This is part one of a three-part series that addresses parents' struggles with homework, teachers' reasons for supporting it and ways to make the process easier.
With the start of a new school year comes homework. I wasn't a fan when I was a kid, but I don't remember getting much homework until I was in high school, and by then, I actually found it kind of okay. Something has changed since then and young kids today seem to be getting a lot more of it.
As a parent, I think I dread homework as much, if not more, than my seven-year-old daughter. I put on a good face though and aspire to make it fun, or at least tolerable. Despite our tough time with homework last year, I went into the first week of second grade homework with optimism. After all, it's a new year and kids (and parents) theoretically mature.
So, on the first day of assigned homework, my daughter and I sat down at the kitchen table. My newly minted two-year-old ran around the living room stripping his clothes off and jumping on the couch while my daughter and I tried to tend to the task at hand -- second grade math, spelling and reading. Luckily, math is fairly easy for her, so it started out okay and she quickly finished that portion of the homework. I sighed with relief. Then I opened up the binder to her spelling words and looked at the directions, which confused me (and I'm not in second grade). I thought I figured it out and began talking about what we were going to do. My daughter responded by slowly sliding off her chair onto the floor and then sitting cross-legged under the table.
This is pretty much how every single homework experience has gone since she started getting homework in kindergarten. Somehow, the prospect of homework liquefies my daughter's body and she melts into a puddle onto the floor. In order to see if my experience is an anomaly and everyone else is trotting along just fine, I asked other parents about their experiences. They quickly reassured me that the struggle is real. One parent sent me a photo of her seven-year-old son who had handcuffed his hands together in order to avoid homework (with toy handcuffs, by the way. No need to call CPS). Another parent said some days there are tears (sometimes the kids cry too, he said). Here are some of the reasons these parents say homework is particularly trying.
Too Many Demands on the Modern Family
Part of the issue is that families in the U.S. are already jugging long workweeks. While Sweden is experimenting with a six hour workday and French employers are legally obligated to end after-hours emails, the U.S. has incrementally increased to a 47 hour workweek for full-time employees, resulting in nearly an extra full day of work packed into the workweek. In many cases both parents work and may not be able to pick up their children from school until evening. This means that kids in the U.S. have schedules that resemble that of U.S. adults -- days that start with early wake up times and don't end until homework is completed, often around 8 p.m., or later.
My friend Michelle says that fitting in homework results in rushed evenings, which is difficult, she says, since the entire day has also been fast-paced for both the adults and children. The earliest she can pick up her daughter is at 6 p.m. "We start homework as soon as we get home but my daughter is already tired since she wakes up at 6 a.m.
"At the end of the day, all I really want is to cuddle my kids," says Michelle. "Instead, we have to hurry through mathematics and reading and then head to bed to do it all again the next day."
Sarah, parent to a second grader, says that she and her husband are struggling too and not just with homework. There are so many instructions, websites to visit and forms to sign at the beginning of the year, says Sarah, that it is incredibly time consuming. Much of the non-homework paperwork, she says, is repetitious signing of documents the school already has on file.
This is so true. I never did understand why we must fill out the same paperwork each year. My favorite recent quote comes from blogger M. Blazoned where the author claims that schools across the nation are facing an outbreak of amnesia:
For some reason, each year the schools get amnesia and seem to have no record of you and your children. I don't understand how in this day and age of data they can't keep you on file.
But they can't, or they won't. So, every September you belly up to your kitchen table with a stack of forms, a generous pour of Pinot Noir, and what's left of your fraying sanity to start from scratch.
You write your name, address, email, and contact numbers over and over and over again for each school, each teacher. I have three kids so we are talking roughly 20 teachers between them. It is during this September treat that I long to be a user of hallucinogenic drugs.
Too Long and Sometimes Not Just Review
The National PTA and the National Education Association (NAE) recommendations are in line with the 10 Minute Rule suggested by Harris Cooper, chairman of the department of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University and author of The Battle Over Homework. Under the 10 Minute Rule, you multiply a child's grade by 10 and that's the approximate number of homework minutes the child should be given per night.
