A new book comes out and the media are in a tizzy over the time-tested benefits of homework. A university researcher documents what he calls the negligible benefits of homework, based on an author's sizzling tirade of a book against homework (Alfie Kohn's "The Homework Myth"), and America seemingly lights up with a war not on drugs, not against terrorism, not on an epidemic of low expectations for American kids, but against homework. I've not witnessed more ballyhooed balderdash on an education issue in my lifetime.
First there was the Newsweek cover about the "new" first grade and its tyrannical levels of testing and homework. (I agree, by the way, about too much testing, but that's another column. And overtesting is caused by a different villain, President Bush's No Child Left Behind law.) Then there was The Washington Post story this week that began:
"The nation's best-known researcher on homework has taken a new look at the subject, and here is what Duke University professor Harris Cooper has to say:
"Elementary-school students get no academic benefit from homework — except reading and some basic-skills practice — and yet schools require more than ever.
"High-school students studying until dawn probably are wasting their time because there is no academic benefit after two hours a night; for middle-schoolers, 1 1/2 hours."
First, I'll dispute Cooper's interpretation of his own findings, then I'll recount the benefits of homework. If homework is so useless, why then does Cooper say that for elementary-school students it's a waste of time EXCEPT for some reading and basic-skills practice? If even he, an ardent opponent of homework, admits that the youngest students gain some reading and basic-skills practice, isn't homework worth the investment in time we have made in it? As far as I'm concerned, the answer to that is a resounding, yes!
Second, if Cooper admits that the benefits of nightly homework end for middle-schoolers after an hour-and-a-half and for high-schoolers after two hours, then we disagree on that point not at all. More than two hours of homework each day seems a bit labor-intense even for high-schoolers (except for those kids who put off completing major assignments until the last minute and then have to cram a week's worth of work into one night).
Author Kohn adds that homework places a major burden on working parents who must come home and supervise children doing homework. To that, I say, shuttling kids around from soccer games to music lessons to play dates is stressful for parents, too, but they do it because such activities are good for the kids. Besides, if students weren't doing homework, their parents would be supervising them doing something else or creating and scheduling other activities for them, which would be equally stressful.
Next, Kohn claims that homework stresses children with overwork and dulls or kills the joy of learning for high-achieving children. To that, I say, creative, interesting homework challenges bright students and raises expectations for those born to parents with low expectations. If teachers aren't properly trained to provide quality homework assignments (as some education experts claim), then that flaw should be corrected, rather than dumping homework.
Kohn also points out that homework takes away time from other non-classroom activities. First, I say, duh! But if homework is limited to two hours per night for high-school students, 1 1/2 for middle-schoolers and even less for elementary-school students, it's time well spent — better spent than giving kids even more time off. And I know of no child who suffers from lack of socializing, exercising, resting or even "doing nothing" due to too much homework.
If anything, we suffer from a declining level of expectations for American students, not too much homework. The smart, high-achieving kids I know may not all adore homework, but they certainly understand that it enhances their knowledge base and teaches them how to be responsible, to meet deadlines and to perform under pressure. These are all skills critical to succeeding in the "real" world outside of school.
If researchers and authors want to help public-school students, particularly low achievers in low-income neighborhoods, they should raise parental expectations and involvement in children's education, instead of bashing homework.