Pros And Cons of Homework for Kids Text

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Pro 1: practice makes perfect the primary purpose of homework is to help children retain the information they learn. In homework research and policy: a review of literature, harris cooper argues that students who perform rote tasks like reading, writing, and solving equations acquire a better grasp of the information they're learning. In addition, children improve their abilities and skills by using the knowledge theyve learned to solve even more complex problems. These benefits add up and eventually become clear when students are tested, in that students who complete homework everyday perform 69 percent better on standardized tests. Con 1: this is boring sara bennett and nancy kalish, the authors of the case against homework, claim that many children find homework to be tedious and boring, so they dont try as hard, which in turn affects their in class performance. Teachers have tried combating this trend by making homework more appealing and challenging, but it hasnt always fared well. Whereas some students performed better, others fell behind due to the increased complexity of the assignments.

As such, bennett and kalish argue that best solution is to mix rote work with a few more complex assignments. Pro 2: responsibility and time management work completed in a classroom is easy for a child because its a forced action. Homework, on the other hand, forces a child to take responsibility and manage his time better. Children who fail at this task ultimately garner poor homework grades and fall behind in class, whereas children who do take full responsibility excel. Parents play a pivotal role in this process, because they are partially responsible. That said, parents should work with their child to develop a feasible schedule that takes into consideration homework as well as extracurricular activities and leisure time. Con 2: it's too much according to the authors of national differences, global similarities: world culture and the future of schooling, too much homework can demoralize students and lead to lower test scores.

In particular, david baker and gerald letendre noted that students from countries where less homework is assigned, such as japan and denmark, score better on tests than students from countries that assign a lot of homework. They also pointed out that though american students do more homework than many of their international competitors, their overall test scores are average. For decades, the standard operating procedure in america’s classroom has been teach, then have students continue to teach themselves in the form of homework. Time and time again, the formula has been revised, recreated and redistributed across all grade levels. Author alfie kohn questions the practice and the benefits long attached to homework.

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He believes that the standard should be no homework because six hours of school time is enough for students, and evening work detracts from family time. He said homework cannot be completely avoided 100 percent of the time, but in most cases, he feels that it should be an option or given only when it directly benefits all students. Kohn spoke to parents, teachers and community members of mercer island on tuesday, march 3, about his book, the homework myth, written in 2006. He is a former high school teacher and long time author who has spent the last 20 years researching and writing about education. Kara millsap, a first grade teacher at lakeridge elementary, said she attended to gain perspective on giving homework and deciding how much is appropriate for younger students, an issue that she deals with on a daily basis. She said she walked away with the idea of differential homework, or the belief which kohn outlined that there is not a wholesale solution which fits every student’s needs. I’ve always felt homework can be a window into the classroom so parents could see what i’m doing, but maybe in some cases a newsletter would suffice, said millsap.

Kohn’s appearance was made possible by the mercer island parent education committee and parentmap, a parenting magazine, as part of the pathways 2009 lecture series. The education committee consists of representatives from each of the mercer island schools and st. Judy chase, chair of the education committee, said the group pools a budget from each of the school’s pta’s with the purpose of bringing in speakers to discuss issues with parents.

A group of teachers, staff and students met to understand the stresses on high school kids and what could alleviate some of the pressures, said chase. We think it is healthy to have conversations that raise different points of view, and we have heard from many parents that their kids struggle at home with too much or too challenging homework. Tom tivnan, a fifth grade teacher at west mercer elementary, said kohn presented an interesting perspective, but it is hard for him to completely accept the results without seeing the documentation. While he said he agreed with kohn’s philosophy on some points, the fact of the matter is that the research cannot be looked at in a vacuum. There are times i agree with some of his statements, but he’s preaching to the choir. Jill seidel, a parent with two kids in the district, said while homework has not been a big issue in her house, it does come up during meetings with other parents.

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He challenged us as parents and educators to question some of the norms and standard practices, she said. I was most surprised to learn that there is no body of research which supports the benefit of doing homework. The idea that intrigued me was that doing no homework could actually be beneficial. Perhaps there are better things to do with those after school hours like reading books for fun. We all agree that we want our children to grow up to be happy, well balanced, lifelong learners, yet we allow them so little time to develop, grow, explore, dream outside the academic arena. The district’s homework guidelines encourage staff to give homework which falls into three categories.

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It should help prepare students for an upcoming topic, give them practice in a newly learned skill or allow for individualized application through research or an independent study. Between our two kids extracurricular activities and our professions, my husband and i seriously struggle to do anything else with our kids but homework. So as i unanxiously wait for the homework to start rolling in, i thought id take a closer look at what homework is, why its necessary or not , and how effective it is. What i found? homework debate: pros, cons,and i still dont like it! i thought this was an interesting way to start. This statement is from an education.com article the homework debate: homework is all pain and no gain, says author alfie kohn. Kohn points out that no study has ever found a correlation between homework and academic achievement in elementary school, and there is little reason to believe that homework is necessary in high school.

I also found this statement by nancy kalish, author of the case against homework: how homework is hurting our children and what we can do about it in jay mattews column in the washington post was also very provoking: another disturbing factis how little training teachers get when it comes to homework. Only one teacher in hundreds that we surveyed said she had ever taken a class specifically on homework. If you look into this, as we did, youll find that most teacher training programs, even at top universities such as harvard, dont include such courses. The realm of education seems to be one that is concerned with making sure that teachers are constantly learning about new theories and techniques. So, the fact that so few educators are taught about homework really surprised me. I read many, many articles and statements about how homework exhausts kids and has little educational value. Okay, so where is the argument in favor of homework? honestly, i struggled to find it.

But this is the gist of what i found homework keeps kids from watching too much tv. Jay matthews, in another washington post article, the weak case against homework argues that he remembers what class was like on days when i had not done my homework. The latter was a much more engaging and useful educational experience than the former. So i was very disappointed in what i found as i read more and more about the topic of homework. And, i do have some frame of reference, after all i was a student for many years myself. And a lot of it that in my opinion is frustrating for parents, and most importantly frustrating for students.

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