Marks go up after school bans homework

[The Straight Story]

Marks go up after school bans homework

No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks. At least not because kids didn't do their homework -- because there isn't any at one Ontario school.

Kids at Prince of Wales Public School in Barrie, Ont. are probably some of the happiest in the country. Not only because their school banned homework last year, but because their marks actually went up as a result.

"As a whole we found marks have started to go up, our Education Quality and Accountability Office data has improved since we started," Jan Olson, the school's principal said in an interview with CTV's Canada AM.

He says there are also fewer behavioural issues as a result of the ban, and academic improvement was observed across the entire spectrum of students: wealthy and poor, special needs and gifted.

The ban was put into place after the school looked at research on whether there was any relationship between homework and student achievement.

"We didn't find a whole lot of achievement correlation between those so we decided, 'why do we need to do it then?'" Olson said.

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20091120/homework_ban_091121/20091121/?hub=TorontoNewHome

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Next you Commies will claim that paddling is bad for kids, too

This is only happening because we have a Muslin in the WHITE House!!!!1!!!

IM SERIES!

--d!

[RBInMaine]

7. A more thoughtful conversation is warranted here.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

8. only morans thing that homework don help.

I done did my homework, and see wat it got me?

[RBInMaine]

19. Gee, now there's a thoughtful reply. Fine. Let's just dumb down the nation. Good plan.

[ddeclue]

2. That's just plain stupid.. you need to do exercises to actually retain any information.

and I'm assuming that non-existent homework that isn't graded doesn't have any chance to drag down anyone's average.

Want to find out whether this (no homework) is a good idea?

Test these kids on the subject matter 1 year and 5 years later to see what they have retained.

My money is on them retaining very little of the taught subjects.

[tabatha]

12. One retains information ONLY if there is interest.

Someone can do thousands of exercises, but if there is no interest, it will not be retained.
The repetition has to come about via active, interested participation, and in many cases too much homework, kills that.

And, it seems as though that is what the school has instituted.
The kids still have to study for exams.

[RBInMaine]

14. Your complaint is about the AMOUNT. Fine, make is manageable, but, YES, homework IS needed.

[dmr]

99. I disagree. I NEVER had homework when I was in grade school

and had very little in junior, and even in high school. I graduated in 1970 to one of the top school districts in Michigan.

Everyone needs time to decompress from their day.

Children should be allowed to have time to be children: playful, imaginative, silly, with family time without hours of homework.

[ddeclue]

17. NO. People retain information through REPETITION not interest.

Do you think it is mere coincidence that advertisers run ads multiple times and that they repeat phone numbers and website addresses multiple times in each ad?

It's NOT "interest" that causes retention - it is REPETITION that causes retention.

By your silly idea we ought to just stop educating people altogether because they'll never remember it.

And NO kids (and even adults) won't "study for exams" unless they are forced to do so by being graded on daily exercises leading up to the exams.

:crazy:

[Chulanowa]

59. There's a big difference, though.

Homework is a voluntary exercise. A child can (and often does) opt to skip it. Why? Because they have no interest in doing schoolwork at home, particularly if they have no further interest in the subject.

On the other hand, commercial advertising is weaseled in on us, by being squeezed into something we are interested in. How many people do you know will watch a movie on TNT, with all it's commercial breaks, if they can watch the same movie on HBO without commercials? Nobody, that's who.

Repetition does result in retention - but you have to hammer it in over a long, long period for it to stick. On the other hand if a person is interested, you only need to do it once.

[tabatha]

83. You are incorrect.

Read Alfie Kohn.

[Cid_B]

67. Chrissakes....

Yeah cause we should really worry and make sure that every student everywhere is really interested in what they learn as part of their education.

Guess what? I didn't want to learn latin or biology but you do it because that is what a well rounded education consists of. What's next? Optional tests? No tests? No grades?

Gee whiz billy. I didn't realize you weren't interested in medieval Europe? Well your excused. Why don't you go play instead?

[LWolf]

72. Not necessarily.

I have never had an interest in long division, but I can still do it in my sleep.

Long division is not a skill I highly cherish, nor do I remember the nightly pages of homework with any affection. I can do it accurately, though, every time.

