The Case Against Homework

by turfgrrl

May 29th, 2007 · 11 Comments

Tags: Education · In the News

11 Responses so far ↓ “The Case Against Homework”

• 1 anonymous // May 29, 2007 at 12:59 pm

  Assigning homework without integration with a learning program is the problem. Too often its bsuy work designed to make the class look engaged.

• 2 Charles the Hammer // May 29, 2007 at 5:15 pm

  This book is a polemic by a magazine editor and a criminal defense attorney. They are marketing an effective argument that will sell books. Homework is sometimes busy work and can be excessive. Those two traits would be the identifying characteristics of misuse of a proven tool, like driving screws with a hammer. That doesn’t mean we need a Commissar of Tools denouncing hammers or a ban on the use of screws. Homework should be applied in a way that helps students learn material important to the course. When they return to class they might be prepared to understand what is to follow because they have “prior knowledge”. Further, home assignments should not be a form of torture. They can help students stay focused on their responsibilities without “stressing out” the entire family. A proclamation from the central office of a district will not address the fine points of either teaching or learning, but will certainly provide legal nuance for mounting an attack such as Bennett’s.

• 3 anonymous // May 29, 2007 at 8:24 pm

  The real problem about homework is the lack of motivation to complete homework assignments by many students. In the classroom, there are so many students who do not hand in homework that teachers would have to hand out too many failing grades for all those missing assignments.

  Ideally, in my opinion, the teacher explains the lesson in the class and the students practice what they have learned by doing homework. I don’t believe homework assignments, for the most part, are excessive. I do believe in lack of motivation.

• 4 Mike Lyons // May 30, 2007 at 10:59 am

  Turfie, you ask “Would it shock you to know that there has never been any study conducted that showed that homework assignments affected learning in young children?” Well, yes, because there have been many such studies.

  I think the book you cite makes some good points but ends up going way overboard by essentially demanding an end to all homework.

  The studies showing the academic value of homework are summarized here: www.marzanoandassociates.com/pdf/homework.pdf.

  A good counterweight to the Bennett position is here:
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/21/AR2006112100633.html?referrer=emailarticle#.

  I think well-planned homework in reasonable amounts is positive for kids’ learning.

• 5 Anonymous // May 30, 2007 at 11:07 am

  To Mike Lyons, someone here asked what the procedure is to getting a referndum on the November ballot, do you have any answers to that?

• 6 turfgrrl // May 30, 2007 at 11:19 am

  Mike Lyons: Ok, i admit that I am heavily influenced by seeing kids in my neighborhood dragging little wheeled backpacks filled with books that have replaced the phone book as the largest book ever published. Plus, I have too many friends who work in educational publishing who regale me with the evils of “updated” text books sold to school systems who buy in to the sales pitch. Or maybe its the observation that many parents I know spend more time doing their kids homework, (gotta get those grades up) with those impeccable dioramas …

  But you’re right, we shouldn’t throw out the baby with the bathwater on this. Not all homework is an onerous evil. However, even in the WP article you linked to:
  

  But they appear to be elementary schools, where we already know homework is not important, or private schools and public schools that draw affluent children whose parents are likely to make up for any deficiencies in the academic demands of school.

  Which is what I mean when I said young children.

  And in the other link, studies yes, but of what age group?

  The larger issue, to the extent that there’s only one, is that the homework of yesteryear and today bears little similarity, and yet if we look at the educational product we are getting now, there’s no contest in the quality of education.

  I think we’ve lost something educationally when homework consists of drills and quizzes about what, for example, the American constitution says, rather than being about reading the actually document.

  So, without getting deep into the weeds here, I’m all for reading and writing assignments concerning source materials and utterly against testing drills, quizzes, and the assortment of assignment that passes itself off as education when its nothing more than test taking.

• 7 Mike Lyons // May 30, 2007 at 12:06 pm

  Turfie, I think you and I are pretty much on the same wavelength. I limit the number of extra-curriculars my kids engage in so they have time left to be kids, too! The studies, by the way, showed very little value of homework for elementary students, more for middle school students, and MUCH more for high school students.

• 8 Mike Lyons // May 30, 2007 at 12:16 pm

  #5, the procedure for getting a question on the ballot is set forth in Section 1-669 of the City Charter. The Code is on the City’s web site (lower left of home page - www.norwalkct.org).

  Note that this is NOT an “initiative” referendum; Norwalk’s provision doesn’t provide for citizens to initiate actions, but rather allows them to overturn decisions of City agencies subject to the referendum clause.

  So if you’re referring to the suggestion that a ‘vote of no confidence’ be held regarding Sal Corda, the clause wouldn’t provide for that.

• 9 Time for a referendum on Corda // May 30, 2007 at 12:30 pm

  Could the BOE be considered a city agency that has made a decision that needs overturning?

• 10 Mike Lyons // May 30, 2007 at 1:24 pm

  #9 - Yes, for certain purposes the BoE is considered a city agency. The law here is a bit murky. “There is no question but that local boards of education act as agencies of the state when they are fulfilling the statutory duties imposed upon them pursuant to the constitutional mandate of article eighth, § 1 [free public education] … Local boards of education are also agents of the municipality that they serve, however …” (Citations omitted.) Cheshire v. McKenney, 182 Conn. 253, 258 (1980). “Local boards of education are not agents of the state, however, in performing each and every mandated function … Local boards of education act as agents of the state when fulfilling the statutory duties imposed upon them by the legislature in light of the state constitutional mandate to furnish public education. Local boards of education also are agents of the towns, subject to the law governing municipalities, when acting on behalf of the municipality in its function of mandating control over the public schools within the municipality’s limits.” Nisinzweig v. Kurien, 2001 WL 1075761.

  So some actions of the BoE (e.g., a decision on a school building project, which is a City function) would be subject to referendum. Other actions of the BoE would NOT be subject to referendum, including any actions “fulfilling the statutory duties imposed upon them by the legislature”. Since hiring a superintendent is a duty “imposed on” the BoE by the legislature, I would say that it would most likely NOT be subject to referendum.

• 11 Anonymous // May 30, 2007 at 1:34 pm

  What a dang shame!