No homework—those words so rarely uttered during my years in school, leave me with a wispy feeling of nostalgia when I recount its few occurrences—the words spilling, in perceived slow motion, from the teacher’s mouth, before an audible sigh of student relief.
The rest of the day always went smoother. Daydreams in seventh and eighth periods were sweeter, basking in the knowledge that at least one hour of precious time would be returned at the end of the day. The possibilities were endless: talking on the phone, catching the top 20 countdown on MTV, playing video games and maybe even reflecting that sometimes teachers got it right—a little less homework isn’t so bad.
Sometimes less is more—even when neither makeup nor fashion are the topics of conversation. Bedford Academy High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn has applied this particular grain of thought to homework, rarely assigning it in lieu of tutoring to offer a more hands-on method to teaching. And the school’s avant-garde approach has produced amazing results: a close to 95 percent graduation rate in a city where only 50 percent of students graduate on time.
The principal, George Leonard, thought homework to be an ineffective gauge of students’ understanding of class material for Bedford Academy’s students, most who come from single-parent, low-income homes. After-school tutoring, instead, provides the time for one-on-one learning.
Leonard has done something many people are unwilling to do: think outside of the box. Rest assured his students won’t graduate with a hazy memory of school as a blurred barrage of tests, quizzes and homework, amounting to a pile of jumbled or forgotten facts. Leonard is teaching students to be productive and competent not simply effective test-takers.
But that’s not to say that eliminating homework is the be all and end all of public education. Leonard’s success only exemplifies teaching from the best of both worlds—structured but flexible enough to tailor for student achievement.
To read the article, click the link below.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/16/nyregion/16bigcity.html?ref=education
Beyond the question of homework, this shows what happens when people are willing to look at the particular needs of their population and circumstances, instead of following a cookie-cutter plan.
There have been an outpouring of books and articles against homework. Critics call homework a form of child abuse and say that it prevents children from engaging in wholesome activities. Government surveys say that most students spend an hour a day or less on homework. Yet the campaign against homework never seems to abate.
A report from the National School Board Association’s Center for Public Education claims that there is no conclusive evidence that homework “increases student achievement across the board.”
If you take a very narrow view of this report, this is undoubtedly a true finding. For example, the study concluded that students who don’t do their homework will not see any increase in their achievement in school. Also, students in the early grades who have not yet learned how to read are less likely to benefit from homework than students in high school. And students in low-income homes are less likely to benefit from homework than those in higher-income homes because they are less likely to complete it and less likely to have an adult in the home to help them.
The report found that Asian-American students were more likely to benefit from doing homework than students from other ethnic groups. This is not because of some ethnic gene, but because Asian-American students are more likely to complete the homework that is assigned to them.
While these studies may fuel the fires of the anti-homework crowd, bear in mind that its bottom line is that homework doesn’t help students who don’t do it, but very likely does help students who actually complete their assignments. Duh!!
But there is something else to be said in favor of homework.
When do students have time to read a book other than when it is assigned as homework? There is no time in school to read a book. I read a news article about the case against homework; it cited a high school teacher who said that she would tell her students to read no more than 15 minutes a day in their assigned novel (Jane Eyre). How stupid is that? How can anyone, young or old, get engaged in a novel if he or she spends no more than 15 minutes a day reading? At that pace, it seems like this class will be reading the same novel all year, if they manage to finish it at all.
When else do students have time to write an essay or write a research report? In school, students may be able to write a few paragraphs, but it takes time to write an essay that is longer than a page. If it is not done after school, it won’t be done at all.
So consider where the anti-homework crusade is taking us: to a time when students read no books, write no essays, and complete no research projects other than whatever can be fit into the school day.
I can’t help but mention that this battle against homework first flared up in 1900, led by the Ladies Home Journal. The Journal described homework as “A National Crime at the Feet of American Parents” and claimed that children were “permanently crippled” by the pressure of schooling and homework. It urged that children under the age of 15 should not be in school more than four hours per day and should not be assigned any home study whatever.
So the campaign against homework goes on. Its success will guarantee a steady decline in the very activities that matter most in education: Independent reading; thoughtful writing; research projects.