Practice is essential to retaining a skill.

I can argue both sides of the homework question all day and all year, but the fact remains: practice, which is one purpose of homework, is essential.

[proud2BlibKansan]

90. +100

[moc]

16. Actually, it's not stupid. Some educators contend that homework is not beneficial at all.

You might find this episode of the Diane Rehm show interesting, in which she interviews Alfie Kohn, author of "The Homework Myth".

http://wamu.org/programs/dr/06/09/05.php

From his book:

"In The Homework Myth, Alfie Kohn systematically examines the usual defenses of homework – that it promotes higher achievement, “reinforces” learning, teaches study skills and responsibility. None of these assumptions, he shows, actually passes the test of research, logic, or experience."

[ddeclue]

20. Well they would be WRONG then. By the way it is "contend" not "content"..

[moc]

22. thanks for being the spelling police. I'll fix the typo.

You didn't review the information, though. You just dismissed it out of hand. Very open minded of you.

[ddeclue]

27. Because it deserved to be dismissed out of hand - your spelling skills are NOT a great advertisement

for your point of view either.

[moc]

29. Oh spare me your condescension.

I made a typo. Big fucking deal. For what it's worth, I've got a doctoral degree and 15 years of research experience in the area of early childhood development and school readiness (tenured; NIH funded researcher by the way.)

Show me some empirical evidence for your point of view and we'll talk.

[ddeclue]

31. Another Ed.D. big deal.. I'm not really impressed.

Anyone who lives in the real world knows you learn by DOING and you remember through REPEATING.

Sorry if your Ed.D. didn't teach you what everyone else in the world knows through common sense and life experience.

[moc]

34. Who said I had an Ed.D?

I don't. I have a PhD from Hopkins.

Good try moron.

[ddeclue]

35. Sounds like an Ed.D in Education to me.

I don't really give a damn about your Ph.D. in Education because you clearly don't know what you are talking about in spite of it.

[moc]

36. You're making way too many assumptions and you know what they say about assuming.

Go ahead and just keep attacking me. Very effective. You still haven't provided any empirical evidence.

[ddeclue]

40. OK all the advertisers in the world are wrong and you are right..

NOT.

REPETITION and PRACTICE are the keys to learning.

Prove me wrong.

[Taitertots]

51. We don't need to prove you wrong, the children in the OP already did

[RBInMaine]

70. Accoding to just what "marks"? To just what standardized testing?

[Taitertots]

94. I'm sorry they don't meet your imaginary standards that are as

unquantifiable as they are arbitrary

[BlooInBloo]

103. What field is your doctorate in?

[Jazzgirl]

49. Contend is the correct word. Not "content".

Main Entry: con·tend
Pronunciation: \kən-ˈtend\
Function: verb
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French or Latin; Anglo-French contendre, from Latin contendere, from com- + tendere to stretch — more at thin
Date: 15th century

intransitive verb 1 : to strive or vie in contest or rivalry or against difficulties : struggle
2 : to strive in debate : arguetransitive verb 1 : maintain, assert <contended that he was right>
2 : to struggle for : contest

[Dreamer Tatum]

58. You were given a citation that you seem to reject out of hand. What makes you an expert?

Maybe you should have a glance at the research that was cited, and see what you think then.

[madokie]

26. So much to learn

so little time :rofl:

[RBInMaine]

42. Yeah? Well, plenty of time for videos games and text messaging...

[ddeclue]

43. And guess what - kids get better at a video game through PRACTICE and REPETITION.

Any surprises there?

Same goes for sports, music and any other skill in life.

[madokie]

47. I was laughing

because even in the face of a study that shows otherwise you just know better.

I'm funny like that ;-)

[RBInMaine]

3. Plenty of research has proven the benefits of learning outside the classroom, and it goes to other

skills was well concerning responsibility, time management, etc. When they get to college they WILL have homework. When they get into the workforce they WILL have homework. So it is DUMB not to prepare them for that. Homework should be reasonable and manageable, but it SHOULD be there.

[tonysam]

10. The purpose of homework is two-fold:

One, it teaches students responsibility, for they have to do the homework and return it to school; and two, it helps in fostering involvement of parents with their kids' education.

