Question.  What is the opposite of "Reading for pleasure"?  The answer is: "Homework".  What better way can we ensure that kids learn to hate reading than to force them to read books that don't interest them at the end of a busy day?  Is this supposed to make them better readers?

There are two different forms of homework:  Skill reinforcement (rote memorization and busywork) and critical thinking (writing reports/papers and studying).  I am in favor of one and not the other.  Skill reinforcment sounds great but do kids really need to do the exact same math problem (with different values) 25 times a night?  They either get it or they don't.  If they get it they are just spinning their wheels doing all these problems over and over and if they don't get it they might even be reinforcing bad habits or performing incorrect calculations all night.

I could easily point you towards all kinds of studies that conclude that homework does absolutley no good but instead I am going to ask you to think back to your experiences in school.  Try to remember your own homework assignments and ask yourself "Did they do any good or did I just spend time working on problems I could already do or memorizing  information that would forgotten within a month or so?"

Scholastic Inc. (the mammoth book publishing company) recently found that children in the USA are too busy, too distracted and, in some cases, too tired to read books for fun.

The general rule of thumb regarding assigning homework is 10 minutes per grade level (1st grade - 10 minutes, 2nd grade - 20 minutes, 11th grade - 110 minutes...).  This is usually a guideline and never enforced on the light or heavy end.

What do you do if you have a child who takes an unusual amount of time to finish their work?  You can only hope that they have a sensitive teacher who will not ask them to spend their entire evening doing homework.  I would hope that they would grade the work eventhough it is not complete.  If the assignment is supposed to take 30 minutes the student should be able to stop working after 30 minutes (assuming that the student was working hard).

Sara Bennett is at the forefront of the argument against homework.  You can learn more about her at www.stophomework.com or you can read her book "The Case Against Homework".

WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE:

I would like to see homework completely ABOLISHED at the elementary school level EXCEPT FOR VACATIONS!  I think that kids should have 20 or 30 minutes of work to do on each day of vacation.  Whether it's the two week Holiday or Spring Break or the long Summer Break I think that kids should not be allowed to forget what they have learned over the last few weeks and forch the teachers to backtrack when the kids get back from vacation.  Teachers should be able to pick up right where they left off and I don't think that asking kids to do up to 30 minutes of homework a day when they have no school is asking too much!

Kindergarten homework presents an interesting opportunity to bridge the gap between school and home and to possibly involve the families in their child's education.  I like to send home fun assignements that might require a little help from the child's parents.  I use this opportunity to show the parents what we are studying in school and to show off the kid's new skills and progress.