By Marian Wilde, GreatSchools Staff
One indisputable fact
One homework fact that educators do agree upon is that the young child today is doing more homework than ever before.
"Parents are correct in saying that they didn't get homework in the early grades and that their kids do," says Harris Cooper, professor of psychology and director of the education program at Duke University.
Gill quantifies the change this way: "There has been some increase in homework for the kids in kindergarten, first grade and second grade. But it's been an increase from zero to 20 minutes a day. So that is something that's fairly new in the last quarter century."
The history of homework
In his research, Gill found that homework has always been controversial. "Around the turn of the 20th century, the Ladies' Home Journal carried on a crusade against homework. They thought that kids were better off spending their time outside playing and looking at clouds. The most spectacular success this movement had was in the state of California, where in 1901 the legislature passed a law abolishing homework in grades K-8. That lasted about 15 years and then was quietly repealed. Then there was a lot of activism against homework again in the 1930s."
The proponents of homework have remained consistent in their reasons for why homework is a beneficial practice, says Gill. "One, it extends the work in the classroom with additional time on task. Second, it develops habits of independent study. Third, it's a form of communication between the school and the parents. It gives parents an idea of what their kids are doing in school."
The anti-homework crowd has also been consistent in their reasons for wanting to abolish or reduce homework.
"The first one is children's health," says Gill. "A hundred years ago, you had medical doctors testifying that heavy loads of books were causing children's spines to be bent."
The more things change, the more they stay the same, it seems. There were also concerns about excessive amounts of stress.
"Although they didn't use the term 'stress,'" says Gill. "They worried about 'nervous breakdowns.'"
"In the 1930s, there were lots of graduate students in education schools around the country who were doing experiments that claimed to show that homework had no academic value - that kids who got homework didn't learn any more than kids who didn't," Gill continues. Also, a lot of the opposition to homework, in the first half of the 20th century, was motivated by a notion that it was a leftover from a 19th-century model of schooling, which was based on recitation, memorization and drill. Progressive educators were trying to replace that with something more creative, something more interesting to kids."
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Comments from GreatSchools.org readers
12/21/2009:
"It's that time of year again--for the Pre-Holiday, Homework Cram. Teachers
justify it by saying that having tests now will give us less work to do
over break. That, however, is not the case. There is then the Holiday
Break Homework Cram. Teachers explain that doing inordinate amounts of
work over the holidays is so we don't have to be behind when we come back.
Finally, there is the Post-Holiday Break Homework Cram: the time when
teachers realize that there two previous tactics didn't work, thus, they
will have to load on the assignments. I find it ridiculious that at the
most hectic time of year, school is making student's lives even more
filled. Student's top priorities at this point are to shop, bake,
decorate, and celebrate. Homework is an uneccessary diversion, something
that students won't devote as much time to as they would at other times of
the year even though teachers believe the holidays are a time for getting
ahead/catching up. Teachers have the choice of i!
f they'd rather go to their family's Christmas party or if they'd prefer
to grade an essay. They can plan their time as they please, as well as the
lives of dozens of students. If they have any empathy, they wouldn't force
students to become recluses the week before the holiday break, the week
of, and the week after. "
12/21/2009:
"Teachers claim they give us homework to prepare for assessment. It can
help us get better grades on tests if given for that reason. But how is
assigning a worksheet on phenotypes a week after our genetics unit going
to help us now? Is this not a complete waste of time, especially the
weekend before Christmas when we have preparations to make, not to mention
a new unit to study for?"
12/10/2009:
"Homework didn't teach us to talk coherently, our social lives did. Oh,
except... y'know... slang, hah."
12/7/2009:
"My main objection with high school assignments is that they do not teach
me anything about the topic, conceptually. Instead, they focus on
arbitrary minutiae. I took an AP class, believing I would get a better
understanding of the topic in preparation for college and my career.
