Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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Wednesday, November 22, 2006
The politics of homework
In his online Class Struggle column this week, Washington Post education reporter Jay Mathews takes on two recent books that bemoan what they describe as the escalating homework load piled onto American kids in recent years.
But Mathews counters with a strong opposing view, using the same statistics cited by the authors to show that while homework is up, to demonstrate time kids spend on it is still small compared to the time they spend on other activities, most notably playing video games or watching T.V.
I’m inclined to side with Mathews on this issue.
I think the homework crush possibly is a problem in some high end school districts, but for many schools, expectations for class preparedness (which can only be achieved through at least some review and independent work at home) are perhaps not high enough.
But I’ll make two points that lean toward the anti-homework side:
—Good homework is never bad, but bad homework is a waste of time. I like homework that truly adds to learning — extra reading on the subject, hands on challenges to put concepts learned into action, etc. But sometimes teachers assign wasteful busy work. I’m thinking in particular of photocopied worksheets from dubious lessons in subpar textbooks or other low quality sources. I see these sometimes covering schools and kids usually hate them. But good homework? I’m all for it.
—Kids should be taught effective study skills. In fairness, many kids do know what they need to do to be successful and just choose not to do it. That is an infuriating problem for teachers and I don’t have a solution. But sometimes kids who are decent students really don’t know the sorts of work they should be doing on their own that could make them into excellent students. But rarely are students actually taught study skills. And it’s often the self-guided exploration of a subject that can turn a kid on to a topic.
—At times, some coordination among teachers could be helpful I’m thinking of high schoolers now, who sometimes report that their English teacher took an extra two weeks talking about Hemmingway and now is rushing to cover Fitzgerald, leaving just two weeks for them to turn in a long paper on Fitzgerald instead of the planned three weeks. Meanwhile, math and science teachers have the big semester exams planned for the same week the paper is due. Sometimes teachers forget that there is a world out there the kids live in besides their class. Inevitably, homework can really pile up for kids at certain times of the year. If teachers communicated better with each other, perhaps they could coordinate in a way that could avoid such a crush.
What’s your take on homework? Is there too much or too little of it?
(Image credit: Salon.com)
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