“Ban homework before third grade; support children’s play”. That was the banner headline from an article from The Christian Science Monitor that got quite a few shares recently on Facebook. And a fair amount of exposure through Twitter too.
How much learning is happening here?
Image source: Kelly Arnold of Better Learning Solutions
The article’s author, Bonnie Harris, makes a heartfelt plea to ban homework for young children because the ever-increasing load of homework is eating into the time that they have for that most vital of learning experiences, free play. How much time less for free play, and how much time more for homework? The figures are staggering:
A study done by Sandra Hofferth of the University of Maryland found that from 1981 to 1997, American kids ages six to eight spent 25 percent less time engaged in free play and 18 percent more time in the classroom. Their homework time increased by a shocking 145 percent. Her updated research in 2003 shows play time continuing to decline and study time increasing yet another 32 percent!
Free play is vital – it’s how children learn resilience, personal competency, social skills, problem solving and a myriad other things that research shows are the best predictors of future academic success.
And how much learning is happening here?
Image source: chrisroll / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
But homework is destroying children’s opportunities to develop these skills through play. Little wonder that academic results have been declining for years both in the US and here in Australia, where homework is also out of control.
Ask any parent – homework can be a living hell for both children and parents. The constant battles to get the work completed (or even started); the tears of frustration when the work is too hard; the utter boredom when it is too easy; the “20 minute assignment” that actually takes 5 times that long for the average child; the excuses for why the work hasn’t been done; the outright lies (“No, I haven’t got any homework today!”). Homework is loathed by children and by most parents – and rightly so.
Or here?
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But surely homework is a vital part of a child’s education? Well isn’t it? Surely we wouldn’t be giving out all that homework if it doesn’t improve academic results?
NO! The research is overwhelming: homework does NOT improve academic outcomes for children in elementary and middle school. Quite the reverse: the more homework that is given the WORSE the academic outcomes. The strongest correlation found is that homework results in children disliking school. The more homework given – the more children hate school and the less interested they become in learning for its own sake.
Read Alfie Kohn. In particular read his articles Rethinking Homework & The Truth about Homework. They are utterly convincing and based on the best research evidence available about homework: homework is worse than useless, it is actively harmful to young children’s learning and development. [Kohn also has an excellent form letter available if you would like to opt out of homework for your children]
Or here?
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Now it’s bad enough that schools are giving out homework to young children, but it gets worse: I know of child care centres that give homework to children as young as THREE! And I know of other centres that tell me parents are demanding that their children should be given homework by the child care centres! This is utterly insane!
Let me state categorically – I totally agree with both Bonnie Harris and Alfie Kohn. Homework – or at least what we think of when we use that term – is a blight on young children’s lives and it should be banned completely.
So why have I called this blog post “A Defence of Homework”?
Because some kinds of homework have HUGE benefits for young children. The problem is we’ve been giving the wrong kinds of homework and we’ve been giving it to the wrong people.
We’ve been giving ditto sheets and maths problems and “find 20 words that start with the letter T in a magazine”, and similar useless dreck to CHILDREN.
Instead we should be giving completely different kinds of homework; homework with value, homework that WORKS.
And we should be giving it to parents.
Homework like this
Image source: photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Here’s what I mean; these are the sorts of “homework assignments” teachers could be setting for parents. It’s not meant to be an exhaustive list, and not all of them would be suitable for children of every age, but you will get the idea.
- Play with your child every day
- Let your child play without you every day
- Make sure your child gets to play outside with minimal interference or supervision from you for at least 1 hour every day
- Play outside in the rain or snow
- Dance with your child
- Sing with your child
- Play music with your child
- Paint with your child
- Teach your child how to walk or ride to school on their own and/or with friends
- Teach your child how to walk to the shop and buy stuff for themselves
- Teach your child how to take the bus and train for themselves
- Teach your child how to visit friends for themselves – not in organised playdates, but on their own volition
- Teach your children how to safely use simple tools like hammers, saws, hand-drills and pocketknives. If you don’t know how to do this yourself – learn!
- Teach your child how they can make musical instruments from junk by themselves
- Teach your child how they can grow their own vegetables by themselves
- Teach your children how to climb trees
- Limit TV to no more than 30 minutes per day – and watch TV with your child during those 30 minutes
- Eat meals together as a family – no TV, texting or mobile phones allowed; nothing but talking together and sharing the joy of communal eating
- De-schedule your child’s life – reduce organised activities and sports, and increase spontaneous free play opportunities of all kinds
- Take your child for a hike in the forest/swamp/river/beach/bush/mountains/city park – whatever is available to you
- Take your child to the library
- Take your child to the museum
- Take your child to the art gallery
- Read with and to your child every day
- Make sure that your child sees you reading for your own pleasure every day
- Make sure that your child sees you write (with a pen or a pencil) every day
- Write with your child every day – record what he/she says, record her/his stories, diarise what you did together that day
- Consciously show how you use simple math everyday – count out your change at the shop; count the number of apples and oranges you bought, add them together so you show that 5 apples plus 3 oranges mean you have 8 pieces of fruit and they cost X dollars and cents.
- Hug your child
- Kiss your child
- Tell your child 20 reasons why you love them
I promise you, if teachers set homework like that the benefits to the children would be immense.
And the benefits would flow on to real academic advancement; children will learn to read better, they will learn to write better, they will learn maths better; they will learn science and the arts and the environment and technology better … every single area of the child’s school work will be enhanced. And the children will be vastly happier – and so will the parents – and so will the teachers.
Now, doesn’t that sound better than “Mum, the teacher wants me to do this stuff – and I can’t do it! I just can’t!”?