I saw this letter to the editor in the Edmonton Journal and sent the following email to the author:

I saw your comments in the Edmonton Journal and was going to add my own comment but did not see a comment section in the paper so I decided to write you directly. I don’t agree that there is a connection between a no zero policy and coddling. The problem with zeros is that they are ineffective. If they were effective methods to support learning, that would be fine. There may be some children who get a zero and then get back on track, but those kids would react to a 50 or a 60 just as much as a 0. For kids who get zeros over and over again, the negative effects are so harsh that they send parents into a frenzy without contributing to the child’s learning, and over the long run, have a highly destructive effect. If you are interested, I had commented on this issue in a blog post last month. Here’s the link: http://homeworktrap.blogspot.com/2012/06/homework-zeros.html.




Dr. Kenneth Goldberg is a clinical psychologist with 35 years of professional experience in dealing with many different psychological issues. He is the author of The Homework Trap: How to Save the Sanity of Parents, Students and Teachers and currently works in his own private practice.

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