Alarmed by indicators of student stress like cheating and substance abuse, a handful of San Francisco Bay Area schools are reducing an education staple: homework.
Oak Knoll Elementary in Menlo Park has mostly banned homework — except reading, special projects or catch-up work. Palo Alto’s Addison Elementary and the Berryessa School District in San Jose are discussing the issue.
For two decades teachers have been under pressure to raise academic standards and test scores, but CBS News correspondent John Blackstone reports that many are now questioning the value of burying students in homework.
The changes have come as a University of Missouri study found high school students benefit tremendously from homework. In middle school, the results were not as strong, but homework was still found to be beneficial. But on the elementary school level, the same study found homework had no effect on students.
This is currently only happening at the elementary school level, but I wonder how long it’ll be before it creeps to higher grades? We certainly can’t have our precious little angels feeling bad about themselves!
I realize it’s an attention getting headline but it’s misleading. They’re not banning homework in high schools or even middle schools where most homework is assigned anyway. I grades 1-3 we had almost no homework to speak of (other than reading) anyway. I don’t think this is shocking or really much of a change. I do think fourth and fifth graders are capable of doing homework and probably should, but to use a headline like ‘Schools banning homework’ is misleading and a disservice to readers, don’t be like other media.
1. “I realize it’s an attention getting headline but it’s misleading. They’re not banning homework in high schools or even middle schools”
I never said they were. I said that “US public schools start banning homework!” That’s exactly what’s happening.
But, but, butt…
If kids are doing homework, then they won’t have time to watch ‘toons, or play Grand Theft Auto, or be good little consumers.
Dumb them up, I say — only a matter of time before everything in the USA is owned by foreign interests, anyway…
Nor did I say the headline was inaccurate, just misleading. When you say ‘US public schools start banning homework’ most people get outraged and assume it’s high schools or middle schools and not elementary schools. The headline does not capture what’s really going on… ‘US public elementary schools banning homework’ but then again that doesn’t get people as fire up about the topic either. There’s a fine line when creating headlines and I feel you have sensationalized the story through the use of a headline that is misleading.
#4, Not to mention the San Fransisco Bay area just barely qualifies as the US.
5…can’t wait for The Big One at 9.5 to drop the whole coast in the ocean, eh? 😉
If we can dumb the kiddies down, it’ll be easier to get them to believe that America is evil or snow ’em with BS like Algore’s Global Warming (TM) (c) (r).
Attention getting headline? It wasn’t the headline that caught my attention.
But how many hours of homework is too much. I think two hours is enough to ask of students for an average weeknight.
They should start banning SHORT skirts. Seriously, it never crossed my mind before, but why are pretty young things allowed to wear titilating skirts in a perverted USA? Yet, boys have to wear slacks, ties and jackets? BS. Bring equality to American schools, either girls wear slacks like boys or boys go to school in kilts.
#6. Then it will be a military staging base for the North Korea invasion.
A belief that kids should do homework (1) has no merit because it is only your opinion. There is research, as the article clearly states, that homework at certain grade levels “has no effect on students.” So, by giving some children less busy work we’re making them dumber and more ready to accept the foibles of our government (7)? Please. Take off your tinfoil hat and turn off Unsolved Mysteries. Unless you truly don’t believe in a controversial subject like “scientific research”, these are facts.
And how much time do responsible adults like us spend watching tv, surfing the internet, and playing video games (3)? But it’s okay to blame kids for doing the same? Whatever.
Home practice is an important part of reinforcing performance tasks like reading, motor skills, playing an instrument, etc. But once you know 2+2=4, you don’t need to “practice” that to learn it better. Really, Chicken C. Little, keep to the tech stuff that you actually know about rather than these ridiculous “decline of civilization” posts. Keep the gambling tips coming, however.
#5
“Not to mention the San Fransisco Bay area just barely qualifies as the US.”
You are being way way too generous! The San Fransisco Bay area just barely qualifies as human!
I don’t think that will happen; the companies that make the textbooks will make sure it doesn’t happen.
And the deterioration of the American school system continues…. The learning requirements for an average American elementary and high school student are already so low that they have a lot of catching up to do compared to other countries. Now someone wants to make the gap even bigger? Way to go….
#7 – If we can dumb the kiddies down, it’ll be easier to get them to believe that America is evil or snow ‘em with BS like Algore’s Global Warming ™ (c) (r).
You got it backwards. Dumbing down the population was what the lst 25 to 50 years of unremitting attacks on eductional budgets have been about. First you yank the budgets, then you attack the remaining educators for the inevitable result. Even you should’ve known that.
But then it’s equally standard to blame it all on “liberals.” Never mind.
if i made a comment it would be deemed child abuse !
So basically we ban homework all the way up through high school and then when the students get to college (assuming that they can since they dont have homework to help them in the learning process) they are going to be overwhelmed and stressed and turn to substance abuse, binge drinking, and dropping out of school. This is a bunch of crap. Give the kids homework, and heres a novel idea have the parents actually participate in their kids lives and help with the homework instead of just putting them in front of a tv to play video games or watch the high standards of television that we have here in the US.
SN, I apologize for the intelligence of the average poster to this article. While there are some who actually read more then the title, the rest apparently don’t have the brains to read more then that. I thought it a good article for the intelligent and parents to comment on.
My take,…
There is little need for homework in elementary school. My 7 yr old kid currently spends 7 hours a day in school with 50 minutes break. She doesn’t need to spend another half hour repeating what she learned in school.
When you get into high school, especially the last two years, you should be doing at least an hour and usually much more every evening. The homework MUST be useful though. Just reading a chapter in a text book is not homework. When a lesson is what happens in a specific chapter, the teacher hasn’t taught anything.
(from the article)
Some schools are trying to find a balance. Ohlone Elementary School in Palo Alto assigns homework to the parents.
Assign the homework to the parents? Ya right, like that is going to happen here.
Mr. Fusion, sorry if it came across as though I was saying banning all homework is bad at all levels. I agree that homework in elementary school is kind of dumb in most cases. Both of my parents are teachers and I have been around the education system my whole life so in a way my views are a bit flawed but I do believe that homework does have its place. I by no means am saying assign homework to the parents what I was saying was have parents sit down to help the kids with the homework if it came off as anything else that was my fault. I know assigning homework for the parents WOULD NEVER fly. Yeah homework does need to be useful. Mr Cooper says it pretty well in the article when he talks about the amount and level of homework should be different depending on age group.
Then there are classes called, Social Studies, and Government. Pure garbage! Start teaching World Geography again and change that two party propaganda class called, Government, to Government Waste. Assign homework in those classes. Maybe then you won’t get a bunch of brain-dead MySpace zombies.