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Does homework, especially in the younger grades, promote learning or turn
kids off to school?
By Kathleen Wheaton
For Bonnie Beavers, the question came into her mind when she saw a homework
project assigned to her then fourth-grader, Lucas, which required that he
invent a dialogue between two Shakespeare characters in 17th-century English,
dye a sheet of paper in tea so that it resembled parchment, and then copy
the dialogue onto the sheet in calligraphy. “I thought, ‘Shakespeare—that’s
great. Writing a Shakespearean dialogue—OK, that’s creative,’” Beavers, who
lives in Chevy Chase, recalls. “But calligraphy?
He’s a bright kid, and it was a GT class, but you had to ask—what exactly
was being gained, and at what price?”
Whether it’s the daily grind of math worksheets or the occasional art project,
it’s the rare parent who hasn’t looked at a child’s take-home assignment and
wondered: Is this helpful? Is this necessary? Is it worth all the sweat and
tears? “I always thought the fact that we had tears and fights over homework
was my deal—other parents don’t have this,” says Allie Coleman of Bethesda,
whose kindergartener and third-grader attend Westbrook Elementary in Bethesda.
But when the subject of inappropriate levels of homework came up at a recent
PTA meeting, Coleman says, “There was an explosion in the room. Turns out
it was a lot of people’s deal.”
“I find it astonishing that we force our kids to work so hard,” says Isabelle
Melese-d’Hospital of Chevy Chase, who says her North Chevy
Chase fourth-grader and Westland Middle School sixth- and eighth-graders start
their homework every afternoon at 4:30, and often work, with breaks for dinner
and music practice, until bedtime. Melese-d’Hospital,
who grew up in La Jolla, Ca., says she had little
or no homework as a child, “but somehow, I managed to get a Ph.D. I wonder
if we aren’t trying to get blood out of a turnip.”
A spate of recent anti-homework books on prominent display in local bookstores
may be fueling parental doubts about the wisdom of nightly schoolwork. The
books include The Homework Myth by Alfie
Kohn and The Case Against Homework by Sara
Bennett and Nancy Kalish. Kohn posits that no homework
should be the default assignment for elementary-age children, while Bennett
and Kalish offer practical advice for parents attempting
to have homework reduced or abolished. Both books base their arguments on
research by Duke education professor Harris Cooper, who did the math on more
than 120 separate homework studies and concluded that, while there’s a positive
correlation between moderate (around two hours per night) homework and achievement
in high school, there is a smaller positive correlation between middle school
homework and achievement, and that there’s no connection between homework
and elementary achievement, as measured by grades and test scores.
Among the littlest pupils, Cooper’s statistics show a negative correlation
between the amount of homework assigned and attitudes toward school. Adele
Medina O’Dowd of Somerset is one of many parents who worry that homework is
teaching all the wrong lessons. Of her efforts to induce her third-grader,
Lily, to complete “mind-numbingly boring worksheets,” O’Dowd says, “Bribery
and threats work best, but she still isn’t learning anything, except about
bribery and threats. She gets this dull, automaton look in her eyes, even
with cookie in hand.”
National PTA guidelines, used by many Montgomery County elementary and middle
schools, recommend 10 minutes of homework per grade per night, though some
parents say the reality translates into a much bigger chunk of time. “An adult
might look at an assignment and think, ‘Oh, that’s 30 minutes,’ but for a
kid it’s not,” says Sahar Shahin of Wheaton, whose daughter, Layla,
is a sixth-grader who recently ran for student council at Westland Middle
School on a reduced-homework platform. In an e-mail, Layla,
who hopes to become a doctor, writes that she usually spends two to three
hours a night on homework, though it stretches to four when assignments from
multiple teachers are due on the same day. Says her mother,
“I sometimes go into the other room and turn on the TV, but then I feel guilty
and turn it off again. I get to leave my job at the end of the day
and relax, but Layla doesn’t.”
Work more, learn more?
Are our kids truly overworked? According to a 2003 Brookings Institution
study, the average American 10-year-old spends fewer than four hours a week
on homework (as opposed to 13.5 watching television). While no similar statistics
are available for the Bethesda area, it is clear that most 10-year-olds here
spend more than four hours a week on homework (and many parents interviewed
claim that TV is banned in their households on school days). Silver Spring
psychologist William Stixrud, who works with scores
of Bethesda-area kids and has studied the anti-homework research, says that
the amount of homework given in area schools has “reached the point of absurdity.”
