A great piece. Most adults, I see now, who grew up doing mountains of homework, me included, never grew their love of learning & curiosity. So, as soon as, exams are over, books are donated, recycled, or thrown in the dumpster.
Homework becomes an evil monster of some sort. It bothers not only kids but takes away precious time of their parents, too, who may want to spend that time in educating their kids the world outside of books.
Furthermore, all this homework & learning is not raising an educated populace who rationally think of the consequences of their actions in all spheres of all their life. Evidence is right in this article that parents are fighting the school that why their kid is not getting homework. That kid is in elementary school. The history & current evidence is showing that homework is not really helping anyone learn anything, except frustrating parents & their children, alike.
Parents, who themselves grew with mountains of homework, want their kids to do mountains of homework, too, without rationally thinking, how is it helping their own kids become educated. Their success in life is not dependent on how they did their homework in Grade 1. It depends on what & how they do in university. And even at university levels, homework is becoming more about reading & understanding the material & actively discussing it with their peers, not filling out pages & pages with exercises & diagrams.
Disclaimer: I'm not discussing education reform, because even universities are not great in igniting the love of learning in people. They are experts in molding people in a certain way.
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A New York City elementary school’s decision to ban homework in favour of play has infuriated some parents.
Many people seem to believe that working on assignments after school is an essential part of a child’s success. But if you actually do your homework on homework, evidence suggests its benefits are negligible at best. Given what we know about kids’ sedentary lifestyles, of course we should ditch homework for play.
“The topic of homework has received a lot of attention lately, & the negative effects of homework have been well established,” the school’s principal, Jane Hsu, wrote in a letter that was sent home with students last month, reports DNAinfo.com.
“They include: children’s frustration & exhaustion, lack of time for other activities & family time &, sadly for many, loss of interest in learning.”
Instead of working on essays or math problems at home, students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade are encouraged to read & spend time with their families, the principal said.
The new policy was prompted by the fact that too many children had to sit out recess because they failed to hand in homework assignments.
A committee the school established a year ago to investigate the problem concluded there is “no link between elementary school homework & success in school.”
Ultimately, therefore, it would be better to have kids running around at recess & after dinner playing hockey, or basketball, or tag, or whatever activity it might be.
But some parents are so upset they are threatening to pull their kids from the school.
“I think they should have homework. Some of it is about discipline. I want [my daughter] to have fun, but I also want her to be working towards a goal,” Daniel Tasman, the father of a second-grader at the school, told DNAinfo. He is now looking for another school.
“I was just thinking maybe I’ll keep my daughter here for another year, but this pushed me over the edge,” he said.
Over the past few years, a movement has emerged that is questioning homework. Parents are sick of having to help kids complete mountains of assignments.
“If one thing happens in 2015, it should be a concerted campaign to eradicate this illogical, damaging, ass-paining institution once and for all,” novelist Caitlin Moran wrote in The Times, a British newspaper, earlier this year.
Some politicians are also asking what’s the point.
In 2012, French president François Hollande proposed banning homework for children in primary & middle school.
Last year, an elementary school in Quebec banned homework because it was putting too much pressure on students & their parents.
Homework is not only a pain, its “educational value” is still unclear, particular at younger grades.
One public school in Barrie even noticed that grades went up after homework was banned.
If the ban in New York gets kids playing outdoors, other schools should follow suit.
According to the latest “report card” issued by Active Healthy Kids Canada, only 7% of children ages 5 to 11 meet Canada’s daily physical-activity guidelines.
Those guidelines set an embarrassingly low bar: at least one-hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity a day.
For a little historical context, harken back to an anti-homework argument in the 1920s. Back then, physicians in the US worried that homework might damage children’s health. Doctors believed ... that children needed 6 to 7 hours a day of fresh air & sunshine, as Etta Kralovec, author of The End of Homework, has pointed out.
If we want our kids to grow up to make sound decisions based on evidence, we should set a good example by banning homework in elementary school.
Homework becomes an evil monster of some sort. It bothers not only kids but takes away precious time of their parents, too, who may want to spend that time in educating their kids the world outside of books.
Furthermore, all this homework & learning is not raising an educated populace who rationally think of the consequences of their actions in all spheres of all their life. Evidence is right in this article that parents are fighting the school that why their kid is not getting homework. That kid is in elementary school. The history & current evidence is showing that homework is not really helping anyone learn anything, except frustrating parents & their children, alike.
Parents, who themselves grew with mountains of homework, want their kids to do mountains of homework, too, without rationally thinking, how is it helping their own kids become educated. Their success in life is not dependent on how they did their homework in Grade 1. It depends on what & how they do in university. And even at university levels, homework is becoming more about reading & understanding the material & actively discussing it with their peers, not filling out pages & pages with exercises & diagrams.
Disclaimer: I'm not discussing education reform, because even universities are not great in igniting the love of learning in people. They are experts in molding people in a certain way.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/parenting/the-growing-argument-against-homework/article23358570/
A New York City elementary school’s decision to ban homework in favour of play has infuriated some parents.
Many people seem to believe that working on assignments after school is an essential part of a child’s success. But if you actually do your homework on homework, evidence suggests its benefits are negligible at best. Given what we know about kids’ sedentary lifestyles, of course we should ditch homework for play.
“The topic of homework has received a lot of attention lately, & the negative effects of homework have been well established,” the school’s principal, Jane Hsu, wrote in a letter that was sent home with students last month, reports DNAinfo.com.
“They include: children’s frustration & exhaustion, lack of time for other activities & family time &, sadly for many, loss of interest in learning.”
Instead of working on essays or math problems at home, students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade are encouraged to read & spend time with their families, the principal said.
The new policy was prompted by the fact that too many children had to sit out recess because they failed to hand in homework assignments.
A committee the school established a year ago to investigate the problem concluded there is “no link between elementary school homework & success in school.”
Ultimately, therefore, it would be better to have kids running around at recess & after dinner playing hockey, or basketball, or tag, or whatever activity it might be.
But some parents are so upset they are threatening to pull their kids from the school.
“I think they should have homework. Some of it is about discipline. I want [my daughter] to have fun, but I also want her to be working towards a goal,” Daniel Tasman, the father of a second-grader at the school, told DNAinfo. He is now looking for another school.
“I was just thinking maybe I’ll keep my daughter here for another year, but this pushed me over the edge,” he said.
Over the past few years, a movement has emerged that is questioning homework. Parents are sick of having to help kids complete mountains of assignments.
“If one thing happens in 2015, it should be a concerted campaign to eradicate this illogical, damaging, ass-paining institution once and for all,” novelist Caitlin Moran wrote in The Times, a British newspaper, earlier this year.
Some politicians are also asking what’s the point.
In 2012, French president François Hollande proposed banning homework for children in primary & middle school.
Last year, an elementary school in Quebec banned homework because it was putting too much pressure on students & their parents.
Homework is not only a pain, its “educational value” is still unclear, particular at younger grades.
One public school in Barrie even noticed that grades went up after homework was banned.
If the ban in New York gets kids playing outdoors, other schools should follow suit.
According to the latest “report card” issued by Active Healthy Kids Canada, only 7% of children ages 5 to 11 meet Canada’s daily physical-activity guidelines.
Those guidelines set an embarrassingly low bar: at least one-hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity a day.
For a little historical context, harken back to an anti-homework argument in the 1920s. Back then, physicians in the US worried that homework might damage children’s health. Doctors believed ... that children needed 6 to 7 hours a day of fresh air & sunshine, as Etta Kralovec, author of The End of Homework, has pointed out.
If we want our kids to grow up to make sound decisions based on evidence, we should set a good example by banning homework in elementary school.
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