Instead, I believe that my counterparts in academic courses learned more
about American history. I can't tell you much about Continential
Congress, but I can tell you which president was second from the left in
Thomas Rossitor's Portrait of the gathering (James Madison). I doubt that
anyone on Capitol Hill would even know this, and they obviously weren't
hindered by this gap in knowledge. I can tell you how many chickens were
on page 284, but will that help me understand why pioneers settled the
West? I did not get a degree in Education, but unlike 2/3 of my teachers,
I can tell you the difference between memorization and understanding. "
12/7/2009:
"Teachers wouldn't have to give so much homework if they used in class time
more effectively. As a high school student, I find the majority of my
teacher's lectures to be an inefficient use of time that would have much
better been spent taking notes from my book or studying. When you are
speaking at students like they're a brick wall for 90 minutes straight,
obviously their attention will wane, and they will thus have to relearn
the material on their own because their teacher's explanation was
insufficient to begin with. Many of my teachers have a very tangent-based,
circumlocutious style. I leave class knowing more about irrelevant
details (Bill Clinton's economic policy in an 18TH CENTURY American
history class or Tiger Wood's adultery) than I know about the targeted
topic itself. I find myself counting down the minutes to when I can get
home and actually learn something. Too many teachers use the excuse that
students are old enough to self-teach for their poor use of in-!
class time. They claim that they don't have time for in-class projects,
debates, or videos, yet these are the things that engage students the
most, and which they will learn the most from. It's no secret that kids
were more interested in learning back in elementary school. It was
because the methods were more hands-on, and class time was used to teach,
not to outline the 50 pages students will have to read for homework. "
12/7/2009:
"I get four hours of homework per day"
12/3/2009:
"I receive SO much homework each night. I often have to stay up past 1:00
AM doing homework. And I have to wake up at 6:00 PM for school.
OK, some might tell me to NOT get A's, to NOT take advanced (AP/honors)
classes, and to NOT participate in extracurricular activities... But
that's pretty much just discouraging learning. I take advanced classes
because I want to learn more and have a bright future... Teachers must
think that being sleep-deprived, stressed out, and sacrificing
social/family life is an essential part of being successful. Ah, I would
be doing MUCH better on standardized testing and my extracurriculars if I
didn't do the nonsense busywork teachers assign. But then, if I didn't do
homework, my GPA would be must lower so I'm really left with no choice.
Sure, some types of homework are productive (e.g. practicing [a reasonable
# of] math problems to reinforce concepts, writing [a reasonable # of]
essays, reading [a reasonable load], etc). But homework that are presented
in INSANE amounts (e.g. reading 50 pages of Charles Dickens a night),
homework that are just busywork (e.g. crossword puzzles), and homework
whose purpose is to teach you what the teacher didn't have time or was
incapable of teaching (e.g. learning by reading the textbook)... Those
types of homework should be banned."
12/3/2009:
"The funny thing is that the most coherent answers are from the people with
the most homework. Not that the people with more homework are happier. 2-3
hours and occasionally 1 or 4 in grade 8 for me."
12/3/2009:
"I think a lot of parents have no idea what us older kids are doing when it
comes with homework. Except of course those horribly evil report cards and
its online counterpart. I shudder to think about it.
Really, I understand that real life will take hard work and determination
(the only thing that's keeping those two little numbers (maybe) above a
70), but who on Earth are you
'insert-people-most-directly-responsible-for-homework-overload' to decide
that none of us have passions that we don't need to be forced into. I mean
seriously?
My parents /laughed/ at me when I said I was stressed."
12/1/2009:
"i think that parents are being lied to about how much homework they really
have"
11/30/2009:
" My junior and senior year of high school I spent 8+ hours on homework
each night. I had to give up everything I enjoyed:sports, working to save
up some money for myself in college, reading on my own, friends, etc. I
am now forcing myself to get back into things I once loved but am having a
hard time doing it. I cannot read anymore on my own. I have completely
lost interest. I used to study science ( I am working to become a
physicist) on my own and I wanted to write a book. Now I don't care. I
am now a senior in college and due to the stress of it all (obviously the
homework has gotten worse in college) I have developed symptoms of bipolar
disorder. When I am on breaks from school I am fine, but as soon as
school starts again I have a ton of mental health problems. I am starting
medications this week so hopefully I don't have to drop out of college
because of my problems caused by TOO MUCH HOMEWORK!!!"
11/30/2009:
"REALLY GOOD ADVISE AND IT HAS HELPED ME ALOT"
11/30/2009:
"'I am in 10th Grade, playing football on a varsity
team,(Which takes a lot of work), and taking all Honors classes. When I
get home from football practice at 6pm I I feel like going to sleep!
