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Hitting the books too hard?
  
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By Robyn Lydick
How much homework is too much?
Experts from child development and educational theory disagree, as do parents, teachers and administrators and the students themselves.
Some students, it turns out, love homework.
Elementary school student Sara O’Neill brings home about three pages of homework per night, and often asks for more, said her mother, Mona O’Neill.
“She loves to work ahead,” the Highlands Ranch woman said.
Tracy Eagle’s sixth-grade daughter Aubrey has about an hour’s work each night.
“She gets a lot of homework, does it all on her own after school and puts it in her backpack,” Eagle said. “An occasional special report might take her a few hours.”
Douglas County School District has no policy on homework, leaving the decisions to the principals.
Littleton Public Schools uses a formula of 10 minutes per grade, per night, a common limit nationwide, popularized by Harris Cooper, a Duke University professor and author of “The Battle Over Homework.”
Sara Bennett runs a blog, stophomework.com, for parents who think that their children have too much or that homework intrudes on family time.
“I would say no homework through sixth grade,” Bennett said.
Bennett contends that no studies show a link between homework and achievement in students.
“It’s one thing if it related to what was done in school,” Bennett said. “Most homework is a waste of time.”
Gerald LeTendre and David Baker, authors of “National Differences, Global Similarities: World Culture and the Future of Schooling,” found that nations that consistently outperform the United States academically, such as Japan, Denmark and the Czech Republic, have teachers who assign little or no homework.
One argument for homework is the skill of completing an assignment on the student’s own. Homework, proponents say, teaches students how to do well in college.
Bennett disagrees.
“If students are well educated, they will do great at college,” she said. “College doesn’t run like high school. You don’t get nightly assignments and hand holding.”
Experts from child development and educational theory disagree, as do parents, teachers and administrators and the students themselves.
Some students, it turns out, love homework.
Elementary school student Sara O’Neill brings home about three pages of homework per night, and often asks for more, said her mother, Mona O’Neill.
“She loves to work ahead,” the Highlands Ranch woman said.
Tracy Eagle’s sixth-grade daughter Aubrey has about an hour’s work each night.
“She gets a lot of homework, does it all on her own after school and puts it in her backpack,” Eagle said. “An occasional special report might take her a few hours.”
Douglas County School District has no policy on homework, leaving the decisions to the principals.
Littleton Public Schools uses a formula of 10 minutes per grade, per night, a common limit nationwide, popularized by Harris Cooper, a Duke University professor and author of “The Battle Over Homework.”
Sara Bennett runs a blog, stophomework.com, for parents who think that their children have too much or that homework intrudes on family time.
“I would say no homework through sixth grade,” Bennett said.
Bennett contends that no studies show a link between homework and achievement in students.
“It’s one thing if it related to what was done in school,” Bennett said. “Most homework is a waste of time.”
Gerald LeTendre and David Baker, authors of “National Differences, Global Similarities: World Culture and the Future of Schooling,” found that nations that consistently outperform the United States academically, such as Japan, Denmark and the Czech Republic, have teachers who assign little or no homework.
One argument for homework is the skill of completing an assignment on the student’s own. Homework, proponents say, teaches students how to do well in college.
Bennett disagrees.
“If students are well educated, they will do great at college,” she said. “College doesn’t run like high school. You don’t get nightly assignments and hand holding.”
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