A new Brookings Institution report debunks the popular notion that U.S. schoolchildren suffer from a growing homework load, and do not have enough time to play and just be kids. According to data analyzed by the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings, the great majority of students at all grade levels now spend less than one hour studying on a typical day?an amount that has not changed substantially in at least twenty years. The research suggests that rather than having too much homework, children are not doing enough?a cause for concern because homework is correlated with school success. —Homework: An Easy Load? (Brookings Institution)
Unfortunately, I don’t see a link to the actual study — but maybe that’s because as I write this, the press conference that’s supposed to happen today has not yet happened. Maybe the link will appear on the list of Brookings reports.
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Hi, I disagree. While it is true that students only spend about an hour on homework, they are assigned hours more but choose not to do it or copy it the next day. The cause is a feeling of being overwhelmed, and a fear of the homework never getting done. So, it is easier for many students to simply ignore the work and lie or cheat it the next day and have time to do what they want to do right then. The concept is similar to an ostrich shoving its head in the ground; just close your eyes and pretend it isn't ther, rather than face the music. The result is students getting less done because they've been assigned more. When a task appears much smaller, it is much easier to take the initiative to tackle it, and one is less reluctant and hesitant to take care of it.
Kindergartner's assignment this week: collect "environmental print", things like logos off packaging which also includes the actual name of the product. Not tough stuff, but that's this week's assignment. We had two assignments last week: collect pictures from magazines of an item which represents each letter of the alphabet, and collect several pictures of objects with rhyming names. (Several hours work right there, if done right.) Can't wait to see next week's assignment. The older child has a 5-week long project in addition to the rest of her homework: collect, catalog, label and mount 25 different species of insects. My garage is full of bug-filled jars that we'll be helping her with this weekend. Good thing we don't have soccer or football to conflict with this work.
Homework in kindergarten? That does seem very strange.
Hmm. I'll have to dig into the study; my experience as a parent has been quite different. Ten years ago when my stepson was in grade school, I'd believe there was less homework. Today? Hah! My kindergartner has homework each week, amounting to an hour or more of work for someone who can't even read yet, in addition to a required 15-minutes of reading exercises 7 days a week. My fourth-grader averages 1.5 hours each weekday -- 0.5 on math/social studies, 0.5 on science/projects, 0.5 on reading. (Both are in public school, one of them in a gifted program.) I don't recall having this much homework as a kid, certainly not until fourth- or fifth-grade. I suspect homework levels could be highly variable by school, school district, state.
What I do see as a challenge is the number of extracurricular activities in which kids are involved. We say NO a lot; some of my kids' classmates have three or more activities every week, multiple times. One child has music, soccer and horseback riding -- when does she get to be a kid?
Thanks, Dennis. More evidence of the culture of diversion at work...
The story is spreading everywhere, according to Google news. Good. Even if it's not entirely accurate (I suspect it is), then it might be the wake-up call some families need to turn off the TV or Xbox and crack open the books. Of course, this runs counter to what has been suggested to us about those workaholics in the "Millennials" demographic.