“It seems intuitive that you work more, you learn more,” Stixrud says. “But doing two hours of homework when you’re
tired and stressed means you’re working at about 5 [percent] to 10 percent
efficiency.”
Stixrud says that the downside of an overload of
nightly assignments goes beyond weeping and inefficiency. Rather than building
character, as some traditionalists assert, having more work than they can
handle “actually tears apart character,” he says. Children “begin to lie,
cheat and make excuses.” They can also develop bad habits such as rushing
and doing the bare minimum to get by. “We have a whole generation holding
pencils in a death grip because they were taught to write before their small
muscles were ready,” he says.
The physical toll of staying up too late to finish homework can lead to chronic
fatigue syndrome, mononucleosis and depression, according to Stixrud:
“The effects of stress and sleep deprivation on
the brain are not pretty.”
Of 17 homework vs. no-homework studies done since 1962,
Stixrud says that, overall, homework improves achievement
somewhat. “But there’s never been any evidence that homework is beneficial
in elementary school.”
So if it’s not doing any good, why do teachers assign the stuff? Stixrud
believes that the push for more homework for younger children is driven largely
by fear. “It’s a whole climate of fear,” he says—on the part of parents that
other children will get ahead of their children, and on the part of educators
that test scores will not continue to soar.
“The stakes are high, no question,” says Lawrence Chep, principal of Rachel Carson Elementary School in Gaithersburg.
While Montgomery County policy recommends, but doesn’t require, homework for kindergarteners, Rachel Carson, a top-ranked
school, assigns it. “By and large,” Chep says, “our
parents expect it.”
In answer to the research suggesting that homework doesn’t increase achievement
in the lower grades, Chep says its purpose for young
children is not boosting test scores or GPAs so much as getting into the routine
of sitting down and practicing skills learned at school.
At the Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda, lower school principal
Kathryn Bonner agrees that homework is valuable for young children as “independent
practice on what they’ve been taught that day.” She also says that that homework
is a way for teachers to find out whether a student needs more help in a given
area. “Parents shouldn’t be re-teaching the subject—we should,” she says.
“But it shouldn’t be torturous, and it’s not worth tears.”
Helen Chaset, principal of Burning Tree Elementary
in Bethesda, also begs to differ with some of the homework research. “Studies
have shown that time spent reading is tied to achievement,” she says. She
adds that homework is useful as a tool for the teacher to communicate what’s
going on in the classroom. Burning Tree has many parents who volunteer at
school, she says, and “parents who observe the curriculum during the day tend
to support the homework that comes out of it.”
Managing the workload
Recalling homework-free afternoons growing up in South Carolina, riding her
bike and playing kick-the-can with neighbors, Ellen Kleinknecht admits that she’s torn when she contemplates the
workloads of her Bethesda Elementary first-grader, her Holton-Arms fifth-grader
and Landon sixth-grader. “I’m so conflicted, because you read that kids in
other countries are doing better, but what more can we do that we’re not doing
now?” she says. She says she opted for private school for her two eldest
not for increased academic rigor but for smaller classes and a curriculum
integrated with sports, music and art. “I want my kids to do well,” she says,
“but I also want them to enjoy their childhoods.”
The sometimes warring impulses of wanting children to be both happy and prepared
have led not only to parental soul-searching but to mixed messages sent to
teachers and administrators. Rachel Carson Principal Lawrence Chep says that he gets a lot of feedback from parents about
homework—both that there’s too much and that there’s too little. “Often, it’s
the same teacher who gets both complaints,” he says. He concedes, however,
that parental involvement in the process is vital and that “kids who get the
most support at home do better.”
Several parents interviewed said that they had cut back on or quit work in
order to be on hand for homework help. Rick McUmber
of Somerset, who worked for an information technology company, became a stay-at-home
dad to his three kids (a fourth-grader at Somerset and two sixth-graders at
Westland Middle School) after his wife, Melanie Folstad, went back to work as an investment banker. “It’s
hard to imagine how this could work either with the kids on their own or with
another child-care arrangement,” he says. “After school, I float among them
and keep them on task. When they get sick or fall behind, you have a sense
that you’re home schooling them.”
