The Problem with Homework
The school year is drawing to a close, but here is some food for thought over the summer.
by Ken Magrath, Ph.D.
I remember doing it in junior high school (I know, I’m dating myself here) and high school. I don’t remember ever actually liking it, though.
I’m referring to homework of course. Today we take it for granted, but maybe we shouldn’t.
Students have access to well-trained, well-informed teachers throughout the day. At the end of the day, they’re given packets, assignments, and projects to complete at home, where they have no access to that well-trained, well-informed person who gave them the assignment. So who do they turn to for help and guidance? Parents. But when it comes to homework, parents are by definition lame helpers! They weren’t there for the instruction and they didn’t hear the assignments.
In some areas, most parents should be banned from helping! Take math for example. The models and approaches they learned as kids are very different from the models used in their child’s class. Jimmy can accurately learn old-school long division from Dad, but that approach will be different from the one that Jimmy is taught in the classroom.
Is homework helpful?
And that’s only one of the issues I have with homework. Here’s another:
If Meghan brings homework from school, what are the rules and expectations for parent involvement? What level of help is appropriate, and when does it turn into Mom’s work?
Why would any teacher ever grade homework? Are homework errors the child’s fault? Or might they represent a disconnect in understanding? Why would we punish homework errors with lost points or low grades rather than use those errors as opportunities for re-teaching?
Good athletic coaches know that practice doesn’t make perfect; practice makes permanent! How often is homework individually geared to a student’s actual, real-time understanding or skill development? Or so scientifically developed and matched to an individual student’s strengths and weaknesses that the work has a chance of enhancing learning? Not often, I think.
If homework is so important and helpful, why is it that Finland (consistently the global leader in academic skill development) limits homework to 30 minutes a night?
If an elementary school expects 40 minutes per day of homework time, why wouldn’t we grade what the student did in the 40 minutes rather than taking points off for not getting to all the items?
These are just some of the problems I see with homework. Do you agree or disagree? What issues do you have with this age-old institution? What, if anything, do you think should be done about it? And who do you think can and should take the lead?
Talk amongst yourselves—and with us.