Homework in the News 3/10/12

Yes, I really mean it.

This is an interesting opinion with my comment below.

I agree with you quite a bit. In fact, much of what you say coincides with the central themes of my book, The Homework Trap. School is important but when homework is assigned, it traverses the boundaries between home and school with extraordinary power to dictate and overrule the individual parent’s judgment. Further, as you so aptly say, it does not work. Once you look at the world from the child’s point of view, you realize that incessant academic demands which intrude on the home and bypass parental authority serve to teach children to dislike school and actually reinforce disobedient behaviors. Many “bad behaviors” are actually adaptive behaviors used by the child to deal with demands that do not make sense. Kenneth Goldberg, Ph.D. www.thehomeworkdoctor.com.