But where does that leave single parents, parents who can’t afford to stay
home, or who don’t remember how to solve for x? Nancy Gannon Hornberger
of Silver Spring says that her daughter’s participation in the Spanish immersion
program at Rock Creek Forest Elementary opened her eyes to what homework means
for parents who don’t speak much English. “After first grade, our daughter’s
Spanish was better than mine, and it was a challenge trying to figure out
how to help her,” says Hornberger, a juvenile justice
advocate and former teacher. “She loved Spanish, and she loved knowing something
her parents didn’t. It was a toughening experience, and we could have done
without the added stress of homework being graded. But now she’s got this
whole skill set she can be proud of, a feeling that her ability has gone beyond
ours.”
Beginning in 2004, Montgomery County’s homework policy stated that homework
designated as “practice,”—that is, math worksheets, spelling review, preparation
for tests and quizzes—would not be part of the students’ report card grades
for grades one through eight. Then in 2005, the policy was changed starting
with grade six, so that “homework for practice” may count for as much as 10
percent of the grade. According to Westland Middle School math teacher Susan
Gruenspecht, during the year when math practice
homework wasn’t graded, some struggling students simply stopped doing their
homework, and thus fell further behind. “Every math student needs practice,”
Gruenspecht says. “Once children think they can’t
do the work, it snowballs quickly.” At the same time, she says, “Teachers
shouldn’t give homework just for the sake of it—they have to make sure it’s
meaningful.”
And who decides what “meaningful” means? Although Montgomery County stipulates
that homework must be “related to the curriculum,” most teachers in both public
and private schools have considerable discretion when it comes to individual
assignments. Of the nearly impossible task of designing homework to fit both
the needs of each child and the wishes of each parent, Bethesda Elementary
second grade teacher Barbara Gold Laurence says, “It’s a juggling act, no
question.” Gold Laurence, who has taught for more than 20 years, says that
“some parents enjoy the kind of intellectual interaction that comes with solving
math problems and doing drill work. Others welcome creative projects.” But
Gold Laurence believes that the current pressure to ramp up test scores has
put a great deal of pressure on both young students and their families. One
solution she’s devised is making some homework projects both optional and
low on production values, such as an adopt-a-tree journal, where children
observe the life of a single tree over an extended period of time.
Gold Laurence believes homework does promote both independence and responsibility
in her second-graders, but that it’s important for parents to step back and
let children work on their own. “Parents shouldn’t be sitting there while
they work. Let them try and then come back later and field questions.”
Driven parents
Stepping back isn’t what comes naturally to many Bethesda-area parents. “Our
whole community is driven,” says Ursula Hermann, community superintendent for
the Sherwood school cluster and former principal at Westland. “You feel the
difference in energy immediately when you go to another part of the country.
The reality is that Montgomery County parents are going to put their children
in the most advantageous position possible.” Hermann believes that homework
anxiety may be a reflection, rather than a cause, of stress for many families.
Her practical advice to overwhelmed parents and students: Stop after 30 minutes,
or if you’re not getting anywhere. Send a note to school with your child. Talk
to the teacher(s). Balance your expectations and aspirations with reflection
on who your child really is. “You need to think—how much of your ambition is
about you and how much is about your child?”
It’s difficult for some parents to separate the two, according to one Georgetown
Day mother, who says, “For a lot of people, being able to say that your kid
spends three or four hours a night on homework is a badge of honor.”
“Parents pride themselves on how busy they are, and they want their kids
to be busy, busy, busy, too,” says Bonnie Beavers, whose seventh-grader, Juliet
Anderson, attends Holton-Arms. Juliet adds that she’s observed that many of
her classmates are “completely overwhelmed” between homework and extracurricular
activities, but “by now they’re used to it, and they don’t see it changing.
That’s how it’s always been.”
Education may not be a race, but even parents who opt for an alternate route
do so with assurances of a laurel-crowned finish line. “We tend to believe
if you don’t go to an elite school, you’ll have an inferior life,” Stixrud says—clearly, a false belief—and yet the operative
word is “we.” “We” believe it anyhow. Parents who recall idyllic, homework-free
childhoods often choose this particular corner of suburban Washington because
the schools, public and private, are “good”—and with the knowledge that a
heavy homework load goes with the territory.
Allie Coleman says she was apparently the only kindergarten parent at this
year’s back-to-school night who welcomed the teacher’s announcement that she
would soon begin assigning homework. Despite witnessing his elder sister wrestle
with homework, Coleman says, her kindergartener wanted it too: “It was a sign
to him that he was growing up.”
Bethesda writer Kathleen Wheaton has written for
the New York Times, the San Francisco
Examiner, Town & Country, Smithsonian
and other publications.
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