After all parents are SUPPOSED to help their kids with their homework, and because they are supposed to work them on assignments, parents know full well what their children are learning about in school.

[RBInMaine]

13. ABSOLUTELY ! I am a teacher, and PARENTS must be involved. This connects schools to families.

[tonysam]

15. ALL teachers know kids get help at home, or at least should

That is the real reason homework is assigned. The responsibility factor is also important.

[RBInMaine]

21. That as well as the critical additional practice, study, and learning extensions. It is multifold.

[surrealAmerican]

61. This still leaves open the question of when it is best ...

... to start assigning homework. We would probably all agree that preschoolers should not be assigned homework because it would not be developmentally appropriate. In high school homework would be appropriate. What about third grade? There just isn't the research out there yet to show that homework is beneficial in third grade.

[intheflow]

65. "When they get into the workforce the WILL have homework."

Um, NO. I've been in the workforce for about 25 years. I've worked in fields as diverse as entertainment, pyrotechnics, ministry, secretarial, childcare, retail, library workers, and academic reasearcher. Only the ministry job had take-home work. The VAST MAJORITY of jobs do not require any homework whatsoever. Most people put in their hours on site and then go home.

[RBInMaine]

74. Um, and in ANY of those jobs did you ever stay AFTER HOURS to complete work ALONE? Did you ever do

any work remotely from home outside of regular work hours? Did you ever run your own business where you have to put in a TON of hours at the business or at home? Give me a break ! "Homework" also means "outside of school" or "after school" or "in differing places and at differing time" and "occasionally burning some midnight oil." Hundreds of professions require work above and beyond the 40 hour week in all manner of ways and venues. And much of our "homework" as adults also includes our housework, answering mail and email, doing bills, doing income taxes, etc. etc. Not all "homework" in the big picture is professional work. School homework for kids prepares them for life in general. It is rightly about time management and LIFE responsibility as well. If they have 5 hours a day for horseshit tv shows, video games, and texting, there is PLENTY of time for some home-based schoolwork. I see the WASTED time every single day with kids. They have PLENTY of time !

[intheflow]

93. Yes, yes, and yes.

My ministry job was 24/7/365, as were a few other home-based jobs. However, I will say again, the vast majority of jobs require NO outside work commitments. In the white/pink/blue collar world, these are called 9-to-5 jobs. In the rest of the world its called retail, stock, municipal services, janitorial, sales, telemarketing, delivery/courier services, etc. The ONLY jobs I've ever had that required work outside the workplace are managerial jobs, professional jobs and home-based businesses. The majority of the US workforce no not hold any of those positions.

You're a teacher, right? Do you think the cafeteria workers, low-level office staff, janitorial staff, and the physical plant crew take work home with them when they leave for the day? You are viewing the entire workforce through your professional lens. That's just not the same reality as for the most workers.

Edited to add: I dropped out of high school, in part, because of homework issues. I now have a Masters degree and am working toward a second. Not doing homework in high school did not ruin me for housework and bill-paying as an adult. That's really a stretch comparing schoolwork to housework.

[rucky]

4. I wish they carried their study further out to later in life...

where people are expected to do things without someone in the room standing over them.

[Odin2005]

6. Student burnout from too much homework isn't good for retention either.

And makes kids hate learning as well.

[RBInMaine]

11. It should be reasonable, but not challenging kids makes them LAZY and IRRESPONSIBLE. Period.

[ddeclue]

25. Amen to that!

[rucky]

23. Sure, that makes the case against too much homework...

not ALL homework. There's gotta be some point where homework no longer serves it's intended purpose - and where the cons outweigh the pros.

My suggestion: 5 main academic subjects, 5 days a week of school, right? Why don't schools limit their assignments in each subject to a single day of the week? Math Monday, Science Friday, etc?

:shrug:

[Odin2005]

32. Good idea.

[RBInMaine]

38. That would be WAY too complicated especially in large schools. The better plan would be:

1) have grade level teacher teams work to manage their classes so that in total kids get about 10 minutes of homework for each grade level. So if you are in 6th grade, you average about an hour of homework a night.

2) have teacher teams work to usually provide at least some class time to get a start on homework.

3) in 7th grade and up, allow at least 3 study halls a week.

