years and years of class numbers to prove it. I also have years of horror stories regarding parents, who were so interested in themselves, that I was the only parent figure their child ever saw.
So please, understand that your system worked well for you, and your children, but it is not for everyone. Our many different schools serve our many different children. For every story of failure there are a hundred more stories of success. You may disagree with me on that point also, but that is a fact that only teachers, like myself, who are actually in the trenches would know.
Finally, as a teacher, I hold multiple degrees, including my masters, endorsements in Reading, Science, Language Arts, Mathematics and Social Studies, through high school, gifted education, exceptional education, English as a second language, and leadership. I also hold professional teaching licenses in multiple states.Â
My point, I would like nothing better than to stay at home and teach my children and only my children. But the world does not revolve around MY CHILDREN. There are other children who need my gifts, and I need theirs. My children need to learn about the world and how to survive in it. Just because my children were fortunate to have been born into a home with two loving parents does not allow me the privilege to turn my back on those who are not so lucky.
Remember, our many different schools serve our many different children with their many different needs. One way is no better than the other, it is simply different.
I conclude that all academically successful children are either "afterschooled" or homeschooled.
Little learning happens in the institutional school. The only thing the institutional school is doing is sending home a curriculum for the parents and the child, himself, to follow.
Why have I come to this conclusion?
When I compare the lives of academically successful institutionalized children with our homeschool life I see little difference.
With the institutionalized child about the same amount of time is spent in formal at-home study. This is called "homework" with the institutionalized child. I call it "afterschooling".
The parents of institutionalized children have read to their children since infancy. They have books and magazines in the home. They have set study hours. The TV and other electronics is strictly controlled. They take their children to museums and historical sites. These parents have knowingly or unknowingly taught their children phonics and made certain that their children have mastered the basic math facts and fractions and decimals. They get outside help with tutoring when needed.Â
In essence, the parents of academically successful children who are institutionalized for their schooling are doing **everything** I am doing as a homeschooling parent!
If the academically successful child who is institutionalized for his education is really being "afterschooled", then perhaps he need **less** instituionalization and more time at home. Perhaps attending an institutional-type school is actually retarding his academic and social growth.
If the child from a dysfunctional school attends the typical government institutional-type school perhaps this is an exercise in insanity! If most of the learning will happen in the home, and he has a dysfunctional home what hope is there for this child?
Perhaps children in dysfunctional homes would do better in institutional schools that attempt to duplicate within the institutional day what would occur in a health home. KIPP schools are an example. George Will calls them "paternalistic" schools.
Anyway...If you can read this, thank your parents! They were your real teachers. Your institutional school merely sent home the curriculum .
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I am the Mother of a now adult child with a 29 point spread in his IQ because of a disability of written language expression. He had an IEP that specified oral presentations to bypass his learning disability that was virtually ignored by his language arts teachers. His senior english teacher was stupid enough to send a progress note to the special ed case manager saying"I don't care if John Doe has an IEP--this stupid and I am not doing it." Although my complaint to the State Department of Education was unfounded, as was my complaint to the Office of Civil Rights, the District is now under perpetual supervision by OSEP. And I remain known to the local educational association as the Mother from Hell, a title which I wear with pride. Kristina Meservey, Parent
One more thing:
Institutional school is about 35 to 38 hours a week for a child. Add to this the time needed for traveling to and from school.
A **child** is essentially working a FULL-TIME job!
Is it any wonder that any more hours spent doing homework would cause stress for the child and the parent?
My homeschooled children spent about 2 hours a day in formal, at the table, study. We homeschooled year-round with some time for holidays and my husband's vacation.
Yet...even with only 2 hours a day, my three children were admitted to college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13. All three finished all their general college courses and Calculus III by the age of 15. Two earned B.S. degrees in mathematics by the age of 18.
What on earth are children doing all day in institutional schools for 35 hours a week that they would need to do even more at home?
If so-called researchers were **really** interested in effective teaching methods and effective learning environments, they would **thoroughly** investigate and study homeschoolers.
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I am both a teacher and a parent and I have no objection to homework. I have found it easy as a parent to keep up with what my child is doing in her classroom on an almost daily basis. It also allows the teacher to inform me of what she should have additional practice with. I work WITH my daughter's classroom teachers just as I work WITH my student's parents. Too much homeowrk can be devastating, but no homework is ridiculous. It can get out of hand when children are working for hours on end, but most parents should ask themselves this question: Is your child taking forever to complete work because they cannot complete the task or is way unfocused? or Does your child have too many tasks to complete? If you took the time to speak with the teacher, they would tell you, on average, how long it should take.
I wanted to respond to some of the ridiculous comments made by wintertime but I must say that it was hard to read. The grammatical errors in that single piece is enough to let me know that you probably should not subject your children to your teaching. Unless you also think that grammar is only important to the "institution"! But I will respond to the insane point that you tried to make about where schooling takes place....everywhere! With parents, schools, and peers in social settings. Most problems arise when parents want most of the learning to take place in school or want to control most of the learning which most people are not capable of handling individually....the latter of which, I feel, is wintertime. Keep up the good work with your children.
As for me...I will continue to work with my child's teacher to ensure the bets education possible for my daughter. Whom, by the way, consistently performs very well academically and has always had homework. Instead of imposing my twisted views on her schooling to appease my own mind, I will do what's best for her.
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"Way unfocused"? Really?
I was in a hurry and on my way out to an appointment when I posted the above post. I mistakenly posted the version that had not been proof read or edited. But...I am certain that as a certified professional, you have never done anything like this.
By the way....I consider it child abuse for the government to force children into a institutional setting for 30 to 35 or more hours a week, subject them to tedious rides on government buses, and then demand that they do even more work at home.
The government forces children into FULL-TIME JOB!! They are under police threat (real bullets in those guns on the hip) if they do not comply. The government then expects to extract even more out of their lives at home.
If it would be child abuse for a business to do this to a child, why is OK for the government to do it? Gee! In many cases in a business the child might actually learn something!
By the way....Have you ever noticed how much government school buses look like prison work gang buses?
Oh! One more thing....Do teachers normally end their sentences with prepositions?
When schools depend upon parental involvement aka as homework (teacher delegated home instruction), those schools have ceased to be vehicles for upward mobility in our society. Only children with educated parents who do not have to work evenings will do well in school. This is why I believe homework should not happen until about the 5th grade for most students. Younger children can not reasonably be expected to take responsibility for hoimework independent of parental involvement. Homework often puts parents and teachers in an adversarial position. Sending home schoolwork once a week, in a weekly envelope, is a far better way to keep parents of young students informed about what is being taught to their children.
The new research shows that homework basically is ineffective unless:
1) mastery is completed within the classroom.
2) minimal quantities are assigned and the student takes ownership for completion.
Often times if homework is not assigned, parents feel the teacher is not doing enough, or if it is assigned, the burden is to great.
The solution, in my opinion, really lies in a well documented planner. The student documents what the lesson for each class was, any assigned work, any assigned homework. The parent signs off daily or weekly. This allows ownership by the student but parental involvement. The amount of involvement varies by age.
If the student begins to struggle in an area, interventions can be planned with the parents or an RtI if necessary.
In school mastery combined with differentiated instruction, inquiry based projects/teaching and planner monitoring is taking the place of homework in many classroom environments.