Breath Five:
This post is dedicated to my former editors, my parents and my current editor, Jason.
Our last PTO meeting initiated an interesting discussion on children and their homework. Our school adopted a no-homework policy expect for nightly reading. The homework debate continued on Facebook. Some posed that homework developed work and study habits, while others took the stance that homework is usually useless busy work. Further perspectives were presented in conversation on the playground, as parents chatted at pick-up.
This homework topic has been a passionate topic of mine personally and professionally. Jason and I have held many conversations on the usefulness of homework and whether it is helpful or harmful. His perspective as a high school history teacher and mine as an English Language Learner teacher in an elementary school have often landed us on opposite sides of the discussion. Furthermore, our personal experiences with homework have influenced our thinking. Jason is and always has been a very intelligent and book-smart guy. Once he applies himself to an academic task, he breezes through it. He reads at remarkable rates, and his memory astonishes me. He excelled in school.
I, on the other hand, worked for hours on homework only to receive C’s and B’s. I remember my parents working tirelessly with flash cards while the pile of missed math facts and vocabulary words never grew smaller. I recall working in my bedroom on homework as my younger sister completed hers in record time. I would read and reread science texts and math sheets, realizing that I could not remember what I had just read. Somehow I fumbled my way through the education system, with determination, resilience, and the help of my parents who egged me on, helping me with projects and studying even as I continued to failed quizzes and tests throughout high school. Believe me, I did my homework. Throughout my educational experience I felt as though I was scrambling to keep up. With grit and determination I eventually developed personal strategies that worked for me. Unfortunately, I might have developed more efficient strategies, had teachers understood me as a learner. Had I been taught with individualized instruction methods now implemented in our schools to teach math and reading, I could have had success. Had teachers recognized that a quiet hard worker does not equal comprehension, I could have been a confident student. Had teachers recognized a learning disability before high school, I might have tasted more success. I waffled my way through quizzes, tests, and more traditional methods of education employed at that time; however, my curiosity, love of reading, and writing enabled me small victories. Teachers are now trained to recognize learning disabilities, and utilize strategies to meet the needs of diverse learners in their classrooms. They now teach to the individual student and not to the whole class. I simply did not need to complete hours of homework that I could not remember. I did not need repetitive flashcards where numbers changed before my eyes. I did not need comprehension handouts and worksheets. Those homework assignments did not assist me in my eventual success in the education system. In fact, I believe that despite the countless hours of trivial homework assignment, I retained and learned very little, they solidified feelings of self-doubt. Even now, I occasionally feel as if I hoodwinked the system. I obtained my first set of straight A’s in college, received my diploma and a license to teach. However, my insecurities still surface from time to time. Did homework help me? No, friends, it did not.
The following are a few thoughts against homework:
1.) Homework results in a loss of time to do other enriching activities, such as the arts, sports, family adventures/events, and hobbies.
2.) The struggle between parents and children creates added stress to the relationship, whether it’s motivating students to do their homework, or difficulty understanding assignments by both sides. The level of parents’ education, language spoken at home, time that parents have to help adds additional stress as well.
3.) Most homework is not individualized. It is often in the form of a handout that the whole class receives, leaving some children behind because it is too hard, or for others entirely too easy.
4.) Children work for most of the day; therefore, they should not devote their time to working at home. Isn’t this what adults do? Children are not mini-adults. Children need a childhood.
5.) The studies that show how homework affects our children’s learning is based on how children are performing on standardized tests. Do we value those tests? Do those tests truly show what a child has learned? My answer is no. Does society value those results and tests? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. Think about No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top as examples.
6.) Children are overloaded with homework in some districts and grade levels. They are so overloaded and stressed that they develop anxiety and other issues.
7. Studies show that homework is not beneficial to student learning. See the following for more information.
Obviously, my own educational experience proved to be powerful, yet I never lost my thirst to learn. It shaped me, inspired me to become a teacher. I want children to persevere. I want to ensure children are encouraged, not discouraged. My educational experiences influence how I parent, and my stance on how I allow homework to impact my family. While our school currently has a policy of reading-only homework, I know this will not always be the case. I want to support my children’s school and teachers while also honoring our family and my children. I went to school to be a teacher, but I want to be a mother first. I struggle with balancing structured time, homework, activities, and with free-play. After school my children are exhausted. They have had to work hard for the entire day focusing, following rules, sharing space with children, dealing with conflicts independently away from their safety net called home. Most days Lee does not want to sit down and do writing, handouts, or flash cards. Thankfully, he is fine with reading. So how can I create and implement a balance of structure and play with regards to homework, when I don’t even believe in homework? I do not want my children to struggle the way that I did.
I know that children learn through play so here are some ideas to play and learn with your children:
1.) Sight word practice: Sticky post-it notes hidden through-out the house as a word scavenger hunt
2.) Spelling and math fact practice: play horse with a basketball outside. This can also be done with soccer and shooting at the goal or simply passing the ball back and forth.
3.) Math story problems: pull from real life and create problems that you have in your home with sorting toys or sharing with siblings, snack, army guys etc. Have your child create their own story problem to solve. Children love to tell stories.
4.) Math card games: Salute, Top-it, Memory, dice games, board games too.
5.) Instead of timing children by counting by one’s, choose to count by two’s, three’s, five’s etc.
6.) Reading homework: Read every other page together. Choose to read in silly voices, for example in a whisper voice. I do this when my children start to get distracted.
7.) Writing homework: Write notes back and forth to one another about the day, start a story and have your child continue it and then pass it back and forth. Get a special notebook for writing. We have large, small, and tiny.
8.) Change the homework location. We sometimes do math facts or story problems on the wall in the bathtub or in the car.
9.) I don’t call it homework, I call it brain exercises and I let them know that only children who are interested in growing their brain should participate. I also make missions with messages, codes to uncover.
10.) I don’t usually force them to do an activity. If they are upset because they don’t get a math story problem we use manipulative, draw pictures, talk about it and say let’s try tomorrow. Lee, who has had more homework than Jane, has been so discouraged by spelling that he has cried when he did not know how to spell a word. We have conversations about not to let a letter of the alphabet get us upset. (I did enough crying for the both of us.)
Finally, I am not against promoting reading, writing, or engaging projects at home. We actively model this in our home. We read nightly, write frequently, and Jason has projects galore. That is the culture of our home. We call that living and learning, not homework. But with regards to assigned homework, I say…
it’s okay if your dog ate your homework; let it, and go play.
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