4) keep the school library open every day so kids can use it after school.

5) go over time management and organizational skills with kids and parents.

6) if kids don't get homework done, they MUST come in after school to make it up at the first possible opportunity (I use a written notice and sign up sheet for this purpose. They get administrative detention if they don't come in to get it done. If they get it done prior to their afterschool appointment, they are off the hook but they do get a late penalty.

7) CALL parents if homework not being completed becomes cronic, and document it.

SET HIGH EXPECTATIONS AND MOST WILL STEP UP. WE DON'T NEED TO ELIMINATE HOMEWORK. WE NEED TO RAISE EXPECTATIONS FOR KIDS AND PARENTS.

[rucky]

45. All good suggestions, but how is that less complicated?

[RBInMaine]

69. It is less complicated because overall it's more doable for the individual teacher and team.

With all of the disruptions from fire drills to holidays to teacher workshop days to snow days to lots of kids out due to the flu... you absolutely can not lock teachers into one-size-fits-all across-the-board schemes such as "this will ONLY occur on this day" each week and every week. Set out some guidelines and other practices that are fairly easily integrated but also allow the indivdual teacher the flexibility to plan time, lessons, and individual practices as needed. If the math homework day always has to be Monday, what happens if on a given Monday there is no school due to a long holiday weekend, and there have been other recent disruptions, and the math teacher needs to assign homework to get kids up to speed and complete a given unit in order to move on?
The other things I've mentioned are much more doable in the larger picture. Also, some work needs DAILY practice outide of school (i.e. math facts, reading, key vocab., etc.) and not weekly practice. Remember, the 10 minutes per grade level in total per day objective is also just an approximation. If a kid ends at the end of the day with 1.25 hours of homework instead of just one hour, so be it. Sometimes there may be less, sometimes more. That's the way it goes. Teacher teams meet weekly, and with a little time and experience they can learn to get it about right. But you can't lock them into hard and fast absolutes on homework with regard to time.

[ddeclue]

24. Oh boo hoo welcome to the real world.. school was never anywhere near as difficult as REAL LIFE WORK

If you can't handle school work you really won't be able to handle a job.

[dysfunctional press]

87. that depends on what the real life work is.

and what the school was like.

there are plenty of jobs where the people don't work nearly as hard as a kid at new trier high school in winnetka who has their eyes on the ivy league.

[Zynx]

101. I don't entirely agree with that. School is actually lousy preparation for work.

It was nearly a shock to my system when I changed over from the college routine to more of a work routine. It just is not the same sort of thing.

[Odin2005]

5. Good! Kids get way tomuch homework nowdays.

[RBInMaine]

9. No, BAD! Sure, it should be a reasonable amount, but learning outside class IS NEEDED.

[GreenPartyVoter]

18. Agreed

[uncle ray]

63. does a kid have to be doing schoolwork to be learning?

[RBInMaine]

76. Scarfing down poptarts, swilling soda, and getting fat to video games

certainly isn't learning, and WAY too many who bitch about homework are doing just that. Let the LAZY brats get off their LAZY butts and do some WORK !

[Odin2005]

96. Wow, your dismissive attitudes towards kids as "lazy brats" doesn't bode well for you being a...

...good teacher.

[anonymous171]

73. I agree. Most teachers don't use it right anyways.

[RBInMaine]

75. Are you a teacher? How dare you make an assertion such as this. Based on what?

[anonymous171]

80. I am basing my assertion on my own personal experience as a student

[RBInMaine]

86. ONE perspective through ONE personal lens and ONE attitude. Case closed.

[Posteritatis]

81. A lot of parents in my neck of the woods complain about too little homework

This is before getting into the idiotic idea that students' grades scale in direct proportion to how much homework they have, of course.

A bunch of them want their kids toiling on it from the minute they get home until they go to sleep - well, unless the parents have further crammed their schedule with a few other things.

The conservative government here spent the last decade spinning up this incredible, pants-wetting fear of Youth These Days, and a lot of people swallowed it entirely (despite the objective truth putting most local crime in the laps of people older than I am). As a result, a lot of people are convinced that if a kid has even a few minutes in which they aren't doing homework, they must be out committing crimes or being abducted or something.