There are nights where I'm up til midnight doing homework, and waking up
at 4am to finish. By the end of my last class I have practically fallen
asleep,but...ah yes a three hour football practice...fun. If you could
hear my coach yelling at me for lack of concentration. All in all, I am
getting A's in every class, but it has taken more work then I care to
elaborate on. I'm sure there are many of you who have something such as a
dance class or sports, that feel the homework burden on top of you. It is
very likely that you would excel
in both fields if this burdened was lightened.
"
11/24/2009:
"i believe that less homework is better. because if you are doing a projact
like the science fair or anything else"
11/24/2009:
"I agree that some schools have an unreasonable amount of homework for K-2
grade. My son is in Kindergarten. I am a single mom who could not afford
to put my son in headstart or a pre-K type child care facility. When he
started school we were completely overwhelmed with the amount of homework
they must do in order to go on to 1st grade. We don't make it home until
6:45pm M-F. From 7-8 we are doing homework and from 8-9 we eat dinner and
take a bath then hit the sack. There are some nights (tai-kwon-do M,W,F)
where I can't force him to do any homework at all. Should he not do any
other activities? Just school? When I was in kindergarten I drew pictures
for homework. I wrote my letters repeatedly for homework. My son's
homework has him writing sentences that he doesn't know. If I am spelling
it for him...what is he learning? "
11/24/2009:
"That is why so many teenagers are suicidal.
Many of us just can't take it anymore!
WE have so as much as 8 classes..
do you know how much homework that is?! "
11/20/2009:
"Ok, look im in 8th grade all honors classes with alg 1 i get homework
EVERYNIGHT! im so tired i can barely pay attention anymore in classes i
mean seriously, our teachers pile it on so that we do more homework then
classwork! i have a thanksgiving break soon and five of my teachers got
together and wrote out a plan so that every day of my weeklong vacation
will be working me EVEN THANKSGIVING DAY! they have it planned to the day,
sat-sun-mon-tue-wed-thur-fri-sat-sun seriously all of them! on top of that
i still have to do science projects and a history report! i spend so much
time at home on homework i finish around 11 pm and i start at 4pm... i
tell them this but they just assume its their class only that gives
homework and im tired of it. i wish they had to do what we have to for
once and see how happy they are to go bucketing it on us! im emailing this
to all of my teachers and my principle and hope ONE of them gets the
point. ~ wish me luck, eric."
11/19/2009:
"Im an Eighth grader and im falling behind,because of too much homework i'm failing and have a lot of missing asignments and its just too hard, myparents cant help me and the teachers don't understand my IEP they think all i need is extra time and a little help no i have to take up all my time to get it done for school it's just not right."
11/19/2009:
"Great, balanced article -- just linked it at http://www.squidoo.com/too-much-homework
A homework opt-out policy could be a solution that would meet everyone's needs. Whether you agree or not, I'd love to hear from you--teachers, parents, students. Join the conversation: http://www.squidoo.com/homework-opt-out-policy"
11/19/2009:
"im in SIXTH GRADE and 11 years old, my teacher gives me homework all homework due thursday on monday we get a small assignment (not very hard)
tuesday about 1-1:30 hours, now wednesday (keep in mind that this is due onn thursday), we get about 3-3:30 hours all to be done that night. COME ON! im 11! p.s. if we dont get it done she will YELL at us.
i thought the point of being young was to complain about homework when you barely have any then go outside and HAVE A LIFE!"
11/17/2009:
"sweat i love this website "
11/12/2009:
"Too much homework.
I stayed up to 12:30 trying to finish my homework that is due tomorrow. I
need less"
11/6/2009:
"i think that we have been getting to much homework and deserve a break. "
11/6/2009:
"Im in calc, ap chem, and french right now. I can honestly each night i
spend 3-5 hours on homework."
11/3/2009:
"Is there anything us students can do about this, or should we just cope
and try not to kill ourselves or drop out? Really. I wish every teacher
had to go through a month of all honors and AP (not including what they
teach)
You know that show 'Are you smarter than a fifth grader' ? It just shows
how little the trivia we learned in school is important to these
successful adults in the 'real world'. "
11/2/2009:
"There is WAY to much homework. I am stressing out and sometimes even
crying from all my homework, I don't have time to relax or even SLEEP my
full amount."
