A superintendent in Florida became a hero among kids when she recently proclaimed a new policy: No homework all year. (That sound you hear is a collective “Yes!”)
Heidi Maier, the superintendent of the 42,000-student Marion County public school district in Florida, decided on this change for the elementary grades due to—get this—science. A meta-analysis of research on the subject found that homework in elementary school does not contribute to academic achievement, and leads to only modest boosts for older students. So aside from occasional book reports and science fair projects, these younger kids won’t have to do any. Instead, they’ll be urged to read with their families for 20 minutes or more each night, and do other things. Maybe play outside? Build a robot? Write a story? Have a kitchen dance party? Listen to kid-friendly podcasts? Learn how to be bored?
As other schools across the country are adopting similar no-homework policies, not all parents are enthused. The New York Times reported that when a school in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood banned mandatory traditional homework assignments for kids up to fourth grade, a “war broke out” among the parents. Some critics of the new policy called it “economically and racially insensitive,” believing that only families with time and money could provide their own enrichment activities, therefore widening the academic divide.
Still, one of the biggest complaints about homework has been that there’s just too damn much of it. A study published in The American Journal of Family Therapy found that students in early elementary school are getting three times the suggested amount of homework, emphasizing a correlation between a kid’s homework load and family stress. It’s a source of constant contention and dread. Kids are going to bed later. Parents are hardly equipped to help their kids with Common Core math, which can seem as foreign to an adult as advanced calculus. And teachers lament that with all the worksheets they have to grade, they have no time to prep lessons.
If you think your child has an excessive homework load, talk to his teacher. Face-to-face conversations are best, and be sure to share specific concerns (“Bradley often spends 30 minutes on each worksheet, and ends up crying”) and offer solutions (“Would it be possible for us to read as a family for 30 minutes a couple times a week instead?”). Also, be familiar with the the 10-minute rule, which is endorsed by the National PTA. The organization advises: “Homework that cannot be done without help is not good homework.”