It's sickening at best. Some homework is necessary, but a lot of the stuff I've seen is not meant - is explicitly not meant - for educational purposes. I had a few teachers who obviously meant it to simply be a set of shackles, a way of preventing them from doing anything else, and there've been calls for using it for those purposes again lately.

[branders seine]

28. my class's marks went up when I stopped grading their work.

[Nikki Stone1]

39. This I believe. Grades have a tendency to disincentivize actual learning

..

[ddeclue]

41. No they do the opposite - they ARE the incentive.

If there is no distinction based on actual performance then there is no INCENTIVE to perform.

[Zynx]

102. The effect can be to demoralize students.

Math classes where my homework was actually graded tended to depress my overall test scores. Same goes for economics in college.

[tblue37]

57. I suspect he meant that comment ironically. nt

[Dinger]

55. Funny How That Works, Isn't It? (nt)

[stray cat]

30. In 15 years we will see if the students remain competitive for jobs

compared to those educated overseas where education is taken seriously

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[notesdev]

37. This result needs to be verified against an objective test

For all we know, the teachers could just be being pressured into giving higher grades in order to make the policy decision look good.

[LeftishBrit]

44. Some British researchers made David Blunkett and Chris Woodhead Very Very Cross by publishing

results that suggested that giving primary school children lots of homework is not necessarily a cure for all evils!

www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=206989

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/173364.stm

[mainer]

46. What about the "10,000 hours" needed to master a skill?

I believe in Malcolm Gladwell's theory that to master any skill, one needs to put in 10,000 hours. Isn't homework (practicing a band instrument, practicing math problems, memorizing times tables) part of putting in that necessary time?

[ddeclue]

48. Exactly!

I've found there is nothing I cannot learn through enough practice and repetition. Gladwell is right.

[RBInMaine]

78. ABSOLUTELY !

[KG]

50. sound about right to me. i never saw the point of homework as a kid, and still got good grades.

[XemaSab]

52. There are some subjects that need homework, and many subjects that need reading

Math and foreign languages need lots of practice problems.

History and English need lots of reading.

Probably not in the earlier grades, but most certainly in the later grades.

I don't understand how this is controversial. :shrug:

[kid a]

53. My class reads and analyzes 4 books a semester - about 1200 pages.

I teach a World Biography English class to high school seniors.
We read biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs.

There is absolutely no way to complete that reading, analyze it, discuss it, write about it, group review essays, re-write, present, and write their own memoir if I don't require about 30-45 minutes of reading/writing homework at least 4 times a week.

If math and science teachers do the same, that's about 2 hours of academic focus out of about 7 hours of awake time for 17 to 18 year-old, young adults. I've debated this idea for several years. Many of my students work - many don't.

Those who have to work to help support their family usually come to me for help and I burn the books to CDs.
That helps a lot.

The Special Ed students with IEPs get extra help in our "academic assistance center" with abridged notes and help with study/reading guides.

I would have to reduce my curriculum by 1/3 to eliminate homework and basically let students read the entire class period to get through one book.

[Taitertots]

54. Children HATE homework

How are we going to foster love of learning and respect for knowledge?

If we want children to learn time management we let them manage their time, not dominate their time with busy work.
Responsibility is about doing what you need to do without being directly forced and punished if you don't do it. Forcing them to do homework teaches them servitude not responsibility.


I believe homework should be very limited. There should be exercises that require parents be involved. They should never be busy work. It should be critical thinking exercises, never fill in the blank type exercises.

[RBInMaine]

71. They usually have to READ and THINK to "fill in the blanks." Also, BOO HOO! If they have time for

PURE CRAP ENDLESS HOURS OF JUNK Video games and STUPID reality tv shows, they can get off their LAZY rear ends and do some homework ! What are they going to do, whine and moan when they go to college and have to study and work outside of class? Are they going to whine and moan when their SALARIED job requires work to be done at home or ALONE in the office after hours? What a bunch of pissing and moaning ! Buck up !

[Taitertots]

92. If you want to pass without doing much homework you need to spend time out of class

Their professors and bosses are not going to give them homework assignments, they are going to expect them to figure out what they need to do and do it. They need to learn how to learn, not learn how to memorize from a fill in the blank assignment.

