Tags:
Journalism of Courage
After Donna Cushlaniss son kept bursting into tears midway through his second-grade math problems,which one night took over an hour,she told him not to do all of his homework.
How many times do you have to add seven plus two? Cushlanis,46,said. I have no problem with doing homework,but that put us both over the edge. I got to the point that this is enough.
Cushlanis,a secretary for the Galloway school district,complained to her boss,Annette Giaquinto,the superintendent. It turned out that the district,which serves 3,500 kindergarten through eighth-grade students,was already re-evaluating its homework practices. The school board will now vote on a proposal to limit weeknight homework to 10 minutes for each year of school 20 minutes for second graders,and so forth and ban assignments on weekends,holidays and school vacations.
Galloway,a mostly middle-class community northwest of Atlantic City,is part of a wave of districts across the nation trying to remake homework amid concerns that high-stakes testing and competition for college have fueled a nightly grind that is stressing out children and depriving them of play and rest,yet doing little to raise achievement,particularly in elementary grades.
Such efforts have drawn criticism from some teachers and some parents who counter that students must study more,not less,if they are to succeed. Even so,the anti-homework movement has been reignited in recent months by the documentary Race to Nowhere, about burned-out students caught in a pressure-cooker educational system.
So teachers at a school in Fontana,California,are replacing homework with goal work that is specific to individual students needs and that can be completed in class or at home at his or her own pace. Another school north of San Jose is proposing this month to cut homework times by nearly half and prohibit weekend assignments in elementary grades because,as one administrator said,parents want their kids back.
A school in New Jersey introduced a homework-free winter break in December. The Brooklyn School of Inquiry,a gifted and talented program,has made homework optional. I think people confuse homework with rigour, said Donna Taylor,the Brooklyn Schools principal,who views homework for children under 11 as primarily benefiting parents by helping them feel connected to the classroom.
Research has suggested homework in small doses can reinforce basic skills and help young children develop study habits,but that there are diminishing returns,said Harris Cooper,a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University. The 10-minute guideline has generally been effective,Cooper said,adding that there is a minimal relationship between how much homework kids do and how well they test.
Still,efforts to roll back homework have been opposed by those who say there is not enough time in the school day to cover required topics and that homework reinforces classroom learning. WINNIE HU
