Atlantic piece: "My Daughter's Homework is Killing Me"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

To get back to the original topic, parents who are concerned about excessive homework might be interested in the book "Brain Rules," by John Medina. It was recommended summer reading for parents of students at Maret School, and it offers a lot of interesting discussion of topics related to children and learning - specifically, the importance of reviewing information to aid retention (which presumably is the purpose of homework), the relationship of sleep to congnitive function (the brain functions poorly on little sleep), and the fact that excessive stress (as opposed to a small amount of stress) can inhibit learning. My takeaway from the book, as it applies to homework, is that some homework is useful, because it helps children retain information, but homework assignments that create enormous stress or eat into sleep are actually harming children's ability to learn.

This is not meant to be a comprehensive summary of the book, but just a suggestion that parents looking for ammunition in the battle for less homework may find this a useful tool.

Sounds like an interesting book. I can see the "diminishing returns" argument. The "homework to help retain information" argument seems most relevant, perhaps, to STEM subjects, and perhaps doesn't capture the subjects (like English) where the homework is to read the novel to facilitate in-class discussion or literary analysis or to provide the common template as the teachers work on the students' writing in class?[/quote]

Good point.