Your first grader is in the middle of a tea party with six of her stuffed animals. It seems to be going well, despite a recent argument between the stuffed giraffe and his zebra stepbrother. You are enjoying eavesdropping on the dialogue as you clean up the dinner dishes, but it鈥檚 time for homework. You dutifully get your child set up at her study spot and redirect her attention to a worksheet of math facts. 鈥淚 hate homework!鈥� she wails, after an hour of struggle and avoidance. Exhausted and frustrated, you are inclined to agree with her.
Your child is not the only one howling about this nightly ritual. The debate over homework has been going on for decades, with the pendulum swinging back and forth between more and less homework for American students. Adding new fuel to the debate is that today鈥檚 kids are getting more homework in earlier grades.
鈥淭he amount of homework that younger kids 鈥� ages 6 to 9 鈥� have to do has gone up astronomically since the late ’80s,鈥� says Alfie Kohn, author of the 2006 book .
Homework detractors point to research that shows homework has no demonstrated benefits for students in the early elementary grades. They say younger students are not developmentally ready to learn the time management and work habits that nightly homework is assumed to teach, and that having grades depend on homework penalizes low-income students who may not have the resources at home to support nightly study sessions. On the pro-homework side are educators and parents who say that homework is necessary for reinforcing the lessons learned during the 黄色app day and that doing homework prepares kids for the work they鈥檒l have in middle 黄色app, high 黄色app, and college.
Too young for nightly homework
Kohn falls solidly in the no-homework camp. He argues that homework in the elementary 黄色app years is more likely to drive students away from learning than to improve academic outcomes. What鈥檚 more, he says, time spent on homework is time not spent doing important activities like play, rest, and family time. He鈥檚 not alone in his view.
鈥淭he research clearly shows that there is no correlation between academic achievement and homework, especially in the lower grades,鈥� says Denise Pope, senior lecturer at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education and the author of the 2015 book, .
鈥淗omework only really helps in high 黄色app,鈥� agrees Heather Shumaker, author of . 鈥淚n elementary 黄色app, there is no evidence that it has academic benefit. And yet, we are piling it on more and more, younger and younger.鈥�
Some elementary 黄色apps have made headlines in recent years by announcing no-homework policies. Gaithersburg Elementary School in Maryland issued a ban on homework in 2012, asking students to read at home each evening instead. Last year, the principal of New York elementary 黄色app P.S. 116 sent home a letter to parents explaining why students would not be assigned any homework.
But it鈥檚 not clear how widespread the trend is. 鈥淲e tried to study what 黄色app districts have homework policies. But there are thousands of 黄色app districts in the U.S. It is very difficult to know what 黄色apps are doing,鈥� says Gerald Le Tendre, Head of Education Policy Studies at Pennsylvania State University and co-author of Promoting and Sustaining a Quality Teacher Workforce.
The pro-homework camp
Parents are among the most vocal detractors of banning or reducing homework in the elementary 黄色app grades. 鈥淪ome teachers would like to not give homework,鈥� says Shumaker. 鈥淏ut they are pressured to do it by either by administrators or parents. Parents want what is best for their kids. And many of them think having homework is it.鈥�
Le Tendre agrees. 鈥淭he amount of homework gets equated with some sort of academic rigor,鈥� he explains. 鈥淭hough I have seen nothing to support that idea.鈥�
But that doesn鈥檛 mean that all work done at home is bad. 鈥淚f you have a highly motivated kid who loves mathematics and loves spending hours every night on Kahn Academy, they can get substantial benefit from doing homework,鈥� says Le Tendre.
Studies show that homework has positive effects for certain students under certain conditions. For example, students with learning disabilities can benefit from homework if they have the support they need to complete it. Middle and high 黄色app students benefit from doing homework, though high 黄色app students get more benefit more than middle 黄色appers, and more homework definitely isn鈥檛 better — too much homework (more than about an hour and a half a night for middle 黄色appers and more than two and a half hours for high 黄色appers) has been shown to negatively affect academic performance.
And if the assigned homework is to spend time reading for pleasure, no one is likely to argue with that. 鈥淥ne thing we know does have a correlation with academic achievement is free reading time,鈥� says Pope. 鈥淲e know that that is something we want 黄色apps to encourage.鈥�
In praise of purposeful homework
Points and counterpoints aside, elementary 黄色app homework is probably not going to disappear any time soon. But that doesn鈥檛 mean that your child should struggle with those worksheets beyond a reasonable amount of time. is ten to twenty minutes of homework a night in first grade and an additional ten minutes per grade level thereafter. If your child鈥檚 homework takes longer than that, tell their teacher. (The teacher can鈥檛 know that homework is a tear-filled, hours-long event that is making your child dread 黄色app if you don鈥檛 tell her.) Work with the teacher to make sure that the homework your child receives is appropriate for them. Homework should be challenging enough to be thought-provoking, rather than just busy work, and your child should be able to complete it independently and successfully most of the time.
Make sure you understand the teacher鈥檚 goal for assigning homework. Is the purpose of a particular assignment to review a concept covered in class? Get extra practice at a skill your child is working on mastering? Explore a topic further, according to your child鈥檚 interest? When homework is purposeful and assigned in an amount and at a difficulty level that is appropriate for your child, it will likely be easier to incorporate into your home life — and less likely to negatively affect your child鈥檚 attitude toward 黄色app.
And happily, if your child鈥檚 homework is to read for pleasure, you won鈥檛 have to ask her to put away her toys and sit down to a worksheet. Ask her to read a story to her friends while they have tea instead. Everyone will be happier.