All you teach them with busy work is to do things for no other reason than someone asked you to do it.

Just to clarify. I support some homework.

[Extend a Hand]

97. . . .

It's been a long time since someone's been a teenager

[ensho]

56. hooray! I've always been against homework

its not fair to the kids. if they can't learn things by being in school all day long then something is wrong with the teaching methods.

[Dinger]

60. A General Rule Is 10 Minutes Per Grade Level

Kindergarten= None, zero
1st= 10 minutes
2nd= 20 minutes
3rd=30 minutes, etc.


And homework does not always have to be completing assigned work. It can take many forms. For example, reading with your child, flashcards to review math facts, review spelling words, class projects, etc. Of course there are exceptions, and I tell parents that if their child is doing more than this, there is a reason for it (a possible learning disability, appropriate use of class time, etc.). We get together for a conference, plan together, and try a new strategy. Eliminating all homework seems drastic to me. There needs to be some connection to the home. I believe that a strong home-family-school connection is vital to a child's education. Are there other ways to do this? Yes, there is. I guess what I'm trying to say is that in my opinion, eliminating homework is a drastic step, and it also depends on what type of homework is assigned.

[Posteritatis]

77. I had a "one hour per grade level" teacher in fifth and sixth grade

Coupled with detentions for not completing the five, or six, or more hours of homework a night.

That was ... imperfectly fun.

[RBInMaine]

88. If that was actually true, that was obviously too much. Can't imagine that would have lasted. BUT

about 10 minutes per grade level IS very fair and is about the right goal. Homework in general is a very good thing !

[Posteritatis]

95. Oh, I agree

I never had a problem with an hour or two by the time I hit high school. On top of that, I actually liked a lot of the homework by that point, since the teachers weren't giving it purely for the sake of preventing free time. I got a few near carte blanche projects in my history classes that I sank all kinds of time into, but I actually liked doing so because it wasn't for-its-own-sake busy work.

That kind of thing I don't mind, but when I was spending from three until nine or ten most nights in fifth and sixth grade doing stacks of math problems and spending every other day in detention for not finishing everything? Yeah, I can understand where the complaints against huge piles of it without valid reason come from.

[RBInMaine]

79. Good post. But practicing spelling and math facts is JUST FINE for homework, as much as projects and

other activities. It depends on what is happening in the course at the time. I don't think the homework content needs to be overanalyzed as long as it is part of the curriculum and varied.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

62. My youngest son had lower grades because of his stubborn hatred of doing homework. His test scores

were always great (because he did learn in class) but due to policy, his missing homework was added in.

Homework was my personal hell for all of the years my son went to school and I hope for future parents of kids, they won't have to go through what I went through.

[RBInMaine]

85. Teach him organization, give him structure, expectations, and incentives. It works. Also, find ways

to make it fun with the incentives. If it is studying math facts, make it into a game like math facts bingo. There are all kinds of ways to make it more doable. But it is very, very good for kids to do homework. It builds work ethic, responsibility, and time management. Responsibility is part of LIFE. And if anyone wants to become good at something, it requires WORK and PRACTICE. Homework may not always be entirely "fun" but what in LIFE is entirely fun 24/7 ? People need to learn to buck up and step up.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

105. Sorry but I did EVERYTHING Possible and Nothing Worked. As I said he was

stubborn. He knew the work and didn't understand why he had to do the homework and thought it a waste of time. Even when he had it done, he'd lose it in his book bag and as he got older would leave it in his locker. I'd hear from his teachers that he was missing homework and reports. I knew that he did them as I helped proof them for him, etc. He just wouldn't hand them in, period.

This is a kid who learned all by himself how to read at 4 and is a natural in math/logic. He scored in the 80s all the way to 100s on class tests and has an IQ in the low 130s. He absorbed his classroom lessons like a sponge. He also excelled on the idiotic NCLB tests and though he didn't study, scored very well on the SATs.

He's in college now and from what I can see, is actually doing it but the gray hairs that came along with my frustration are still there.