Cooper writes in the New York Times that while all children can benefit from homework, it is very rare for a child to benefit from hours and hours of homework. He says that crowds out time for other activities and also increases stress on kids. "There is no evidence that those last three hours of a five hour homework binge accomplishes what it set out to do, improve learning," writes Cooper.
Most parents I spoke to say that the amount of homework given to their children does fall in line with the recommendation, though protests and procrastination from students turn it into an hour or more for families. Mary, a mother of two elementary school-age children, says homework ends up being a two hour process because of meltdowns, thrown and broken pencils, ripped paper and "threats to ground my children for eternity". "I also have to sit down with each individually, which eats up the entire evening and there is barely time at the end to read to them at bedtime," says Mary.
Other parents say that the amount of homework given to their children does surpass the 10-minute per grade level recommendation. Mike, a dad of a third grader, says his son has two hours of homework each night. His friend, a teacher in the same district, says this is too much and suggests that Mike have his son complete a portion per assigned section -- such as circling five out of 20 math problem -- and include a note to the teacher that says, "My son understands the concepts in this lesson and our family needed some time together tonight."
The National Education Association (NAE) says homework usually falls into one of three categories: practice, preparation or extension. At the elementary school level, homework helps students develop essential study skills and habits and also keeps families informed about what the child is doing in school. Homework is not a time for students to be taught new skills yet some parents say their elementary school-aged children are expected to learn new material during homework.
Margaret, a parent to two elementary school-age children, says that her district has a homework program that focuses on material that has not been taught in class in order to prepare students for upcoming standardized tests. Students are required to take the tests repetitively until they pass. "There are nights where I end up taking over and my kids egg me on that I better get that blue ribbon (the prize that pops up when the child passes)," says Margaret.
The testing is on what they haven't yet learned in math, language arts, social studies and science. I end up using Google a lot because I am not smarter than a fourth grader, apparently."
All Work and No Play
Overall pressures on the modern family is not the fault of schools -- this is an issue with U.S. work culture, expectations on employees and the impact on employees and their children, who in turn have equally long days. That said there is a school trend of increasing the workload among younger students. The National Education Association (NAE) says that in the last 20 years homework has increased only in the lower grade levels. This increase, says the NAE, is associated with neutral and sometimes negative effects on student achievement.
What we do know is that these long schedules for younger children, as a result of parents' schedules and more homework demands on little ones, limits their ability to have free playtime. This affects emotional development and leads to the rise of attention problems, self-control, anxiety and depression. Peter Gray, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at Boston College, told the Atlantic that that since around 1955 free play -- play that a child undertakes herself and is self directed -- among children has been declining. He says this is in part because parents have increased their control over child activities.
I don't doubt that parents have increased their control over child activities, but I do think that part of why children have more structured days is a result of their parents having longer days and, consequently, that they are in school for longer. Schools, quite reasonably, often structure before and after care -- free play at an elementary school sounds like it would soon turn into Lord of the Flies.
Even though Gray primarily (perhaps rightfully) blames parents for the over-structured nature of children's schedules, he also points to the fact that preschools and kindergarten classes have become increasingly academically oriented and many schools have done away with recess.
Maria, a mother of two elementary school-age children, says her school district is cutting back on recess time and physical education. This makes extracurricular activities important, says Maria, particularly for the many students with obesity or diagnosed with ADHD who need to move more. Similarly, some school districts are cutting back on arts programs, says Maria, which means parents are looking outside of school for music lessons and art classes.
That said, it doesn't mean that as parent we can't go overboard, says Maria, and forget that it is good for kids to relax, play and even get bored. "Boredom forces kids to use their imaginations and tap into their creativity," she says.
There Is a Point to It All
One fact that often gets lost in the fervent struggle is that there is an essential benefit to homework, when done properly. Kristin, a mom whose child is now a sophomore in college says she hated the process of homework but now sees the positive outcome. Her daughter doesn't struggle, says Kristin, because she practiced the academic skills necessary for college, in large part, during homework.
There is too much homework and it's hard on kids and on family life, says Kristin, but it serves a purpose. Even the irrelevant busy work has a benefit. "Sometimes you have to do things regardless of whether or not you think it's important because sometimes it turns out to be more relevant than you thought."
This post originally appeared on The Good Blog.