Anonymous wrote:My progressive school didn't have homework until 8th grade. By then, I was too old to have my parents monitoring/helping with it. I was a procrastinator and never developed very good study skills. I generally managed to get by and do well on the tests all the way through graduate school, but I missed out on learning a lot and did fail a class in college. I think that if I had been given homework at an earlier age, when I was young enough for my parents to be involved in teaching me how to manage my time and motivate to get it done, I would have learned much better study skills.

You had eight years of doing things in class to learn how to stay on task, how long it takes you to accomplish something, etc. If your solution to "I'm a procrastinator" is "my parents should have fixed this," you have problems that could not be solved with earlier homework.

Don't be so sure. Some people have trouble with organizational/study skills no matter what, and years of homework only cause agony and frustration.

My progressive school didn't have homework until 8th grade. By then, I was too old to have my parents monitoring/helping with it. I was a procrastinator and never developed very good study skills. I generally managed to get by and do well on the tests all the way through graduate school, but I missed out on learning a lot and did fail a class in college. I think that if I had been given homework at an earlier age, when I was young enough for my parents to be involved in teaching me how to manage my time and motivate to get it done, I would have learned much better study skills.

Gaithersburg ES "banned" homework last year (I think it was last year). Everyone's homework is to read for 30 minutes. There was a big thread about it here... I agreed with the school, and pretty much everyone disagreed with me.

From what I understand MCPS is not allowed to grade any work not done in the classroom, though perhaps turning something in is a requirement. Don't quote me but that's why I was told at our school. My son was not completing some of the schoolwork at home so I said, send it home so he can complete it there (and learn that he can't get out of doing work). They refused, saying that then they couldn't grade it. WTF! Talk about a rigid bureaucracy with no view to what is best for the individual child's learning. But I digress. So don't sweat the homework (but check with the teacher first). I am in complete agreement that most homework is make work and not worth ruining your child's downtime and family life. Research says it does not help a child's learning, except maybe some rote practice in math. That you can do at home. There is not enough rote practice in MCPS curriculum. Dadworksheets dot com is great for this. They are free.

A lot of serious research has been done on this issue. Almost all results indicate that extensive amounts of homework before 8th grade do not make a bit of difference. It's far more important that the kids get outside, play, learn to ski, scouting, ballet, whatever. Homework has absolutely destroyed our home life. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. Ans so much of it is make-work.

So the author is a middle school teacher and adjunct? All fine, but hardly what I'd call an expert on the research.

Homework, while the bane of my existence, I feel is beneficial if assigned well. I find it absolutely reinforces concepts in English and math that my kids have done in school that day. It is very easy to see if they truly understand something or need a little more time and extra help with it. Projects and reports allow them to express creativity that isn't otherwise used in class. And lastly reading and essay assignments in social studies and science allow the teachers to move more quickly through material than if they had to wait for the next class time to present it.

Alfie Kohn's perspective. He's probably the best known opponent to homework.

http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/rethinkinghomework.htm

Anonymous wrote:I assign homework and absolutely feel it helps my students improve their reading and writing abilities.

I think people who think homework is useless are giving poor homework assignments!

Don't eliminate homework, just make the homework worthwhile.

What grade do you teach?

My child is only in second grade, but but my opinion of homework so far has been positive. I wouldn't be against "no homework" in theory, but I would want an alternative method to get a feel for how he is grasping classroom concepts. As it is, I can see on a daily basis what he's got down pat and what he needs help with. He can get a little extra boost at home and move forward with a better understanding rather than struggling for a month or two until his teacher sends home a less than stellar progress report.

how credible is smartblogs.com and should i care what its op/ed says?

I agree it has benefits, but for the most part I still hate it.

I assign homework and absolutely feel it helps my students improve their reading and writing abilities.

I think people who think homework is useless are giving poor homework assignments!

Don't eliminate homework, just make the homework worthwhile.

Op/Ed on why homework is useless at best and harmful at worst.

http://smartblogs.com/education/2012/11/13/homework-it-fails-students-undermines-american-education-mark-barnes/