11/2/2009:
"Every night in eighth grade, I've stayed up until 1:30 am doing homework.
Now in 9th grade, I was too exhausted during the night due to
extracurricular activities (band, foot ball games) and either didn't sleep
on a regular basis or woke up at 3 am to finish (maybe slipping 30 minutes
of sleep just before the bus arrives).
This may not be the case for regular students. The fact that I'm learning
just as much as the students in regulars with just more work frustrates me
with no end. How much of this can possibly be bad time management? The
comment about lawyers not even having to do this much work in a day
disturbs me. I have dreams and goals in life and seriously, homework has
just been a horrifying obstacle."
11/2/2009:
"10:00 lol
I'm in 9th grade with geometry honors , English honors, physics and
biology honors, marine oceanographic science,Spanish 1, Advance Placement
(AP) human geography,orientation.
and usually I don't finish homework till like 1 or 2 am sometimes even
3:30 am and I have to wake up at 4:30 am for my bus, and get home at 4:30
pm.
For example one day I had to ...
Do 100 geometry math problems
then define 45 vocab for marine sci
do a slideshow project on the chapter he didn't even teach and take a test
on it
and also study the 45 vocab because I had the test the next day
then for physics and biology I had to do 5 pages of workbook question
which sometimes make no sense.
Then define 40 words for Ap human geography and also remember them ,
because I also have a test in that class, then do about 20 sentences using
5 of the pronouns given in spanish class. Then for English I would have to
define and study 20 words for a test, then do a title page for a project,
a complete slide show,a contents page, then 5 pages of writing (about
anything) and 2 pages out of a workbook, then for marin sci I also have to
do part of my sci fair and for Ap human do part of my history fair like
finding 5 primary resources on my topics and study for a chapter test
which he doesn't even teach he just makes of read 60 pages out of the
history book and remember it all , because he doesn't give study guides or
tell us whats on the test.
oh yeh all of that was due the next day and I tried to tell my ap human
geography how much homework we had all he did was laugh , because i was
asking for one day to finish his homework but he didn't care and i did
about 50% oof the homework , but he just gave me a 0% which brought me
grade down from a 90 to a 77%
you may also say well you took hard course , but the thing is I have be in
these classes the school won't let me take any other courses even if I
wanted too , which I do
sometimes I think these teachers are trying to kill me
I don't even know how im getting a's and b's
literally too much homework
I hope in 10th grade they give us less and that it's just my crazy
teachers
because they don't talk with the other teachers so they don't know how
much homework in total of the students are really getting they think that
all we have is their homework "
11/2/2009:
"I definately have too much home work and some teachers having confusing or
rediculous requirements! I get my homework done and get good grades, but I
can admit I'm stressed and need a little down time. Down time for me is
the weekends. I wish every Friday that I can get all my weekend homework
done in class. Kids have a social life and no one can help that, without a
social life, we could be depressed or we wouldn't know how to interact in
a social environment. I DO study and ask my friends for homework help when
I'm at my friends' houses, we always get any homework we have done. Yes, i
agree some kids spend too much ttime talking in class or focusing on their
social life. But not all and actually most focus on school. Stating
parents' opinion isn't really resourceful because they don't go to class
with us or do our homework. I do ask my mom quite a bit for help but she
doesn't do it for me. She motivates me and helps me. I spend easily 2
hours on homework, sometimes more. A!
lso, teachers aren't clear on due dates, which means we could be sprung
with doing a whole essay on one night on top of other homework. I enjoy
school and like the majority of my teachers. I am a responsible teenager
and I have my priorities in line."
11/2/2009:
"i myself definately have too much homework. I do admit i am extremely more
stressed than a 14 year old should be and i have constant stress
headaches. My bus come at 6:35 am and i get up at 5:45 am. I have an hour
long bus ride and then the school day. I get on the bus to go home at 3
and get home at 4. I had a longer comment but it didn't work so if you
would like to talk with me about this please comment my comment and i will
talk with you. I am very adamant on my side in this issue and i hope some
peole do contact me."
