Reply to Homework in Kindergarten is ridiculous!!

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Growing up in Asia, I have to laugh at these kinds of posts. 20 minutes a day of homework is nothing. This is why the US consistently ranks so low compared to other industrialized nations.[/quote]

Except that it's not. Research shows homework in the early years doesn't lead to academic improvement- [b]so why do it[/b]?[/quote]

Agree with the Asian PP.  Just because there's a weak/negligible association with academic outcomes doesn't mean it isn't useful for other purposes.  We've found it helpful for knowing what our kid is actually working on, establishing a routine, and showing our kid that I'm interested in her work.  It doesn't take long, and it's party of our pre-dinner routine.

Also, just because there isn't a strong association overall, doesn't mean there isn't a stronger association for some types of students--for example, I'd imagine it'd be helpful for kids having difficulty with a certain topic, or kids from low SES backgrounds, etc.  I've found it helpful for my kid, although she doesn't fit these categories (although I'm sure that at some point, she'll have a little difficulty with a concept, and HW will allow needed practice).

Yes, we've had one teacher (PK4) that I felt assigned pretty unhelpful, "busy work" type HW assignments, but overall the HW has been worthwhile for the reasons above.[/quote]

+1. I would also add that it makes kids responsible for doing their work, making sure it's correct, and turning it in on time. These are valuable lessons when children grow up and enter the workforce.  
[/quote]

Yeah, no. The problem is that 5 and 6 year olds aren't truly developmentally ready to take full responsibility for homework.  Parents have to remind and check and oversee.  (Indeed - that's often one of the stated rationales for K homework: to involved the parents.)  Thus the homeowork actually DOESN'T set up a scenario where the child learns to be truly responsible, because they're  not developmentally ready for that.  At some point parents will have to completely fade out of the picture, and that might be hard to know.  My concern is that developmentally inappropriate homework in K might actually lead to the child taking LESS responsibility for homework, as well as less ownership of it (because it's framed as busywork that they do with parents; not something that actually extends and enriches learning, a time to reflect and work on skills -- which is developmentally the HS or late MS level.)  I think if responsiblity were truly the aim, there would be no homework until kids are actually ready for it intellectually, which is MUCH later than 5.  I'll be you anything there are dozens of people on this thread right now who went to top colleges & grad schools and never did homework until closer to 7th or 8th grade (raises hand).  [/quote]

THIS.

And I also raise hand here. I think I may have gotten some homework starting in around 4th grade, though, but I can't remember. No earlier than that though. [/quote]

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