[mopinko]

64. simple statistics- marks

my kids consistently got lower grades in school, in spite of clear understanding of the material, and high test grades, because homework was a part of the grading rubric, and they got little or no credit for that. ergo- remove that part of the requirements, and the grades go right up. duh.

i support the concept. homework mostly serves to sort out the kids with orderly home lives and from those with chaotic home lives. some of that chaos is of the most enriching sort. but it still leads to trouble tracking and completing homework, including the dreaded- did it but lost it.
but it is disturbing to see this basic analysis missing from the equation.

[Davis_X_Machina]

66. I was trained as a classical philologist...

...and had a good paeleography course. One of the things we were trained to do was to work out a stemma for a work of Greek or Latin literature. In the days before printing, when books were hand-written, you made an error, and often it was propagated, like a mutation in biology, in later-generation copies. Different sets of differences, different branches of the tree. It's a little like cladistics in biology.

Anyhow, to make a long story short, I started analyzing homework that way for a bunch of HS assignments.

Conclusion,on average for ~70 papers turned in, between six and ten different originals.

Might as well make the Xerox™ machine valedictorian -- it copies better and faster than any student.

[anonymous171]

68. Homework is good. However, most teachers don't know how to properly use it to aid learning.

[Karmadillo]

82. OMG + time 4 txtng & Facebook!!! 2G2BT!!!!!

nt

[Posteritatis]

84. Also, I love how broken their use of example kids in that article is

The school's in Barrie, Ontario, so of course they need to mention kids in California (two seperate towns, no less!) and Nova Scotia while ignoring the ones directly affected by the policy. WTF?

[proud2BlibKansan]

89. Outstanding idea!

This teacher is completely behind any movement to ban homework.

[SoCalDem]

91. Homework is still perceived by many, the way movies & TV shows depict it

The scene is always the same:

Mod doing dishes and dad & the kids gather at the dinner table.. He's hleping them with homework and getting Mom's occasional input...or Mom is sitting with the kids after school, helping them.

Times have changed...

Most kids probably arrive home to an empty house, and kill time until Mom gets home..or they arrive at a sitter's house or afterschool daycare until Mom or Dad picks them up.

Then there's a madcap daily frenzy to get dinner ready for everyone, many of whom arrive home at different times.. If Mom starts dinner after she picks up kids from various daycares & afterschool activities, and only gets HOME at 6-ish, dinner will probably be at 7 or even later...or may be a catch-as-catch-can variety of drive-thru pickups or delivery fast food...but even then, dinnertime can reach into evening hours..and then it's time for baths.

2 hours of homework is likely to be a daily chore left to the kids themselves, to figure out.

and there are many families where one parent is headed to a night job, soon after arriving home from their day job.

Mom no longer has the luxury of advance-prepping dinner at 3, and helping with homework until Dad gets home at 5:30..dinner at 5:45, and then a little family time before bedtime.

In many families these days, people can go days without even seeing all the family members in the same place at the same time.

If the kids are self-starters, they will manage to get their homework done in the time between school's end and when the parents pick them up or get home, but many kids are not .

When my boys were in school, they figured out that often the homework was not even graded..just checked off as "done". teachers these days often have no "extra" time to grade in-school work, let alone extra homework.

I don't know what the solution is, but I can see that piles of homework may not be the optimum plan anymore.

[ZombieHorde]

98. A lot of homework is busy work, and busy work lowers moral.

Homework which involves critical thinking skills, such as writing a short argument paper, or reading a short story for class discussion, seems to be productive homework to me.

[JerseygirlCT]

100. Agree

The piles of busy-work papers that my kids brought home did nothing but bore them. And for a couple of teachers, it basically took the place of actually teaching in the classroom - the kids were handed the same sort of worksheets in class.

But interesting projects, reading... all to the good. Sometimes a bit of creativity goes a long way when you're trying to teach someone something. Because at bottom, we're trying to teach them to think and learn, not fill out paperwork, right?

[Zynx]

104. Quite right.

In math they would be wise to assign fewer, but more comprehensive problems than they do. When a student has to do 30 problems a night, they get demoralized.

As far as the other forms of busy work like making silly little presentations and that sort of thing, that should be dispensed with altogether.

[JI7]

106. maybe because they are studying more ?

it allows kids to focus on areas they need more help in. some kids might do well at something where doing homework wont make a difference. so they focus on areas they don't understand.